Leonard Cohen on bended knee, Academy of Music, 5/12/09 by MICHAEL T. REGAN EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the sad but not unexpected passing of Leonard Cohen we present this reprise edition of our review of his concert at the Academy Of Music on May 13th 2009. Even back then it felt like a eulogy. The Great Man glides onstage in black pinstripes and a fedora like a gangster cantor, double-breasted and tie-less, his crisp creamy blue shirt buttoned-up to the neck David Lynch-style. He seems to walk on air. He was born like that, he had no choice, he was […]
Win Tix To See Fred Armisen Make The Funny Live
Tomorrow night, comedian Fred Armisen (ex-SNL cast member, star of Portlandia and Documentary Now!, sidekick/leader of the Late Night With Seth Meyers house band) kicks off an East coast run of live comedy dates at The Grand in Wilmington wherein he will perform the music of his various faux-bands (the cluelessly pro-authority punk of Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, the ersatz Laurel Canyon soft-rock of The Blue Jean Committee, the artsy-fartsy New Wave nonsense-making of Test Pattern, etc.). We have a pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky Phawker reader. To qualify to win you must do the […]
Win Tix To See Criminal Podcast Live @ The Troc
“Criminal is a podcast about crime. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.” Such is the self-description of the acclaimed true crime podcast Criminal, written and hosted by award-winning NPR reporter Phoebe Judge, which has just surpassed the 50th-episode threshold of durability and is celebrating with a live-action tour that stops at The Trocadero tomorrow night. We have a pair of tickets to give away to some lucky Phawker reader. To qualify to win, you must do the following: A) Friend us on Facebook B) follow us on Twitter C) send […]
BEING THERE: The Garden In North Philly
Photo by DYLAN LONG Wyatt and Fletcher Shears are The Garden, and they like their Chipotle. This of course I learned from walking around Temple University’s campus on Saturday with my friend Natalie, and running into them just a few hours before their headlining gig in North Philly. We asked to hang out with them, and they said sure. Fletcher was very kind, and made small talk with us whilst we were lowkey stoned as hell and utterly perplexed by the situation unfolding before us. We decided to play it cool by abruptly leaving the restaurant mid-conversation, unable to properly […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Aussie Psych-Rockers Pond At Underground Arts Tomorrow Night!
Pond — the circa now Australian psych-pranksters whose memberships Veng Diagrams with Tame Impala, NOT the early 90s Portlandian Sub Pop grunge-titan-shoulda-beens, although there is some haircut similarities — raises more questions than it ever answers. Chief among those questions is not ‘Are these guys high?’ instead it’s ‘How goddamn high are these people?’ ‘Is that even safe?’ ‘Should we tell someone?’ and lastly, ‘What about all the chromosonal damage?’ The answer to these questions in order of appearance: Higher than an entire Phish concert parking lotful of nitrous balloon huffers, fuck no, don’t bother everyone already knows, and […]
CAPTAIN’S LOG: A Fanboy Q&A w/ William Shatner
Artwork by PIERRE-LUC FAUBERT BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR PHILLY.COM Pretend, for the length of this introduction, you are me. Your earliest television memory is Star Trek, back when you thought you could talk to the people on TV simply by yelling at the screen. In the ‘70s, Star Trek reruns ran in seeming perpetuity. You watched every episode many times over, your thirst for the show was unquenchable and you became the ultimate fanboy — an obsessive, jock-mocked, girl-repellent Trekkie. You still have your copy of the Star Fleet Technical Manual you bought at the mall with your paper route […]
BEING THERE: Project Pabst @ The E-Factory
Photo by JOHN VETTESE courtesy of THE KEY “If you book them, they will come,” said the weird naked Indian in that one scene in Wayne’s World 2. This, apparently, was the mentality Project Pabst had when booking bands for the stacked Philly festival held at the Electric Factory yesterday. Project Pabst — which was supposed to be staged in the Electric Factory’s parking lot but was moved inside because of Hurricane Matthew — booked a variety of star-studded indie bands that put the Hollywood Walk of Fame to shame. And boy did the people come. Hop Along. Beach Slang. […]
Win Tix To See James Blake @ The Electric Factory
Prismatic Brit electro-soul cipher manboy James Blake is blowing our frickin’ minds. What’s that you say? You never heard of James Blake? Let’s ask Wikipedia: James Blake Litherland (born 26 September 1988),[1] known as James Blake, is a British singer, songwriter, musician and producer from London. He first received recognition in 2010 for a trio of dubstep-influenced EPs, and the following year his self-titled debut album was released in the United Kingdom[2] to critical praise. His second studio album Overgrown was released in 2013 and was awarded the Mercury Prize.[3] His third studio album The Colour in Anything was […]
FOUND: The Lost Bowie Album Recorded In Philly
THE TELEGRAPH: A lost album from David Bowie might seem like the holy grail of pop music yet the peculiarly named The Gouster, raised from the archives, is right here as the centrepiece of a handsome new 12-CD box set, Who Can I Be Now? (1974-76). The 27-year-old Bowie stares from the sleeve, draped in a newspaper and the American flag, looking unusually anxious, as if wondering what posterity might make of a collection of recordings he, himself, deemed unfit for release. He needn’t have worried. The Gouster turns out to be a minor joy from a major artist, […]
Win Tix To See Peter, Bjorn & John @ The Troc
“Young Folks,” the whistle-rific hit from Swedish indie-popsters Peter, Bjorn & John, turned 10 last month. Where does the time go? In the decade since, they’ve released four more albums. Couldn’t tell you a thing about any of them. I’m sure they are all very Nordic and turtleneck-friendly. PB&J play the Troc on Friday September 23rd in support of their new album, Breakin’ Point, which came out in June. We have a pair of tix to give away to the 667th Phawker reader who sends us an email @ Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following PBJ trivia […]
BEING THERE: Cat Stevens @ The Kimmel Center
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: At 68, Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens (aka Steven Demetre Georgiou, son of a Greek), has entered the taking-stock/legacy curation chapter of his life, which explains why his current tour, nicknamed A Cat’s Attic, is sort of a live-action memoir with a classic, precision-rendered soundtrack. Thursday night at the Kimmel Center, the stage set was the bifurcated attic of Stevens’ home, set against the rooftops of London, beneath a gently smoking chimney, in the glow of a full moon, where Stevens sipped tea and poked through the dusty stacks of memory, providing running […]
BEING THERE: The Longest Review Of Bruce Springsteen’s Longest U.S. Show Ever Written*
BY DAVID R. STAMPONE Let’s say a vet music journo gets to freely review a Springsteen show. In fact, it’s an historic “Philadelphia Special” Bruce & the E Street Band gig, exactly like Wednesday night’s down at Citizens Bank Park: a diversified, mostly dazzling, protean stroll-sprint-walk-run through 34 oft-extended songs — and at 4:04:49, the Jersey guy’s longest-ever concert in the USA, second longest of his career. (Were you there in Helsinki for all 38 songs on 7/31/12? Do tell.) The scribe’s inclination might be to write the review in quasi-”think-piece” form, waxing 1st-personal, braiding in “Me & Bruce […]
Win Tix To Culture Club @ Electric Factory Tonight
Iconic 80’s New Romantics Culture Club plays the Electric Factory tonight to the secret delight of Gen X nostalgists everywhere. We have a pair of tix to give away to the 62nd Phawker reader to email us @ Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following Culture Club trivia question: What is Boy George’s real name? No Googling allowed! And we can tell if you did. Put the magic words KISSING TO BE CLEVER in the subject line. Good luck and godspeed! CULTURE CLUB PLAYS THE ELECTRIC FACTORY ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH