September 25, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 25, 2016] The Legend of Zelda
Back in the summer we took the kids to the Mann Center to see Symphonic Pokémon. And it was pretty great. Well, the Mann Center closed its season with a symphonic Legend of Zelda performance. C. has been a big Zelda fan for a couple of years (he loves the soundtrack particularly), so it seemed like an obvious show to go to.
Our one regret is that it was on a Sunday night which meant we didn’t get home until 11, which is just too late for a school night (especially since earlier in the week we took the kids to see “Weird Al” and got home even later–terrible parents, yes, but pretty cool parents). But that was the only regret we had.
The show was fantastic. C. even wore his Zelda Halloween costume (and brought his home-made cardboard sword–which passed security thankfully). And he was not the only one in costume–some people were very seriously dressed for this event. Continue Reading »
Posted in C., Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Pokémon Go, Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda | Leave a Comment »
September 24, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 24, 2016] Band of Horses
This is our third time seeing Band of Horses in three years. Sarah and I loved their first three albums a lot, so in 2004 when XPNFest announced they were opening for Beck, we knew it was an amazing pairing. They were great and we decided we needed to see them as the headliners. The following year, they came back although this time opening for Neil Young. We were going to see Neil anyway, so it was even better that BoH was opening. But that set was shorter than the first! We needed the full experience.
One year later, the busiest weekend we’ve had in a long time, and BoH was squeezed right into the middle of it.
We love The Fillmore in Philly, it’s a great venue with really good sound (and nice parking). So it was a great place to hear the soaring vocals of Ben Bridwell.and the rest of the band.
The show was an outstanding mix of songs from four of their albums (turns out that their previous album Mirage Rock has been largely dismissed by the band and they don’t play much from it anymore). And that’s fine because the four albums are awesome. Continue Reading »
Posted in Band of Horses, Beck, J. Mascis, Neil Young, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
September 24, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 24, 2016] Restorations
Restorations opened for Band of Horses. They’re from Philadelphia, but I didn’t know them at all. At the end of the set the singer said that they used to practice around the corner from the venue and that it was a real trip playing here. So that was fun.
Before the show, I looked them up and saw them described as alternative, punk and post-hardcore. I was expecting a really heavy rocking band. But somehow, when they opened for Band of Horses, they sounded a lot more like…Band of Horses. I’ve been listening to their stuff on the site and I’d say there’s something about the guitars of “Misprint” that reminded me of BoH.
On their studio albums, lead singer Jon Loudon has a gravelly voice, but it didn’t quite sound that way live for some reason. And the music had the soaring quality of Band of Horses’ more rocking songs.
And it was great. They were definitely heavier than BoH, but the overall vibe worked perfectly.
The drummer in particular played some great rhythms and really bashed the hell out of the kit. But the whole band played well off each other. There were quite a few guitars, occasional keys and a small horn section.
Loudon said that the trumpeter and trombonist who were on stage were playing live with them for the first time. They added a nice touch but were not mic’d so it wasn’t always easy to hear them. But when they came through it was good.
I don’t know any of their songs, so I can’t give a setlist, but According to some recent shows, the songs they’ve been playing are: New Old, The Plan, Separate Songs, West River, Misprint, D, A, Let’s Blow Up the Sun, The Future, Tiny Prayers and Documents. Confirmation of lyrics shows I have a 20 second clip of “Tiny Prayers” here.
I’ve been listening to their stuff on their tumblr site (it tickles me that their albums are called Restorations, LP2 and LP3) and it’s really good.
They were a great complement to Band of Horses (Ben Bridwell also raved about them when he came on stage) and I’m excited to hear more from them.
Posted in Band of Horses, Philadelphia, PA, Restorations, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
September 23, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: ESKIMEAUX-Tiny Desk Concert #466 (August 28, 2015).
Eskimeaux is Gabrielle Smith, who is the keyboardist in Bellows, a band that played a Tiny Desk Concert just a few months before this one. As far as her stage name,
as an adopted child, Smith discovered that her biological father is Tlingit Eskimo; she describes the -eaux suffix as “just a playful jumble of letters that represents the way I record — a confusing layering of sounds that somehow coalesce into something simple.”.
