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100 gecs / Machine Girl (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, April 26, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

April 26, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 26, 2023] 100 gecs / Machine Girl

Back in 2021, 100 gecs played Union Transfer.  Two nights.  Both sold out.

I barely know them but I enjoy their hyperactive pop.

Here it is two years later and they have moved up to Franklin Music Hall.  I still think they would be fun to go see, but I  imagine I would be an old age minority at this very young person’s show.

Still sounds like fun.

Machine Girl is described by Pitchfork as Relentlessly smashing together bits of punk, grindcore, rave, industrial, and more, the Pittsburgh duo’s maximalist music echoes the cruel momentum of the modern world.

Which sounds about right for this tour.  The show must have been exhausting.

 

Posted in 100 gecs, Franklin Music Hall, Machine Girl, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Charly Bliss (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, April 24, 2023)

April 25, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: April 24, 2023] Charly Bliss

This was my third time seeing Charly Bliss.

This was their first headlining tour in three years.  It made me wonder what they’ve been doing, but I see they have been playing shows in the meantime.  Nevertheless, this one sold out immediately.

The last time I Saw them, I marveled at Eva Hendrick’s energy–she pogoed throughout so many songs.  The whole band was great and that was the case at this show as well.

They played a kind of greatest hits.  Six songs from their debut and six from their follow up.   The rest of the set was filled out with an oldie and four brand new songs.

Spencer Fox on guitar also seems to really enjoy himself–doing fun poses and dances while playing.

He and Eva also have an amazing rapport, especially when she plays guitar and they jam with each other.

Drummer Sam Hendricks is spot on, keeping these songs moving perfectly and bassist Dan Shure contributes lots of keyboards to flesh out the songs.

But really all eyes are on Eva.  She is a bundle of energy–in the way she sings so intensely and the way she dancey and smiles when she’s not singing.

Her outfits are often very interesting too.  Last time I saw the, she was wearing a skirt made of feathers.  This time it was a kind of Chain Mail made of little rubber (?) tchotchkes.   I saw kitty cats and dogs and letter and all kinds of things.

They seemed super psyched that we came out for (and sold out) the show.  She said she wasn’t sure if anyone still cared about them.  But we sure did.

For an encore, they showed their appreciation the only way they knew how–by playing a cover song t hat everyone knew but me: A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton whom I’ve ever heard of. But the song was fun anyhow.

They ended with “Julia” and with Spencer and Eva on their knees on the floor totally jamming out.

It was a ton of fun.  And I’m glad I was able to get a ticket.

April 24, 2023 November 14, 2019 October 8, 2018
Urge to Purge $$ Capacity ¥ Westermarck ⊗
Capacity ¥ Hard to Believe ¥ Scare U ⊗
DQ ⊗ The Truth ¥ Heaven $
Westermarck ⊗ Threat $ Gatorade ⊗
Chatroom ¥ Glitter ⊗ Ruby ⊗
Nineteen ** Supermoon $ Supermoon
Percolator ⊗ Camera ¥ Percolator ⊗
Heaven $ Ruby ⊗ DQ ⊗
Ruby ⊗ Heaven $ Black Hole ⊗
Black Hole ⊗ Under You ¥ Glitter ⊗
Boyfriend  ** Hurt Me ¥
UDK ** Bleach ¥
Calling You Out ** Blown to Bits ¥
Hurt Me ¥ Young Enough ¥
Hard to Believe ¥ Chatroom ¥
Fighting in the Dark (whole band) ¥ encore
Young Enough ¥ Percolator ⊗

encore
A Thousand Miles [Vanessa Carlton cover]
Julia ⊗

*2018: they played everything but “Totalizer” and “Julia” from Guppy.
*2019: they played everything but “Fighting In the Dark” from Young Enough.

** new songs (2023)

$ = Supermoon EP (2019)
¥ = Young Enough (2019)
⊗ = Guppy (2017)
$$ = Soft Serve EP (2014)

Posted in 2nd Grade, Charly Bliss, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Overcoats / Halima (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia PA, April 25, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

April 25, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 25, 2023] Overcoats / Halima

I saw Overcoats twice back in 2018 and I was really quite taken with their music and their friendship.

