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Built to Spill / Wetface / Blood Lemon (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, May 12, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 12, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 12, 2022] Built to Spill / Wetface / Blood Lemon [rescheduled from July 31, 2020]

I saw Built to Spill the night before in Union Transfer.  Originally I was more excited  to see them at white Eagle Hall, but I had a Sinead O’Connor concert conflict (which of course didn’t happen, but just in case).

Since I had just seen them the night before, it didn’t see worth going out the following night for what would have been largely the same show (good as it was).

I also really didn’t like Wetface and didn’t want to sit through that set while waiting for Built to Spill.

I did really enjoy Blood Lemon though and would happily see them again, especially since I arrived a little late and missed some of their set.

For ease of searching, I include: Le Almeida (drums), Joao Casaes (bass) and Joao Luiz (guitar), Transfusao Noise Records, Orua.

Posted in Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Jersey City, NJ, Wetface, White Eagle Hall | Leave a Comment »

Blood Lemon (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022) [BUILT TO SPILL]

May 11, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 11, 2022] Blood Lemon

When Built to Spill announced a new tour, I was pretty excited.  I mean, a Built to Spill tour is always exciting.  But this one was particularly interesting because he had an entirely new touring band with him.  So I bought tickets for two shows sort of back to back in May.  I wound up not going to the White Eagle Hall show, but I did make the Union Transfer show.

It was my first introduction to Blood Lemon.

Blood Lemon are a trio from Boise (just like Built to Spill) consisting of singer/guitarist Lisa Simpson, singer/bassist Melanie Radford and percussionist Lindsey Lloyd. They were described as having an alt 90’s sound with some heavy riffage.  I arrived a little ate for the show and walked in during the first of second song.

Whatever song it was, I was blown away by how much they rocked.  Radford had Continue Reading »

Posted in Blood Lemon, Built to Spill, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Wetface | Leave a Comment »

Barrie / Rentboy (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 11, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 29, 2023] Barrie / Rentboy

Barrie is a singer that I know exclusively from NPR Music.  I enjoyed a song or two from her, but it seems very unlikely that I would have gone to this show.   I’m a little surpirsed I included it in my list of shows to check out.

Rentboy is a Philadelphia based disco collective whose last album, Memory Forever, is a meditation on body memory and queer musical history.  They seem a little too disco for Barrie’s gentler sound.

Posted in Barrie, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Rentboy | Leave a Comment »

Jenny Hval / Discovery Zone (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 11, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 11, 2022] Jenny Hval / Discovery Zone

Jenny Hval is a Norwegian singer who plays unconventional indie rock.

She’s the kind of singer who is hard to get into, but once you do, there are worlds of wonder to discover.  I haven’t gotten there yet, although I have enjoyed a lot of what I’ve listened to.

I feel that she is like Cate Le Bon for me.  Someone I really want to dive into and fully embrace, yet someone who fights me at every opportunity.

I didn’t really enjoy Le Bon’s live show, even though I thought I’d be blown away by it.   I have the same fear about a Jenny Hval show.  The big difference, though is that Le Bon was playing a much bigger venue and Hval is playing a tiny venue, where her subtleties will no doubt be appreciated more.  Perhaps next time, I shall have to make sure I go.

Discovery Zone is the moniker of musician and multi-media artist JJ Weihl. Raised in New York City and currently based in Berlin, Discovery Zone is the space in which Weihl creates pop music, video collage, powerpoint presentations and algorithmic art experiments. Her recordings and performances utilise a laboratory of instruments and 3D visuals to explore the universe as a source of information. Discovery Zone’s debut album was released on Mansions and Millions in 2020. In her upcoming work, Discovery Zone continues to inspect the juxtaposition between warm analog elements and cold digital sounds, conducting a conversation between the past and the future.

That sounds like a pretty cool double bill, but I was already going to see Built to Spill.

Posted in Discovery Zone, Jenny Hval, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA | Leave a Comment »

Tori Amos (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 9, 2022)

May 9, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 9, 2022] Tori Amos

I last saw Tori Amos over 20 years ago.  I was a die-hard looney fan back in the 90s. That has since passed.  I saw her a lot of times in the span of five years and then I was kind of over her.  I still enjoyed her music but the fanbase was getting too intense for me.

I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to get tickets to this show, I though it would have sold out immediately.  But when the presale was announced, I was able to score third row.   When I was a huge fan, I was never anywhere closer than half way back.  So this was sort of a last hurrah for seeing her.  If I had gotten these tickets twenty-five years ago I would have ben beside myself.

Turns out that the intense fanbase is still there and they may have been unhappy that I was in that third row seat because there was a coordinated effort by the folks in the first three rows to control the audience.  Not in a “you must do this” way but in a “this is how it’s done” way.  It almost felt like church–which is very funny given Tori’s upbringing.

Tori’s band (bassist Jon Evans and drummer Ash Soan) came out and did a little jamming before Tori walked out in a lovely flowing kimono type thing and the highest spikiest heels that one might ever see on a pianist.  

She opened with “Juárez” from To Venus and Back.  Not my favorite song from the album (I would have loved to hear “Bliss”), but a promising start to the idea that she was going to be playing from all over her career.  Plus, the all sounded great–the band was excellent and Tori’s voice sounded in good form.  She also made a lot of eye contact and gestures to the folks in the front row–just like the old days, but I could actually see them.

