Music

On October 17, 2001, Low played a show in the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. Underground bands had been playing the church’s basement for years, but this was the first time anyone had ascended to the main room, and even in a secular music scene, the milestone seemed to take on a sacred significance. I didn’t go to the show, but it put Low on my radar, and after listening to Things… See more →

This was a bucket-lister for me, long overdue and worth the wait. It was also the second incarnation of Weird Al’s Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, in which he plays all original songs rather than the pop parodies he’s famous for. And I realized at the show that I think I generally prefer his originals! Don’t get me wrong; it was super fun to hear the parody medley in the encore, especially the extended “Yoda”… See more →

That rare four-band bill where everyone’s great. And as always, it is impossible to overstate how thoroughly @melt_banana rules.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this night, and it did not disappoint!

It’s rare for me to go to an arena show, and when I do, I generally expect the lack of intimacy to seriously diminish the experience. This was certainly the case for Mastodon, who absolutely demolished the basements and bars I saw them play years ago, but they couldn’t energize me in nearly the same way from across Trenton’s cavernous Cure Insurance Arena. The fact that I haven’t paid much attention to their last few… See more →

I may be living in a backsliding democracy, but at least I finally got to see the mighty Def Leppard!

Another one checked off the bucket list!

That night my two favorite former Sepultura dudes played all my favorite Sepultura songs.

Some stray notes:

• Upchuck’s frontwoman is a powerful performer, but part of her schtick is taking swigs of water or beer and spraying them from her mouth onto the audience. Punk rock abandon or not, I’m astonished anyone doesn’t understand how the events of the past two years have made that kind of behavior 1,000 percent unacceptable.
• Not to say any of their songs are bad, but Amyl and the Sniffers’ set list made me… See more →

Not in the upper echelon of the many Low shows I’ve been to, mainly because I’m somewhat underwhelmed by the new record, Hey What, which I think they played in its entirety. And the rest of the setlist was a bit too familiar, made up mostly of songs they play at pretty much every show these days. Some are classics I’m always game to hear (“Sunflower”) and others not as much (“Monkey,” “Plastic Cup,” “No… See more →

Let me begin by saying I promise this post is mostly good vibes. Skip ahead if you like, but if you’ll momentarily indulge my pessimism: What a stupid time to be alive.

2021 was supposed to be the year the vaccine gave us our lives back, and while it did for some of us to some degree, its international distribution predictably favored wealthy nations, and the long-simmering anti-vax movement here in the wealthiest nation of… See more →

No one can say Baroness aren’t professionals. After two years away from the road, an all-request tour where everything in their roughly 80-song catalog is on the table? Impressive. Ticketholders for each show were able to vote for which songs they wanted to hear, but I unfortunately missed the link in the ticket confirmation email, so I was at the mercy of my fellow audience members, who apparently prefer newer material than I do. The… See more →

Note to self: Look for Mary Lattimore interviews discussing her composition and documentation process. I’ve enjoyed her music casually for a few years, but after now seeing it assembled in real time in front of me—with her hands constantly moving back and forth between the massive harp in front of her and the delay pedal on her lap—I’d love to know more about her mental model for her music. Most other delay-oriented performances I’ve seen… See more →

Before the pandemic took hold and when I still lived in Brooklyn, I had been planning to check out Human Impact’s first-ever show at Saint Vitus in mid-March of last year. I’m lukewarm on the records they’ve put out since, so I wasn’t going to bother with this tour, especially since their tour mates Child Bite (who I’ve previously seen and enjoyed) weren’t playing the Philly show, but my friend Matt invited me to come,… See more →

I bought two tickets to this show during June’s post-vax frenzy of we’re-back-baby optimism. I actually thought someone would go to the show with me! I was so young. Not only were there no takers, I ultimately didn’t even want to go myself. I listened to some Idles records today in advance of the show and came to the sad realization that I’m just not that into this band. But couch inertia has cost me… See more →

Well, this was a learning experience. My previous experiment in seeing a show in NYC and sleeping in my own bed that same night was pretty successful. This time? Not so much. I got to see Greet Death play exactly one song before I turned into a pumpkin. Luckily it was the song I most wanted to hear, “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done,” whose title was also very appropriate for the moment.

As it… See more →

Somehow, in the 25 years since I (or anyone else) last saw Deadguy, we all got 25 years older.

Aaaaand we’re back!

