I saw Just Mustard open for Fontaines D.C. back in 2022 and they were amazing. They are a five piece band from Dundalk, Ireland.  They make a fantastic noisy mess of shoegaze combined with a wall of noise and singer Katie Ball’s droney vocals.

The band exuded seriousness and they were exceptional musicians.  Drummer Shane Maguire played some amazing and unexpected fills and when he hit the snare hard (which wasn’t always) it cracked to attention. I was right under guitarist David Noonan, who made an amazing array of noises.  Many sounded like guitars, many more did not.  And he was LOUD.

Next to Katie was bassist Rob Clarke who held the whole thing together.   He played simple (sometimes two note) melodies that were absolutely essential to the rest of the band.  And next to him on the far side of the stage was guitarist Mete Kalyon who played a lot of rhythmic sounds (not so much rhythm guitar as rhythmic sounds–his playing was very percussive.  He also generated really cool noises and the music was mixed so that all of the noise came from all over the place.

They opened the show with the noise and really never let up.   Endless Deathless has some squealing guitars–a catchy melody played with sharp sounds.  The drums were fast, the bass was fast and Katie’s vocals were slow and almost soothing.  And that was the pattern for the 75 minute set.

David’s pedals array was dynamic and he used it throughout–I often saw him twisting knobs and tapping buttons–usually while playing the noises.

The fascinating thing is watching Katie–while all of the sounds are looping around the room and she’s not singing, she stands, expressionless, not even tapping to the beat.  It’s unsettling.  Although when she plays the tambourine (from time to time) her rhythm is perfect.

I loved on Seven the simple rumbling bassline and Katie’s quiet vocals occasionally interrupted by almost machine-like waves of guitar.  And then, midway through the song, everything shifted as David pressed his left hand down on the strings near the pickup and played a melodic but percussive clicking, while Mete played more of those machine-like sounds and the whole band just exploded into sound–tension and explosion over and over in one song.

Despite the noise there were many moments that were really quiet–almost shoegazey.  This was especially evident when Katie sang in her quiet style over the waves of sound with only a simple bass line keeping the song on track.  A song like I am You is even creepier since Katie’s voice is almost childlike/ghostly, softly singing “I am you….”

Although I really enjoyed watching David, I was utterly transfixed by Shane Maguire, who almost refused to play bass/snare/bass/snare.  For some songs he played a rhythm on the toms (check out That I Might Not See which only has snare for one section of the song), for others he played all the toms in a row for nearly the whole song.  He hit the rim of the drums, he used some of the cymbals.  It was so interesting and made the song so vibrant.

I don’t know if I realized David was singing as well last time I saw them (he was on the far side of the stage and not visible to me).  I almost didn’t realize he was singing tonight because his microphone was almost literally above my head.  But I did hear a voice that wasn’t coming from Katie and looked up and there he was singing lead on a couple of songs.  And on Deaf he unleashed some serious throat-shredding screams.

There were a couple of genuinely quieter, more conventional songs, like Dandelion (which people around me were excited to hear).  And Pigs opened quietly with a slow three note bass line and percussive sounds from David.  Then Shane gave a drum fill and the noise squealed in (briefly) until returning to that slow quiet section.  I was amused that Rob had sunglasses on the whole time (and it was plenty dark already, how did he see anything?)  The quiet extended middle had Shane playing solely on the rim of the snare drum for a few bars.

Pollyanna was even more fascinating because Rob played a rumble of notes and then generated feedback–and that was the rhythm of the song.  It was fun to watch the stoic bassist creating this wall of feedback.  They played a couple of songs that I had heard last time, like Seven and I am You.  I can’t say I recognized them from four years ago, but there was something about the pulsing echo and two note “melody” of Still that seemed really familiar.  And it’s a song like this–with all kinds of noises going on that it’s remarkable you can hear Katie’s tambourine near the end.

Seed seems like the perfect set ender for them.  As soon as the song started, Mete put down his guitar and started playing with his pedals.  Midway through the song, Rob did the same thing.  By the end everyone was just manipulating noises into walls of feedback.  A crushing end to an intense set.  So glad they came back to Philly.

2026	2022
Endless Deathless ⇓	Seven §
Silver ⇓	I am You
Out of Heaven ⇓	Mirrors
Seven §	Tainted ϖ
I Am You	Frank §
Deaf ϖ	Still
Frank §	Seed
Dandelion ⇓
That I Might Not See ⇓	possibly played
Pigs ϖ	Curtains ϖ
The Steps ⇓
Pollyanna ⇓
Still
We Were Just Here ⇓
Seed

⇓ WE WERE JUST HERE (2025)
Heart Under (2022)
§ single (2019)
ϖ Wednesday (2018)

I found out about Witch Club Satan last year.  I’m not sure how I stumbled upon them (maybe Instagram?)  Anyhow,  I was immediately struck by the band:  three Norwegian women in corpse paint singing black metal.  And they were great.  They sang about different subjects (for black metal) and they were fearless.  They had great screams and were completely intense.

I didn’t really think they’d come to the States since they seem pretty niche, and yet, soon enough it was announced they were coming to the States for the first time, bring their tour: Founding of the North American Coven.  And they were coming to Underground Arts.  I grabbed a ticket immediately since I never know if shows like this will sell out.  It didn’t and I was able to invite my son along and grab a ticket day before.  He’s technically not allowed in Underground Arts yet (it’s 21+) but evidently, as long as I let them know ahead of time and follow some basic rules, he was allowed to come along.

