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Kayleigh Goldsworthy (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 3, 2021 [afternoon show]) [FRANK TURNER]

October 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 3, 2021] Kayleigh Goldsworthy

On September 15, Frank Turner announced that he would be playing Underground Arts on October 3.  At 2PM!

I grabbed tickets immediately.  I have been wanting to see Frank Turner for years.

I didn’t know if he’d even have an opening act, but indeed he did.  It was Philly singer-songwriter Kayleigh Goldsworthy.  he was supposed to tour with Frank back in 2020, but the tour was cancelled.  Frank called on her again, and this was her first show since the pandemic.

I thought that I hadn’t heard of Goldworthy, but it turned out that I had actually seen her perform before!  She sang (a couple of songs) with Kevin Devine when I saw him at Underground Arts. I was also supposed to see her open for Tigers Jaw on a few postponed shows.

Kayleigh commanded the afternoon crowd right off the bat. She sang slow ballads that were full of angst.  Her voice was really strong and she had the amazing confidence to have long (relatively) stretches of her song where very little happened.  And we were rapt by her.  Her voice sounded very familiar to me–like someone who I can’t place.

I don’t know any of the songs she sang, although I may be able to add songs to the setlist as I listen to her CD more.

I feel like she must have sung “Cursed to Wander” because it’s the new song, but the recorded version is pretty rocking and her set was quite mellow.

As you can see from the poster, Kayleigh only played the shows on our date, so it was a nice treat to hear her.

 

Posted in Frank Turner, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »

The Four-Eyed Horsemen including MC Lars & Mega Ran & MC Frontalot & Schaffer The Darklord (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, October 2, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 2, 2021] MC Lars & Mega Ran & MC Frontalot & Schaffer The Darklord

There were two reasons I wanted to go to this show.  First, I have never been to Kung Fu Necktie–I seem to keep missing out on shows there.  Second, this night of nerd rap sounded hilarious.

I had been listening to MC Lars a bit leading up to this show. I’ve listened to the other guys as well and gotten more or less the same kick out of them,

But when it came down to it, I had been out several Saturday nights in a row and I had been to see Primus the night before, and I was going to a show on Sunday as well, so I decided to skip this one.

I sure hope the four of them tour again (I mean, who else would have any one of them?).

MC Lars, according to Wikipedia,

plays with a laptop and occasionally a punk rock band to back him up, which he refers to as “post-punk laptop rap”. Samples from bands such as Supergrass, Piebald, Brand New, Fugazi, and Iggy Pop play a key role in MC Lars’s music. Hearts That Hate, whose song “Cry Tonight” is sampled in Lars’ “Signing Emo”, is a fictional group created by the rapper.  MC Lars has also shown an interest in using lyrics and song titles based on English and American literature. “Rapbeth” references William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, while “Mr. Raven” is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. “Ahab” is about the novel Moby Dick and “Hey There Ophelia” on This Gigantic Robot Kills retells the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Mega Ran according to Wikipedia,

Raheem Jarbo (stage names Mega Ran and Random) is an American underground nerdcore rapper, chiptune DJ, and record producer. In February 2015, he changed his stage name to Mega Ran, removing Random from any releases.

Here’s a Random review

I’m always glad to watch Mega Ran perform whenever he comes to Michigan. If he comes to a town near you, he is worth the drive. It was certainly worth the two hour plus drive for me.

MC Frontalot according to Wikipedia,

Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999.

Here’s a Random review

Finally MC Frontalot took the stage. He opened with one of my favorites, “Tongue Clucking Grammarian” and immediately got the audience “tutting” his bad grammar. During the set, he mixed up old and new tracks, including several crowd favorites (“It Is Pitch Dark,” “Yellow Lasers,” (the regular, non-Latin version), and “Goth Girls.”). New tracks from Solved included “Critical Hit,” which uses the double meaning of the phrase to great effect (something Frontalot does often and quite well), and “Stoop Sale,” which, while not particularly geeky, tells a good story. All in all, it was quite an entertaining evening.

Schaffer The Darklord 

Is nerdy, but is also very raunchy–unlike the other rappers.  He seems a little out of place here, but not really.

Here’s a blurb from Little Village

Schäffer the Darklord, a.k.a. STD, is a 47-year-old (in 2022) rapper who’d probably have a few words to say to his 20-something self if he had access to a time machine.  “I feel like I made an impulsive decision to adopt the stage name in 2003,” Mark Schaffer said, “and all these years later, I do have a bit of buyer’s remorse. But I’ve built too much of a catalog at this point to consider changing it.”  Over the past two decades, the Iowa born-and-raised MC has released several albums, EPs, singles and collaborations, including several with fellow Iowa City expatriate Coolzey. His songs are filled with a mix of goofy juvenilia, absurd sexual content, nerdy grammatical breakdowns and introspective lyrical detours, such as a song about sexual consent titled “Yes” from his 2015 EP Sex Rhymes.

