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Bit Brigade/ Triforce Quartet (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, November 17, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 17, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 17, 2023] Bit Brigade/ Triforce Quartet 

I have only seen Bit Brigade once and it was amazing.

The premise behind a Bit Brigade show is that 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.

I don’t know why exactly I didn’t get a ticket for this show.  They are playing one game I’ve never heard of, and one that I haven’t played in 30 years, but that shouldn’t make any difference.

Maybe when they come by next year.

Although if Mc Lars was opening I definitely would have gone.

Which is not a dis of Triforce Quartet who play string versions of video game themes.

Triforce Quartet  began innocently as a short Zelda medley for an encore of a recital in early 2007, but the video of using traditional string quartet instruments to play music of classic games gained viral popularity later that summer. Thanks to this, cellist Chad Schwartz was able to combine his love for video games, along with years of classical training, to arrange a variety of video game themes that even non-gamers can enjoy. The four members of the Triforce Quartet take audience members on an unforgettable musical journey.

Their music is beautiful.

If I wasn’t going  to see Mass of Fermenting Dregs, I would sneak across town to see this too.

Posted in Bit Brigade, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Triforce Quartet | Leave a Comment »

Pansy Division / The Ritchie White Orchestra / UgLi (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, November 16, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 16, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 16, 2023] Pansy Division / The Ritchie White Orchestra / UgLi

I heard about The Last Dinner Party a few weeks ago.  Right around when I found out they were doing a very short US Tour and Philly was one of the places.

When Pansy Division first appeared in the late 1990s, I was hugely supportive.  I loved that they were out and proud.  They introduced me to a whole subculture that I wasn’t aware of and which I am still really supportive of.  It almost seemed like it wasn’t much of a subculture anymore until Florida got their hands on it. But whatever.  Evidently the world still needs Pansy Division.

There have been gay musicians hidden throughout rock music history, but when Pansy Division began in 1991 in San Francisco, they were the first to be so boldly open about it.  Founded by guitarist/singer Jon Ginoli and soon joined by bassist/singer Chris Freeman, with the intent of forming a gay rock band, Pansy Division blew the closet doors open. Raised on a diet of 60s pop and 70s punk, their sound was suitably crunchy and catchy as hell. They wrote in-your-face lyrics, but did it with a sense of humor. Not only did their music and stance defy stereotypic norms of rock musicians being openly gay, they also broke gay cultural stereotypes that rock wouldn’t interest gay people.

I imagine that this show is going to be very very fun.

I don’t know the other two bands for the night.  But I love the blurb of The Ritchie White Orchestra

The Ritchie White Orchestra is a hard rocking poppy psychedelic trip to Detention Hall. Music for bad boys and girls and those in between.

They are a pretty raw band, though.

UgLi are from Philadelphia, PA.  They play cool indie grungy rock with lots of fuzz. They are probably my favorite of the three bands playing.  (Pansy Division’s music is a little too simple compared to UgLi).

 

Posted in Johnny Brenda's, Pansy Division, Philadelphia, PA, The Ritchie White Orchestra, UgLi | Leave a Comment »

Say Sue Me [세이수미] (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, November 15, 2023)

November 16, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 15, 2023] Say Sue Me

I knew about Say Sue Me because they are on the Damnably label with Otoboke Beaver.   I assumed they were a similarly wild punk band, but I hadn’t gotten around to listening to them.

About a week before this show, Otoboke Beaver sent a message that Say Sue Me was playing nearby. So I listened to a few songs, loved them, and grabbed a ticket.

Say Sue Me are from Busan, Korea and they sing most of their songs in English (lead singer Sumi Choi says they feel less personal and invasive to her that way).

They set up their gear (and used Party Nerves’ drums) and were ready to go after about fifteen minutes.

And as soon as they started I was so happy that I grabbed a ticket and arrived early.

