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Dean Hebscher (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 1, 2022) [KURTIS CONNER]

September 2, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: September 1, 2022] Dean Hebscher

My daughter (and apparently my son, too) loves Kurtis Conner.  They kept saying his name as if I had heard of him.  I had no idea who he was at all.  Turns out he is a YouTuber with a billion fans.

When he announced a tour, my daughter begged to go.  But most of the venues were far away.  Then he announced Philly and how could I say no?

We had seats in the high balcony–it didn’t seem like the kind of show you’d need to be super close for.  A short time before the show, my daughter’s friend was able to get a seat in the same row.  So I drove them both and then they sat together and I sat next to a group of twenty-something girls–not awkward at all.

After the Jacob Sharpe set, we didn’t have to wait long for Dean Hebscher to come out.  That’s one thing that comedians have over bands–no need for set up time.

So it turns out that my daughter tells me that Jacob Sharpe is cool but Dean Hebscher is not.  She wished we had missed Hebscher’s set.  (According to Conner, Sharpe and Hebscher are his best friends).

Hebscher’s set was a little different.  He talked about growing up in rural Canada.  He talked about how his school had a “kick the ginger day” (there was one red-haired kid in school).  He pointed out that it wasn’t school sanctioned (that’s pretty funny) but everyone knew about it through facebook.  I did rather enjoy when the poor ginger kid got his revenge (also through facebook).

I think I enjoyed the set up of his jokes more than the actual jokes themselves.  I enjoyed when he talked about being a camp councellor when he was like 16–barely a few years older than the kids he was supposed to watch.  But he got bogged down with when the kids found the jets in the pool stimulating.  In act I felt lik e alot of his jokes got bogged down in a kind of sexual trajectory that he mined for too long.

I did rather enjoy an absurd story about when he was young and waiting to get into a club.  He was on a long line and farted essentially on the girl behind him.  The line was really close and she was knocked back by the horrible smell.  She spent the whole time that they were waiting to get into the club announcing that this guy in front of her had farted on her.  There was a nice payoff later too.

These jokes were clearly polished but they felt very anecdotal, like he was thinking of details as he went along.  For better or worse.

I liked his set but not nearly as much as the other two.

Posted in Comedians, Danny Gonzalez, Dean Hebscher, Drew Gooden, Jacob Sharpe, Kurtis Conner, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Jacob Sharpe (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, September 1, 2022) [KURTIS CONNER]

September 1, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2022] Jacob Sharpe

My daughter (and apparently my son, too) loves Kurtis Conner.  They kept saying his name as if I had heard of him.  I had no idea who he was at all.  Turns out he is a YouTuber with a billion fans.

When he announced a tour, my daughter begged to go.  But most of the venues were far away.  Then he announced Philly and how could I say no?

We had seats in the high balcony–it didn’t seem like the kind of show you’d need to be super close for.  A short time before the show, my daughter’s friend was able to get a seat in the same row.  So I drove them both and then they sat together and I sat next to a group of twenty-something girls–not awkward at all.

We wound up leaving later than I wanted to, and as we got to the exit, it turned out that President Biden had been in Philly and the exit was blocked off!  Traffic was terrible and I wasn’t sure how we were going to go around to a new exit when the police just pulled away and let us use the exit.  So our timing was actually perfect–any earlier and I’d be driving around who knows where.

But we stilled missed much of Jacob Sharpe’s set. Continue Reading »

Posted in Danny Gonzalez, Dean Hebscher, Drew Gooden, Jacob Sharpe, Kurtis Conner, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Boris / Nothing (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, September 1, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

September 1, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 1, 2022] Boris / Nothing

I came to the Boris part way too late.  They’ve been melting faces for over 25 years and I really only found them about five years ago.  They were on the verge of breaking up, in fact, when they were inspired to make some new music and to keep touring.

I so wanted to get to this show (which would have been my third). But, it was scheduled for the same night as a Kurtis Conner show that my daughter wanted to go to.

I have to assume that Boris will be back at least one more time (since there’s a new album in the works already).

Nothing is a shoegaze band from Philadelphia.

I was a little surprised that Boris would have a shoegaze band open for them since in the past, they’ve had some pretty heavy rockers open up.  But I listened and Nothing is quite heavy.