He loved the venue (it is very cool) and he loved Witch Club Satan (Penelope Trappes not so much).  Actually, we were both blown away by Witch Club Satan.

The lights went down and they started playing a deep, synthy chord It went on for a few minutes (too long, tbh), but I think they were still setting up because shortly after, the band walked from behind the stage, holding incense.  They walked through the crowd, slowly, making eye contact with everyone nearby.  It was so impressive and the crowd was rapt.

When they arrived on stage lead singer and guitarist Nix (Nikoline Spjelkavik) welcomed us to the coven and they launched into Hysteria.  It was amazing seeing them up close.  The three women wear corpse paint and have blackened eyes and markings.  And from this distance it was easy to see that they blackened their teeth as well.  For the first couple of songs they wore knitted sweaters with openings for their breasts, as well as knitted horned headgear. Nix invited everyone to dance or take their tops off.

Bassist and singer Hedda (who is filling in for Victoria Røising who just had a baby!) was awesome.  She also sang and used a violin bow and a sword on her bass.

The songs are black metal–heavy, short, fast and growled.  I wished I had listened to their music a bit more just so I knew what was happening.  I was able to take a photo of the setlist before they came out so I knew what they were playing, but there were some notes on the page that made things a little unclear.  And after Water Girl, all three women came to the front of the stage to sing the mournful Mother Sea, a completely non black metal story/song that was really intense.

After the song they left the stage and showed a video on the stage.  A few minutes later they returned wearing nothing except for floor-length black wigs (and flesh-colored underpants).  They stood on stage and proceeded to spit blood on the stage and into the crowd (I got some on my glasses!).  Nix leaned into the crowd and whispered into the ear of the woman near me–wonder what she said.

For the intro of Black Metal is Krig, Nix shouted out that there would be no mercy for the mercyless–not for the warmongers, not for Netanyahu.  For the final song of this section, Mother, the three women came to the front of the stage again and they sang/screamed the word Mother (hearing their drummer Johanna Holt Kleive–who did sing occasionally) scream the word Mother in a high pitched wail sent chills up my spine).

They returned for the third part of the set in new outfits–denim and sequined, um, torn headgear and clothing.  They looked insane, and being able to see Nix’s eyes through this mask was really creepy–especially as she made eye contact with everyone.  For You Wildflower, Hedda walked into the crowd and shouted the intro to everyone and people individually

You don’t give up, you don’t give up
The sky shivers, you don’t give up
The ground breaks, the heart aches (Motherfuckers)
The heart aches, the heart aches
They keep lying, they keep lying
The dictators, the small dicks
You keep pushing, you keep pushing (Motherfuckers)
You keep pushing
You keep breathing, you keep breathing
The sun’s shining on your resistance
You keep fighting, you keep fighting
You show up, you keep fighting
You wildflower

It was awesome.  Their “single” Fresh Blood, Fresh Pussy” is certainly catchy and it sounded great.  And then for Witchcraft Techno, Nix crowd surfed (despite being mostly naked) and was safely transported to the stage.  Before the last song, she told us that we reminded her of Norway which was both good and bad.  We were very polite but we were also very uptight and se wanted to see people dance with them.  I was (pleasantly) surprised that there had not been a mosh put up to this point.  I think all eyes were on the stage instead of thinking about dancing.  But the crowd did oblige for the final song and a pit was started.

And that was that.  Their set was about an hour and it was exhausting.  I’m so glad I bought a shirt before the show, but I do regret not buying the tour vinyl of their album.  And, if by any chance, they played nearby again, I would see them in a second.

• Intro
• Hysteria ∇
• Wild Whores ∇
• Water Girl
• Mother Sea ∇
• I Was Made By Fire ∇
• Black Metal is Krig ∇
• Salvation ∇
• Mother ∇
• You Wildflower ®
• Fresh Blood, Fresh Pussy ∇
• Witchcraft Techno
• Solace Sisters §

® single (2025)
∇ Witch Club Satan (2025)
§ single (2022)

I found out about Witch Club Satan last year.  I was immediately struck by the band:  three Norwegian women in corpse paint singing black metal.  And they were great. I didn’t really think they’d come to the States since they seem pretty niche, and yet, soon enough it was announced they were coming to the States for the first time.  I grabbed a ticket immediately

I didn’t know Penelope Trappes before this show.  I listened to a few minutes of a song and got the idea that she was a kind of ambient singer.

She came out on stage with a bow tied around her head with the ends raised above her head like horns or rabbit ears.  She had an electronics board and proceeded to make ambient sounds on it.  She is Australian, but lives in England.  She did say Fuck Ice, which–yes indeed!–but is she here long enough to know about ICE?   I don’t know how much international attention they are getting.  But she was immediately on our side after saying it.

She sang, often sounds, sometimes words.  The first song (I honestly don’t know if she was playing a song, multiple songs, or improvising) lasted about 20 minutes.  I only say this because that’s when she said thank you.  There were lots of changes throughout the 20 minutes and they could have been different songs but there’s no way to tell–her latest album is about 45 minutes and it’s possible she was playing the whole thing, but again, I don’t know.

Correction, I recalled a few words when she sang, and “violent hope” was one of the phrases. It’s from “Red Dove” which comes about half way through A Requiem.  It also featured synths ala Philip Glass which  rather liked.

My son did not enjoy the performance–and it was more performance than music.  I figured he’d either love it or hate it.  I think it would have been more enjoyable for about 20 minutes, but running to 45 was a bit rough.