 

Posted in Kung Fu Necktie, MC Frontalot, MC Lars, Mega Ran, Philadelphia, PA, Schaffer The Darklord | Leave a Comment »

Primus: A Tribute to Kings (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 1, 2021) [rescheduled date]

October 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2021] Primus [rescheduled from June 19, 2020; and July 10, 2021]

Three years ago I saw Primus for the first time in 30 some years.  The show was featuring their then new EP The Desaturated Seven.   So, it wasn’t the ideal way to catch up with them, since they spent a lot of time playing that EP in its entirety.  The rest of the set was a mix of songs, with a bunch of songs from Pork Soda and some of their “hits.”  I was a little annoyed by the crowd at the show (when did tough guys start liking Primus?).  And in my post I wrote

Maybe in 2020 they’ll be back for a big two set career-capping tour.

Interestingly, they did come back in 2020, with a two-set show, but rather than career capping, it included a cover of the album A Farewell to Kings by Rush.  If I was there only for Primus, I’d have been annoyed at losing 40 minutes to another band.  However, A Farewell to Kings is one of my favorite albums of all time and knowing how Primus feels about Rush, I knew that this would be an amazing experience.  The show had been postponed a few times but finally, October 1 arrived and I headed to the Met in Philly.

The show was supposed to start at 7, so once again, I left from work and arrived quite early.  Early enough to get one of the night’s posters.  But boy was it ugly.  I didn’t want it on my wall, so I passed (there have been some really nice posters this tour, so I was bummed about ours).  Then I stood by the fence and waited with some remarkably loud and rather unpleasant characters.

In my head, Primus is for oddballs who like weird music.  But clearly they have struck a nerve with an unexpected crowd–people I would never hang out with intentionally.  So that sucked.  But once they got their nonsense out of their system after a few songs, people settled down and just enjoyed the music.

I asked someone at the show if the sets were different every night and he said that Primus always mixed up their setlists so it was worth seeing them a bunch of nights in a row.  Indeed, the night after ours, they played several songs that I would have really liked to hear–although our set was pretty great too. Continue Reading »

Posted in Black Mountain, Coronavirus, Danny Elfman, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Primus, Quarantine, Rush, The Met Philadelphia, Wolfmother | Leave a Comment »

Bikini Kill / Alice Bag (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, October 2, 2021) [rescheduled, rescheduled again]

October 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[POSTPONED: October 2, 2021] Bikini Kill / Alice Bag [rescheduled from November 22, 2020; moved to July 13, 2022]

indexON April 28, Bikini Kill announced that they’d be pushing back this tour date one more time.

“We have moved all of our tour dates to 2022 to ensure our fans, our crew, venues’ staff, and the band’s safety,” Bikini Kill said in a statement. “We know many of you have had your shows rescheduled more than once and appreciate your patience and flexibility.”

Then on April 30, I was told

This just in – Alice Bag will no longer be performing at your upcoming event.

