Photo by DYLAN LONG What do you get when you take one of the most vulgar and provocative rappers in the last 10 years and put him on a bill with one of the biggest and baddest members of Harlem’s hip hop collective A$AP Mob? The answer is quite simple: The Rocky and Tyler Tour. Several thousand fans from far and wide descended upon Philly’s Festival Pier last night to witness a mixture of well-crafted versifying, Tyler The Creator dancing like a man covered in honey and fire ants and A$AP Rocky effortlessly wooing every female in the house with […]

Photo by DAN LONG Having cancelled a handful of shows earlier this month due to “altitude sickness,” it was an open question whether Lemmy would truly be back in the saddle last night at the Tower Theater.  Would he bow out after two songs like he did in Austin? Would he plow through, driven by The Will To Rock (and maybe a coupla handfuls of trucker speed)? Or, would he die onstage? These were the lingering questions that hung in the air last night. On top of that, it is the opinion of many Motorhead fans that Lemmy should bow […]

Photo by TOM BECK What I love about The Eagles of Death Metal is that they’re one of those token cartoonish bands who refuse to take themselves seriously, but still somehow manage to find a way to come together and make kick-ass rock and roll. It’s a style pioneered by The Damned, and difficult to accomplish without coming across as a cheesy, Weird Al wannabe. Few other bands have achieved such a feat, among them The Darkness, Tenacious D, Weezer, Ween, and probably most famously, Nirvana. Some people might put Kiss in this category, but they don’t count. Kiss was […]

Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ I found Micachu and the Shapes’ arrival fitting for the seasonal transition out of annoyingly happy summer music festival season. I wanted so badly for them to drag all of us at Boot and Saddle last night by the hair into an atypically breezy autumn night and to rock us into early onset seasonal depression. I waited with the crowd on our collective tippy toes, our ears ready to be embraced by the bittersweet sound of Mica Levi [PICTURED, ABOVE] shredding on some old guitar— it would possibly be something handmade. We knew she would […]

Photo by DAN LONG The rainy late summer evening cast a suitably gloomy pall over last night’s proceedings, but the damp masses in Philly’s Underground Arts created a sorta human humidity that sapped the luster of yours truly. I was there to bear witness to another performance by the tragically but not surprisingly unheralded Denver-based gothic Americana outfit Wovenhand. For the uninitiated please allow me to smarten ya up some: David Eugene Edwards, the wunderkind/visonary behind Wovenhand, has been making haunting, beguiling music in one aggregation or another since 2001. Before Wovenhand, Edwards helmed the awesome mule-kicking combo 16 Horsepower. […]

St. Vincent, Susquehanna Bank Center last night by PETE TROSHAK WXPN’s XPoNential Festival is one of the yearly highlights of the Philly summer concert calendar, and the 2015 edition was no exception. The festival draws over 25,000 fans, spans three days and this year included over 30 performances. If you were only going to make it to one day of the festival this year Saturday was the one to choose with a stellar lineup of fiercely talented lesser known musicians on outdoor stages during the day and the dynamic one-two punch of St. Vincent and My Morning Jacket closing the […]

Photo by DYLAN LONG Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have had a hectic last couple of weeks, to say the very least. Dave experienced a tumble for the ages in Sweden resulting in a majorly broken leg, forcing the cancellation of many upcoming gigs, including two shows at the prestigious Wembley Stadium. In the hospital, Dave conceptualized an innovative and kickass throne prototype to support him on stage, which his crew wasted no time in bringing to life. The Foos were quickly back in action playing a grandiose 4th Of July throwdown at the RFK Stadium in DC celebrating […]

Photo by DAN LONG Two songs into his set at the Academy of Music on Saturday night, Morrissey paused to catch his breath and to beg the crowd to “save us from the memory of Delaware,” where he and his band were met by a sparse crowd of booing yokels at the Firefly Fest the day before. The near-deafening response made it clear that he’d get his wish. The packed house at the Academy got their wish, too: Moz more than rebounded from the Delaware disaster with an electric performance that kept the crowd on its feet for two hours […]

Photo by DYLAN LONG Making Time celebrated its 15th anniversary in grand fashion last night at the Philly gayborhood’s Voyeur Nightclub, with a highly anticipated headlining set from dance-pop’s biggest and newest up-and-comer, Shamir. The 20 year-old sensation from Las Vegas has set himself apart from the pack with his breathtaking countertenor, lovely persona and vibrant variety of songs. Popping up on stage a few minutes after midnight to an immense roar from the hyped up crowd, Shamir knew exactly what kind of time the club was looking for as he kicked off his set with a pep in his […]

Photo by DAN LONG Flash back to 1972 in South Plainfield, NJ. I’m three years old. My earliest memories are of my father and I pulling the pots and pans out of the cupboard and setting them up like rack toms on a Ludwig kit because he and the drunk and stoned partygoers who were at my house every weekend were ripe and ready to watch me do my thing: the outro of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll.” Bonham’s mini-solo/big finish was in my hands now. Wooden spoons in hand, I blasted out the fills with such vigor – in […]

Photo by DYLAN LONG Anybody who knows anything about thrash-y Jersey mathcore avatars The Dillinger Escape Plan went into Union Transfer last night expecting non-stop moshing, crowd surfing and acrobatic stage diving. But last night the barrier that usually separates the fans from the stage at these sort of shows was duly absent, which of course only further encouraged reckless stage-diving havoc while packing the front three rows of fans together smack up against the front of the stage like smelly, headbanging sardines. Mutoid Man, the supergroup consisting of members from the heavy hitting Cave In and the legendary Converge […]

– Photo by TOM BECK Judging by the wide spectrum of ages in the crowd at Union Transfer last night, Courtney Barnett isn’t the voice of a generation, she’s the voice of every generation, more specifically every generation that’s still willing and able to leave the house on a Monday  night for an evening of gloriously loud, raw rock n’ roll thrills. The Aussie indie sensation’s acerbic lyrics and deadpan delivery bring out the dry and sarcastic humor cherished by Millennials while still maintaining that classic “I-wrote-these-songs-in-my-garage-with-only-three-chords” primitivism old heads have been swooning over since The Sonics did it in […]