About half way through, she grabbed a guitar and an ebow and made really loud sounds with it.  I will say that I really appreciated the lighting for the set–it coordinated really well with the beats (when there were beats).  And she played some chords near the end.  She was very intense about the whole thing–I could see the anguish on her face.  And the crowd responded well.

However, I couldn’t help think that on the other half of the tour the band Patriarchy was opening.  I don’t really know them, but I liked a song or two and my son said they played a song on the house speakers before the show and he liked it enough to look up who it was.  I now want to see Patriarchy at some point.

A less charitable, but also honest reaction to Penelope (at another venue) came from Narc Magazine:

I have to confess Penelope Trappes didn’t connect at all tonight, which was disappointing because I had high hopes. The presentation didn’t help – it was Deeply Serious European Art Goth (think Nina Hagen meets Mrs Havisham) – and it was all very po-faced. To be fair, this all seemed to be very personal and intense and troubled, no complaints about her commitment, but there wasn’t much to hold on to, song wise. There was some interesting cello, a guitar was tortured to decent effect, and she produced some remarkable sounds from her tabletop shenanigans, but it was just so solemn and stagey. I suspect the music might work much better at home, late at night accompanied by a snakebite and black, but live it was way too panto for my delicate sensibilities.

My wife and I saw Bloodywood open for Babymetal about a year ago.  We loved everything about them–their intensity, their positivity and just how heavy they were.  So when they announced a headline tour I grabbed a ticket for myself, my wife and my son.  My son had a final exam the next morning so he opted not to come.  (Smart kid).   So that left my wife and I.  Normally I love seeing opening bands–some of my favorite live bands are band I first saw when they were an opener.

But I looked at this lineup and saw three openers–bands that I have never heard of–and told my wife that we could skip them all.  She had something to do until around 6:45, so we left a little around 7.  I figured we’d get into Philly with a bunch of extra time and then stroll in around 9 right after the third band finished.

Well, we didn’t realize it was Cinco de Mayo and had no idea that South Street was blocked off in a number of places because of some kind of free taco festival.  And we got caught in the middle of it.  We drove about a mile in 45 minutes, finally escaped the chaos and found a parking garage.  When we walked to South Street, there were crazily drunken people everywhere and police on every corner.  We negotiated the cops and entered the venue at around 9:15.  My wife later told me she thought they were going on at 9 so she was panicky and didn’t understand why I wasn’t.  Well, there was no merch line, so I bought a shirt and we headed into the packed room.

I don’t really like being so far back, but TLA is fairly small, so even being n the back isn’t so bad.  Aside from the guy who inexplicably felt the need to put both his hands over he head for most of the songs, I could see fine and the sound was great.

So Bloodywood is a metal band from New Dehli who started out as a band making heavy metal parodies of Bollywood songs.  In 2016, Katiyar quit his job as a corporate lawyer and together with Jayant Bhadula formed a two-piece band with the intention of “destroying pop songs”.

Now, live, the band is a six-piece.  Katiyar plays guitars and flute!  Bhadula sings and growls.  Raoul Kerr officially joined in 2019 and does rap vocals.  The touring band since 2019 includes Vishesh Singh on drums, Roshan Roy on bass and Sarthak Pahwa plays the dhol (an Indian drum that sounds amazing).

The crowd was really excited right from the getgo with a very large man chanting Bluh Dee Wood!  The lights went down and everyone stormed the stage and they launched into Dana Dan.  They had played this one last time and it has a super catchy chorus.  Based on the song titles, I assume all of the songs are in Hindi, but I have no idea.  And with their deep growling voices and super loud instruments, it’s not clear what they are saying.  Although the chorus of a chanted Dana Dan is pretty easy to shout along to.  [Turns out they sing in English and Hindi].  So the band played only 9 songs in an hour, but their songs were really long.  I was sure Dana Dan was over and a new song had started when they all started chanting Dana Dan again.

Between songs they would banter, telling us about the songs (this one is about Indian food, the best in the world; this one is for everyone who has felt serious sadness; this one is about facing your fears, etc).  And they called on the audience to do lots of things–scream, mosh pit, circle pit and at least three walls of death.  And the crowd was  there for all of it.  They also called for people to make some fucking noise (possibly the first time I’ve heard an Indian person scream fucking).

Nu Delhi is about where they are from.  And Aaj is from their first album–all three played last time.  The song about food is Tadka

Vicious and delicious, you don’t wanna miss this
And if you take a bite, then you licking all the dishes

Then Katiyar busted out the flute and played the melancholy opening of Jee Veery.  I really enjoyed the flute throughout the song and could have used more of it.  Machi Bhasad had prominent use of the dhal and it sounded great–again I would have loved to hear more of it.  This song, like many of the others has a pause and then pow–a great opportunity for a wall of death.

Bekhauf features Babymetal and their voices were (too quiet) in the backgound.  And then they announced that this next song was their last song (after only some 50 minutes).  But it’s a rager and the crowd was totally into it, even trying to sing along,

The crowd chanted one more song and they came back a minute or so later.  One of the guys said English is not his native language but did we shout one ore song?  They ended with Gaddaar which they had opened with last time.  It’s a powerful song with lots of pauses where they can have the audience sing the chorus one more time.  And one more time.

The hour just flew by and my wife and I enjoyed it tremulously.

