I have made a list of all of comedians from Taskmaster who I would like to see live. It’s not everyone of course (some of them don’t do stand up and some I don’t think I would enjoy). I never really imagined that I would see everyone on the list as many British comedians do not tour the U.S. But imagine my surprise when Paul Chowdhry announced a show in Philly.
I didn’t know there was going to be a warm up act until the day of. I hadn’t heard of Sonya Vai, who is a NYC based comedian. She immediately joked about the empty seats saying it was the traffic or that Indian people are just always late.
This landed hard until she told us that she herself was Indian, even though she doesn’t look it. Continue Reading »
When I first saw a poster for a Chris Gethard show (I’m guessing at House of Independents), I thought his name was a joke–Get Hard, ha ha. I’m sure he took a lot of abuse for that in school.
But I looked him up and discovered that he was part of an amazing podcast called New Jersey is the World (it ended about a year ago). Gethard (pronounced Getherd) grew up in New Jersey and spent many years writing for Weird NJ. And he knows this state better than just about anyone.
He does comedy nationally, but he seems to really relish doing shows in NJ. Last year he did a show in every county (in pizza places, in basements, in a used furniture store (!) and now for the second time in Flounder Brewing. (I’m bummed I missed the last one).
He has regular routines, but he also loves to tell stories about New Jersey, especially weird New Jersey. Continue Reading »
It’s interesting to me that my last show of 2025 was at the same venue as the first show of 2026–a venue I hadn’t been to before that previous show. It helps that it’s 15 minutes from my house.
I have known about Chris Gethard for a little while. I missed him the last time he came around here, but I soon as this show was announced I grabbed a ticket. I saw that David Dondero was going to open for him. I thought I didn’t know who he was, but it turns out I had seen a Tiny Desk of his back in 2014. The folks at NPR Music love(d) him, but I was okay on him
his music is good but not especially memorable, but it’s his lyrics that Dondero is known for. His songs are thoughtful and interesting and look at a variety of subjects.
Chris Gethard introduced him and said that he had known about David for decades and was a huge fan. He was in Florida and David was playing a show and said he was moving back to New Jersey. He and Chris connected and this tour was born. Continue Reading »
I’ve been a fan of Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band for several years now. I first saw him opening a show and I really enjoyed his brief set. I’ve since seen him solo and with the Goddamn band. So when they announced that he would be playing a show at a Brewery fifteen minutes from my house, I grabbed tickets immediately.
And then my scheduled surgery was moved up from January to December 10. I assumed there was no way I could go. And yet, a week later I felt great and figured I could surely sit for 90 minutes. I reached out to Flounder and secured two seats and by midday I felt well enough to go.
Sadly, I am an idiot and never confirmed the start time. I thought it started at 8, but it actually started at 7:30 and it sounds like Kevin mingled and chatted with everyone. So we arrived around 7:45, embarrassingly after he had started. And we clearly missed ten or fifteen minutes. However, Kevin played 20 songs while we were there and finished a little after nine, so even if we missed a few songs, we still had a great night of music. [Turns out we only missed one full song, some of the second song and a 5 minute intro, phew]. Continue Reading »
I was scheduled to have total hip replacement surgery on the day after this show. I didn’t think I’d be able to go and then two things changed my mind. The first is that I saw that the show was fairly short–Chokecherry was playing for about an hour. The second was that my surgery wasn’t scheduled until the afternoon. I had assumed it would be early in the morning, but a later appointment meant I could sleep in. As it turned out my wife had a minor emergency after I got home that kept us up until 3AM, so it was all moot, but whatever, I’m thrilled that I got to go to this show.
I had seen Chokecherry open for Destroy Boys about a year ago and I loved them. The band seems to consist of guitarist Izzie A. Clark and bassist E. Scarlett Levinson. Their second guitarist and drummer were different from last time.
Warehouse on Watts is really small, so while Scarlett was setting up her gear (in a long faux fur coat), I chatted with her for a moment. I told her how much I liked them when they opened. And she told me that she had food poisoning that night. I never would have guessed, although in retrospect, when she said she talked a lot less than usual, it was true given how much she talked tonight.
They opened with a favorite song from their previous EP, Afterglow–slow and moody opening with crashing choruses. Scarlett commented that the new album is pretty sad, although the first song they played from it Major Threat is a blistering rocker with a catchy chorus.
I love that Izzie and Scarlett switch off on lead vocals for nearly every song.
Things quieted down a bit for Secrets, but this allowed them to really feature their harmonies. I was more or less in front of Scarlett, so I could really hear her delicate higher voice. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t see Izzie that well because I remembered that she shredded impressively. She still sounded great even if on the other side of the stage. Particularly on the delicate guitar intro of Goldmine.