Over the years I’ve cooled on them somewhat.  I’m not sure why, exactly, but I wasn’t interested in seeing them again.  So, that’s okay.

Halima’s bio says

Raised by her mother between Lagos and London, and now based in Brooklyn, Halima draws from a tri-continental well. …  From early explorations of folk and piano to later studies of jazz and R&B, Halima’s career has evolved, making pit stops in pop-punk, neo-soul, and electronic along the way. Now, her sound pulls unapologetically from a broad musical spectrum, nodding sonically to those defining experiences and pushing forward toward a more pointed exploration of self.

I listened to one song and only heard R&B and didn’t like it.

Posted in Halima, Johnny Brenda's, Overcoats, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

2nd Grade (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, April 24, 2023) [CHARLY BLISS]

April 24, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: April 24, 2023] 2nd Grade

I could have seen 2nd Grade play with Kiwi Jr. last month.  But I went to a different show that night instead.

Originally, Gladie was supposed to open this show.  But at the last minute, 2nd Grade took their place.  I had been looking forward to seeing Gladie again as I thought they were great.  But I was happy to see 2nd Grade since when I looked them up last time I found

They are a gentle boppy indie pop band.  Super catchy and poppy with delightful harmonies and a childlike quality (as befits their name).  Most of the songs are around two minutes.

And that’s how they played fourteen songs in some 30 minutes.

“Favorite Song” is a fun song about how people’s favorite songs changed during their relationship.  “W-2” is, as he said, a song about taxes.

They have some fun titles.  “Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider” is super catchy with lyrics that are not challenging.

The band is lead by guitarist and vocalist Peter Gill (who actually played bass at our show).  Catherine Dwyer played second guitar and had a nasty word for the PPA who had recently thrown “3 hour limit” parking signs all over the area.  The applause wasn’t as strong as it could have been, probably because most people walk there.  But for me, I was 100% in agreement.

On lead guitar was John Samuels who also played at Johnny Brenda’s the night before with someone else.  His guitar was a little too loud (or I was standing too close to the amp), but his solos were interesting.

Gill had a good rapport with the audience (for a Philly band, they seemed largely unknown, although there were definitely some fans–one of whom even requested a song).  “My Bike” was supposed to come after Sharona but he said they were going  to skip it–you don’t want to hear that. But later on someone did request it, so they dropped the last song on the setlist “Work Til I Die” to fit it in.

They had fun with Controlled Burn which has a big chant at the end: “if you know the title “Controlled Burn” you can chant along.  Which we did.

Most of the songs were indeed under two minutes, with a couple running a little longer.  They were delightful pop nuggets that ricke da little harder than on record–but not much.  A delightful opening band.

  1. Favorite Song ⊗
  2. W-2 ∇
  3. Strung Out on You €
  4. Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider ∇
  5. Me and My Blue Angels €
  6. Superglue ⊗
  7. When You Were My Sharona ∇
  8. Controlled Burn €
  9. Made Up My Own Mind *
  10. Velodrome ∇
  11. Hands Down €
  12. My Bike ∇
  13. Shooting From the Hip ∇
  14. As Long As We Can Talk About It ⊗


€ Easy Listening (2022)
∇ Hit to Hit (2020)
⊗ When You Were Here Tour Revisited (2018/2021)

Posted in 2nd Grade, Charly Bliss, Gladie, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Nickel Creek / Gaby Moreno (The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, April 23, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

April 23, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 23, 2023] Nickel Creek / Gaby Moreno

Nickel Creek was one of the bands on my “really wanna see but they probably won’t tour” list.  So when they announced this tour I was pretty excited to see them.

I also grabbed a ticket for my wife, thinking we could spend a nice Sunday evening near her birthday at a show and maybe a dinner.

But I think she wasn’t especially interested from the get go.  Every time I mentioned it, there was no excitement.  By the time the show came around, I pretty much knew we weren’t going to go.

She encouraged me to go by myself, but it didn’t feel right.  So I’m guessing I never will see them after all.

Ironically, just a few days later, Nickel Creek had to postpone several of their dates because Chris Thile was sick:

“Nothing upsets us more than not being able to deliver a scheduled performance (which has happened just once before in our 34 years as a band), especially because as devoted concertgoers ourselves, we know how much goes into attending,” the band wrote. “We are deeply moved (and now further saddened) to see and hear the stories of how many of you were traveling/have travelled to join us at these shows, and will be doing EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER to make it up to you over the course of this year’s touring. We are so grateful for each and every one of you, and so, so, SO sorry about the news.”

