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Autechre (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2025)

October 28, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2025] Autechre

I have one Autechre album and I don’t really listen to it.  But when they announced this American tour (their first time playing here in ten years), I asked my friend Lar, who had seen them if I should go.  He told me an amusing story about how he liked the show but he took his significant other to the show and she almost broke up with him because of it.

But when I dove a little more deeply into the show it sounded like a unique experience that I’d like to try.

I arrived at the show knowing that this would be the case, but I loved seeing this in print on a flyer at the door:

autechre

will  perform in darkness.

For their set all lights in the venue will be off.

Please plan on being in one place for the performance and do not move unnecessarily until it has finished when the lights will come back on again.

Please do not shine any lights at the stage or ar0und the room during the performance unless you require assistance.

…

If you are uncomforatble with the idea of spending around 80 minutes in the dark while Autechre play, please see venue staff before the performance starts.

Autechre are an English electronic music duo consisting of Sean Booth and Rob Brown, formed in 1987.  After the two openers did their set, the lights dimmed, with only red lights on the stage.  Some ambient music played for, frankly, longer than was necessary.  It was so long, that the music stopped and they had to start it again. Continue Reading »

Posted in Autechre, Mark Broom, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, William Fields | Leave a Comment »

Edith Wharton, “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” (published 1902) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 28, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 28, 2025] “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell”

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 admit that I have never read Edith Wharton (not even The Age of Innocence).  But I read an essay by Jonathan Franzen which made me think I really should:

readers tend to read writers we finding sympathetic in some way–whatever appeals to us about their humanity.  But Wharton really has nothing appealing about her.  She was utterly privileged: touring Europe in private yacht with chauffeurs, and she was deeply conservative: opposed to unions, socialism and women’s suffrage.  She even left America in 1914 because it was too vulgar. My favorite example of her unsympathetic nature:  she was often “writing in bed after breakfast and tossing the completed pages on the floor, to be sorted and typed up by her secretary.”

But despite all that, her novels are engaging and hard to put down … compelling reasons for reading them include the wonderful character names she creates:  Undine Spragg, Lily Bart, Ethan Frome.  And, you root for the protagonists despite themselves.  Lily Bart is profoundly self-involved and incapable of true charity; Undine Spragg is spoiled, ignorant, shallow and amoral.  Wharton even sets The Age of Innocence at a time when divorce was unthinkable–even though she herself had just had one.

But I had no idea that Wharton wrote scary stories (there is a book called The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, so…).

This story is about a young woman who accepts a job as a lady’s maid.  The main character, Hartley, has just gotten over the typhoid and looks weak and tottery.  She had been denied jobs because of this.  But a friend suggests she apply for a job with Mrs Brympton.  She was something of an invalid and lived all year round at her country place.  The last thing she was told was that the gentleman of the house was almost always away and when he was at house, she would just need to stay out of his way. Continue Reading »

Posted in Edith Wharton, Hingston & Olsen, Horror, Patton Oswalt, Supernatural, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

Mark Broom (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2025) [AUTECHRE]

October 27, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2025] Mark Broom

I have one Autechre album and I don’t really listen to it.  But when they announced this American tour (their first time playing here in ten years), I asked my friend Lar, who had seen them if I should go.  He told me an amusing story about how he liked the show but he took his significant other to the show and she almost broke up with him because of it.

But when I dove a little more deeply into the show it sounded like a unique experience that I’d like to try.

The opening act for the tour was Mark Broom. We also ha William Fields.  Fields was on the left side of the stage with his laptop and when he was done (after 30 minutes), Mark Broom who was on the right side of the stage with a laptop, started immediately (I appreciated the lack of pause).

I assumed that it would be more of the same because Autechre are also glitchy and noisy, but Broom had a different vibe.  His music was a bit more musical and a bit more dancey.  In the most basic way, it was more “enjoyable.”

I have no idea what he was doing up there (the lighting was very dim).  He had a laptop I know but he had some other gear too.  I could see him twisting knobs from time to time.  So I don’t know if he was making up the sounds on the fly or if they were existing songs that he was mixing around with.  As I said, it’s not my genre, but I found myself really getting into his stuff.

Broom has been DJing (and producing others) for a long time.  He is a veteran of the techno scene and evidently specializes in hardgroove with heavy percussion and tribal beats.

I assumed that he would get a 45 minute set, but he actually played for an hour.  Since I was planning to kick back and enjoy the night, I didn’t have a problem with him playing for an hour.  I felt like he mixed the tempos up and added interesting sounds and beats to make the hour pretty enjoyable.

Posted in Autechre, Mark Broom, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, William Fields | Leave a Comment »

Gabino Iglesias, “Don’t Go Into the Woods Alone” (published 2023) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 27, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 27, 2025] “Don’t Go Into the Woods Alone”

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.

