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Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Alan Sparhawk (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 24, 2024) [POSTPONED]

November 24, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 22 & 23, 2022] Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Back in 2000, I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor at Maxwell’s in Hoboken.  My friend Lar was in from Ireland and he went to the show with me, which was pretty awesome.

I waited 18 years to see them again, but the last time I saw them, the show was marred by the crowd.

I’ve thought about seeing them again, but this show popped up on a weekend that was really inconvenient.  And then suddenly it was postponed

Godspeed’s Fall 2024 US tour has been postponed due to illness. Information regarding rescheduled dates will be forthcoming.

Perhaps if the 2025 date works out for me, I’ll be able to see them again.

Alan Sparhawk of Low was supposed to open.  I’ve never been much of a fan of Low, because their music is just too slow for me.  Although their last album was really quite interesting.  I’m not sure what his solo show would include as he plays all kinds of music.  Maybe he’ll be opening next year too.

Posted in Alan Sparhawk, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

The Pineapple Thief (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, November 22, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 22, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 22, 2024] The Pineapple Thief

The Pineapple Thief is a progressive rock band which means I should instantly like them.  And yet I just can’t seem to get into them.  They fall on the more mellow side of progressive.

The main draw for me is drummer Gavin Harrison who I saw many times with King Crimson.  But, no matter how much you like a drummer, that’s a very small portion of the overall sound of a band.

Listening to their latest EP, I do rather like it, but it’s too late for me to be into them enough to see them.  Listening a little more they remind me a bit of Death Cab for Cutie, which I did not expect to say.

I do hope to see Gavin Harrison in something else soon though.

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Pineapple Thief, World Cafe Live | Leave a Comment »

Babymetal (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, November 21, 2024)

November 22, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2024] Babymetal

But it’s hard to be cross when Babymetal takes the stage.  First comes the masked Kami band (their masks are cool and the band is incredible).  Then the trio came out Su-metal, Moametal and Momometal.

I didn’t realize that it had been 5 years since I last saw them.  I feel like the previous show was bigger and/or more impressive.  But again, that could just be because of my poor view.

But I was pleased when I saw my son taking videos of songs because that meant he was into it.

They opened with the first song off their first album–basically an introduction to the band.  Which is totally unnecessary.  Not only di d this show sell out, but everyone there knew the words (in Japanese) and what to do and when to do it.  Total crowd synchronicity.  And Su-metal (as a person next to me said) has total crowd control.  She waves her hands and everyone does what she says.

They had a big screen behind them which flashed various images during the different songs.  I loved hearing Pa Pa Ya (Babymetals are mostly in Japanese, so I don’t know if the stupidly catchy choruses are nonsensical or Japanese, but damn if pa pa pa pa pa ya isn’t the catchiest thing to shout.

I will repeat some things I wrote last time

Throughout the songs the trio danced like crazy.  Their precision synchronization was amazing. Continue Reading »

Posted in Babymetal, Bethlehem, PA, Japanese Music, Kawaii, Scene Queen, Wind Creek Event Center | Leave a Comment »

Bit Brigade / Super Guitar Bros. (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, November 21, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 21, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 21, 2024] Bit Brigade / Super Guitar Bros.

Two years ago, this lineup played Johnny Brenda’s. I’m delighted that they have been upgraded to a bigger (and not 21+ venue).  I hope they sold well.  We saw Bit Brigade last yar and I didn’t feel compelled to see them again just yet.

Plus, we had tickets to see Babymetal.

I saw Bit Brigade in 2018 and really enjoyed the show.  The premise of their live show is terrific

The band plays the soundtrack to a video game while their resident gamer plays the game.  The band is heavy and the sound is amazing.

Last time I saw them, they were playing The Legend of Zelda and it was phenomenal (The music is really good).  They came around last year playing a different game but I couldn’t go.

This time they were playing Zelda and Castlevania.  I’m sure it would have been a lot of fun.  But I just didn’t feel like going out.  They’ll be back, I’m sure.

Opening for this show was Super Guitar Bros.  They are two guys from Detroit who play acoustic guitar versions of video game theme music.  As their blurb says: “Gentle Video Game Guitar Covers For Relaxation.”

Sounds like a perfect pair.

 

 

 

Posted in Bit Brigade, Philadelphia, PA, Super Guitar Bros., World Cafe Live | Leave a Comment »

Modest Mouse (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 20, 2024)

November 21, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2024] Modest Mouse 

At the end of 2022, I saw Modest Mouse play their album The Lonesome Crowded West.  It was the last show I saw in 2022 and it was great.

I often think that I don’t need to see Modest Mouse again, and yet when they announced a tour in which they played all of Good News for People Who Love Bad News, I knew I’d be going to that show.  I have now seen Modest Mouse 7 times.  I have only seen 4 artists more (and a couple the same amount).  [I did not go to any of their shows where they played with Pixies, even though that’s a killer lineup].