They went on to describe the circumstances behind their postponements, sharing that Thile began the tour with a sinus infection, then caught the flu and did his best to power through it, which damaged his vocal chords. They went on to write, “[Thile’s] doctor, one of the country’s top voice specialists, says that he’d be risking far more serious damage if we proceeded and has prescribed a couple of weeks of rest and rehab.” They went on to thank everyone, including their fans, their crew and their management team – who are currently doing everything to make things amended as smoothly and quickly as possible and closed the message with hopes that they’ll be performing once again in late May.

I wondered if he wasn’t especially “on” for our show, but I’ll never know.

I know of Gaby Moreno from a Tiny Desk Concert which really impressed me.  She sings in both English and Spanish and brings a lot of her home country of Guatemala to her music.

Posted in Gaby Moreno, Nickel Creek, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

TWRP (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2023)

April 23, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: April 22, 2023] TWRP

Back in 2021, I saw an ad for TWRP playing at Underground Arts.  I didn’t know who they were, but I was immediately struck by their photo (see below).

I don’t know why I didn’t investigate them more, because when I saw that they were playing Union Transfer this time, I was all over finding out what the deal was.

TWRP were once known as Tupper Ware Remix Party (TWRP is much better).

They are from outer space (and Canada).  They are also from the 1980s (and the future).

They are a foursome. In order of the below photo they are guitarist Lord Phobos, bassist Commander Meouch, keyboardist and vocalist Doctor Sung and drummer Havve Hogan.

And yes, they look like this onstage.

They came out to rapturous applause.  The crowd was 100% into it.  Commander Meouch stood in front of us, lion hair blowing in the fan.  Lord Phobos was on the far side and Havve Hogan was in the back on the kit.

And then Doctor Sung came out and immediately got the crowd hyped.  He told us all about their high tech new stage manager, Grobb.  Grobb appeared on the side of the stage in a circle which previously said IBS (in the IBM logo style).  Grobb looked like a psychopathic Teletubby as he smiled and talked to us.

Grobb greeted us “Hello Tokyo” and then proceeded to count in the first song, the new “VHS” which had an appropriate chant along of V-H-S.

The thing about TWRP is that their music is really quite full of disco.  Some of the basslines that Meouch played were full on disco riffs (hard to play in a full costume, I’m sure).  There was lots of heavy snyth and Doctor Sung sang with a vocoder most of the time.  It was such a weird melange of music but it worked really well live.

I was concerned that my son wouldn’t like them musically, but I realized that the youth of today care not for genre, and it was all fun.  He even bought a TWRP shirt (bur not a Magic Sword shirt because they weren’t very interesting).

I didn’t know any of their songs, but they played a few from each of their releases.

Grobb told Doctor Sung that he was dehydrated and forced him to drink a brownish hydration liquid–an amusing recurring skit (HYDRATE!).

A really fun song was “Atomic Karate” in which Doctor Sung showed off his (very impressive) athletic skills and even wielded nunchaku.

Grobb apparently went a little crazy (instead of counting them in he played clips of “Enter Sandman”) and Doctor Sung had to go in and reprogram him (the 8 bit graphics were amazing).  It was dangerous work.

Lord Phobos had some serious shredding skills on the guitar as well.  And after the final song, when the band came out for an encore, Lord Phobos hijacked the show with his new band Phobos Nation!

Phobos Nation was Phobos himself with Magic Sword as his backing band.  But before they could play anything, Doctor Sung came out and they had a fight for control.

This led to them both bands playing the ripping instrumental “Terraform.”

They ended with “All Night Forever,” a song that everyone loved.

The show wasn’t that long (maybe 75 minutes) which is understandable given the costumes.  It’s funny that they played only 13 songs, but they did jam most of them out and there was a lot of entertaining banter between songs.

But honestly I was glad the show was short.  It let us wait on the long line for merch and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Long live TWRP and honestly there couldn’t have been a better opening band.