The opening bands were

The Pretty Wild, Ladrones and Ankor.  I saw a lot of people wearing The Pretty Wild shirts and the guy in front of me was wearing an Ankor shirt

Of the three bands, I was most most interested in Ankor a Spanish alternative metal band from Catalonia, featuring female front singer/screamer Jessie Williams, drummer Eleni Nota, guitarists/singers David Romeu and Fito Martinez, and bassist Julio López.  I had listened to them before the show and liked what they did–but I didn’t want to get there super early just for them if I didn’t really like the other two.  But I hope I get to see Ankor someday.  They have a very heavy sound (and screamed vocals) but with a cool pop chorus component that stays heavy.

Ladrones is a Mexican band that mixes metal, hip hop, and regional Mexican music, self-describing their music as “Flow Pesado”. The band includes vocalists Zxmyr and Cirujano Resendez, guitarist José Macario, and drummer Diego Zornoza.  They sing mostly (if not entirely) in Spanish and have a nice mix of traditional Mexican sounds with heavy guitars.

The Pretty Wild are an American metal band from Las Vegas, Nevada, composed of sisters Jyl and Jules Wylde.They’re a little too screamo for me.  They sound like a lot of bands of this genre but the addition of female singers is a nice touch.  They were the least interesting band of the night, although I’ll bet they are dynamite live.

2026	2025
Dana Dan ® [Give a Beatdown]	Gaddaar ®
Nu Delhi	Aaj ®
Aaj ® [Today]	Dana Dan ®
Tadka [a South Indian cooking style]	Bekhauf
Jee Veerey ® [Live, Brave One]	Nu Delhi
Bekhauf [Fearless]
Machi Bhasad ® [Expect a Riot]
Halla Bol [Raise Your Voice]
encore
Gaddaar ® [Traitor]

Nu Delhi (2025)
® Rakshak  (2022)

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

Upon entering the venue, a sign said that the Whigs and Mercury Rev would like us to enjoy the show with out eyes, not with our phones.  Now, I like to take some pictures and I like to grab clips of songs here and there, but I try to be very considerate in my camera usage.  I never hold mine above my head.  So I was on board with this request–it didn’t forbid some photos but it didn’t want a lot.  And for the most part the audience around me was good–but it seemed like Greg Dulli was getting annoyed by some of the people up front who were filming a lot of the show.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the show.  I didn’t think they’d do anything fancy, and they didn’t.  I also had the idea that Greg Dulli had a devoted fanbase of women of a certain age.  He does and they were there in force and they were loud!  And it was a great show.  Sure the ladies screamed a lot but it was in good fun and Dulli seemed to enjoy it.  At one point he winked at someone in the front row and tossed her a pick.

I had listened to some of the newer albums, and, basically, they all have the same tone and vibe, which I like and that meant that any song they played would sound good.  And they did.  I didn’t know most of the songs in the set very well, but the band was great, Dulli sounded great and I have a really good time.  They only played one song from their most recent album (which they toured not too long ago, so that makes sense.  They played the most songs from their previous two albums, but touched on their entire catalog.

I hadn’t listened to Congregation in a long time, but I recognized I’m Her Slave.  It had excellent drumming from Bryan Lee Brown (Dulli said he was replacing replacing Patrick Keeler who was touring with Jack White’s band.  He also said that he’d been friends with Bryan forever and he was psyched to play with him–justifiably so.)  Another review of the show notes that the song “has a main riff in 13/8 that will fully and completely fuck you up if you’re a drummer not entirely on top of your game.”

Dulli played guitar but the leads were handled by Christopher Thorn who had a great sound and got all of the nuances of those solos right on.   Of course I was really psyched when they played What Jail is Like from Gentlemen.  But I also really liked their two new singles.  House of I is simple, but with fun drums and a noisy riff.

Over on the far side of the stage, Rick Nelson mostly played guitar, but also played keyboards and even violin (like the creepy solo on Matamoras).

After a few songs, Steve Myers came out.  I didn’t know who he was and assumed he was like a special guest, but I gather he’s in the band but only comes out for a few songs.  He brought a ton of energy and smooth dance moves and added an energy that the rest of the band didn’t have (but didn’t neeed).  He did sing co lead on Algiers which was fun, too.

Obviously I was super excited when they played Gentlemen.  The song sounded great and Dulli seemed to have a lot of fun with it, pointing at people during the you and you and you and you and me section.  And when the lyrics say turn out the light, the room went dark for a second.  It was very cool.  I had hoped they’d play Debonair as well, but hey, if I wanted to hear that, I should have seen them in the 90s, right?

The only member of the band who has been with Dulli since before the reunion is bassist John Curley who has been with the band since the get go.  Not much to say about him–he knows his stuff and was perfect.

Things slowed down a bit for Please Baby Please, and then Greg went over to the piano.  He had everybody clap and then paused and said, “wait, don’t be too white about this.”  Then he played a great version of Demon in Profile with a scorching guitar solo from Thorn.  After a couple of piano songs, Dulli came back up front for a ripping My Enemy.

The fun thing about the show is that there was almost not banter.  I normally like banter when it’s fun and the band is having a good time.  But sometimes you just need to get to it and the Whigs did just that.  There was no chatter between songs, no song intros, no filler.  Toward the end of the set, he did loosen the rules on that a bit when he talked about playing Philly over the past 40 years.  He said that they played the Khyber Pass and played Son of the South for a 20 minute jam.  They played it tonight and while it wasn’t 20 minutes, it did have a jamming section in which Dulli sang lyrics from The Doors’ Roadhouse Blues, which was fun.