Smith sings three songs in less than ten minutes. She has a pretty, unaffected voice–just clean and clear vocals. For the first two songs it’s just her and her guitar
“Folly” is a simple song as you might expect from just a strummed electric guitar. But there’s something about the way she sings her lines in a series of rising notes that is really inviting. She also has a nice way with words. Like:
In my dreams you’re a bathtub running / You are warm and tender / And bubbling
“A Hug Too Long” is a faster song with a simple but interesting guitar riff that’s followed by a simple but interesting vocal melody. Again, her clear voice fits perfectly with the music. It features the intriguing chorus: “You went to work, I went to New Brunswick.”
Her final song is “I Admit I’m Scared.” She has her bandmates from Bellows come out to sing with her. There’s no extra instrumentation, but Smith sings in a slightly deeper register and Bellows fleshes out sections of the song (they even do a kind of deadpan synchronized move after each chorus). Another great line of hers is: “And everything I said spewed like sparklers from my mouth. They looked pretty as they flew but now they’re useless and burnt out.” As the song ends, everyone sings louder “If I had a dime for every time I’m freaking out” which leads to a dramatic climax before the final resolution: “We could fly around the world / Or just get out of your parents’ house.”
Bob jokes at the end that they can come back any time with a new band. She says they have five other bands (including Told Slant and Small Wonder). He says “you could come in every Tuesday.”
Bellows isn’t that different from Eskimeaux in style–pretty, quiet songs that are articulate and almost deadpan. But having Smith sing (and presumably write) changes the way the style is created. Which is pretty cool.
[READ: June 8, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976
I really enjoyed this book a lot. In the introduction, Robert Smigel talks about how it seems like in this era, Schulz turned a corner a bit to become more absurd. The jokes are sillier, with new characters and some crazy ideas–like talking buildings, pitching mounds and body parts. He wonders if it was Schulz’ happy marriage or just a desire to take some chances rather than repeating himself. But whatever the case, the book is really fun. I especially love the Peppermint Patty/Marcie strips in which Schulz just seems to be having a great time. I also love all of the jokes with Sally in which she makes herself laugh with some awful puns–I just imagine Schulz cracking himself up and not being able to wait to draw the strips.
But for all of the newness of the strips, Peanuts is always seasonal. So 1975 beings with ice skating and snowmen. Linus has made a snowman reclining and reading a book. Charlie asks if it’s Robert Frost and Linus snarks “You said it, I didn’t.”
Patty has been falling asleep a lot in school–her dad is away–and Snoopy makes as terrible watchdog for her. More funny Patty moments are when she is being so decisive about true false questions. “Irrefutably true, understandably false, intrinsically false, inherently false, charmingly true.” To which Franklin asks “Charmingly?” Patty also becomes the first disciple of the Great Pumpkin–but she blows it by asking for a gift, as if the Great Pumpkin is some kind of Santa Claus. Continue Reading »
Posted in Angst, Baseball, Basketball, Bellows, Billie Jean King, Birds, Charles Schulz, Comic Strips, Easter, Elton John, Eskimeaux, Fantagraphics, Football, Funny (ha ha), Golf, Halloween, Hockey, Jaws, Joe Garagiola, Joe Shlabotnik, Letters, Peanuts, Robert Smigel, Seinfeld, Small Wonder, Technology, Tennis, The Future, Tiny Desk Concert, Told Slant, World Hockey Association | Leave a Comment »
September 22, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[LISTENED TO: August 2016] The Penderwicks in Spring
We have loved the Penderwick books. But I remember that when this came out, Sarah read it and was disappointed. Not in the quality of the book, but because the story has moved on. This book is set about five years after the action of the previous book.
I totally get Birdsall’s desire to write about Batty rather than her older sisters–to move on from what she has written about for three books. In the previous book Rosalind was more or less absent, so Birdsall is not afraid to progress with her characters. But those characters are so great, that to have them largely absent from the story was so frustrating! I missed them all (So I guess she could take that as a compliment).
Of course, the “new” characters are fun, too. The book is mostly about Batty, but her younger half-brother Ben is older and quite a character (and he gets to show us things from his point of view–the only boy in a family of strong Penderwick girls). And Batty’s father and stepmother have had a new baby, Lydia, who is just climbing out of her crib and is quite a handful. Continue Reading »
Posted in Audiobooks, Cats, Child Development, Children's Books, Death, Dogs, Fears, Friendship, Funny (ha ha), Jeanne Birdsall, Marriage (Happy), Parenting, Pets, Regrets, Romance, Susan Denaker, Unlikable main character, War | Leave a Comment »
September 21, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[LISTENED TO: August 2016] Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me
The title of this book sounded weird and fun. So I grabbed it from the audio book collection at the library and we listened to it on the way home from vacation.