After playing a song I didn’t know (I have American Doll Posse, but couldn’t tell you when I last listened to it), she jumped all the way back to play “Little Earthquakes.”  The crowd went berserk (as they should) and then we sat back and enjoyed it.  Because this was part of the coordination from the front row,  as soon as the second song was done, they turned around and motioned for everyone to sit, like they knew the next song was going to be a slow one and we should sit now so we didn’t sit during the song.  It was weird (although not unappreciated). Continue Reading »

Posted in Companion, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Tori Amos | Leave a Comment »

A Place to Bury Strangers / Lunacy / Glove (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, May 9, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 9, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 9, 2022] A Place to Bury Strangers / Lunacy / Glove

A Place to Bury Strangers is one of those bands that I have heard about for years whose music I had never heard.  And like The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die, they have a long name that is rather evocative but which implies a heaviness that may or may not be there.

I put this show on my “check out” list mostly because I was curious as to what this band actually sounded like.

When I played their songs on Spotify I was taken aback by how much they sounded like The Church (at least on “Always Gonna Be the Same”).  That’s their latest single (okay I’m writing this long after the concert happened).

Their other songs are a lot louder and darker, which means this Wikipedia entry makes sense

Commonly known by the initials APTBS, the band plays a heavy, atmospheric Wall of Sound–influenced blend of noise rock, shoegaze and space rock. The band is known for the loudness of their intense live shows. A Place to Bury Strangers are commonly referred to by music writers as the “loudest band in New York”, a reputation the band developed even before the release of their first album.

Fascinating.

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a band by their openers.  The two openers for this show were darkwave and a kind of 80’s synth alt rock.  I think I would have enjoyed this show about twenty years ago.

Glove is a retro synth band, in the vein of Depeche Mode or New Order.  They’re from Tampa but look like they are straight out of the 80’s UK music scene.

Sounds kinda fun.

Lunacy is Pennsylvania’s industrial darkwave monk who plays Dark, dystopian vibes; deep electronic cuts that shake and rattle with power.

I suspect I know exactly what this show was like and there was very little movement in the audeince.

 

Posted in A Place to Bury Strangers, Glove, Johnny Brenda's, Lunacy, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Companion (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 9, 2022) [TORI AMOS]

May 9, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 9, 2022] Companion

I last saw Tori Amos over 20 years ago.  I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again and then this tour was announced.  I liked the new song from the new album and since it was the met and I was able to get presale tickets, I figured I’d give it a shot.

It wasn’t clear to me who would be opening for her, if anyone.  But as the show drew closer the date was listed as Tori Amos and Companion.  Which was confusing to be sure.  I’d never heard of a band called Companion. Was this a suggestion that Tori would have a companion on stage?

Well, it soon became clear that Companion is a band.  A duo, actually.  As their site explains:

Companion is the Fort Collins, CO-based duo of identical twin sisters Sophia and Jo Babb. The pair’s music presents immaculate harmonies, delicate folk melodies, and a nuanced approach to songwriting that feels at once lighthearted and weighted with palpable empathy.

The duo came out in spectacular outfits.  Sophia in a yellow, wildly patterned 70s era pantsuit (and straight hair) and Jo in a floral shirt and jeans (and curly hair). Continue Reading »

Posted in Companion, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Tori Amos | Leave a Comment »

PUP (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 2022)

May 8, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: April 1, 2022] PUP

It’s kind of funny that the headliner is the only band on this bill that I hadn’t seen before.

I was really excited to see PUP.  I knew some of their songs and t hen slowly I knew and liked even more of them.  After watching their Tony Desk on NPR, I knew they were fun guys who probably put on a great show.

The backdrop was in  the same deliciously surreal style as the poster (which I love).  And then the band came out.

Stefan Babcock played the opening song from the new album (about just learning to play piano and writing a song on it because the label wanted them to) on a keyboard.

And as soon as the song ended, the whole place exploded into a pogoing slamming chaotic fest of fun.  They blasted through one song from each of their albums and everyone sang/screamed the words to all of them.

The light show was simple but really effective, with a bank of lights behind the drums and beams shooting out from time to time. Continue Reading »

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Pinkshift, PUP, Sheer Mag | Leave a Comment »

Rina Sawayama / Hana (The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, May 7, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 7, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 7, 2022] Rina Sawayama / Hana

Rina Sawayama is a fascinating pop star.  She is British-Japanese and has an amazing voice.  She is also comfortable embracing all genres.

At the time of this show her second album has not been released yet, but her first album Sawayama embraced all kinds of genres in each song.  There’s aggressively pop singing with incredible hooks and then some hugely metal guitars.  “STFU!” was massively metal with a swooping pop center.

It was fun to imagine that her live show would be a riot.

As one reviewer wrote:

As Sawayama kept up with multiple outfit changes, an onstage thunderstorm and memorable choreography, her voice remained a beacon of light.

This show sold out at the TLA long before I had even heard of her.  It was moved to the Fillmore where it also sold out. Continue Reading »

Posted in Hana, Philadelphia, PA, Rina Sawayama, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Lucius / Celisse (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, May 7, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 7, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 7, 2022] Lucius / Celisse

I didn’t see this show the night before in Jersey (even though I was offered free tickets) because I had a (better) show with my son to go to.

So they were playing the following night in Philly (originally Rina Sawayama was supposed to play the TLA, but she got bumped to the Fillmore–good for her).

But honestly, sometimes I can go to two shows in a row, but the Pup show was pretty exhausting, so it seemed smart to just hunker down at home.

I’m not even 100% sure I want to see them live–I really like some of their songs a lot, but a lot are just kind of okay for me.  Although their harmonies are absolutely dynamite.

Celisse Henderson is a wild rocking woman who plays a killer guitar–I think she’s more of a blues player than anything else, but with a modern, female spin on the blues..  I don’t think I knew who she was at the time, but I have since learned that she is a killer and I would have loved to see her.

 

 

Posted in Celisse, Lucius, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts | Leave a Comment »

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