In 2022, I arrived late (I didn’t want to see the opening band) and wound up really far back.  But this time I got there early enough to get close to the stage without being in the front, exactly.   I really like Modest Mouse, but I really don’t like about half of the Modest Mouse fanboy club.  

My last post included a quote from Holly Hazelwood, which I am excerpting even more here

Do we really need another late-30s dude in a baseball hat trying desperately to make himself the center of attention in a crowd of 1500 people? Of course we don’t. And sadly, Modest Mouse are (fittingly) like Charles Bukowski for rock dudes — well-spoken but biting — so these kinds of fans, who show up and try to out-asshole everyone in the room, are an unnecessary evil that comes with seeing Modest Mouse shows.

Tonight’s crowd didn’t have too many of these bros, although, amusingly the jackasses who pushed their way in front of us were all wearing baseball hats.  There is a lot of screaming along with Modest Mouse, and fair enough, that’s how the songs go.  But overall, I wasn’t terribly annoyed by the crowd this time.  And the two people in front of me were clearly huge fans of the album and were cool about it! Continue Reading »

Posted in Modest Mouse, Philadelphia, PA, The Black Heart Procession, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

J. Mascis / Pink Mountaintops (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 21, 2024) [POSTPONED]

November 21, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[POSTPONED: November 21, 2024] J. Mascis / Pink Mountaintops [moved to February 12, 2025]

I can’t imagine J. Mascis playing a small club.  I also can’t imagine him playing quietly. But the picture for this tour shows him with an acoustic guitar (is there a wall of Marshall Amps attached somewhere)?

I wasn’t able to go this show because I had tickets to see Babymetal.  But the show was postponed due to illness and rescheduled for next year.  So I think I might just be going.

Pink Mountaintops are opening.  They opened for Afghan Whigs last year, but I didn’t go that show.  The band is led by Stephem McBean who is the main guy behind Black Mountain.  I saw Black Mountain a while back and they were great.  Pink Mountaintops is a more mellow endeavor, but their latest album is a lot of fun.

Posted in J. Mascis, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Mountaintops, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »

Scene Queen (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, November 21, 2024) [BABYMETAL]

November 21, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2024] Scene Queen

I had this great plan to arrive early to this show.  And then everything went South.

My son’s college had an event that I hoped he could attend, so we wound up leaving later than I intended.  And, somehow, when I bought the tickets, I didn’t realize that going to Bethlehem would be so far out of the way from his school (Philly is more or less on the way, but jeez, this drive was ridiculous.

We also didn’t have dinner, so we had a (yummy) stop in the Bethlehem Waffle House.  But when we got to the Wind Creek Event Center, it was a nightmare.  The traffic to get in was insane–they were directing everyone around the whole campus to the parking garage that you could enter on the way in.

I went looking for a handicapped spot and they were all full, so we had  to park about as far away from the entrance as you can get.  So we trudged through the cold rain to the doors only to find a massive security line and one of the most thorough checks I’ve been in a show in a long time.

When we got in the venue people were spread out all the way to the back of the room making it almost impossible to get in.

I was really annoyed by this time.  So it didn’t give me a great introduction to Scene Queen. Continue Reading »

Posted in Babymetal, Bethlehem, PA, Japanese Music, Kawaii, Scene Queen, Wind Creek Event Center | Leave a Comment »

The Black Heart Procession (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 20, 2024) [MODEST MOUSE]

November 20, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2024] The Black Heart Procession

The opening act for this show wasn’t announced until a few days before the show.  But The Black Heart Procession had been opening all the other shows so I assumed it would be them.

I had never heard of them and assumed that they were some new young band.  And I was completely wrong.  The band was formed in 1997 (!) by Pall Jenkins who has played with a bunch of different bands and even did work with Isaac Brock in Ugly Casanova.  He and Tobias Nathaniel (these two are the main force of the band) create soundtrack music in the way Tindersticks make soundtrack music.  The big difference is that Black Heart Procession is very spare.  For most songs it is Nathaniel on keys and Jenkins on guitar.  With an unintroduced drummer playing along.

The songs are mostly slow with lots of reverb on the guitar.  

And Jenkins’ voice.  When he came out he was wearing a suit jacket and sunglasses.  He looked older than he probably is (although he’s obviously not a young guy) and he belted out songs so full of remorse that, despite the quietness of the song, no one talked through the weird opening song.  Which, I have to emphasize, FEATURED A MUSICAL SAW! Continue Reading »

Posted in Modest Mouse, Philadelphia, PA, The Black Heart Procession, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Animals as Leaders (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2024)

November 19, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2024] Animals as Leaders

My Brother-in-law, Ben told me about Animals as Leaders back in 2019 just before they came to the East Coast.  I grabbed a ticket to their TLA show and was really impressed (although I hated the crowd).