Set in Long Island (narrator Emily Bauer does some great Long Island accents for the adults (and a few kids) in the story), this is the story of a young girl, Tamara Ann Simpson (Tammy) growing up on Ramble Street in 1969 just a few weeks from the Moon Landing!
But that’s miles away. Because it is summertime and all she can think about is kickball. Well kickball and her friend Kebsie who took off all of a sudden one day without even saying goodbye.
Kebsie was Tammy’s best friend. She lived in a foster home on Ramble Street. They did everything together and even had a secret “arooo” signal. They were BFs and even bought necklaces to prove it. Kebsie was a straight shooter and took no crap from anyone. And then one day, she was gone. As we understand it, her mother returned and took Kebsie away to secret place because there was some kind of abuse in he family and they needed to be removed from everyone they knew. Continue Reading »
Posted in Angst, Astronauts, Audiobooks, Buzz Aldrin, Death, Emily Bauer, Friendship, Humiliation, Kickball, Letters, Lies, Marriage Trouble, Nan Marino, Neil Armstrong, Nostalgia, Outer Space, Unlikable main character, Vietnam War | Leave a Comment »
September 20, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 20, 2016] “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
Back on June 16, 2015, Sarah and I took the kids to this very venue to see “Weird Al” perform. He is (amazingly) still touring the Mandatory Fun World Tour, and he made another stop in Bethlehem en route to Radio City Music Hall. I wasn’t planning on going this time since I know that his shows from the same tour are identical. But when I learned that my friend Matt and many members of his family were going to go, it sounded like a fun celebration. So we bought some tickets (not 3rd row like last time, although 13th row isn’t too shabby, it turns out), and met our friends for a fun night.
The Sands is a casino, and we were going to eat in one of the fancier restaurants lining the casino. Well, PA state law says that a security guard must accompany minors around the casino. So we got an escort to the Chinese Food place. Then we sat down, were shocked at the prices–seriously shocked. I mean, it’s a casino, but c’mon it’s Bethlehem, there’s no way any Chinese Food is worth $28 a plate. So we walked out (a first for me) and got escorted back to the food court where we ate overpriced food court Chinese Food instead.
Then we went in and were pleased with our seats and our neighbors. And then the show started. Continue Reading »
Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bethlehem, PA, C., Eminem, Funny (ha ha), Michael Stipe, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, T. | Leave a Comment »
September 19, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 18, 2016] Ben Folds and a Piano
Back in July, we saw Ben Folds play with yMusic at Steel Stacks in Bethlehem. We were about ten feet from the stage and it was terrific. Before the show or perhaps just after, he announced that he’d be doing a solo tour in the fall. And even though we were literally watching him, I decided to get us tickets for that show as well, because it was going to be just him and his piano. What could be better?
For this show, at the lovely MayoPAC (the sound was amazing), our seats were much further away. But unlike with yMusic, this time, he and his piano faced sideways. And our seats were dead center, so we could watch him bang the hell out of that piano. We could see every trill, every stomp and every riff. It was a perfect view.
Of course it being a dark theater, I was respectful of my neighbors and took only two pictures and only right after he sat down to start the second set. Not to mention, a venue like that gives you crap photos anyway…witness the one below.
He started out playing a few rockers (watching him pound the piano keys is so cool since even when he is pounding with his fist (or his arm!), he’s always right in tune somehow). He opened with “Annie Waits,” one of Sarah’s favorites by him, and one we’d never head before. It was pretty great and set the tone for a fantastic set.
He complemented our ability to get the “clap” in the song solidly on time. And because of that, he imagined we’d be up for a four-part harmony challenge. So when he played “Bastard” he had us do the challenge–four vocals parts for people with different ranges. It was really fun. One thing I’ve always admired about Ben is how he really encourages his audience to sing along. He seems to genuinely want people to sing (not just a cursory scream of the chorus), but like he’s trying to get people I who think the can’t sing to realize that maybe they can. Continue Reading »
Posted in Ben Folds, Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ | Leave a Comment »
September 18, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[LISTENED TO: August 2016] Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye
I had grabbed this book for C. because it looked kind of interesting. He said he wanted to read it but hadn’t gotten around to it before we left for vacation. So instead, I grabbed the audio book for us to listen to.