In a 2015 interview with Scope, their origin was revealed

Doctor Sung was born around the time of the Big Bang. His parents died of boredom when he was just a small child, leaving him orphaned in the first Ice Age. Billions of years later, upon earning the 69th degree of his black belt in keytar, he had an epiphany and discovered his life’s purpose: to release humanity from the clutches of boredom through epic rock music.

To achieve this purpose, Sung carefully selected his band-mates from various corners of the multiverse. He chose the name “Tupper Ware Remix Party” because he liked the sound of those noises which, at the time, held no meaning for him.

Sung discovered drummer Havve Hogan unconscious in a cave during the Mesozoic period. Sung sensed a powerful energy field around this sinister, Frankenstein-like creature with red LEDs for eyes and, after numerous botched attempts to resuscitate the brutish cyborg, he met with success when he installed an 808 drum machine where Hogan’s heart had been.

Conducting anthropological surveys in the Paleolithic period, Sung observed a troublesome tendency in Hogan – to maim and murder early Homo sapiens in the plains as they hunted antelope and buffalo. However, his ability to hold down perfect time had endeared him so profoundly to Sung that the doctor excused his murderous behaviour.

While Hogan was recruited from the past, slap-bassist Commander Meouch and shred-guitarist Lord Phobos were located in a distant and complicated future. Meouch – a space pirate with a humanoid body and the head of a lion – was born in the more provincial reaches of the galaxy and made his fortune smuggling funk (apparently a controlled quantity in the future) to star systems that had been historically square.

One such solar system was home to Lord Phobos, a philosophical rocketeer. Phobos’s people had evolved over many millennia, their culture reaching a universal high-water mark of scientific and intellectual discovery. When Meouch arrived on the scene with his smuggled funk, Phobos’s world collapsed into a flaming orgy of chaos.

Swearing revenge on Meouch, Phobos pursued his ship and was on the verge of destroying it when Sung sprang through a nearby wormhole and corralled them both. Having modified Meouch’s ship for time travel, the trio travelled backwards to retrieve Havve Hogan and then forward to Earth in the year 2007 (roughly one millennium before Meouch or Phobos were born), an era that Sung’s calculations had indicated would be ripe for TWRP to thrive.

 

  1. Birth of Grobb *
  2. VHS *
  3. Bright Blue Sky ♥
  4. Polygon ♥
  5. Only the Best ∏
  6. Typhoon Turnpike / Hidden Potential ⇔
  7. Atomic Karate £
  8. Superior Moves ♥
  9. Summer Everyday *
  10. Have You Heard? ©
  11. Starlight Brigade ⊗
    Encore
  12. Terraform ♥ (with Magic Sword)
  13. All Night Forever ⇔


* new/unreleased.
© single (2023)
♥ New & Improved (2021)
∏ Over the Top (2020)
⇔ Return to Wherever (2019)
⊗ Together Through Time (2018)
£ Ladyworld (2017)

Posted in Magic Sword, Philadelphia, PA, TWRP, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Dead Can Dance : A Celebration Life & Works (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2023) [CANCELLED]

April 23, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[CANCELLED: April 22, 2023] Dead Can Dance 

Dead Can Dance plan a U.S tour (their first in a long time) in 2020. It was postponed to 2021 an ultimately cancelled.

I was pretty happy when they announced another attempt.  And so, in June of 2022, a mere ten months before the show, I bought myself a ticket.

Then on September 6, 2022 we received notice that this concert was going to be cancelled as well.  That’s 7 months notice.

“With sadness and regret we have to cancel the upcoming live concerts in Europe and North America due to health reasons,” the band wrote in a statement. “Thank you to our loyal fans for your support. Please contact point of purchase for refunds.” No further details have been offered at this time.

The 2023 trek was set to be their first tour through North America in a decade.

There’s no word from the band since then.  I wonder if everything is okay there.

 

Posted in Cancelled, Dead Can Dance, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Magic Sword (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2023) [TWRP]

April 22, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: April 22, 2023] Magic Sword

I saw Magic Sword open for Avatar back in 2021 and I knew I’d want to see them again.

What I wrote about them then stand up pretty well for this show:

There are three members: The Keeper (red, keyboard, audio-visual), The Seer (blue, guitar), and The Weaver (yellow, drums).  Oh yes, they are all masked (and not COVID masked, but like a fencing mask with a glowing light (in the above color) for the eyes).  All of their songs are pretty heavy with a main riff (and bass) coming from the keys and really heavy drums.  And then The Seer plays some extended impressive and super catchy guitar solos.