I’m a little puzzled when shoegaze became associated with heavy metal.  I know there are many metal bands who successfully use shoegaze elements, but I would never have had a blanket association with metal given its origins.   My Bloody Valentine is certainly loud, but not really heavy.

Either way, this would have been a great show.

 

Posted in Boris, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | 5 Comments »

The Mountain Goats / Garcia Peoples (Anchor Rock Club, Atlantic City, NJ, August 29, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

August 29, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 29, 2022 ] The Mountain Goats

Back in 2021 I wrote:

I’ve enjoyed a lot of The Mountain Goats’ music and I’d like to see them live, but their timing always seems to be terrible.

Some day I’ll see them preferably in a place smaller than the Fillmore, as well).

I don’t know how big the Anchor Rock Club is, but this show lined up with our vacation, so it was a no go.

I was especially looking forward to this show because Garcia Peoples were opening.  This is now the third time that I have failed to see Garcia Peoples.

Posted in Anchor Rock Club, Atlantic City, NJ, Garcia Peoples, John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats | Leave a Comment »

Ben Folds: In Actual Person Live for Real Tour (Xcite Center, Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA, August 27, 2022) [rescheduled]

August 28, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: August 27, 2022] Ben Folds [rescheduled from August 28, 2021]

Last year, a few weeks before his scheduled concert, Ben postponed this show (Parx couldn’t comply with his COVID requests).  So we waited a year for this show.

I feel like we’ve seen Ben practically a dozen times, but this was only our fifth show.

I thought this would be a great show because Parx is close and easy to get to and I had a great time at the Flaming Lips show here and there was no opening act.

But things were kind of weird right from the start.  He was really late coming out.  I accept that a start time is fungible, but the lights went down and it took him a solid five minutes to come out.  During which time someone loudly made a I’ll bet he had to rush to the bathroom joke which really set the tone.

It’s hard to say is Ben was annoyed, but he seemed to be.  He didn’t like the camera set up (one was on the keyboard) and he just didn’t seem as fun as he has in the past.

Of course, he’s professional, so he sounded great and his playing was wonderful.

The crowd around us was weird.  It was a much older crowd than a typical show that we go to and I’m guessing a Saturday night show at a casino is going to lend itself to a lot of drunken people.  Because the bad behavior was in evidence.

A lot of talking, a lot of singing loudly and a lot of talking back to Ben.

The singing loudly isn’t really a problem per se, especially when he requests it, but when no one else around you is singing and you are singing very loudly, well, that’s pretty rude.  But I will admot that everyone sounded quite lovely during the Regina Spector parts of “You Don’t Know Me.”

When somebody shouted the inevitable “Bitches Ain’t Shit” request, Ben sang something about being in a “fucking casino.”

The one genuinely new piece of information we learned was that “Feed Jones Pt.2” is indeed a Pt. 2.  It’s not a secret, really, but I never noticed that the song “Cigarette” on Whatever and Ever Amen” is about Fred Jones (its a 90 second song that I probably never really paid attention to).  So it was neat that he played these two songs in a row to connect the parts.

But astonishingly, when he played an encore of, “The Luckiest,” a gentle, sad, heartwarming song people actually talked all the way through it.  It was really shocking as this is regarded as one of his most beautiful songs.

When we saw him five years ago, he played two sets–one all request.  And it wound up being six songs longer than this show.  Indeed, when he played Morristown, he played several more songs and even did a New Jersey improv song.

So, for whatever reason, this show didn’t feel as great as the previous ones.  I blame the casino.  And the drunks.

(Live and in Person)
Bensalem 2021		 (And a Piano)
Morristown, 2016
So There ⇓ Annie Waits ®
Annie Waits ®
The Last Polka 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Capable of Anything ⇓ Capable of Anything ⇓
Sentimental Guy § All U Can Eat ‰
Still Fighting It ® Effington ⇔
The Last Polka 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Bastard §
Evaporated 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Effington ⇔ Phone in a Pool ⇓
Landed §
I’m Not the Man ⇓
(followed by “Song About Janet Lemansky” improv)
You Don’t Know Me ⇔ Landed §
Rock This Bitch ♦ Give Judy My Notice §
Jesusland § Not a Fan ⇓
Cigarette 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Encore
Fred Jones Pt. 2 ®
Song for the Dumped 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Tiny Dancer
(Elton John cover)
Zak and Sara ®
Alice Childress 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
Don’t Change Your Plans 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
Encore
Emaline 5Õ
(Ben Folds Five song) (followed by “Newtown’ improv)
The Luckiest ® Doc Pomus Ø
The Luckiest ®
Jackson Cannery 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head) ⇔
Bitches Ain’t Shit
(Dr. Dre cover)
Philosophy 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
encore 2
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)