I loved how much the crowd new the songs by name when they were introduced and Scarlett’s super high vocals on Pretty Things (which the crowd knew) were stellar. Second guitarists was excellent, either making the sound fuller while Izzie soloed or adding some extra flourishes. Continue Reading »
The Sewing Club is from Nashville. I hadn’t heard of them before this show. When I walked in, their guitarist was at a merch table selling cute little hand sewed monsters. He later told me he had been sewing since he was little and thought it would be fun merch given their band name. And it was! I bought one.
The Sewing Club are a four piece of two guitars (Stephen Meaux and Justin McKinney), drummer Zach McCoy (who added great backing vocals) and singer/bassist/keyboardist Hannah McElroy. I was in front of McCoy and very close to their merch guitarist (I’m not sure who was who). I could clearly see McElroy, but the other guitarist was on the far side of the stage and I never really saw him.
They opened up quietly with Sport Mode. I enjoyed the shoegaze vibe of the song and the intensity of the guitars, but was blown away when the song started rocking out. The loud part was simple but really catchy with the two guitars playing different parts (one lead). Up next was Wyatt, a song that mixed the tempo up right from the start (and which had some soaring guitar lines).
I enjoyed watching the crowd around me get more and more into the set especially when Wait kicked in and ramped up the intensity.
For Bite, Hannah switched to keys. This was a much slower and more mellow song, although the rest of the band joined in before the end. After an unknown song (the most rocking of the set with lines something like I wish you’d die), they played a newer song that they were sure they’d screw up (they didn’t) with some fun headbanging from Hannah.
They ended their 30 minute set with Strange, a slower song that filled the room and had a killer guitar riff. I really liked their set a lot and look forward to more music from them.
Sport Mode ∼
Wyatt¢
Pocket ∼
Wait ∼
Bite $
(Unknown)
Alright Ok %
Strange ¢
% single (2026)
∼The Sewing Club EP (2025) ¢ Care EP (2024)
$ single (2024)
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
What was fascinating was that Tyler’s show was MASSIVE. He sold out Wells Fargo Center. He had two stages, lots of lights, and a whole routine. Earl’s show was at Union Transfer and didn’t even have a backdrop. There was no light show, just the venue’s lights. And all of that is totally fine, it was just such a contrast.
Earl had been on the stage for most of the night. Hanging out behind the DJ table, bouncing with the people around him. But I didn’t know it was him until he came out from behind the table and started his set.
I was fascinated at how short his songs were. Riot! is about a minute. gsw vs sac was just over a minute. He did 22 songs in under an hour.
Earl is a bit of a mumbler, but he has a lot of charisma and knows how to modulate his flow. and yet overall, it’s still a pretty chill set.
Like with the others, there were people walking around, filming, dancing, smoking. For Earl’s set a guy with a really big beard (Daryl, I think) walked around and got a shout out but didn’t actually do anything.
According to setlist, many of the songs were unreleased. So when the short songs ended (abruptly) the crowd had to take a second to respond. There was also a kind of pause where they played music and he talked to the DJ or something? Everything about the whole night just felt like a bunch of guys hanging out rapping. It wasn’t that it was unprofessional, it just felt totally relaxed and low key–much like Earl’s music. Like friends hanging out.
The biggest reactions came from his songs from SICK! and of course, Molasses from Doris was a big hit with crowd rapping along. Earl seemed to really enjoy the crowd for this song and they way they rapped back–“make some noise for yourself Philly.”
The tone picked up a lot when ZeLooperz came back out to rap on Vision and it made me laugh that Earl just kind of stood around watching him. Earl is very very chill. Then Cletus Strap came to the front and did one of his own songs while Earl acted out the lyrics somewhat–Earl has a verse on the record and did his own verse when it was time.
About half way through Earl’s set he recognized the DJ, Black Noise, who I don’t think was DJing all night. It was very hard to tell what was going on most of the time.
When he announced the song E.Coli the crowd was super psyched–I understand his record with The Alchemist is quite a favorite. It was pretty unusual for me to hear people rapping back at him. Not singing, but more or less talking. Fascinating.
There were at least two more medical situations (and it wasn’t hot in there or anything). Earl started talking about how y’all need to drink water. He also offered to buy granola bars for the city, LOL.
My daughter definitely didn’t enjoy this show as much as Tyler’s. And that’s fair–she didn’t know really anything that was played during the night and it was a long, non-stop night. She knows I hate to leave early even if the show isn’t going to change very much. She asked if we could leave in like 15 minutes, but I looked at the setlist and saw that the show was only going to be about 25 minutes longer, so she agreed to stick it out.
When he finished the set, it didn’t seem like he was going to come back out for an encore. I knew my daughter wanted to leave but I told her that if he didn’t come out in like a minute we’d leave. I always think an encore will be a fun ending.
Earl came out and did (apparently) one half of the song Quest/Power (he did the Power side). And that was that. His encore was about a minute. Crazy. I’m not sure it was worth staying, but on the plus side, we didn’t stay for merch, we got out really fast and were on the road in about 5 minutes. So we made up for most of that time, I think.
