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Bloc Party / Blonde Redhead / Joan (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, June 4, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

June 4, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 4, 2025] Bloc Party / Blonde Redhead /Joan

I was originally excited about this tour because Metric was co-headlining and was going to play Fantasies in its entirety.  They cancelled pretty close to the last minute saying “Bloc Party’s team made some sudden production decisions that broke the agreement we made.”  I have no idea what that means and many people had nasty things to say about Metric online.  But I was glad I hadn’t gotten a ticket.

I never got into Bloc Party, although I feel like I should have.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, I just never had the time for them.  When I listened to this record I liked it, but didn’t love it.  So, no big dela to miss out on this one.

Blonde Redhead was a band that I really liked for a while and then forgot about.  I probably should have been more excited about this announcement, although I didn’t realize that they have been making music all this time (an album every few years).  I assumed they had broken up and were back together for this tour.  Turns out they played mostly songs from their latest album, which I didn’t know.  So no big deal.

Come on guys, you can’t call yourselves Joan.  Not because it’s a woman’s name, because it’s impossible to search for.  Even if antimusic calls you “Beloved alt-pop duo joan-Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford.”  But their music is surprisingly big for just the two of them, with a soft vocalist.

Beware, though, unbelievably, there’s another band called simply Joan.

The band playing this show has an album called superglue.

Posted in Blonde Redhead, Joan, Metric, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Sleigh Bells / Sophie Hunter (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 3, 2025) DID NOT ATTEND]

June 3, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 3, 2025] Sleigh Bells / Sophie Hunter

I saw Sleigh Bells open for Pixies a few years ago.  I had remembered when they first came out and they were very noisy.  Several years later and they looked different but they were still noisy.  I had written

For this show the band consisted of two guitarists who flanked Alexis Krauss.  The drums and every other noise was handles by a woman offstage.  The two guitars were probably overkill as they both did the same thing pretty much all the time.  But the stage belonged to Krauss.  She jumped around, she sang (beautifully).  Despite her attitude, the show was a little monotonous.  The guys didn’t do much, and she can only keep the crowd rolling for so long.  It was a fun opening set, but probably would have been more fun in a small dark club.

So this was in a small dark club, but I didn’t want to see them as a headline act.

Sophie Hunter is a delightfully weird musician who kinda raps over unusual beats.  Feel the throb describes her perfectly

Those red curls and that Natasha Lyonne-esque voice deadpan-rapping while she walks the streets of NYC. Since 2021, the New Haven native has been steadily building buzz with singles like Cvnt and Fight!  Hunter grabs you by the eardrums and doesn’t let go. Her self-described “pop+rap” style is less a fusion and more a full-on collision of genres, with shrapnel flying in all directions. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s glorious. However, don’t let the cacophony fool you – there’s method to this madness. Hunter’s lyrics are a masterclass in wordplay, with more double entendres than a late-night comedy show. She weaves tales of the female experience with the dexterity of a verbal contortionist, leaving you reaching for the replay button to catch what you missed the first time around.

I’m going to keep an eye on her–she’s probably a blast live.

But Tito Santana recorded the whole show

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Sleigh Bells, Sophie Hunter, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Vampire Weekend (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025)

June 1, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s first two albums are perfect.  They are two of my favorite albums and any time I listen to them, it makes me smile.  I had wanted to see them for a while, but I wasn’t sure if they would be as good as the records live.  And then suddenly they were selling out bigger venues than I wanted go.  I had tickets to see them in 2019 but couldn’t make it.  Somehow I missed when they played The Mann in 2024 (I was too buys that weekend anyhow) and finally I was able to snag tickets for one of the two nights at The Met.

I saw after that they played a different set for each night, so it’s a bummer I couldn’t go to both.  But having finally gotten so see them I can yell at my younger self because they were fantastic live.

After Geese left the stage, a giant Vampire Weekend banner dropped in front of the dark curtain.  A whole bunch of folks in dayglo yellow set up the stage area–bringing out a piano and drums as well as a mic stand.