I loved their bouncey sound and the delighted attitude of the whole band, Continue Reading »

Posted in 세이수미, Kung Fu Necktie, Party Nerves, Philadelphia, PA, Say Sue Me | Leave a Comment »

Geddy Lee In Conversation (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, November 15, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 15, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 15, 2023] Geddy Lee In Conversation

It’s crazy that I could have seen Jeff Tweedy and Geddy Lee read from their latest books and be interviewed in the same month.

Much like with Jeff, though, I didn’t really want to see Geddy read from his book.  I wasn’t even sure I cared enough about him anymore to read his book.  I mean, as a once die-hard Rush fan, I assume I knew everything about the band that I was devoted to.

But listening to the story in the video below, maybe I haven’t.

Also, I had no intention of going to New York to see this show, but seeing that Paul Rudd was his interviewer is pretty amazing.  I had no idea it would be in that format and how amazing would that have been?

I would have gone to the Philly event buy holy crap the tickets were so expensive!  So I decided to not bother.

The guest at the Met Philly was Pierre Robert who I have never heard of.  Apparently he is a DJ with WMMR, which I don’t really listen to.  So I guess he was probably a good choice for interviewing Geddy Lee.  Just not as interesting as Paul Rudd.

Here’s a clip from Philly, followed by a clip from New York

 

Posted in Geddy Lee, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, WMMR 93.3 FM--Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Party Nerves (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, November 15, 2023) [SAY SUE ME]

November 15, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 15, 2023] Party Nerves

I found out about this show very recently.  When the show was announced there was no opening band.

Then a few days ago it was announced that Party Nerves would be opening.

Party Nerves is a Philly band who plays rocking surf guitar instrumentals.  They reminded me immediately of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (the band who made The Kids in the Hall theme song).

They were funny (when they spoke), self-deprecating (this is the most people who have ever hung around after we started playing) and basically ripped through 11 songs in 30 minutes or so.

They put out an EP last year and a new single (which is all of 30 seconds) this year.  They played most of their EP but clearly they have a bunch of new stuff as well.

Admittedly a lot of the songs are samey–I mean, it’s instrumental and it’s all kind of reverbed and riff-based.  But each guy is really good and the riffs are tasty.

30 minutes was pretty perfect for me to enjoy their stuff without getting overwhelmed by the surf vibes.

According to bandcamp, the band consists of Pavlo – Drums, Woolly – Guitar and Mike – Bass.

Party Nerves is a great opening act, check them out! Continue Reading »

Posted in Kung Fu Necktie, Party Nerves, Philadelphia, PA, Say Sue Me | Leave a Comment »

Spiritualized (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 11, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 11, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 11, 2023] Spiritualized [moved from September 23, 2022]

Last year when Spiritualized came around, I wrote

I wasn’t entirely sure that I wanted to see Spiritualized live.  I really like their album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.  But I wasn’t sure how well they would translate live.  But I read some rave reviews of their live show, so I grabbed a ticket.

This year I forgot that those shows had been cancelled and thought that maybe they were just back again pretty quickly.

I didn’t buy tickets for this show.  I haven’t heard anything about the show either.

 

 

 

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

Isiliel (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2023)

November 10, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2023] Isiliel

This was my fourth show in four nights and I was surpirsed how little it had caught up with me.  I was fortunate in that most of the shows were fairly short.  And this one promised to be super short.

There was no opening act, so despite a 15 minute soundcheck and setup delay, the show still ended by 9:30, which was perfect.

So, who is Isiliel?  She is Himari Tsukishiro who is the main singer in the Japanese band Necronomidol.  As her site puts it

Isiliel is a solo dance/vocal project by Himari Tsukishiro (NECRONOMIDOL).
Mixing genres as diverse as folk, blackgaze and city pop via a worldwide team of veteran songwriters such as King Dude and NARASAKI of COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS, through Isiliel Himari will express hitherto unexplored depths of pathos and beauty on stage.

As Isiliel, she has one album out.  It is, as implied, a heavy metal sounding album, with heavy guitars and a lot of double bass.  But she does not sing like a heavy metal singer.  Her delivery is quiet and slow (and it’s in Japanese).