It was definitely up there with one of the least enjoyable concerts I’d been to. I assume if I knew more of the music I would have been more into it. I assumed it would be a fun show like Tyler’s (whose music I don’t really know either), but it felt more like I was a plus one guest at a party of close friends.
FiloTV recorded the whole set from the stage and you can see someone in the front row holding out vinyl for Earl to sign (I guess). For like the whole show (he didn’t acknowledge it).
SETLIST (I think)
Riot! § gsw vs sac £ FORGE King of Hearts (Unreleased) Warrior (Unreleased) 2010 ∇ INFATUATION £ 8/22 (Unreleased) Sirius Blac (Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist cover) Truffle (Unreleased) Fire in the Hole ∇ Molasses ‰ Azucar § Live £ The Mint § Vision (with Zelooperz) ∇ I’m Not Really Trying* (Cletus Strap song rapped by Cletus) E. Coli (The Alchemist cover) Gamma £ TOURMALINE £ Word to the Truest (Unreleased) Nowhere2go § Shattered Dreams § Exhaust £ (paused for medical emergency)
encore
Quest/Power [Power only]
£ Live Laugh Love (2025)
∇ SICK! (2022) § Some Rap Songs (2018) ‰ Doris (2013)
This is my third time seeing The Beths, a New Zealand band that’s taking the U.S. by storm. Las time they played here they sold out Union Transfer. This time, they sold out TWO NIGHTS at Union Transfer.
We immediately got tickets to night one and for the first time, saw them from a chair off to the side (thanks ADA seating). Although they interact so nicely with the front, that it’s kind of a bummer to not be in on the action.
But the sound was great (I know it always sounds better further back, but I like being close).
So The Beths are a four piece: Elizabeth Stokes, singer and guitarist. Jonathan Pearce who plays lead guitar. Benjamin Sinclair on bass and Tristan Deck on drums. They are delightful and funny and play fantastic songs. Liz is a great songwriter and the boys make divine harmonies.
Last time they played nearly all of their then new album. This time they played nine out of ten songs from their newest album. And they opened with the title track a bouncy song that had everyone delightedly singing along.
After the even punchier No Joy they played two older songs one from Expert and one from Future Me Hates Me.
Then they moved back to the new album with the super fun first single Metal.
At one point during these songs, Benjamin did something that made a tin whistle fly into the air which he caught and started playing. Later both Benjamin and Jonathan activated the tin whistle cannon and we were delighted to see them snatch the instruments out of the air and start playing. The also have some shakers in their songs. Liz uses a banana shaped one. If you go to Benjamin’s review of the following night, you can read about the amusing trick they played on Liz and her banana. Continue Reading »
After seeing Tyler the Creator earlier this year, I thought my daughter might also enjoy seeing Earl Sweatshirt, his former partner in Odd Future.
After ZeLooperz, Liv.E (pronounced liv) came out. She spoke to the audience a bunch, said she had lost her voice in Vegas (Chris Angel took it).
Then the beats started and she changed things up by singing instead of rapping. She has a kind of quiet voice but she can scream as needed (even if she lost her voice).
I didn’t know any of her songs either, but some of them were quite pretty. Overall the set was back to the mellow vibe. I enjoyed it when she started singing the Schoolhouse Rock 12 song. Continue Reading »
I hadn’t heard of Phoebe Rings and then I found out that she (I now know that Phoebe Rings is a band name and no one in the band is named that) was opening for The Beths on Saturday and Sunday and opening for Speedy Ortiz on Monday.
The Beths and Phoebe Rings are from New Zealand and, it turns out that Phoebe Rings and Speedy Ortiz are on the same record label.
Phoebe Rings began as the solo project of musician Crystal Choi, and is now a four-piece made of jazz students (guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, bassist Benjamin Locke and drummer Alex Freer).
We arrived and had ADA seats. Then we laughed as the tallest person in the room stood in front of us. We could still see just fine, but it was hilarious how much taller he was than everyone else.
Phoebe Rings was delightful. They are described as dream pop but they were a bit more like jazz pop. I’d even go so far as to say they were like lounge music. There was an early Stereolab vibe musically (not lyrically). Continue Reading »
I have made a list of all of comedians from Taskmaster who I would like to see live. It’s not everyone of course (some of them don’t do stand up and some I don’t think I would enjoy). I never really imagined that I would see everyone on the list as many British comedians do not tour the U.S. But imagine my surprise when Paul Chowdhry announced a show in Philly.
I was scheduled to have total hip replacement surgery on the day after this show. I didn’t think I’d be able to go and then two things changed my mind. The first is that I saw that the show was fairly short–Chokecherry was playing for about an hour. The second was that my surgery wasn’t scheduled until the afternoon. I had assumed it would be early in the morning, but a later appointment meant I could sleep in. As it turned out my wife had a minor emergency after I got home that kept us up until 3AM, so it was all moot, but whatever, I’m thrilled that I got to go to this show.
I Just Read About That... 