This story opens with the title “Don’t Go Into the Woods Alone” which is something that the Marta’s grandmother used to say.  She had a lot of pithy sayings like that.  It was part of her Caribbean upbringing.  She was born in the mountains of Puerto Rico and had no birth certificate–she was anywhere from 85 to 120 depending on who you talked to.

She also said things like Don’t put your purse on the floor, Pray whenever you go past a cemetery and Stop and smell the flowers.  But it’s the woods that are on Marta’s mind as she walks through the woods by herself.

She can’t quite understand why her grandmother was so insistent upon this.  it’s daylight and the woods are great–she is even stopping to smell flowers.  But then she looks up and sees a cabin.  A cabin that she didn’t know was there.  And then there’s a woman waving to her from the cabin.

Marta is drawn to the cabin and the old woman invites her in and gives her tea.  After talking for sometime (and neither one of them offering up her name), the old woman says “the reason Sonia never left her house is because that was the only place she felt safe.”

Marta realizes she never said her grandmother’s name.  And this woman knows about something that Sonia did a long time ago.  And what Sonia did to make amends.  And the woman is ready for her reward.

This was a spooky story with a really creepy ending.

 

Posted in Gabino Iglesias, Hingston & Olsen, Horror, Patton Oswalt, Supernatural, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

Cage the Elephant / Hey, Nothing (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 25, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 27, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 25, 2025] Cage the Elephant / Hey, Nothing

We saw Cage the Elephant open for Beck six years ago–I can’t believe it was that long ago.   They blew me away and I knew I wanted to see them again.

This show got lost amid a million things going on at the end of October, including Cirque du Soleil, and three other shows later that week.  Sometimes you have to give up shows that you want to see….

Hey, Nothing is a folkie duo who my daughter and I missed at All Things Go.  They seem cool and I’m sure I would have enjoyed them.

 

Posted in Cage the Elephant, Hey, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »

William Fields (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2025) [AUTECHRE]

October 26, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2025] William Fields

I have one Autechre album and I don’t really listen to it.  But when they announced this American tour (their first time playing here in ten years), I asked my friend Lar, who had seen them if I should go.  He told me an amusing story about how he liked the show but he took his significant other to the show and she almost broke up with him because of it.

But when I dove a little more deeply into the show it sounded like a unique experience that I’d like to try.

There was an opening act listed, but we had two opening acts.  William Fields is a Philadelphia based DJ whose bio says

William Fields is an artist and musician from the Phildelphia area whose work explores the intersection of generative processes, improvisation, and audio-visual correspondence.

What does that mean?  Beats me.  But here’s some reviews

“Some of the most mind-blowing algorithmically generated music I’d ever heard”  — Richard Devine

“William Fields is at the absolute front of algorithmic music and this tremendous 24 hour collection is some of the wildest stuff out there… TOP NOTCH” — Telefon Tel Aviv

That still doesn’t quite explain it but this kind of does Continue Reading »

Posted in Autechre, Mark Broom, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, William Fields | Leave a Comment »

Michael Shea–“Brief Scenes of a Noxious Nativity” (published 2024) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 26, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 26, 2025] “Brief Scenes of a Noxious Nativity”

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.

It’s unusual that I simply do not get a story.  And I absolutely did not get this one.  Or maybe I don’t get why it was written.  It’s very short (3 pages in this tiny format) and it shows two scenes.

In the first scene, a rock hits a hill.  Something cracks open and a little molecular net–an elaborate hydrocarbon making its first appearance in nature–floated out.  She floated through the rock to the water and was swallowed by a fish.

In the second scene a backhoe hits a bluff–maybe the same hill?–and another microsomething escapes.

On a second reading I get that I think this microscopic invader is potentially going to destroy the world.  But it was so oddly written that I ‘m not really sure.  Ah, I see that this is excerpted from a larger work.  So that makes sense because this felt like the set up to something.  Although I won’t be seeking out the novel.

Interestingly, Shea wrote a story in Ghost Box II that I loved.  Every story is different.

Posted in Hingston & Olsen, Horror, Huh?, Michael Shea, Patton Oswalt, Supernatural, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

Osees / DMBQ (Underground Arts: (13th Anniversary Celebration, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 26, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 26, 2025] Osees / DMBQ

Four years ago I saw Osees and really enjoyed the chaotic energy of the show.  Since then they have returned every year in mid October.  I get a ticket every year and then something comes up–usually involving a birthday party.

This year it happened during a lengthy run of shows that I was seeing and something had to give,

Even though this looked like an especially fun show (if Union Transfer was crazy I can’t imagine how insane they would be at Underground Arts).  A couple of days before the show my brother-in-law out in Denver said he saw the set and that it was awesome and he really liked DMBQ as well.