So that’s kind of a bummer since Alice Bag is iconic and I’d like to see her.  Not sure who is opening now, but I’m sure they’ll be good.  Maybe the Linda Lindas?

~~~

I’m not sure if something specific caused this Fall show to be moved to next summer, but it’s just as well since my October was filling up pretty quickly.

I am bummed to see that Alice Bag won’t be opening anymore.  I wonder who they’ll get instead.

Boy, a band reunites and plans a national tour and then everything blows up on them.  I thought surely this show would go on as planned–a bigger venue, possible social distancing. But how do you enforce social distancing at a rock show?  I sure hope we can go to live music again.

When Bikini Kill did their short reunion tour a couple years ago, tickets sold out in like ten seconds.  When they announced this follow up tour I grabbed a ticket immediately.  As far as I can tell it still hadn’t sold out when it was postponed (which is a surprise, I think).

Bikini Kill are foundation for the Riot Grrl movement although I was not a huge fan of them per se.  I have their records appreciate them for what they did, but they weren’t my favorite,

Nevertheless, this opportunity to see them live sounded like a great time.

Alice Bag has been cropping up in my periphery for quite some time although I realized I didn’t know much about her.  Alicia Armendariz was a co-founder and singer of the 70s punk band The Bags.  After they broke up, she was in about a half dozen other bands, although none of them released more than some singles.  She finally put out a solo album in 2016.

Her album(s) since have gotten strong reviews and it would be excellent to see this feminist icon in action.

Posted in Alice Bag, Bikini Kill, Coronavirus, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Riot Grrrl, The Bags | Leave a Comment »

Black Mountain (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 1, 2021) [PRIMUS] [rescheduled date]

October 1, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2021] Primus [rescheduled from June 19, 2020; and July 10, 2021]

When the Primus A Tribute to Kings tour was announced, there were two opening bands: The Sword and Wolfmother.  I was intrigued by both bands.  When the show was rescheduled, The Sword was dropped.  Actually, they ended their segment of the tour with the how before ours.  Interestngly, we were watching the Gilmore Girls season 7 recently and Wolfmother was mentioned with high praise (nit bas since they’d had one album out).  But when the show was pushed back again, Wolfmother had visa issues (they are Australian) and had been replaced by Black Mountain.

And I was pretty excited about that because I was already a fan of theirs.  Black Mountain is a Canadian band that plays stoner psychedlica that drifts into heavy territories.  They were a pretty great opener for Primus.  Once again, I don’t know what happened to Primus fans that they became the kind of guys who shout “Primus sucks” during quiet moments of the opening band, but that sucked for them.

Because otherwise they were great.

I was really impressed with the confidence it takes to open a show to a (mildly hostile) audience with the slow droning of the nine minute epic “Mothers of the Sun.” Continue Reading »

Posted in Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Primus, Quarantine, Rush, The Met Philadelphia, Wolfmother | Leave a Comment »

Dance Gavin Dance / Animals as Leaders / Eidola / Veil of Maya / Wolf & Bear (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, October 1, 2021) [rescheduled again, again] [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 1, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 1, 2021] Dance Gavin Dance / Animals as Leaders / Veil of Maya / Eidola / Wolf & Bear [rescheduled from April 3 then August 27, 2020, Then April 2, 2021]

indexThe whole reason I as thinking about attending this show was to see Animals as Leaders again.  They announced on August 27, 2021

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be withdrawing ourselves from the Dance Gavin Dance Afterburner Tour. Apologies to any fans who were planning on seeing us on the tour, but we’ll be returning to all these cities on a scheduled headline tour with new music for next year.”

Obviously, I’d much rather see them as headliners, so I’ll blow this entire show off.  The final line up appears to be: Dance Gavin Dance, Polyphia, Veil of Maya, Eidola, Wolf & Bear/

This show has been rescheduled one more time–this is now the third date change.  Boy I hope October 1 is not too soon.

Over the changes, the lineup has had some minor tweaks.

Now, Issues is out and Eidola is in.

Eidola is a bit more math rock, with some pretty complex rhythms, and soaring high vocals.  They seem like they’d be a good change up in the middle of this set.

~~

This show was rescheduled from April and I recall that when it was rescheduled, some people online joked that it was too soon.  I guess they were right.

I still wasn’t sure I was going to go to this show.  It depended on what else was going on that week.  But i would love to see Animals as leaders again for sure.

I saw Animals as Leaders at TLA last May and I was amazed at the show (including the opening bands), but the crowd was really rowdy and I wound up far back behind a lot of tall guys.  I wanted to see them again, so when I saw that they were playing at Franklin Music Hall, I was surprised that they had moved up to such a big venue.

I had no idea that Dance Gavin Dance was the headliner, not Animals as Leaders.  In fact, when I later saw a poster for the rescheduled show(s) I thought Dance Gavin Dance was the (admittedly strange) name of the Animals as Leaders tour.

I don’t think I would have gone knowing that Animals as Leaders were one of (the four!) opening acts, but who knows.

So Dance Gavin Dance has been around since 2005 and I’ve never heard of them?  Apparently there are eight guys who have already left the band over the years.  People are quite divided about them.  Maybe I’ll give a record a listen.

Issues is another band I’ve never heard of although they have been around for eight years. They are described as combining metalcore, nu metal, pop and contemporary R&B.  Woah.  I don’t love the whole clean/unclean vocal thing–small doses are fine, so this might not be the band for me.