Every song feels like the exultant triumph of a cheesy 80s sci fi movie.  Which is not to say that their music is cheesy (it really rocks) but that it would be placed in a cheesy movie–and would sound great.

In fact, the band has written epic stories (and comic books) that go along with their music.  These songs are the soundtrack to those stories. So it all makes sense.

The set opened with a proclamation in a deep voice explaining that Magic Sword was here to defend all that good in the world.  And then the trio came out.

It’s all vaguely preposterous, but they are completely into it (The Weaver is excellent at getting the fans pumped up) and the music is so good, that it all works wonders.  A handful of people in the crowd had purchased Magic Sword swords (a tiny imitation of the real Magic Sword sword) and waved their blue glow around.

I felt like they played newer songs–songs that were a little more complicated with some excellent stops and starts in them.  But, since they are all instrumentals, it’s hard to know what songs they played.

But most importantly, mid way through the set The Keeper held aloft the blue glowing Magic Sword and all was well in Philadelphia.

I really thought my son would enjoy this show and he said he enjoyed Magic Sword a lot.  So that’s cool.

When the show was over we went to the merch table and I was pretty tickled to see that if you didn’t know what you wanted, you could roll a D20 and see if luck was on your side.  The guy in front of us rolled it and was granted the right to have his picture taken holding THE Magic Sword.

Cool.

Posted in Magic Sword, Philadelphia, PA, TWRP, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Andy Shauf / Marina Allen (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 21, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

April 21, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 21, 2023] Andy Shauf / Marina Allen

After not seeing Andy Shauf a bunch of times the last few years, I also managed to not see him again this year.

There were three other shows happening this night, two of which I was really torn about.  So even though I would like to see Andy Shauf some day, the other shows were booked long before this was announced.

I am pleased to see that Andy does seem to come around quite a lot, so I’m sure he’ll be back next Spring.

Marina Allen is opening for him on this tour.  According to her label she is a

once-in-a-decade five-tool musician: She writes beautiful melodies and brilliant lyrics, expresses her ideas with an unusual voice of extraordinary depth and range, thinks in fanciful arrangements, and constantly navigates the knife-edge between too much and too little.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a blurb quite like that before.

I listened to her first song on Spotify “Falls on Me,” and I would have guessed that it was literally from the 1970s.  She has an absolute classic-sounding voice.  I can’t get over how much she sounds like a blast from the past. I can’t decide if I love it or hate it.

Posted in Andy Shauf, Marina Allen, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Chris Forsyth / Purling Hiss / Garcia Peoples (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia PA, April 21, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

April 21, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 21, 2023] Chris Forsyth / Purling Hiss / Garcia Peoples

I had planned to attend fewer shows this year.  It turns out there haven’t been that many days that were overbooked with shows.  This was  the first one that was totally overbooked.

I had tickets to M83 and also to Acid Dad and it was a hard decision which one to go to.

So this show didn’t really stand a chance.

I love Chris Forsyth, and would love to see him again.  However, I have seen him fairly recently and at Johnny Brenda’s.  The show would be reliably great, but as I said, already booked.

I saw Purling Hiss back in 2017 about which I said

I knew that the bulk of the band’s catalog was basically Mike Polizze making music for himself.  It was pretty noisy and abstract with lots of jam moments.  They are now a band–I’m not sure who the other two guys in the band were (based on the latest album, I’m assuming Ben Hart on drums and Dan Provenzano on bass)–and they have gotten more musical since then.  But thy are still noisy.  So I expected a lot of squalling feedback and pummeling sounds.  I was quite pleased with how melodic the band’s songs were (no idea what songs they played, but I assume most of it came from their newest album).

I’d definitely see them again.

Garcia Peoples are joining this tour in Brooklyn.  If they had been in Philly, this would have been a much more difficult choice.

UPDATE: Turns out they DID play as well.

And here’s video proof from the always reliable Markit aneight

Here’s video of Purling Hiss

And here’s Chris Forsyth

Posted in Chris Forsyth, Garcia Peoples, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Purling Hiss | Leave a Comment »

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