Having never seen them I honestly wasn’t sure if this was the show–just a trio in front of the band’s name.  And I was fine with it because they sounded great.

It was just the original trio singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio.  They opened with  the quiet Hold Me Now and then segued into a far more rollicking Oxford Comma (And I was in heaven because they’d already played on of my favorites songs).  And then they played Blake’s Got a New Face, which my wife and I had just been singing.  It was great.

It was sometime during the next song Ice Cream Piano that I realized that there were more sounds coming from the stage than these three guys could possible make.  And soon after, the pulled back the VW curtain to reveal a huge band behind them.  The revelation was quite a delightful surprise and it wasn’t until they started the next song, Classical (which I never no the name of) that I realized how great the whole huge band sounded.  There were two drummers, keys, several guitars and lots of backing singers.  During the instrumental section of the song, one of the guys in the dayglo shirt did a very sexy dance in the spotlight.  It was pretty fun.

And how to describe the backdrop?  It looked like they were in an underground tunnel, like a concrete bunker with multiple ins and outs.  It looked really convincing.

Ezra typically played guitar but for a few songs, like Connect, he put down the guitar and walked the stage while singing. Continue Reading »

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend | Leave a Comment »

Momma (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 30, 2025)

May 31, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 30, 2025] Momma

Just over a year ago, I saw Momma open for Girl in Red.  I had been wanting to see them for a while and an opening set is a fine way to see them.  But I was really excited when they announced this headline tour and that they were playing Union Transfer.

I was off to t he side a bit–near Allegra Weingarten but with a great view of Etta Friedman.  Last time it wasn’t entirely clear if the band was just the tow of them (as photos showed) or all four, but the two guys are still with them so I’m guessing they are part of the band now–Aron Kobayashi Ritch on bass and Preston Fulks on drums.

The set was largely songs from their new album, which was to be expected.  Although I was really surprised that they played I Want You (Fever) (which I think is a huge hit) second!  The crowd went nuts for it of course.

In fact I feel like they stacked the front of the show with the songs I wanted to hear because they followed Fever with Medicine and Ohio All the Time. Continue Reading »

Posted in Momma, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Wishy | Leave a Comment »

Geese (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025) [VAMPIRE WEEKEND]

May 31, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Geese

There had been some buzz around Geese when they were announced as openers for this show.  I knew their song Cowboy Nudes and found it odd but very catchy.

As this show came around, they started playing another song on the radio and I realized that Geese is pretty weird. So I was curious what their live show would be like.  We arrived pretty early, but the pit was already pretty crowded.  Turns out Geese already had a huge fanbase.  The front of the pit was full of big time Geese fans.

They opened their set with Islands of Man, and I thought that the most distinctive thing about the band (Cameron’s voice) was rather subdued. The song starts softly and fairly quietly with interesting guitar parts from Emily Green.

And the rest of the band was amazing too.  As the show went on, I couldn’t take my eyes off of drummer Max Bassin–he was doing some wild and complex parts.  And midway through the show I realized that bassist Dominic DiGesu was playing some amazing fills too.

For Jesse, Cameron continued to sing in a kind of subdued manner, until the bridge where he got a little shouty.  And it worked really well with the jamming music.  Tomorrows Crusades was super catchy with a great guitar line and Cameron singing in a kind of falsetto.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend | Leave a Comment »

Wishy (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 30, 2025) [MOMMA]

May 30, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: March 22, 2025] Wishy

I Was happy that Wishy opened for Momma.  I knew one or two songs by them and really liked them.

The band came out–a five piece, with the two singer/guitarists Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites.  They harmonize perfectly with each other–both vocally and on guitar.  There’s something very appealing about the two singers going Ah ah ah in harmony on Planet Popstar.  There’s a few different parts in this song so I actually wasn’t sure if they were playing different songs or one long one (it’s only 4 minutes, but is pretty complicated)

Wishy released an EP this year and they played half of it.  That left five songs from last year’s Triple Seven, which is the album t hat I first heard them from.  The (very simple ) guitar riff in Persuasion is wonderful–and when the harmony guitar came in–fantastic.

