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Feliz y Dada (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 5, 2025) [THE MARS VOLTA]

November 5, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 5, 2025] Feliz y Dada

My son and I saw The Mars Volta open for Deftones in an arena and the sound was terrible.  They played an unreleased album so it was really hard to know what was going on in a cavernous place where all subtlety was lost.  But my son was intrigued and I told him we could see them again.

So when they announced a headlining tour I grabbed tickets for my son and I.  And what a treat to get there early and be right up front for the show.

The opening band was Feliz y Dada, whom I had no heard of.  When I looked  them up it was unclear if they were a real band, a novelty band or possibly even members of The Mars Volta.  Many speculated that the lead singer was Teri Gender Bender.  I never found out, but I didn’t care because their set was bizarre and wonderful.

The stage was curtained off to give them a small area up front.  A massive stack of (fake) speakers was behind them and they were given a black curtain to hide the rest of the stage.

Feliz y Dada is a trio.  All three members wear masks with a kind of horn on top and four eyes.  They also wear robes and dance around slowly–waving their bodies back and forth–a perfect encapsulation of “alien life.”

There is literally nothing like them.  The guy on the left had a large pyramid that he kept tapping as if he was playing bass notes or something (it clearly didn’t make any sound, but it did light up). I assume the guy on the right was playing all of the sounds–although it’s also possible he simply started the song and then pretended to play things like the guy on the left.

The singer was singing live but her voice was so distorted and auto-tuned as to be unrecognizable and completely un-understandable.  But she danced around slowly and approached everyone in the front in a slow and methodical way–waving and seeming to suss out what the vibe was.  She also sang into a telephone at one point for what I think was Well Hello.

They sang four short songs and that was that. Continue Reading »

Posted in Feliz y Dada, Kianí Medina, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia, The Mars Volta | Leave a Comment »

Romesh Ranganathan: Hustle (NJPAC–Victoria Theater, Newark, NJ, November 4, 2025)

November 4, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 4, 2025] Romesh Ranganathan

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.

I was pretty excited when Romesh Ranganathan announced a show near us.  Romesh is HUGE in England–he’s got TV shows and radio shows and everything else.  But in the US, he filled the 500 seat theater (I wonder how weird it is for massive comedians to play smaller venues like this).

The biggest surprise was when we walked in there was a DJ spinning tunes on stage.  His name is Martin 2 Smooth and he played a whole bunch of classic hip hop, which Romesh loves.

Then Romesh came out and started his act.  I enjoyed that when a person walked in late, he quipped “I just flew in from London and I was on time.” (This was the first night of his US tour).

He was very angry on Taskmaster and I assumed he would be angry in standup.  But he wasn’t.  Well, he was angry, but that wasn’t his whole thing.  He was very funny, making jokes about his family (his oldest son who is now bigger than him and who he believes looks like a terrorist with his hoodie up all the time). Continue Reading »

Posted in Newark, NJ, NJPAC-Victoria Theater, Romesh Ranganathan, Set in New Jersey!, Taskmaster | Leave a Comment »

Lola Young (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 4, 2025) [CANCELLED]

November 4, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[CANCELLED: November 8, 2025] Lola Young

Lola Young’s Messy has ben one of my favorite songs this year.  I listened to some more of her record and didn’t like it nearly as much as Messy.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a ticket for this show.  But Lola was supposed to play at All Things Go.  However, she collapsed on stage in New York.

On September 27, Lola Young collapsed while performing during All Things Go Music Festival at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium. Now, the British pop singer-songwriter has announced she’s taking a break to prioritize her health. “I’m going away for a while,” she wrote in a statement on social media. “It pains me to say I have to cancel everything for the foreseeable future.”

“Thank you for all the love and support,” Young continued. “I’m so sorry to let anyone down who has bought a ticket to see me, it hurts me more than you know. Obviously you will be entitled to a full refund. I really hope you’ll give me a second chance once I’ve had some time to work on myself and come back stronger. Love you all, Lola x.”

I feel bad for Lola but I think when she comes back she’ll be even better.

Posted in Cancelled, Lola Young, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Of Monsters and Men / Árný Margrét (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 4, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 4, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 4, 2025] Of Monsters and Men / Árný Margrét

We saw Of Monsters and Men her back in 2019.  I was really impressed with the show–the performance and the overall spectacle was great.  This was their first time back since that show, but we had tickets to see Romesh Ranganathan tonight.