 

Bethlehem with y music 2016 Ben Folds Five
Holmdel 2013		 Starland Ballroom 2004
Beautiful Mechanical
(yMusic cover)
 Philosophy 5ß Hiro’s Song ®
So There ⇓ Michael Praytor, Five Years Later 5§ Zak and Sara ®
Capable of Anything ⇓ Alice Childress 5ß Annie Waits ®
Rock This Bitch
(about SteelStacks)
 Erase Me 5§ All U Can Eat ‰
Phone in a Pool ⇓ Landed § Late §
Music in Circles
(yMusic cover)
 Brick ϖ
Careless Whisper
(George Michael cover) (with Rufus Wainwright)
Still Fighting It ® Sky High 5§ Philosophy 5ß
Not a Fan ⇓ Do It Anyway 5§ Gone ®
Effington ⇔ Underground 5ß
Where’s Summer B.? 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Erase Me 5§
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Song for the Dumped 5ß Rockin’ the Suburbs ®
Jesusland § Army 5⊗ Army 5⊗
Improvisation
(No “Bitches Ain’t Shit” Tonight)
 Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ
(This included a drum battle with Brian Rosenworcel of Guster)
I’m Not the Man ⇓
Fair 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song) (with Guster)
Boxing 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Not the Same ®
Song for the Dumped 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Encore
Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Short Bus Benny
Encore
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Landed §
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
You Don’t Know Me ⇔
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)

 

® Rockin’ the Suburbs 
§ Songs for Silverman
⇓ So There
⇔ Way to Normal
♦ Live
Ø Lonely Avenue
‰ Sunny 16 EP
5§ The Sound of the Life of the Mind
5ß Ben Folds Five
5ϖ Whatever and Ever Amen
5⊗ The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
5Õ Naked Baby Photos

 

 

Ben Folds announced he was doing a new solo tour. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold MessnerI grabbed tickets for myself and S.  Initially we considered going to the Mayo Center, but that show was right during the first few weeks of school and that’s chaotic enough.  So this show, which was just before school started seemed like a fun way to say goodbye to the summer.

Then

Update On My Fall 2021 Tour.

Here are new COVID protocols for my upcoming indoor concerts:

You will be asked for proof of vaccination, and masks will be required at all times inside venues for any indoor shows I perform in 2021.

My York, PA show on August 27 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.

My Bensalem, PA show on August 28 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.

And the venue sent us

Dear Ben Folds fans, out of concern for the health and well–being of the community, his audiences, venue staff, and his crew, Ben Folds is instituting a vaccine mandate and requiring mask wearing for his upcoming tour.Due to this decision once most tickets had been sold for the August, 28 performance here in Bensalem, working in cooperation with Mr. Folds, the difficult decision has been made to postpone his concert in the Xcite Center until Saturday, August 27, 2022 rather than try to retroactively impose this policy after tickets had been sold.

To be honest, it has been a hectic couple of weeks and not having to go out is really not a bad thing.  So we’ll see him next year.

 

Posted in Ben Folds, Bensalem, PA, Parx Casino, Xcite Center | Leave a Comment »

Anthrax / Black Label Society / Hatebreed (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 28, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

August 28, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 28, 2022] Anthrax / Black Label Society / Hatebreed

Anthrax is the only band of the classic heavy metal landscape that I’ve never seen (who I want to see, anyhow). They’re back to almost their original lineup (okay, not original, but “classic” lineup).

This is the third or fourth time they’ve come around recently, but they’re never with anyone else that I want to see.

I don’t really care about Black Label Society, the band created by Zakk Wylde.  I’ve never cared about him and his silly name (although I didn’t realize he was from Bayonne, so that’s kind of cool).  I now he played with Ozzy, but  that was long after I cared about Ozzy too, so whatever.  When this tour was announced, I listened to couple of songs and thought they were okay.  Their presence on the bill definitely impacted my decision not to go.  If it had been a band I liked more, I might have stuck it out. Continue Reading »

Posted in Anthrax, Black Label Society, Hatebreed, Montclair, NJ, Ozzy Osbourne, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »

Los Campesinos! / Proper. (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 27, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

August 27, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 27, 2022] Los Campesinos! / Proper

I have been a fan of Los Campesinos! (who are actually Welsh) since their debut album.