Love on the Outside is mostly Kevin on guitar, but after a verse, the band kicks in and the harmonies are terrific.  The rest of the band is guitarist Dimitri Morris , bassist Mitch Collins, and drummer Conner Host.  It almost seems like overkill to have three guitarists in the band, but all three do different things to make the sound enormous. Continue Reading »

Posted in Momma, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Wishy | Leave a Comment »

Vampire Weekend / Geese (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 30, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 30, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 30, 2025] Vampire Weekend /Geese

Vampire Weekend was one of my favorite bands when they first came out. I loved everything about them.  And yet I never got to see them.

When these shows were announced at the Met I was super excited.  I had tickets with my son to see Ice Nine Kills on the 30th.  So I was psyched to get tickets for the 31st.

Had I known that both nights would be different with largely different setlists, I may have reconsidered INK (no, not really, but sorta).

But they were both great the following night, so it’s all okay.

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend | Leave a Comment »

Ice Nine Kills: Silver Screamathon. Night 2: Welcome to Horrowood (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, May 25, 2025)

May 29, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 25, 2025] Ice Nine Kills: Night 2

Two nights of 4 band metal shows is a lot.  So I am glad that we blew off the openers in night one.  I could have probably done with blowing some of them off tonight as well, but I enjoyed being closer to the stage, and that’s all that matters.

I knew that Nights 1 and 2 were going to be different (duh), but I was impressed at how much they changed from Night 1 to 2.  They didn’t rearrange the stage, but they changed the set dressing, making it a very different show.

The bass drum head went from circus themed to a bloody IX.  Instead of the glowing eyes under the drums, there was a banner that read Welcome to Horrorwood.  And for tonight, Spencer’s skeleton mic stand was front and center.  And the backdrop was changed from the Jason mask to the Horrorwood scene.

As always, they played Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand and then the intro to Horrorwood played over the speakers.

Like with The American Nightmare, the opening song Welcome to Horrorwood is super fun and catchy. Continue Reading »

Posted in Dark Divine, Hail the Sun, Ice Nine Kills, Melrose Avenue, Montclair, NJ, The Funeral Portrait, The Word Alive, TX2, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »

Urzila Carlson: Just Jokes (Punchline, Philadelphia, PA, May 29, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

May 29, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 29, 2025] Jenny Tian

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).  And then we started watching Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand, and I’ve added a dozen or so more to that list.

It was while we were watching Taskmaster New Zealand (an older season) that I saw Urzila Carlson was playing in Philly.  This was before I had gotten my jones for seeing these stand ups live, so I took note of it but didn’t think about getting tickets.

Now that I see how infrequently New Zealand comedians come to the States I’m really bummed that we didn’t go.  Urzila is a pretty raunchy comedian and is hilarious in her Instagram clips.  I hope she comes back soon.

Posted in Comedians, New Zealand, Philadelphia, PA, Punchline, Taskmaster, Taskmaster New Zealand, Urzila Carlson | Leave a Comment »

Hail the Sun (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, May 25, 2025) [ICE NINE KILLS Silver Screamathon Day 2]

May 28, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: May 25, 2025] Hail the Sun

Hail the Sun was the third opening band and they played for about 30 minutes.

Their sound was very different from the other two, being a lot more technical and almost proggy.  But they still rocked hard and lead singer Donovan Melero had a strong soaring voice.

Although their older songs like Parasitic Cleanse had a bit more screamo elements to it.

But songs like the truly soaring Tithe were pretty cool.  Melero told us about how long they had been playing and then he played drums and sang on Human Target Practice.  I wondered what the other drummer did during these songs. Continue Reading »

Posted in Dark Divine, Hail the Sun, Ice Nine Kills, Melrose Avenue, Montclair, NJ, The Funeral Portrait, The Word Alive, TX2, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »

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