It also turns out that OMAM released a new album that I hadn’t heard–and they played the whole thing that night.  So, no big deal missing them. I have fond memories of the last show.

Árný Margrét is an Icelandic folk singer with a lovely voice.  She plays quiet acoustic guitar and has a delightfully Icelandic-sounding voice.  It makes it seem like the night would have been more mellow than I would have guessed.  But of course I could be wrong about that.  She opened for John Grant in April.  It’s funny to think I could have seen her twice in a year if I went to both of these shows.

For ease of searching, I include: Arny Margret

Posted in Árný Margrét, Iceland, Of Monsters and Men, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Boris: Do You Remember Pink Days? Tour (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2025)

November 3, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2025] Boris

It’s fascinating to think that Boris almost called it quits a few years ago.  Since then they have shown a seriously revitalized interest in touring and revisiting their older albums.

This tour was the 20th anniversary of their classic Pink.  But the tour was titled Do You Remember Pink Days? because they threw in some other songs from the same year (they were quite prolific in 2005).

They also didn’t play the album front to back which was an interesting choice except that there are several different versions of the album so there is no real definitive track listing or anything else.  (You’d have to be crazy to try to be a Boris completist).

They had some fun merch and I debated buying one of Wata’s cute frog stuffed animals, but I didn’t.  And I still kind of regret it.

After the glory of Agriculture faded away, the stage was set–Atsuo’s gong brought close to the front (it was just the trio again for this tour).  I was right in front of Takeshi and his doubleneck bass/guitar and I was pretty far from Wata who seemed to be shrouded in fog for most of the show.  I tend to be on Takeshi’s side more often than not because I think the fanboys really like to be near Wata.  But as it turns out, Takeshi sings a lot of this album, so it was a good place to see all the action. Continue Reading »

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

Leith Ross / Emma Harner (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 3, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 3, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 3, 2025] Leith Ross / Emma Harner

My daughter and I saw Leith Ross at All Things Go two years ago.  I hadn’t heard of her so I had to look up information about them.  Leith Ross is based in Winnipeg and identifies as non-binary, transgender, and queer, and uses they/them pronouns.  They recorded their debut EP, Motherwell (2020), while studying at Humber College, and subsequently found success on TikTok, most prominently with the song “We’ll Never Have Sex” in August 2021.

I know that TikTok fame is real, but i was surprised to see them playing Union Transfer which seems like a pretty large venue for a folkie artist.  But again, what do I know.

Leith’s voice reminds me of Juliana Hatfield’s–kind of childish and sweet but with a bite underneath.  Leith’s more popular songs seem to be slow and while I liked them, I wouldn’t go to a headline show of theirs.

Emma Harner is based in Boston.   She has a gorgeous guitar sound (reminds me of Laura Marling).  She sings beautifully too.  A delightful folk artist.  I’d like to listen to he at an outdoor festival.

Posted in Emma Harner, Leith Ross, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Agriculture (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2025) [BORIS]

November 2, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 2, 2025] Agriculture

I had never heard of Agriculture, but I knew that Boris’ opening bands could be pretty intense.  And that was the case here.  They call their music ecstatic black metal and that description, while slightly vague, is really spot on.  There is screaming and growling, speed and heaviness but also a lot of brightness and beauty.

They came out with an absolute blast of noise–screaming  guitars slamming drums and after a minute, guttural growls.  It was intense and a bit overwhelming.

And then imagine when two minutes in, the song shifted to a simply strummed and quietly sung section (that still had super fast drumming).  The quiet music remained but the growling guttural vocals continued.  And then back to the melodic part again.

I was standing in front of singer Dan Meyer who had a big beard and did a full body stomp each time the song was about to kick in. Continue Reading »

Posted in Agriculture, Boris, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Little Simz / La Reezy (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 2, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 2, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 2, 2025] Little Simz/ La Reezy

I really like Little Simz’ delivery and attitude and I thought she’d be a lot of fun to see live.  Apparently a lot of other people did too, because in 2022 her show that was originally scheduled for The Foundry got moved to TLA.  However, she cancelled the tour saying it wasn’t financially viable for her.

Now, three years later, she was back again, this time at the Fillmore!  I would have liked to see her.  Although now that I’ve been to a few more underground rap shows I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed this one, really.  Although maybe she steps up her production.

But I had tickets to see Boris and I hate to miss them when they come to town.

I’ve not heard of La Reezy, who is from New Orleans.  I watched a video and he looks like he’s about 12, (he’s 21) but I really like his flow.  Largely because you can hear all the words.  He’s got energy and an intensity that I really like.  I’ll bet he has fun live.

