[DID NOT ATTEND: December 18, 2025] Built to Spill / Guerilla Toss
I love Built to Spill. I’ve seen them half a dozen times and they’re always fun. Doug Martsch doesn’t really do anything in stage, except shred like a maniac, but somehow the shows are always fun. For the longest time I had seen Modest Mouse and Built to Spill the same number of times. But the last two Built to Spill shows I’ve had to miss for one reason or another. I was hoping to get BTS to catch up, but it didn’t happen. Hope the come back next year.
I had missed Guerilla Toss back in October when they did their headline show. So I was excited that they were opening on this Built to Spill tour. Although I missed a bunch of shows because of the surgery, this was the only one I was really bummed about.
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 »
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 13, 2025] Algernon Cadwallader / Gladie / Snoozer
Algernon Cadawallader has reunited and played a bunch of shows. Before they reunited I had not heard of them. But I had since listened to them and thought they sounded pretty great.
I haven’t been able to see them the last two times they were in town. But I secured a ticket for this show.
And then I had surgery and couldn’t even leave the house. I think I’ll give them one more chance and if I miss that one I’ll gibe up on them entirely.
I saw Gladie open for Otoboke Beaver back in 2023. Since then Gladie has been getting a good buzz about them, which is cool because they were really good. I would have definitely enjoyed seeing them again.
Snoozer is an “alternative group from philly. delco brothers make weird rock.” They play slow slacker rock.
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 13, 2025] Great Lake Swimmers / Abe Partridge
I thought I knew the Great Lake Swimmers from Ontario. But it turns out I don’t. I was getting them mixed up with someone else. I can see the album cover, but it clearly says another band name.
Great Lake Swimmers are a folk band. They seem alright, but I’m not going to see them.
Abe Partridge is a folk singer from Alabama with a very pronounced Alabama accent while he sings. It’s almost cute, but I don’t like it.
It’s good to keep track of artists you don’t like as well as the ones you like.
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 11, 2025] The Heavy Heavy / Laney Jones and the Spirits
When I first heard The Heavy Heavy, I was annoyed because they are not heavy at all. They are very light and breezy–a real California sound. However, I’ve heard a few songs and I really like Go Down River.
The Heavy Heavy are a duo from Brighton, based in London with the Guardian saying they have that “lick of madness that makes early Fleetwood Mac and peak Stones so thrilling.”
I’m not sure I’d say thrilling, but they are enjoyable. I’m not sure if I wanted to see them live, but I wound up having surgery the day before this show, so that wasn’t going to happen, regardless.
Laney Jones and the Spirits are the project of Laney Jones, who is from Maryland. I listened to three songs, one was a banjo infused folk song with a major twang, the second song was a slackery garage rock song with noisy guitars, the third was a mellow song with her singing in her slackery way. So I guess she’s mostly a garage rock band.
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)
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 9, 2025] Jay Som / Sea Lemon
Jay Som is the creation of Melina Duterte. I saw Jay Som at The Foundry in 2019. ANd after that show she kind of disappeared from music. She cancelled her European tour and for the last little while she has been playing with boygenius. I really enjoyed her show and I absolutely loved her song with Palehound (the band Bachelor) called Get in the Car. The Bachelor tour (which I had a ticket to) was also cancelled.
I would have liked to see what Jay Som is up to, but I had a ticket to see Chokecherry, a band I really wanted to see again.
Sea Lemon is the Seattle-based dreampop solo project of musician Natalie Lew. I like dream pop but I don’t like when it’s too slow. Sea Lemon hits a nice balance of dreaminess but with a beat. This suggests that Jay Som’s new music is mellower. But that may not be true.
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 8, 2025] Speedy Ortiz / Phoebe Rings / @ / Dylan Baldi
When I bought the ticket for this show, I thought it might be my last show of the year. I also thought it would be fun to end the year with another Speedy Ortiz show. But then I found out that Chokecherry, a band I’ve been wanting to see again, was playing the following night. And since I’ve seen Speedy a bunch, I blew this show off.
It turns out this was a 25th anniversary showcase night for bands on the Carpark label. All four bands are on the label.
We had just seen Phoebe Rings open for The Beths. When this was first announced I wondered how Phoebe Rings could get two gigs so close together. It was planned that way. After two nights with The Beths, there was no rest for them as they moved on to conquer Johnny Brenda’s.
We saw @ open for Waxahatchee. I wrote They are kind of interesting and experimental, with lots of sounds layered on to straightforward lyrics. But live, they were the least dynamic duo I’ve ever seen. So I’mnot sad to be missing them.
The only person I didn’t know was Dylan Baldi, although I see that Dylan Baldi is guitarist and songwriter for Cloud Nothings. I’ve heard of Cloud Nothings–in fact I feel like I even know them. But I don’t think I do, they’re kind of pop punky. He doesn’t seem to have any solo albums out so I assume he was going to sing Cloud Nothings songs.
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)
I love Built to Spill. I’ve seen them half a dozen times and they’re always fun. Doug Martsch doesn’t really do anything in stage, except shred like a maniac, but somehow the shows are always fun. For the longest time I had seen Modest Mouse and Built to Spill the same number of times. But the last two Built to Spill shows I’ve had to miss for one reason or another. I was hoping to get BTS to catch up, but it didn’t happen. Hope the come back next year.
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... 