Veil of Maya have been around for six years (clearly I don’t follow this genre at all).  They are another metalcore band and I think this show might have been exhausting if I stayed for the whole thing.

Royal Coda shares (past and current) members with Dance Gavin Dance and is described as post-hardcore, progressive and math.

For this rescheduled show they were dropped for Wolf & Bear.  They play some aggressive progressive metal with growly vocals–a mix of things I like with things I don’t.  They also have a clean vocalist who sings some rather poppy sections.  They;re pretty interesting.

It would definitely be an exhausting night.

dgd

Posted in Animals as Leaders, Coronavirus, Dance Gavin Dance, Eidola, Franklin Music Hall, Issues, Philadelphia, PA, Polyphia, Postponed, Quarantine, Royal Coda, Veil of Moya, Wolf & Bear | Leave a Comment »

Terry Pratchett–Moving Pictures (1990) [Discworld #10]

September 30, 2021 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: September 2021] Moving Pictures

For his tenth Discworld novel, Terry Pratchett decided to have fun with Hollywood.  Indeed, it is set on a hill called Holy Wood–an abandoned location that seems to suddenly have a magnetic attraction for Disc inhabitants.

This book also introduces Mustrum Ridcully as the new Archchancellor of Unseen University.  Ridcully will remain Archchancellor for the rest of the novels.  He proves to be unkillable (at least in practice) because he is unlike any Wizard around.  He had left the University nearly four decades earlier having become a Seventh Level Wizard at the young age of twenty-seven.  He left to look after his family’s land.  Over the last forty years he has become quite a fan of the outdoors, of exercise, of rising early and basically everything else that Wizards find revolting.  He loves hunting, owns several crossbows and is very hard to surprise–hence, no one has been able to usurp him as Archchancellor. Continue Reading »

Posted in Camels, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Death, Detritus, Discworld, Film & TV, Funny (ha ha), Gaspode the Wonder Dog, Laddie, Magic, Mustrum Ridcully, Philosophy, Terry Pratchett, The Dean, Theda "Ginger" Withel, Unfinished series, Victor Tugelbend | Leave a Comment »

Terry Pratchett–(Faust) Eric (1990) [Discworld #9] [Rincewind #4]

September 29, 2021 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: September 2021] Faust Eric

Eric has always been a bit of a puzzle to me (until I recently used the internet to clarify things).  The title has always been listed as Faust Eric, which I always thought was funny (ha ha funny).  But it was really short and some people didn’t seem to consider it a proper Discworld book.  Or something.

So it turns out it was originally a “Discworld story,” published in a larger format than the other novels and illustrated by Josh Kirby.  So it was sort of like a storybook rather than a novel.

And obviously, it’s a play on the Faust story, which if you’ve forgotten: Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

It’s also the fourth Rincewind story.  I guess leaving him in the Dungeon Dimensions wasn’t cool for Terry. Continue Reading »

Posted in Anachronisms, Death, Demons, Discworld, Funny (ha ha), Josh Kirby, Magic, Rincewind, Terry Pratchett, The Luggage, Wizards, Wizards | Leave a Comment »

OSEES (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 26, 2021)

September 28, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: September 26, 2021] Osees

I didn’t really know the Osees very well when I bought tickets to this show (which had been rescheduled, but I didn’t have tickets to the original show).  I knew them more from knowing their history of names changes.  [They have recorded as OCS, The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees and now Osees].  And also from the Levitation/Reverb Appreciation Society live stream/quarantine shows.

Because of this, and because of the chill nature of the opener, Mr. Elevator, I never expected the show to be as wild, raucous and mosh pit filled as it was.

The first indicator should have been when the two drummer set up at he front of the stage (nods to King Crimson, there).  But it wasn’t until main Osees guy (the only one who has been in all iterations of the band) John Dwyer came out on stage (off to the left as we faced the stage).  He noted that it was Sunday, the Lord’s day, then he started playing “The Dream” and the crowd went apeshit.

Within minutes I was pushed pretty far to the side of the crowd, safely out of the way of flying feet.

Their set covered albums from 2011 (their twelfth album) through to last year’s Metamorphosed (their 23rd album).  It was glorious. Continue Reading »

Posted in King Crimson, Mr. Elevator, Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Mr. Elevator (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 26, 2021) [OSEES]

September 27, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: September 26, 2021] Mr. Elevator

I had I had never heard of Mr. Elevator and really didn’t know what to expect from them.

It turned out that they are a fun, retro-sounding psychedelic band.

I was immediately blown away by their drummer Jesse Gorman Conlee who was metronomically precise and playing complicated rhythms.  Which seemed at odds with, but which worked perfectly with the synthy grooves the rest of the band was making.

It also turned out that the keyboardist and main singer Tomas Dolas is (as of 2018) the keyboardist in Osees.  They started out as Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, but droped half of the name after releasing their first album Nico and Her Psychedelic Subconscious.

The show started with them spread across the stage–drums on the left, bass (Jon Tattleman), keys (Dolas) and more keys on the right (Justin Ruiz).  They played a series of mellow, but still rocking songs.  There were lots of cool trippy synths and some solid basslines.  Dolas has some lengthy jamming keyboard solos that were very retro. Continue Reading »

Posted in Mr. Elevator, Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

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