This show was originally supposed to happen a year and a half ago, and it’s undoubtedly a different experience now than it would have been then. The last 19 months of COVID loomed large, sure, but for me personally, there was also the issue of my intervening relocation to Philadelphia. A night out in Brooklyn ain’t as convenient for me as it used to be, which, in a number of important ways,… See more →

I began last year’s “That Was 2019” post by expressing disappointment in my immune system’s poor performance that year, so let me begin this year’s wrap-up by praising that same immune system’s effectiveness in 2020. More than 1.8 million people died of COVID-19 in 2020, a disproportionately high 340,000 of them Americans, and I didn’t get so much as a head cold. I spent much of the year being grateful for my health and financial… See more →

It’s the smile that always sticks with me.

There was no shortage of smiles in the flamboyant and hedonistic hair band scene that sprung up in the wake of Van Halen’s titanic success. And most of them were the devilish smiles of libertine young men who were delighted to be getting away with something: namely, overindulging in the intoxicants and promiscuity that were frowned upon by the priggish adults of the Reagan era.

To whatever… See more →

Since we’ve all been stuck at home since mid-March, my friend Sequoia has been hosting delightful trivia nights for friends on Zoom. In Philadelphia, pub trivia is known as “quizzo,” so Sequoia’s weekly event is cleverly dubbed Sequizzo (or, if you don’t have time for all those syllables, Squizzo). This week’s theme was rock and roll, and when I was asked to commandeer a round, I decided to focus on fictional bands. My questions are… See more →

@manorastroman_official still kicks ass, even if @market.hotel’s sightlines do not.

If you know a better live band than the Sadies, you live a life of riches.

My immune system didn’t do me many favors in 2019. I was sick on five or six separate occasions in the first half of the year, including an obnoxious bout of bronchitis that lasted the entire month of February. Luckily that didn’t stop me from having an adventurous and fulfilling year, and for the first time in my four years at ProPublica, I used every single one of my vacation days.

Projects

My first three… See more →

Sometime during the development of Tinnitus Tracker, it occurred to me that color would be a good way to give its many entries—which span nearly three decades—a sense of time and place. Colors would change with the seasons and fade over time. In effect, every single day of the past 30 years would have a unique color scheme, each day looking slightly different than the day before. As a bonus, the color’s constant flux as… See more →

I was feeling like a slug earlier and the devil on one shoulder told me to skip this show. But the angel an the other shoulder was like, “This excellent band traveled all the way from Busan to play their music for you. Are you really going to deprive them of even one smiling face to greet them?” Thanks, angel.

Previous legs of Slayer’s sprawling farewell tour included support from Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth, Testament, Napalm Death, Obituary, Amon Amarth, and Cannibal Corpse, none of whom could entice me to drag my ass into a cavernous arena or amphitheater. And the last time I saw Slayer turned out to be the last ever appearance of the original lineup, shortly before the untimely death of Jeff Hanneman and the departure of Dave Lombardo, which seemed… See more →

Great to catch up with some Kansas City @usairguitar buddies swinging through Brooklyn tonight!

For most of their existence, and especially since the market for recorded music collapsed, the Misfits have been more of a fashion brand than anything, their logo adorning virtually any object that could conceivably accessorize with a shade of Manic Panic or a pair of Doc Martens. The unlikelihood of a proper Misfits reunion stemmed from the decades-long feud between founding members Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only over how those sweet merch profits should be… See more →

Finally saw my first live performance of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians”… in the middle of a shopping mall. Capitalism rubs it in.

This is about the zillionth time I’ve seen @lowtheband and I think the first time I’ve seen them play “Do You Know How to Waltz?” What a gift. My favorite moment of 2019 so far.

When my friend Alex from my Harmonix days announced on Twitter that his first show playing drums for the NYHC band None Above All was coming up, I thought it would be fun to surprise him, see him do his thing, and catch up a bit. And it was! His band was on first and I figured I’d split when they were done. But as soon as I got there, the room’s overwhelming majority of… See more →

I know it’s punk rock and it’s the late show and everything, but this isn’t someone’s basement. A 30-minute set from the headliner? Weak.

Biggest difference between tonight’s @bssmusic show and when I last saw them in 2004 was the woman next to me doing a crossword on her phone

Teenagers have shown us on many occasions that they’re capable of making fresh, exhilarating music, but that music is usually rooted firmly in an existing paradigm: hip-hop, punk, etc. Teenagers are students and students are formalists. One of the most striking things about Black Midi’s fresh, exhilarating, teenage music is its lack of an obvious reference point. It is at times reminiscent of Slint and their math rock descendants, and the funk-tinged post punk of… See more →