I hadn’t heard of either her or her main band until about a week before this show was announced.  But when I saw what Necronomidol looked like, I wanted to go to this show too.  It turned out she has some real fans in Philly.  The audience was probably about 30 people, but the show had about a week’s notice.  And several of these fans brought identical small red lanterns which they waved in time to the beat (I asked the merch guy if he was selling them and he said no–they brought them in!) Continue Reading »

Posted in Coaltar of the Deepers, Isiliel, Necronomidol, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA | Leave a Comment »

Ty Segall (solo acoustic) / Mike Donovan (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, November 10, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 10, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 10, 2023] Ty Segall / Charles Moothouse

Last year, about a Ty Segall show that I missed, I wrote:

I have become a fan of Ty Segall in the last few years.  He releases far too much music to keep tabs on him, but I’ve wanted to see his fuzzed out live show for a while now.

When I finally do get to see Ty Segall, I want it to be with a big noisy fuzzy band, not as an acoustic performer.

So, I opted to give this one a miss.  Wonder if I’ll regret it someday.

Well, it’s a year or so later and he’s back with a solo show in New Jersey and I feel the same way.  Luckily, I’m going to see him (I assume with a band) in April in Philly.

I went to high school with someone named Mike Donovan.  When I saw that this Mike Donovan was roughly the same age as me I wondered if it could be him.  But this one is from San Francisco.   He is “best known” as the guitarist and singer of Sic Alps (2004-2013).

He has a few solo albums that are kind of sloppy anti-folk.  Probably okay live but I’ll never listen to him on purpose.

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Mike Donovan, Philadelphia, PA, Ty Segall, Ty Segall and the Freedom Band, Union Transfer, White Eagle Hall | Leave a Comment »

Nation of Language / Miss Grit (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 10, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 10, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 10, 2023] Nation of Language / Miss Grit

I heard about this show because I follow Miss Grit.  I has seen her open for someone a while back and really enjoyed her show.  She had not yet even released an album, so I was curious to see how much better she was.

I thought I knew Nation of Language.  I even had a generally favorable idea of them.

But when I listened to them before buying tickets for the show, I realized that I didn’t really like them all that much.  They are very new wave synthy, which is fine.  But it wasn’t anything I needed to see.

So I’m bummed to miss Miss Grit whose playlist  was probably something like this:

  1. Perfect Blue
  2. Your Eyes Are Mine
  3. Nothing’s Wrong
  4. Lain (phone clone)
  5. Follow the Cyborg
  6. saibogeuleul ttalawa
  7. Like You
  8. Syncing

Interestingly, Nation of Language’s opening acts were all great and I would happily see a show with all three of them together: Miss Grit, Gustaf and Reggie Watts!

 

 

Posted in Miss Grit, Nation of Language, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

Blonde Redhead / Marnie Stern (Union Transfer, Jersey City, NJ, November 9, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

November 9, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 9, 2023] Blonde Redhead / Marnie Stern

When Blonde Redhead announced that they were playing Union Transfer I was pretty excited.  I hadn’t listened to them in a long time, but I remember really liking them.  I assumed that they’d been broken up and had reunited for this tour. But it turns out that they’ve either never broken up or have gotten back together after a hiatus in 2014. Or something.

I listened to the new record.  And then I listened to the old records and I realized that I didn’t know them very well at all. I must have been really into them for a very short time.

Since there’s already a ton of bands that I want to see, I didn’t want to spend a night out on a band I THOUGHT I liked.

So I stayed home.

Marnie Stern is guitar god.  I had heard about her shredding skills, but wasn’t really aware of her music.  Then she got a gig playing guitar as part of the Late Night with Seth Meyers band.  She literally never did anything interesting on the show.  Which is not to say she was bad–she was a fine part of the band, but I couldn’t believe that she was the person everyone raved about because she was so still and quiet.

Now she’s back with a new album.   It’s pretty out there.  I wonder what she’s like live.

 

 

Posted in Blonde Redhead, Marnie Stern, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

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