It made me even more bummed that I missed it.

DMBQ is from Tokyo.  The name stands for Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet.  I love a good rocking Japanese band and this was even more incentive to get to this show.  But I just couldn’t do it.

Watching a video of their live set and they are not quite as unhinged as some Japanese bands, but they are sure wild.  They’re  athree piece and they seem to defy conventional song structure.  Lots of solos, and a wild fuzzy insanity around the whole thing.  I can’t tell if the singer is singing in English, Japanese or just some made up sounds.  It’s amazing.  And the guitar player (the singer) is all over the guitar–clearly very proficient at the instrument.

I hope the come back next year.

 

Posted in DMBQ, Osees, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »

Lord Dunsany–“The Three Infernal Jokes” (published 1916) [Ghost Box IV] (2025)

October 25, 2025 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: October 25, 2025] “The Three Infernal Jokes”

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.

This is one of the few stories in this collection that isn’t relatively contemporary.  It also needs a bit of an explanation as to the author.  His name is Lord Dunsany, but his proper name is Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, which is outstanding.

This story is told second hand.  The main character of the story told his tale to the narrator who is passing it along to us.  The man said to the narrator that he had a joke that could make the listener die of laughter.  But before he  told t he joke, he wanted to explain how he got it.

He belonged to a club for men. And one evening they were boasting of their specific virtues.  One man said he detested the taste of wine and boasted of his temperance.  So the main character told the room of his virtue–he found every woman equally ugly.

When a fellow in the room said that that virtue was amazing, the man demurred.  But the new fellow was persistent–would he sell this virtue?  The man was puzzled by this but agree noncommittally.  But the fellow immediately dragged him outside and placed a direct call to Hell.

Hell would buy this virtue for three jokes.  Three jokes that will make all who hear them die of laughter.  He took the deal and looked at the jokes–they didn’t seem very funny.

After a time, the man found himself at another gathering.  People were telling jokes and so he pulled out one of the scraps of paper with a joke on it.  He told the joke and didn’t find it funny.  But the crowd slowly began to laugh.  Everyone in the room was tittering, tittering far too much for the quality of the joke.  He was convinced that they were humoring him, or possibly even mocking him.  After a few moments of this, he left, full of embarrassment.

The next morning, in the paper her read that 22 men had died at a club.  He was quickly rounded up and brought before a judge.  Things were looking bad for him.  Then someone asked him to tell the joke.  He looked at the paper–it was now blank–but he told it from memory.  No one laughed.  He was certain he was going to be hanged for murder so he told the room that he had a different joke….

This type of story isn’t really scary, but it does make you wonder what you would do if you were given this “gift.”

 

Posted in Death, Hingston & Olsen, Horror, Mathilda Zeller, Patton Oswalt, Supernatural, The Devil, The Ghost Box | Leave a Comment »

The Vampire Circus (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, October 25, 2025)

October 25, 2025 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 25, 2025] The Vampire Circus

I love a good circus.  This circus–vampire themed–seemed like a really fun thing to do around Halloween.  It was also near my daughter’s birthday so I thought it would be a fun birthday present.  Amusingly, she made other plans that night so we went with my son and one of his friends instead.

The short version is that this show was much like any other cirque–aerial work, strong men and balancing.  But the overall story was vampriric.  It wasn’t “adult” or scary, but it did play up the tropes of vampire lore (somewhat).  For instance, before one of the acts, the woman was wheeled out in a coffin, but otherwise it was an aerial act with ribbons.

This is not to downplay any of the spectacle, just to give it proper setting.

Although according to the website

Set in Bohemia during the 19 century, Count Dracula contemplates a plan for world domination, when he decides to open a traveling circus with his gypsy bodyguards. The Vampire Circus is a perfect cover-up to travel unnoticed and begin his world reign of terror and turn all humans into an army of vampires for global dominance.

I didn’t get any of that but I did get

Cirque acrobatics, comical audience interactions, contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, and raving cheers for a “Mad Graveyard Clown.”

For indeed, the host, the Mad Graveyard Clown was awesome.  His audience work was fantastic.  Our favorite bit was when someone came in late while he was on stage.  He immediately found the man and had the man hold up his (the clown’s) coat.  The man stood of to the side in the audience and every time he lowered his hand a bit, the clown spotted him and made him raise his hand.  He also had a really fun sequence where he brought two kids from the audience and had them use water pistols to put out a candle.  For the climax of that bit, he moved the candle right in front of the people in the front row and gave him a huge super soaker. Continue Reading »

Posted in Acrobats, New Brunswick, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, State Theatre, The Vampire Circus, Vampires | Leave a Comment »

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