Animals as Leaders is a 3 piece founded by Tosin Abasi.  He plays primarily the 8-string electric guitar and his fingers (on both hands) are all over the fretboard.  Basically, he’s a guy you want to watch closely.   He started the all-instrumental Animals as Leaders in 2009.  Guitarist Javier Reyes also plays the 8 string (and is equally as amazing) and drummer Matt Garstka fill out the band.

The last time I saw them, the crowd was tall and very shove-y.  This time the crowd was pretty tall, but I’m better at negotiating my spaces and the shoving was contained.   The last time I saw them they were touring the tenth anniversary of their debut album.  This tour was the tenth anniversary of their The Joy of Motion album, which they played straight through.

I didn’t know the album, but boy everyone else did–I love when a room sings a long to an instrumental.

The band sounds huge, with both guitarists playing low and high ends at the same time and the drummer playing nonstop so that it’s a constant wall of sound.

There’s not a lot more to say about the show.  Most of the songs are heavy with complex rhythms and time signatures.  There were a couple of songs that were quieter with one acoustic song (and Reyes switched down to a 7 string!).  The musicianship was amazing.   What I found especially interesting is that their songs aren’t especially long–most around 4 minutes.  This packs a lot of musical information into digestible chunks.

He told us that his favorite song was The Woven Web (it rocked) and thanked us for being there for ten years and more.

When the album was over (about an hour), they left for a brief encore break.

When they came back Tosin asked if we wanted one more.  And they played The Brain Dance.   Mid-song, opening guitarist Plini came out to play a ripping solo and then he left again.   Tosin asked if we wanted one more.  We did and they played the ripping Ectogenesis and then Red Miso from their most recent album.  After that he asked if we wanted one more, for real, last song and they ended the night with the new(ish) powerhouse “Monomyth.”

It was a great set.

I should also mention the lighting.  It was mostly kind of dark–blues and reds–but they had their own (pretty intense) lighting rig.  One of the bigger rigs I’ve seen at Union Transfer.  It was definitely cool and did lots of nifty lighting tricks.  It probably looked fantastic from further back, but I wanted to get up close to see the fingerwork.  And I think i made the right choice.

I don’t think I’ll see  them again, but I did enjoy this show quite a lot.

 

2024 Union Transfer 2019 TLA
Ka$cade ♥ Espera (tape) ∞
Lippincott ♥ Wave of Babies @
Air Chrysalis ♥ Tempting Time @
Another Year ♥ Thoroughly at Home @
Physical Education♥ Arithmophobia ϖ
Tooth and Claw ♥ Cognitive Contortions ϖ
Crescent ♥ Nephele ♥
The Future That Awaited Me ♥ The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing / Behaving Badly @
Para Mexer♥ Para Mexer ♥
The Woven Web ♥ The Brain Dance ϖ
Mind-Spun ♥ Ectogenesis ϖ
Nephele ♥ Inner Assassins ϖ
encore The Woven Wed ♥
The Brain Dance ϖ (with Plini) CAFO @
Ectogenesis ϖ encore
Red Miso ¶ Physical Education ♥
Monomyth ¶

¶ = Parrhesia (2022)
ϖ = The Madness of Many (2016)
♥ = The Joy of Motion (2014)
∞ = Weightless (2011)
@ = Animals as Leaders (2009)

Posted in Animals as Leaders, Philadelphia, PA, Plini, Theatre of Living Arts | Leave a Comment »

Plini (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2024) [ANIMALS AS LEADERS]

November 18, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 18, 2024] Plini

Plini is Plini Roessler-Holgate, an Australian guitarist who has been recognized by all of the famous guitar gods [for instance: Steve Vai described him as “the future of exceptional guitar playing.”]

I wondered if he would play solo, but no, he had a four-piece band.  Jake Howsam Lowe played guitar with him.  And Jake was amazing as well.  He had some moments of speed and impressive dexterity–and I was glad that he was given his own spotlight in a song at the end.

I was really impressed by bassist Simon Grove.  He played a six string bass and at times played the same fast riffs as both guitarists.  He also had a few soloing moments and I loved seeing him play.

Finally, Chris Allison on drums was terrific.  And he inadvertently had one of the best moments of the night for me.  Someone in the audience held up a sign that said Mr Allison will you trade drum sticks with me  And Allison was totally game.  The fan passed their sticks through the audience (he or she was pretty far back and the sticks were crowd surfed) and Plini asked if the fan wanted the ones Allison had just played with or new ones.  And then said, oh give them both.  Then Plini asked how honest the Philly crowd was as they crowd surfed the sticks to the fan.  It was great.

Plini then said that instead of playing music for 30 minutes, they would just do a trade and swap for the next 30 minutes.

But indeed, they did play.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Animals as Leaders, Philadelphia, PA, Plini, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

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