They followed that with a couple more high energy songs and that was that.  No encore.  Just a solid set that I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to.

• Parked Outside œ
• I’m Her Slave ©
• Light as a Feather
• What Jail Is Like ⊗
• 66 ‰ [snippet of Little Red Corvette/Prince]
• House of I §
• Oriole
• Going to Town
• Matamoros œ
• Gentlemen ⊗
• Algiers œ
• Catch a Colt ψ
• Somethin’ Hot ‰
• Please, Baby, Please ψ
• Demon in Profile
• I am Fire œ
• My Enemy
• Son of the South ⇑ [snippet of Roadhouse Blues/The Doors]
• Duvateen §
• Summer’s Kiss
• Into the Floor [+ Miles Iz Ded (Slight Return)] 

§ single (2026)
ψ How Do You Burn (2022)
In Spades (2017)
œ Do the Beast (2014)
‰ 1965 (1998)
Black Love (1996)
⊗ Gentlemen (1993)
© Congregation (1992)
⇑ Up In It (1990)

I hadn’t really thought about seeing The Afghan Whigs.  I liked a few of their early albums, but hadn’t really thought about them much at all once they got back together in 2011.  Two of my friends had raved about the band live, though, so when they announced this show and that it was a 40th anniversary tour (instead of a new album tour) I grabbed a ticket right away.

And I was even more excited that the opener was Mercury Rev.  I really liked their weird first albums but I really loved Deserter’s Songs (from 1998).  Their newer stuff (alright, everything since Deserter’s Songs, I’ve found kind of boring (I admit I haven’t listened to all of it but what I have has been pretty bland).  So I haven’t wanted to see them headline a show.  But seeing them as an opener sounded grand, because surely they’d play at least a few of the songs I loved.

So it’s pretty odd that I literally just realized that I saw them 26 years ago.  I guess the show wasn’t that memorable (although 26 years is  a long time).  I really wish I had a better memory of it because it’s a setlist I would kill for (even if they didn’t play anything from their then two middle albums).

But here they were (I was much closer for this show, to be sure), 26 years later with Jonathan Donohue singing and Grasshopper on guitar as the only continuous members.

What struck me immediately is that in front of the drums which were on the side of the stage, there was a small step and Jonathan climbed up it, creating quite the striking figure as he conducted the drummer.  Donohue was wearing a big hat (that reminded me of the Waterboys for some reason) and a tightly buttoned peacoat with white sleeves (unbuttoned, sticking out of the sleeves of the coat).  It was quite the look and immediately told us that he was an artist.

Now, I haven’t paid much attention to Donohue in the last 25 years, so I was really surprised when he sang… differently.

One of the most notable things about Mercury Rev was Donohue’ voice which soared to the falsetto’d heavens.  But he simply couldn’t reach those high notes.  Indeed, I wasn’t even sure if he was trying to.  He had a completely different delivery that seemed almost like a lounge singer style.  It was quite surprising, but once I got used to it, it wasn’t so bad.

They opened with a deep cut from Deserter’s Songs which I didn’t recognize.  I was really intrigued by Donohue’s conducting of the band–who were really quite amazing.  Drummer Joe Magistro was fantastic.  The only other two musicians were in the back behind some keyboards–Marion Genser and Jesse Chandler.  It’s really hard to know what any of them were doing, but clearly one of them was playing the bass lines while Grasshopper played the solo.

I was super excited when they played Tonite It Shows, though, as I’ve always loved that song.  The next song was a pleasant song from Snowflake Midnight.  Called Butterfly’s Wings, Donohue kept fluttering on stage.  they played a song that I immediately recognized and assumed it was one of theirs.  But in fact, it was a cover of a Traffic song.  A song I know very well from classic rock radio but had no idea was called The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.  They rocked it out really well.

Chandler also played flute and saxophone which was fun and suited the newer songs quite well.   I was hoping that they would dig deep and give us a song from Yerself is Steam, but it seems like a very different entity than they were in the early 90s. A second song from Snowflake (with a lengthy spoken word section) was followed by the only song from their most recent album, Born Horses, which also had a lengthy spoken word section–this one was pretty ponderous–something that I think works better on record than live.  But I have just discovered that nearly all of that new album is spoken rather than sung, so maybe that’s his thing now.

He sang Holes, another favorite song from Deserter’s Songs but it felt like he was having a hard time singing it.  It segued into Opus 40, one of their great songs, which again it felt like Donohue as doing something differently and it almost feels like they should stick with only the newest songs live?

It wasn’t a bad set, per se, and I did enjoy Donohue as a performer, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

2026	1999
The Funny Bird ⇔	Tonite It Shows ⇔
Tonite It Shows ⇔	The Funny Bird ⇔
Butterfly’s Wing ∞	Chasing a Bee ¥
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic cover)	Holes ⇔
Runaway Raindrop ∞	Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp ⇔
Ancient Love ⊗	Car Wash Hair ¥
Holes ⇔	Syringe Mouth ¥
Opus 40 ⇔	Goddess on a Hiway ⇔
The Dark is Rising	Opus 40 ⇔ (contained cover of Talking Heads ‘Once in a Lifetime’)
	Not Dark Yet (Bob Dylan cover)
	Frittering ¥
	Cortez the Killer (Neil Young cover)

⊗ Born Horses (2024)
∞ Snowflake Midnight (2008)
All is Dream (2001)
⇔ Deserter’s Songs (1998)
¥ Yerself is Steam (1991)

About a year and a half ago I saw Stick Men for the first time and it was fantastic.

