Photo by DAN LONG Three distinctive variations of “loud” were amply demonstrated last night at Underground Arts during the Philly stop of the Savage Imperial Death March Tour, featuring the wildly animated Melt-Banana, the seminal distorto-ooze of The Melvins, and break-neck intensity of Napalm Death. Playing to a sold-out crowd — a kinetic mash of beards, denim, and flannel — each band tested earplug limits and garnered high-contact physical responses, with bodies continually thrashing about for the show’s duration. Preceded by a series of droid’ish bleeps and swaths of grinding guitar sound, Melt-Banana’s set was delivered with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speed as […]
BEING THERE: The Cult @ The Electric Factory
The Cult, Electric Factory, Friday April 8th by DAN LONG DAN LONG: Joining The Cult — it’s a father and son thing, you wouldn’t understand. Or maybe you would. I can’t remember the exact moment it started – probably on a car ride with The Cult blasting over the shitty Subaru speakers and Dylan, my nine year old son, digging them. The next few years would be spent becoming semi-superfans, as my son and I built a tight Cult-centric bond. During our second show together, on a Wednesday night at The Trocadero back in 2006, my son became a bit […]
BEING THERE: Jonathan Richman @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Jonathan Richman’s shows are a meandering montage from start to finish, what might at first seem like an ill-advised marriage of classical guitar noodling, musings in various languages, vaudevillian song and dance, psychedelic storytelling and outright highly stylized stand-up comedy, with and without musical accompaniment. There’s no opener, and no encore. His show is short — just over an hour — and performed casually, intimately by Richman and his longtime drummer Tommy Larkins, before the rapt attention of a room of devoted followers. Where many performers seem to struggle to preserve audience attention or to outplay […]
BEING THERE: Rihanna @ The Wells Fargo Center
Artwork by ITSMCFLYY Admittedly, I haven’t always believed in the political power of Rihanna. That might be partially due to my inability to think philosophically while a preteen who was forced to run laps in gym class to “Pon De Replay,” and who went through awkward lessons in dancehall etiquette to “Umbrella” in my middle school’s cafeteria, and by that I mean my first introduction to what my peers called ‘dancing,’ which in reality was just grinding your ass into some dweebish 12-year-old boy’s lap under a strobe light that someone’s mom rented, while wearing an unfittingly preppy, mall-branded polo. […]
Win Tix To See Andrew Bird @ E-Factory Tonight!
Artwork by ANGELA RIZZA Folks, we are pleased to announce this last minute offer of a pair of tickets to see critically-acclaimed Wonka-esque indie-folker Andrew Bird at the Electric Factory tonight. What’s that you say? You don’t know what an Andrew Bird is? Hey, there is is no such thing as a stupid question. Although ‘who is Andrew Bird?’ comes close. Let’s ask around and study it out. Quoth Salon: Despite going through conservatory and getting a degree in violin performance, Andrew Bird has always felt like an outsider in the world of classical music. Yet, as alternative acts were […]
Win Tix To See The Savages @ Union Transfer
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Folks, we are excited to announce that we have a pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky Phawker reader to see The Savages at Union Transfer on Thursday in support of their just-released sophomore album, Adore Life. Here’s what The Guardian had to say on the heels of their 2013 debut, Silence Yourself: “[Savages] makes us dream of what it must have been like to have been around to hear, in real time, the debut releases by Public Image Ltd, Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division, to feel, as those incredible records hit […]
BEING THERE: Guerilla Toss @ Underground Arts
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Right before Guerilla Toss was set to play at Underground Arts last night, I took a seat on the floor in front of the stage with my camera. The floor just happened to be the spot from which I could get a decent photo and still revel in wallflower-y seclusion. There, I could avoid contact with anyone remotely interested in talking with me and consequently figuring out my affinity for what some call “art rock” and what I’d rather not be troubled with giving a name to. Truthfully, I’m a sucker for deeply collaged sounds […]
BEING THERE: Megadeth @ The Electric Factory
Photo by DYLAN LONG If the excitement for an evening with thrash metal behemoth Megadeth wasn’t enough for the 2000 strong at the Electric Factory last night, the newest addition to the Suicidal Tendencies live act most definitely tipped the scales. Dave Lombardo, the epic maestro of thrash metal drummers and former member of Slayer, recently joined Suicidal Tendencies as their official drummer on tour. Back in 2013, after being stiffed with barely any payment after a year of touring and a gag order against him, Lombardo was cut from Slayer after speaking up about the increasing deductions from Slayer’s […]
FROM THE VAULT: Q&A w/ Sir George Martin, Producer & Paterfamilias, Species Beatles Britannia
EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the sad the passing of Beatles sonic architect Sir George Martin, we’re reprising this brief email interview from 2006 on the occasion of the release of a series of Beatles mashups he’d mixed for Cirque Soleil’s Love. In the cruelest of ironies, his hearing had deteriorated to the point where he was no longer able to converse on the phone, hence the email format. Good night, Sir George, wherever you are. PHAWKER: I am sorry to learn that a hearing problem makes a phone interview impossible. Like most homo sapiens, I am a HUGE fan and […]
BEING THERE: Leon Bridges @ The Fillmore
Photo by DYLAN LONG The sold out crowd at the Fillmore Sunday night for retro-nouveau soul sensation Leon Bridges’ eagerly-awaited return to Philadelphia was 85% caucasian. Bridges is used to this. Back in June of 2015 Leon told The Guardian, “I have a song called “Brown Skinned Girl,” and I ask ‘Where my brown-skinned girls at?’ And there’s maybe one or two in the crowd. It’s a little awkward sometimes.” At 9:15 sharp, Bridges shimmied out on stage, snapping his fingers to the beginning of “Smooth Sailin’” amidst deafening cheers. Leon’s voice and energy were equally extravagant, not to mention […]
BEING THERE: SWMRS @ The Fire
?Photo by DYLAN LONG I walked into The Fire on 4th & Girard through the narrow all-ages entrance, and upon stepping into the room I found myself immediately at the front of the stage, squeezed between a wall and two girls, legs pressed up against the roughly thigh-high stage. I looked around at the sizeable crowd that filled the room up, and accepted the spot I was standing in as my fate for the evening. A tight squeeze, but a sweet up-and-close view of the bands nevertheless. The Frights took the stage soon after the wrapping up of Lancaster locals, […]
VINTAGE VIOLENCE: A John Cale Q&A
Photo by CRAIG MCDEAN via Interview EDITOR’S NOTE: A shortened version of this interview first appeared on VICE’s NOISEY website on February 3, 2016 BY JONATHAN VALANIA In 1982, VU architect John Cale recorded Music For A New Society, an album of wrenching, emotionally-shattered torch songs that prophesied a denatured dystopia, somewhere between Blade Runner and Metropolis, looming ominously on the horizon, full of vintage violence and hysterical laughter, homicidal mothers and greedy angels with broken wings exfoliating the crawling skin of God. Thirty-four years later, we may not quite be there yet, but you can see it from here. […]
BEING THERE: Wolfmother @ The Troc
Photo by TOM BECK The first time I saw Wolfmother was in 2006, and boy have times changed. What was a rowdy, teenager-infused rock and roll mosh show at the Electric Factory has turned into a stagnant Ed Hardy t-shirt-infused sausage fest full of old-but-wanna-be-young stoner metalheads at the much smaller Trocadero. Back then, voice-beaming front man Andrew Stockdale was joined by Chris Ross and Myles Heskett onstage. Since that time, the band’s gone through a number of different lineup changes, having as many as four members in the band. As evidenced last night at The Troc, the band has […]