But I have never seen them live.

I was really surprised to see that they were playing Philly, but I see that they have come to Philly in 2017 and 2018.  So I hope they will come in 2023 or 2024 (even if they haven’t put out a record since 2017).

I had never heard of Proper. But they sound amazing.

“Our bio says, ‘Just three n**gas making prog rock, don’t overthink it.’ It’s been changing with our sound,” frontman Erik Garlington laughs. Originally named the Great White, Proper. are a collective accustomed to change. And as the trio – completed by Natasha Johnson and Elijah Watson – have continued to pave their way in the alternative scene, they’ve become even more forthright. After being told they “talk white… like, real proper”, the band switched up their name and ran with it. Now, in their latest polemic American epic, Proper. ditch their off-hand humour and embark on unravelling the emotional weight behind everyday Black American identity.

Having played emo, pop-punk, hardcore and everything in-between, Proper. are continuing to carve their own sonic stamp. [like on] their recent, Bartees Strange-produced record, The Great American Novel.

I couldn’t believe that the Ben Folds show was rescheduled to this night.  (And it wasn’t all that great because the audience was terrible).

So, now I want to see both bands tour again soon.

 

Posted in Los Campesinos!, Philadelphia, PA, Proper., Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

The Decemberists : Arise from the Bunkers Tour (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 25, 2022)

August 26, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: August 25, 2022] The Decemberists

The Decemberists are one of our favorite bands and yet we have seen them very few times.  We were supposed to see them on their last tour but they cancelled our show because Colin lost his voice.

Then last year’s show was postponed for COVID.

Finally it was rescheduled.

We were on the left side of the stage, in front of Jenny Conlee.  I had a great view of her Leslie cabinet and speaker and it was really neat watching it spin faster and faster as the sound got bigger and wilder. Continue Reading »

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Decemberists, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

The Beths / Rosie Tucker (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

August 26, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 26, 2022] The Beths / Rosie Tucker

I wonder what it is about Asbury Lanes.  This is what I wrote about Nada Surf when they played here:

I had just seen Nada Surf in November and didn’t really need to see them again.  But never pass up a chance to see a great live band, right?

November to July = 8 months.

So I’ll say the same about The Beths.  I had just seen them in February.  And here they were 6 months later playing Asbury Lanes.

Never pass up a chance to see a great live band.  Yes.  Unless, of course, you already have tickets to Peter Hook & The Light AND you are going out to concerts the two days before and the day after.

But seriously, The Beths are amazing live, and I would see them as many times as I could.

Back in January, Rosie Tucker was supposed to open for Best Coast.  But that tour was cancelled.

I wrote:

I didn’t know Rosie Tucker until Friday when I listened to her album because it was highly recommended on NPR Music.  I really liked her blend of quirky pop, enjoyable lyrics and kind of garagey sounds.  Her name sounds like she’ll be a country singer, but she’s far from that.  I hope to see her some time in the near future.

And maybe I still will.

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Rosie Tucker, Set in New Jersey!, The Beths | Leave a Comment »

Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

August 26, 2022 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 26, 2022] Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven

This was a show I hated to miss.  Since I had blown off Pet Shop Boys & New Order earlier in the year, I figured at least I’d get to see Peter Hook do the songs (although this tour was largely Joy Division).

Plus I really wanted to see El Ten Eleven, a duo who plays amazingly complex songs using all kinds of pedals and other gadgets.  In videos they are impressive to watch.  I have really wanted to see them live.

This double bill was amazing.  And I had gotten tickets for my wife and I as soon as they went on sale.

Then The Decemberists announced a show on the day before this.  And Ben Folds rescheduled his show to the date after this.  And my wife would rather see those two (both seated, thank you very much).  And she wouldn’t do three nights out in a row.  She probably wouldn’t have liked El Ten Eleven anyhow.

I’m not sure if Peter Hook will tour again, but I really want to see El Ten Eleven.

Posted in El Ten Eleven, Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

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