I was able to get up close to the stage to see Tony Levin (the main reason I wanted to go) play the Chapman Stick up close.  I have seen him play with King Crimson but have never been THIS close.  I didn’t know much about Markus Reuter, who also plays a kind of Stick–his own U8 Touch guitar.  But wow, he was amazing.  And he made playing these crazy complicated song so easy.  And I can’t forget Pat Mastoletto, who I’ve seen several times playing drums with King Crimson.  He’s amazing to watch, but I laughed to myself at what an amazing show this was if he was the least interesting thing on stage.

I enjoyed the show so much last time and I was really looking forward to this show as well.  The lineup was the same as last time.  And I was able to get nice and close.

I don’t know many of their actual songs.  And it doesn’t matter.  They mostly play instrumentals that are complicated and fantastic to watch.  Much like saying you could listen to a favorite singer sing the phone book–whatever the instrumental equivalent is, I was happy to watch it.

In fact, they opened this show with a relatively brief impov–almost a warm up–and it was fun to see them noodling on their instruments.  But it tunrs out that they played ten of the same songs as last time (in a different order) and that actually worked out really well, because  recognized them from last time, so it was even more fun knowing what was coming next.

They started with Cusp.  Reuter’s guitar is so fascinating because he holds it upright like a cello and both hands are just moving all over the fretboard.  Like a Chapman Stick but shaped like a guitar.  For this song, he was playing most of the bass line while Tony played lead on the Stick.

They followed it with the title track from their new EP Brutal–it was great–very heavy and rocking and featuring Tony going “uh!”

Markus did most of the talking, and he told us that their song Ringtone is a huge hit in somewhere like Turkey for one reason or another.  They played it last time and it was fun to recognize it.  It was during this song that I realized all of the things that Pat was doing on the drum kit–he has some kind of electric pad and was dialing in various sounds which he could trigger on pads throughout his kit.  For one of the songs, he had two electronic pads up front that he played mid song that sounded like a full electronic set.

They played Robert Fripp’s Breathless, a song I first heard from them last time and which I love.  Like last time it made me check out the whole album that it comes from but I didn’t really like much else on the record.  I wondered if it was easier to play Robert Fripp’s fascinating chords and solos on Markus’s guitar rather than on a standard guitar.  Markus has all of his fingers handy to play Fripp’s twisted structures.

After another older song (they do play a lot from their 2013 album Deep), they played two songs I remembered well from last time.  Tentacles is a wild piece that’s fun to keep track of.  And then Pat had a few words for us (after he took his gum out–so yes he can play King Crimson and chew gum at the same time).  He did the crowd participation bit with Mantra that he did last time getting us to clap on the beat for this sequence of time signatures: 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2 and then repeats backwards.

Then came their first Crimson song of the night.  I don’t know how many KC songs are in their repertoire, but I’ll never get tired of them playing Red.  Like last time, the KC songs feel looser, not sloppy at all, because they are precision players, but as if they were just having fun with it instead of needing to meet (dare I say it, Robert Fripp’s exacting standards).  Reuter in particular threw in some little solos that are noncanonical.

They followed it with two new songs.  The Well from the EP and Komodo from their forthcoming album Let’s THRAK again.  Reuter told us that Komodo was named after the Komodo dragon which he was able to see in person on a trip abroad.  He learned that the dragon doesn’t rip your head off.  First it poisons you and then it rips your head off.  He felt with this song sometimes he was lucky to have survived the end.  I lost track of what song this was in, but at one point Tony was using a violin  bow on a Chapman Stick and it was very cool to see that in action.

Up next was the slower, improvised Swimming in Tea.   Like last time it was slow and meandering but it was most fun watching Pat who was making most of the sounds on his electronic pad–birds and gongs and voice prompts (here comes a knock on the door).  At one point I looked up and realized that he was cranking a plastic water bottle into the microphone to make interesting sounds and he followed that with a dog toy making squeaky crying sounds.  Hilarious but wonderfully atmospheric.

They followed it up with the only song with lyrics, “Prog Noir.”  Tony sang a song about touring as Stick Men.  It was the most “song like” song, with an actual song structure.

It was followed by a thrilling “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two” which also felt a little looser and more relaxed.  But the crowd was super psyched for it including the weird guy in front of me who decided that he should empluy what I can only think to call the Native American War Cry three times during the song.  WTF.

That ended the set and they came out to bow.  The guys then “decided” to do one more.  They ended with the awesome King Crimson song Level Five, which Pat said was also called Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Five (which makes sense).  Yep, they played it last time, but I loved seeing them play it again.

With their new album coming out in September, I assume they’ll come back to PA in the New Year.  I’d happily see them again.

2026	2024
Improv	Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two [King Crimson song]
Cusp ⇓	Ringtone Ψ
Brutal ⊗	Hide the Trees ⇓
Ringtone Ψ	Tentacles Ψ
Breathless [Robert Fripp song]	Horatio ⇓
Crack in the Sky ⇓	Cusp ⇓
Tentacles Ψ	Breathless [Robert Fripp song]
Mantra	Mantra
Red [King Crimson song]	Red [King Crimson song]
The Well ⊗	Danger in the Workplace Ψ
Komodo &	Swimming in Tea Ø
Swimming in Tea Ø	Prog Noir
Prog Noir	Level Five [King Crimson song]
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two [King Crimson song]	encore
encore	The Sheltering Sky [King Crimson song]
Level Five [King Crimson song]	2024

& Let’s THRAK Again (2026)
⊗ Brutal EP (2025)
τ Swimming in Tea (Live EP) (2024)
Ψ Tentacles (2022)
Ø Owari (2020)
Prog Noir (2016)
⇓ Deep (2013)

About a year and a half ago I saw the exact same lineup in the exact same place.  Tim Motzer opened for Stick Men.  Last year I hadn’t heard of Tim, but this year I had a much better idea of what to expect.  Last year I wrote

Tim Motzer is a Philly-based guitarist.  For his live show, he plays acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.  He loops his melodies and creates percussion by tapping on the hollow bodied acoustic (and gets a lot of different sounds from it).

