Photo by MARK LIKOSKY For a Boston indie kid from the ’90s like myself, Friday’s Bardo Pond/Major Stars show at Johnny Brenda’s was like a stroll down the proverbial memory lane. I used to walk into Twisted Village record store to check out the most obscure music I could find. Sometime around 1996 upon hearing that the owners of this eclectic record store in Harvard Sq were in a band called the Major Stars, I just had to go check them out. In the 20 years that have passed since seeing that show I can’t recall a more powerful live […]

Photo by ALAINA CLUNE Emotionally hungover from a Valentine’s Day spent trying to walk he fine line between embarrassingly enthusiastic and an even more embarrassing aversion for the holiday, me and my friends walk what feels like too many blocks from the subway to Union Transfer. We chug cheap beer without the ease and enthusiasm with which we normally do. The rafters and the general admission area of Union Transfer are blessedly uncrowded. There’s a calm, coolness that marks both the sound of the music and this rainy Thursday night. Girl Ray, a refreshingly laid back North London girl group, […]

Photo by BEN PELTA-HELLER My best friend sits on my couch and hunts fruitlessly through Facebook for a ticket. Girlpool’s Philadelphia show at First Unitarian sold out only hours before. This is evident the moment I arrive. The air is thick. There is barely room to comfortably take a sip of your somewhat stale, cheap beer. The folk punk band from Los Angeles opens with a fuller, harder sound than I expected for people adorned with glittery hair clips, and I sweat out the boxed wine I drank prior. On Powerpoint, the latest from singer/guitarist Cleo Tucker and singer/bassist Harmony […]

Photo by FARRAH SHEIKY “Can you cut the drum mic,” Lindsey Jordan, the 18 year old frontwoman of Snail Mail, asked Saturday night at PhilaMOCA. Her voice is raspy and nonchalant. I don’t think ever uttered a sentence that cool when I was 18. Snail Mail is her first band. (Once again, much cooler than my first experiences with music in high school, which involved a lot of West Side Story.) Their debut EP, Habit, was released in July 2016. Since then, Jordan has toured with the likes of Beach Fossils, Priests, Waxahatchee, and Girlpool. The PhilaMOCA show may not […]

Photo by MARK LIKOSKY As a Boston kid having come from the same early 90’s punk/hardcore scene that spawned Converge, it’s awe-inspiring to bear witness to a few suburban kids who made a demo back in 1991 slowly evolve into legends. Back then, having a demo, or better yet a split 7-inch, was a huge deal and hearing about local bands that got multi-album deals was not only unheard of but usually meant they would inevitably sell out and/or fail. This was also a time when the straight edge movement was resurgent and dark, metallic hardcore — Converge’s forte — […]

Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER At 9:00 PM on Tuesday night, the players of LCD Soundsystem scrambled through a crowded, labyrinthine metropolis of instrumentation and stage gear to take their places. The last of them — singer and producer James Murphy — emerged to the roar of a Philly Fillmore at max capacity, heightened to a fever pitch of anticipation over six years of waiting since his 2011 “retirement.” Murphy is arguably one of the unlikeliest late-middle-aged heroes of a rock-n-roll myth. At 47 now, the frontman’s affect and aesthetic is derived from the unique interface between “don’t care” and “doin’ […]

Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER I’m gonna get a little gonzo here. I didn’t go to the Kimmel Center last night because I was a huge fan of The National, I went because fans tend to talk up their live show, because I love live music, and because in best-case scenarios, seeing a band that you like live can make them a band you love. Four or five songs into their set, though, I was wondering why I wasn’t loving The National. Was it the venue, would I be enjoying this same show much more at a smaller club? Maybe. Music […]

Photo by DYLAN LONG Last night, Henry Steinway, AKA RL Grime, dropped in at the Electric Factory to spin a set of dark, high-energy bangers, dreamy interludes and catchy sing-a-longs galore. Joining him were Blood Company’s Graves and Fool’s Gold label mate Kittens, the former who is known across the EDM spectrum for his groundbreaking Diplo & Friends mix from earlier this year. The Nova Tour comes as RL is fresh off of his sixth annual Halloween Mixtape, an annual mix produced by RL consisting of the most sinister and spooky tracks that the community has offered up that year. […]

?????? Photo by DYLAN LONG Emo rockers Joyce Manor and esteemed surf-punk savants Wavves dropped by Union Transfer last night for some co-headlining shenanigans. Fans over the age of 24 were the clear outliers of the crowd; this one was for the kids. Before the main acts, we were graced with the presence of California’s Culture Abuse. For me, these guys stole the show. I’ve never witnessed a more crowd-pleasing frontman than David Kelling. He was goofy, engaging, and rambling – in short, he was himself. Turns out that Kelling has cerebral palsy. Nevertheless, the five-piece ripped through a set […]

Photo by DYLAN LONG Seeing Brit indie-weirdo sensation King Krule at Union Transfer last night, I was reminded of the wise words of the late great Bo Diddley: You can’t judge a book by lookin’ at the cover. Frail and shrimpy, the baby-faced 23 year-old Londoner looks like Ron Weasley in desperate need of a sandwich or seven. But when he opens his mouth, it’s another matter altogether. His scratchy deepwater baritone, thick Brit accent and fierce stage moves tends to stops traffic and silence skeptics — something he has been doing since the tender age of 16. His new […]