Posted in La Reezy, Little Simz, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

Christian Bök, “The Extremophile” (published 2025) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 31, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 31, 2025] “The Extremophile”

It has been six years since Ghost Box III came out….

After years of demand, the Ghost Box is back! Patton Oswalt’s much-beloved spooky-story anthology returns for a fourth edition, with the same trademark production details—magnetized box lid, anyone?—that Ghost Box fans have come to expect.

As always, working with Patton on Ghost Box IV was a dream, and we can’t wait to show you the nightmares that he’s wrangled and stuffed into the box this time around.

I don’t know very much about Christian Bök except that he wrote the poetry series Eunoia which is a remarkable piece of art and poetry:

 Each poem uses only one vowel, creating sentences like: “Hassan can, at a handclap, call a vassal at hand and ask that all staff plan a bacchanal”

It’s worth checking out.

I didn’t know if he did anything since, but apparently he has been working on something called The Xenotext which Wikipedia says

Xenotext consists of a single sonnet (called “Orpheus”), which gets translated into a gene and then integrated into a cell, causing the cell to “read” this poem, and in reply, the cell builds a protein — one whose sequence of amino acids encodes yet another sonnet (called “Eurydice”). The cell becomes not only a durable archive for storing a poem, but also an operant machine for writing a poem. The gene has so far worked properly in cultures of E. coli, but the intended symbiote is D. radiodurans (“the dire seed, immune to radiation”) — an extremophile, able to thrive in very inhospitable environments, deadly to most life on Earth.

I quoted that because it uses the word extremophile, which is the name of this story.

This story is quite short and it is, simply, a list of conditions that this entity can survive in.  It’s fascinating but not terribly interesting and, indeed, not very scary.  Especially since nothing happens in the story.  I mean, the ending is “It awaits your experiments,” which I guess is an interesting setup and given some of that background above it does make it slightly more compelling, but as a story, well, meh.

Posted in Christian Bok, Hingston & Olsen, Huh?, Patton Oswalt, Poetry, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

Francis Stevens, “Unseen—Unfeared” (published 1919) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 30, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 30, 2025] “Unseen—Unfeared”

It has been six years since Ghost Box III came out….

After years of demand, the Ghost Box is back! Patton Oswalt’s much-beloved spooky-story anthology returns for a fourth edition, with the same trademark production details—magnetized box lid, anyone?—that Ghost Box fans have come to expect.

As always, working with Patton on Ghost Box IV was a dream, and we can’t wait to show you the nightmares that he’s wrangled and stuffed into the box this time around.

Francis Stevens is the pseudonym of Gertrude Barrows Bennett who I know nothing about.  I assume this story is set in Philadelphia (South Street and Franklin Hall), but that’s not really important.

The story opens with the narrator talking to a detective over dinner.  The detective mentions a case in which a doctor is accused of murdering someone.  The detective doesn’t believe the doctor did it, but he doesn’t want to reveal too many details.

As the detective leaves, he gives the narrator a very fine cigar and heads out.  The narrator waits a few minutes and then heads out as well.  It’s here that I had to wonder about the intolerance of the author.  Because the narrator is walking down the street casting aspersions on everyone he sees–all races and colors are scrutinized harshly–especially a group of young Italian men who give the narrator the stink eye like he’d never seen.

He’s freaking out about how much he hates everyone and everything and decides he needs to rest for a minute.  Then he sees a sign over a shop that says See The Great Unseen!

Thinking this is a museum of some sort, a place where he can sit and relax, he goes inside.

The owner of the place is a strange man with dark eyes and white hair.  He starts talking about photography and the process of generating color prints.  It’s either very technical or complete nonsense, but it hardly matters because the man is about to show the narrator a new technique he has achieved through the use of a membrane that he said is from South America.

When the man places the membrane over his equipment, the narrator suddenly sees…. what the host describes as all of the evils in the world that have been unleashed by humanity–included the narrator himself.

Given how disgusted he was by everyone outside, he starts to realize that he is the reason for all of the evil around him.

This story was really creepy and I really enjoyed the way it was told.  With the final chapter bringing at leas two wholly unexpected conclusions.  And I’m thinking maybe the author wasn’t such a curmudgeon after all.

 

Posted in Francis Stevens, Gertrude Barrows Bennett, Hingston & Olsen, Horror, Patton Oswalt, Supernatural, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

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