Philly homeboy Amos Lee just released his sixth album, Spirit, and will mark this auspicious occasion with a concert at The Academy Of Music on Sunday. And it just so happens that we have a pair of tix to give away to some lucky reader. What’s that you say? You never heard of Amos Lee but would like to learn more? Well, this is your lucky day. As per Wikipedia: Lee was born as Ryan Anthony Massaro in 1977 and was raised in Kensington, Philadelphia. He moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey at age 11 and graduated from Cherry […]
Win Tix To See Bayside @ The Electric Factory
Since their 2000 inception in the suburban wilds of Long Island, Bayside has cranked out seven albums of moody, melodic, guitar-driven emo. Let’s face it, you need more moody, melodic, guitar-driven emo whether you know it or not. Lucky for you we have a pair of tickets to see Bayside — along with The Menzingers and the wonderfully-named Sorority Noise — at the Electric Factory tomorrow night. To qualify to win them, send an email to Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following question: What is the name of the Bayside drummer who was tragically killed 2005 when […]
BEING THERE: Mad Decent 2016
Photo by DYLAN LONG Welcome to one of the hottest fucking days of my entire life. Let’s get this out of the way before we go any further: This year’s Mad Decent Block Party was excruciatingly hot. Triple digits. Insane humidity. The last time I can remember sweating that much in one sitting was when I participated in a Sweat Lodge Ceremony, a Native American tradition in which various participants gather into a small hut filled with steam and sweat their dicks off for several hours. Aside from sweating non-stop for what seemed like eternity, here’s how the day went […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See X @ Underground Arts
To live and die in L.A., indeed. From the late ‘70s to the early ‘80s, X was the poetic conscience of the City of Angels, declaring that beneath all the hot sunshine and white teeth, it was in fact the city of the damned. Up to Ain’t Love Grand, X was everything you could ever want from a rock band (and even though they were punk-identified, they were so much more than the just safety-pinned pogo merchants). Smart, literate, versed in all manner of American roots music, X was arguably the finest band to ever emerge out of Los […]
BEING THERE: Coldplay @ The Linc
Photo by BEN BRINKER BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER “I can’t tell you how happy we are to be in the City of Brotherly Love,” declared Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who for reasons unclear ran around the Linc all night with an American Flag hanging out of his back pants pocket. “We are going to put on the best show we have ever put on!” For the next two hours, Martin and co. essayed the high water marks of their back catalog. Highlights included the beatific mopery of the aforementioned “Yellow,” the Olympics montage-worthy “Clocks,” the Woody Guthrie-esque benediction […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Chris D’Elia @ The Troc
Chris D’Elia is an American stand-up comedian, actor, presenter, writer and comedy singer. He is known for playing Alex Miller on the NBC sitcom Whitney and for the role of Danny Burton on the NBC sitcom Undateable. He also does a hilarious Drake diss (SEE BELOW). Tomorrow night he kicks off a two-night, three-show stand at the Troc. There are two shows tomorrow — a sold out 7:30 pm show and a 10 pm show, and a sold out Friday show. We have a pair of tix for the 10 pm Thursday show to give away to some lucky […]
BEING THERE: Father John Misty @ XPNFest
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER When Father John Misty took the River Stage at WXPN’s XPoNential Music Festival last night it became immediately apparent that wasn’t going to deliver a conventional set of pastoral folk rock ballads for an adoring crowd of dad rockers in khaki cargo shorts. “What the fuck is going on?!” he bellowed, refusing the guitar a roadie tried to hand to him. The bearded troubadour glided right past his mic stand with a long, lanky stride, and with a lit cigarette smoking between his fingers perched himself on a sound monitor, poised to confront the crowd. This […]
BEING THERE: Macca @ Citizens Bank Park
Photo by BEN PELTA-HELLER Rick Warren can suck it. If you want a congregation of people waiting to experience love and grace, Paul McCartney brings it like no other. When I was a kid, before I knew about drugs, I would listen to Best Of The Beatles on my Walkman CD player, and “Hello Goodbye” used to do it for me, let me tell you. At any rate, at a certain point, in college or whatever, it becomes clear that The Beatles are not cool, and Paul McCartney is the least cool Beatle. He’s the one who you would want […]
BEING THERE: Dylan @ The Academy Of Music
Artist’s rendering EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally posted in November of 2014. The Academy of Music opera house in Philadelphia opened in 1857, which, if memory serves, is where and when Bob Dylan first went electric — much to the consternation of the stovepipe-hatted folkies in attendance, who felt he was selling out the purity of old-timey steam-powered protest anthems. It is said that Stephen A. Douglas was so incensed he attempted to chop the cable supplying power to the Academy stage with an axe and had to be wrestled to the ground by none other than Abraham Lincoln, who “licked […]
BEING THERE: Bas @ The Foundry
Photo by DYLAN LONG “Are you Derick?” “Nope, I’m Bob.” Bob was the fifth person I had asked if their name is Derick, who was the tour manager coming to give me photo credentials for the sold-out Bas show at The Foundry. I’d been waiting for a delightful hour and a half downstairs at this point, passing the time away with my +2 — neither of us were on the list for the show, despite publicist assurances to the contrary. I’ve come to expect at least one thing to go completely not as originally planned when covering shows, so I […]
BEING THERE: Steve Gunn @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Steve Gunn is a sandy-haired mop top with raccoon eyes who can play the guitar just like ringing a bell. Perched somewhere between Television’s Richard Lloyd and Jerry Garcia, Gunn is adept in the dark arts of arpeggio, clustered overtone and the kind of modal chording arabesques that make Western stoners feel like Sufi mystics for the space of an album side. Straight out of Drexel Hill, Gunn established a beachhead in Brooklyn more than a decade ago, where he’s been releasing pleasantly complicated albums of effortless art rock since at least 2007. And […]
INCOMING: In Bob We Trust
It is difficult to overstate the contributions of Bob Dylan, but it is also, for similar reasons, difficult to say anything meaningful about him that has not been said. It’s like talking about the weather or something, “You know, I really like it when it’s raining.” Me too, man. Me too. However, if one were to attempt to overstate the contributions made by Bob Dylan you could begin with thinking about the word “prophet.” Fate wears some people like a glove, and Mr. Robert Zimmerman seems a likely candidate. Like Saul on the road to Damascus – “Zap!” – […]
Win Tix To See Low Anthem @ Underground Arts
“Apothecary Love,” an old-timey charmer from The Low Anthem’s drop-dead gorgeous Smart Flesh LP, has been making me smile for since it came out in 2011. It vibes like a summery cross between The Band’s Music From Big Pink and Beck’s Mutations – all mournful, moonlit country lilt and coal mountain melody waltzing matilda across the fruited plains and purple mountain majesties of the warm, narcotic American night. Its like old time country lemonade for your ears. The singer sounds like an Appalachian Cat Stevens telling it on the mountain, the harmonica wheezes like a far-off train whistle in […]