Last time he played four songs.  This time it was five.  But the show started the same way (actually this time, someone in the front row said, “Take us on a journey, Tim.”

The first song was on the acoustic guitar.  It was fun to watch him build and then deconstruct the melodies and work within the drum beat that he created.

This year he said he had some new pedals.  One of the seemed to make his acoustic guitar sound like a glitchy electronic concoction. It was pretty neat.  Last time eh didn’t say the names of any songs.  But his year he told us he was working on an album and he was going to play songs that he was working on.  The first was Chaos Resolution.   He didn’t name the next one.

He switched to 12 string guitar and I loved the creation of this song–a cool bass line and lots of nice repeated melodies.  He even used an e-bow at one point.

The third song was on the electric guitar.  He used the ebow again and played with effects more.

He went back to the 12 string guitar in addition to the effects pedals, he used a metal slide to add some interesting metallic sounds.

For the last song, he returned to the acoustic six string and used a  shirt violin bow (made for guitars?) to generate new sounds that served as the backing chords for his exploration.

He played about 40 minutes and it was all fun and trippy.

Oh, he sang on two of the songs.  I didn’t love his voice, but it’s probably good not to only play instrumentals.

• Chaos Resolution (6 string)
• 12 string
• electric
• Stutter (12 string)
• 6 string acoustic with bow

A little over two years ago I saw Fishbone open for Parliament.  I had been a big fan of their earlier stuff but hadn’t paid much attention since the mid 90s.  They have gone through an astonishing amount of line up changes.

Back in 2023, the lineup was pretty close to the original with

• Angelo Moore – vocals, saxophones, theremin, percussion (1979–present)
• John Norwood Fisher – bass, vocals (1979–present)
• “Dirty” Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet, vocals (1979–2003, 2010–present)
• Christopher Dowd – keyboards, trombone, vocals (1979–1994, 2018–present)

The other two guys on stage were

• John Steward – drums (1999–2016, 2021–present)
• Mark Phillips – guitar (2019–present)

But evidently last year nearly the entire lineup left for one reason or another and so the only two original guys are Angelo and Christopher:

• Angelo Moore – vocals, saxophones, theremin, percussion (1979-present)
• Christopher Dowd – keyboards, trombone, vocals (1979–1994, 2018–present)
• Tracey “Spacey T” Singleton – guitar (1997–2003, 2024–present)
• Hassan Hurd – drums (2024–present)
• JS Williams – trumpet, vocals (2024–present)
• James Jones – bass (2025–present)

I hadn’t realized this upheaval before this show, but I am glad that I got to see the previous lineup at least once.  Now in fairness, Angelo Moore pretty much IS Fishbone, so he’s the guy that you really want to focus on.  But having said that, the rest of the band was great.  First, it was funny that Hassan’s drumset faced the wall (as if he were in a timeout).  I’m pretty sure this was because of the size of the stage.  But he was a beast on double bass drums (and I could see that he was barefoot).  I loved James Jones’ five strig bass sound.  Fishbone has always had great bass and his was perfect.

Spacey T was on the far side of the stage so I couldn’t really see him all that well, but he played killer riffs and solos. JS Williams was a fine replacement for Walter Kibby–his trumpet was great and he was a perfect hype man.

I was right in front of Christopher on keys.  He was a lot of fun and spoke his mind openly about **ump and the people who voted f0r him.  And if anyone had voted for the man, they shouldn’t be at the show.  But as I said, the focus is on Angelo.  He is a dynamo–full of energy and his voice sounds great.  He engaged the audience and was just the most fun.  And perhpas the most interesting thing of all was that he played the theremin–A LOT!–with incredible control.

The first set was the In Your Face album.  It was a lot of fun to hear the album in full.  I know the first half of the album really well and I feel like I got to really appreciate the rest of the song more in this setting.  Movement in the Light was great live.  In the middle of Knock It, they jumped into a bit of Rollercoaster of Love, which was a lot of fun and Simon Says the Kingpin featured some call and response before the song took off.

After the album, (I could see the setlist on the drumset), they wasted no time playing Party at Ground Zero which was super fun.  The crowd was fully behind that one.  And the fact that they followed it with Ma & Pa was just fantastic.

I saw that at a few other shows they were playing Swim, which would have been really fun to hear, but overall I liked out set better.  So  didn’t realize they had a new album out, an album that featured the current lineup.  On the setlist it said Racist Pizza and I wasn’t sure what song that was. Well, it’s a straight up anti ***mp and his ilk song called Racist Piece of Shit and boy was that cathartic to sing/scream along to.

It was a huge surprise that they played Drunk Skitzo from the album that Swim is on.  I always enjoyed the wild mood swings of that song even if the lyrics are really dark.  I’d probably have preferred Swim, but I feel like we got a great deep cut instead.  After a chant of Fuck Ice, they played another new song Secret Police which is an anthem for anyone who hates what’s going on.

Last time I Saw them I had seen that they’d played Everyday Sunshine at a recent show and I wished they’d played it for us.  So it was awesome to hear it tonight.  It sounded so good.  And then they quickly left the stage.

I know that they had the encore on the setlist, but the venue started playing music when they left the stage.  Their  tech guy started waving his arms hyping us up to cheer louder and they did come out.  It felt like an unplanned encore (even though I’m sure it wasn’t).  And it was great to hear it.  A catchy singalong with great instrumental parts.  I loved that they ended the song like the album with just the trumpet and guitars playing us out.

After the show (since Crossroads is so small), I got to chat with 3/5 of the band and even said hi to Angelo, who tried to get me to buy his book of poetry.

What a fun night and a great complement to the previous Fishbone show.  The only songs I would have liked to hear (bit didn’t at either show)
Subliminal Fascism
Lyin’ Ass Bitch [rude song, yes, but so so good]
Servitude
and Freddy’s Dead.

≠Stockholm Syndrome (2025)
∇ Fishbone EP (2023)
© Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996)
Give a Monkey a Brain… And He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993)
∞ The Reality of My Surroundings (1991)
⇑ Set the Booty Up Right (1990)
§ Truth and Soul (1987)
⊗ In Your Face (1986)
£ Fishbone EP (1985)

This show was initially scheduled for December, but Dana had appendicitis and had to postpone the east coast shows.  This worked out for me because I couldn’t get to the December show.

I was pretty pleased when I arrived that the people in front of me were (possibly) older than me.  They had gray hair but she was wearing a Sir Chloe shirt.  Sir Chloe is pretty much a TikTok sensation so her crowds tend to be young (my daughter introduced me to her–in fact I think I liked her shows more than she did so I went to this one without her).

I enjoyed being behind the older folks because she was very short.  But she left (bathroom?) at the end of Suzy Clue and a young woman pushed her way into he spot, followed by a much taller woman.  So, my view was blocked, and to make it worse, the first woman was an arm raiser–the worst affliction after loud talkers.  Luckily I was able to schooch over away from them–but I missed seeing how the older woman enjoyed the show.

Sir Chloe’s band came out on stage and by the end of the set I was blown away by them.  Alina Sloan was on bass.  She was the furthest from me, but–especially toward the end–her bass was great–exciting and rumbly.  I was in front of guitarist Soph Shreds and does she ever.  It was really fun watching her rock out and play some great loud chords.  She also had a few tricks up her sleeve which I enjoyed quite a bit.  But mostly I was blown away by drummer Maya Sepansky.  Holy shit, she was fantastic–she played all kinds of fills, played different rhythmic patterns and generally blew me away.

But as they started Squaring Up, Dana was singing from behind the curtain.  She came out on stage midsong wearing a Mannequin Pussy T-shirt and cargo pants.  A very different look from her red suit from the previous tour.  Like last time, she was deadpan and understated.  Unlike last time, she seemed to walked around a lot more, getting close to us on the edges of the stage.  Her on stage persona is so fascinating because unlike say Suzy Clue, she is not doing anything on stage.  No dancing, no writhing, just singing.  And I love that she has the confidence in herself and her music to just sing her songs.  And yet, despite not doing a lot, she is totally engaging–charismatic and weirdly engaging.

This tour was for her relatively new album Swallow the Knife. She played 8 of 11 songs from it (skipping The Hole (the opening song!), Complicated and Too Much).  And the fans were just as into the new stuff–it’s super catchy, like the ahha ahha of Forgiving.

She didn’t speak very much between songs–she’s very hard to figure out.  Although she did ask “who likes to Kiss” as an intro to Kiss (the woman next to me shouted “I volunteer!”)  The catchy “right-ee-ight-ee-ight” is fun as is the end, “I don’t want love, I want revenge.”

She only played 4 songs from her previous album.  But she chose good ones and played three in a row.  I love the noisy squealing of Salivate and that she followed it with the quieter Obsession.  I was really happy that she played Hooves (I don’t wanna hold hands)–one of my favorite songs that seemed well used near the end of the set to get everyone really pumped.

One of my favorite songs is Sedona, which has two catchy parts, the nicotine/amphetamine part and the Sedona/Arizona part gives you two sing alongs in one song.

She played 7 of 9 songs from her first album (Skipping Easy on You and Wrath), which still gets the biggest applause, I think.  People went nuts for July. She ended the set with two songs from the album.  I enjoyed the loud/quiet mix of Untie Me and Animal.  And then she told us she had time for one more song and everyone got excited when the dude who wanted Michelle so badly shouted Michelle!  But she messed with everyone by playing the very mellow Candy

The encore break was short and she came back out for Michelle which made everyone go crazy.  It’s not my favorite of her songs to be sure, although it’s what all the kids like.  I was happy that she ended the show with the ass kickng Too Close which features two great sing along moments, “I think it’s time for you to go ” and the stellar: “Don’t tell me to listen when you’ve got nothing to say.”

Sir Chloe songs feel kind of understated on record, like Passenger, but live, the band really rocks out.  The guitars are loud, the drums rumble and the bass throbs.  And the songs are fairly short so a 21 song set can run about 75 minutes and it feels like a much longer show.  I’m so glad I went and it was even fun to get home early.

⊗ Swallow the Knife (2025)
π Single (2024)
Õ I am the Dog (2023)
∇ Single (2022)
¶ Party Favors (2020)