The Damned with The Bellrays and Electric Frankenstein – Theater of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA) – May 13, 2009
Please see my full review here.
Fear with Mongrel – Trocadero (Philadelphia, PA) – May 9, 2009
What a difference 16 years make. The first time I saw Fear was in January 1993. It was a comically underattended show at the long-defunct Trenton, NJ club City Gardens that ended with the plug being pulled on them during the encore and the cops storming the place.
This time was much more sedate and though the space (the balcony of the Trocadero) quite small, much fuller as well (the show sold out). Of course the crowd sang along to every song their debut album The Record (I was nearly hoarse after singing along with the opener “I Love Livin’ in the City”) and the later stuff didn’t sound too bad, either. It’s amazing that LEE VING is still doing this at almost 60 years of age and equally amazing was his stage banter. Philadelphia is his hometown, so we got some choice tributes to his old neighborhood and what not. By the time it was all over (at about 1:45 AM), I was exhausted but it was oh so worth it.
As for openers MONGREL, well they were horrendous. The best thing I can say about them is that they covered “Bullet”, one of my favorite MISFITS tunes. It sounded like a high school cover band, though.
Ghost with The Baird Sisters – Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA) – May 8, 2009
Although they had less instrumentation this time around, the Japanese psych band Ghost was just as great this time around as the last time we saw them. They remind me a lot of tons of late ’60s/early ’70s bands ranging in style from CAN and AMON DUUL to early PINK FLOYD and KING CRIMSON.
In sharp contrast to the raucous headliners, The Baird Sisters were a quiet, though satisfying, opener.
The Dears with Great Northern and Eulogies – Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA) – May 6, 2009
This was my first time seeing The Dears, a perennial favorite of mine over most of this decade so far, in two and a half years. With a completely revamped lineup (with the only holdovers being leader MURRAY LIGHTBURN and his wife, keyboardist NATALIA YANCHUK), they sounded as good as ever both on the new-ish songs from their latest Missiles (in fact I liked them more than on the record, which has yet to really grow on me like I hoped) and the material from their excellent 2006 album Gang of Losers and career zenith, 2004’s No Cities Left. The evening’s highlight was clearly the encore, with “We Can Have It” and “22: The Death of All the Romance” (both from No Cities Left) being played back-to-back.
Openers Great Northern are a four-piece whose heavy, super-tight, shoegaze/dream-pop reminded me a lot of ASOBI SEKSU.
The previous opener, Eulogies, wasn’t as memorable, but they weren’t bad, either.
Loney, Dear – Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA) – May 6, 2009
Playing to a sparsely attended crowd on a rainy Monday night, Loney, Dear nonetheless impressed the hell out of me with a show heavy on material from their new album Dear John and with much of a rock-oriented, full-band structure than I’d ever seen them undertake in the past.
Dinosaur Jr with Mike Watt – The Chameleon Club (Lancaster, PA) – May 1, 2009
Although Dinosaur Jr were their typically great selves, I thought the setlist was a bit weak, focusing too much on material from 2007’s Beyond and their forthcoming Farm and not enough on their classic mid to late ’80s stuff.
Mike Watt, on the other hand, was a huge surprise and frankly absolutely magnificent. Without a new album to promote, he played tons of MINUTEMEN songs, a few by WIRE (“Three Girl Rhumba” and “Ex Lion Tamer”) and even one by THE LAST (“She Don’t Know Why I’m Here”), all with an energy that most artists half his age couldn’t muster. Dinosaur Jr’s LOU BARLOW joined him on vocals for one of the Minutemen numbers.
King Khan and the Shrines with BBQ – First Unitarian Church (Philadelphia, PA) – April 30, 2009
Although nothing could beat the first time I saw them last year, when I hadn’t even heard a note of their music and was absolutely blown away, this was still a fun show with KING KHAN and company pulling out all the usual stops and one audience member perhaps getting a bit too nutty onstage (though entertainingly so), kissing Mr. Khan, grabbing the pom-poms from the cheerleader, dancing like a loon, et al.
Opener BBQ (who also releases records and tours with King Khan as THE KING KHAN AND BBQ SHOW) turned in an opening set which was a nice variant on the HASIL ADKINS/ANGELO SPENCER one-man garage/r’n‘b band.
The Trashcan Sinatras – In The Music (Lo-Five)
The first new Trashcan Sinatras album in almost 5 years is another great one. Not as moody or emotional as 2004’s great Weightlifting (my favorite album of that year) and lighter in tone on initial listens, I have to spend a lot more time with it to assess whether it’ll be as enjoyable as any of their previous albums, but so far it seems to be worth the wait.
Neil Young – Fork in the Road (Reprise)
This one has gotten so-so reviews and while I’m not a huge Neil Young fan (my fandom can best be described as casual), I was really pleasantly surprised by how good his new album is. Its sound is comparable to his more rockin’ mid ’70s material (think Zuma), but the subject matter is another thing entirely.
The easiest criticism of this album is that its lyrics won’t be relevant in a few years, much like what was said about 2007’s Living with War. It’s a concept album about his car, a souped-up ’59 Lincoln Continental that was redesigned as an electric car and thus many of the lyrics deal either directly with the car itself or with driving. Others touch upon current events (“Cough Up the Bucks” with its memorable line about bailouts being only for the ultra-rich and not for “you and me”). Regardless, I still say that Young is speaking his mind and still making vital, interesting, challenging music at an age where so many of his peers are either retired or treading water and I think that’s something that should be celebrated.
Art Brut – Art Brut vs. Satan (Downtown)
I absolutely loved 2005’s Bang Bang Rock and Roll, but after 2007’s flat, uninspired and lackluster It’s a Bit Complicated, I pretty much gave on Art Brut. It’s a good thing that I didn’t, though, because this is a shocking return-to-form. Produced by FRANK BLACK, songs like “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes” and “THE REPLACEMENTS“ are just as witty, funny and instantly memorable and catchy as anything on Bang Bang Rock and Roll. Furthermore, EDDIE ARGOS clearly has his heart on his sleeve, unlike the detached poses of many of the other similarly-styled British bands who put out their debuts at around the same time.