The book itself had a lot of interesting illustrations by Will Staehle which were obviously not present in the audio book. Often times the audio book version of a book is a bit more fun because of the delivery, but I feel like we really missed out without the pictures. Indeed, the blurb for the book really talks up the design of it:
The first volume in a delightful new series, this middle grade adventure features an oversized hardcover format, gorgeous two-color illustrations on every page, and a lavish two-column turn-of-the-century design. We guarantee you’ve never seen anything quite like it!
And I still haven’t. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, C., Children's Books, Funny (strange), Greed, Kevin T. Collins, Quirk Books, Tania del Rio, Threats, Unfinished series, Will Staehle, Witches | Leave a Comment »
September 17, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Railway Club, Vancouver, BC (November 1987).
It’s pretty impressive that this show (ostensibly from the same month as the previous show) has such a different setlist. Between the two shows they play 22 songs and only four are repeated. And this time five of the songs come from their debut album, Greatest Hits.
This tape begins with a recording of “Indian Arrow” by the 13 Engines. It sounds very different from the other songs on the tape–the audience is very loud and you can hear a woman say “I wanna sing this one” (!). I know this song from a Martin Tielli solo tour (and indeed, he sounds pretty much solo here–although there is a piano, too).
The rest of the tape all has the same audio quality but sounds different from the first song. “Crescent Moon” begins mid-song (as if it was recorded over by “Indian Arrow”). “Sad Sad World” is more upbeat than the title suggests with a “vocal solo” introduced with Dave and Tim chanting M-R-T-I-N in time with the music. An upbeat “Ditch Pigs” leads to some silly banter during the guitar solo. “Churches and Schools” sounds a lot like Talking Heads. “Bridge Came Tumbling Down” is a Stompin’ Tom Connors song–they really had been playing him since forever. Then they play a good version of “Higher and Higher” (from Greatest Hits).
It’s their last night in Vancouver, apparently which leads to a lengthy talk about he next song–a funky version of “Good on the Uptake” with lots of screaming at the end (from Tim).
The band plays the full version of “The Ballad of Wendell Clark” (with a some jokes about “Joel” whoever that is). It’s rollicking and stomping and Martin starts playing “O Canada” as part of the solo. Bidini stops the song and asks him to play it again, so Martin plays it on a good echoed effect (and Dave Clark shouts “alright Joel!”) There’s some inappropriate jokes before Martin launches into a delicate version of The Beatles’ “Across the Universe-“-not the best version I’ve heard but still nice.
The final song is a romping stompin “PROD”–the only song The Rheostatics play in G#. It has a fun shambolic end and it ends the set with them saying they’ll be back to play some Menudo tunes after a short break (which we never do hear).
[READ: January 15, 2016] Making Friends
It’s unsettling to me that the Liō books come in different shapes. This one is even hardcover! The contents of these stories are not unsettling to me though, even if they are to some readers (looking online, you can find gripes).
Liō continues to be a strange kid who loves zombies and squids and spiders and playing pranks. This is his latest book (and I just confirmed to see that he is still publishing daily, so a new book must be coming soon, right?).
Tatulli still has some great gags. And this format book has some of the strips in color. Continue Reading »
Posted in 13 Engines, Aliens, Birds, Canadian Music, Cats, Children's Books, Death, Demons, Dogs, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Games (Non Video), Holidays, Humiliation, Inventions, Liō, Loch Ness Monster, Mad Scientists, Mark Tatulli, Menudo, Parenting, Pigs, Rats, Rheostatics, Squids, Stompin' Tom Connors, Supernatural, Surreal, Talking Heads, The Beatles, Vampires, Yuck!, Zombies | Tagged rheoslive | Leave a Comment »
« Newer Posts - Older Posts »
Back in the summer we took the kids to the Mann Center to see Symphonic Pokémon. And it was pretty great. Well, the Mann Center closed its season with a symphonic Legend of Zelda performance. C. has been a big Zelda fan for a couple of years (he loves the soundtrack particularly), so it seemed like an obvious show to go to.
I Just Read About That... 