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concert photos
When Mayor Michael Nutter declared this Rolling Stones Week in Philadelphia, he probably hadn’t considered including Faces keyboardist and Stones collaborator Ian McLagan (famously during 1978’s Some Girls tour, recently documented on the Live in Texas ’78 BluRay) as part of that schedule. I’m here to right that wrong by placing McLagan’s performance at the tiny Tin Angel alongside the Stones’ more epic undertaking at Wells Fargo Center, because, in its own way (especially as up-close as I was to the Stones, thankfully) each event shared a similar intimacy.
View galleryWhen The Postal Service did the ol’ ritualistic “thank you all good night see you soon” thing about an hour into their set, we had to wonder if it really was goodbye. But the more pressing questions were...
- Hadn’t they already torn through the entirety of 2003’s Give Up?
- What exactly did “soon” mean given that it’d been about a decade since their last Philly show?
- Why the hell did I skip that show at the North Star way back when?
Beth Cosentino's got a pretty fierce voice. She can boom on the loud ones and belt on the torchers. So sometimes it's a surprise, if not a little bit of a disappointment, that she writes such simple, straightfoward lyrics about love and longing.
Exhibit A: "Boyfriend," from 2010's Crazy for You: "I wish he was my boyfriend / I wish he was my boyfriend / I'd love him to the very end / But instead he's just a friend."
Exhibit B: A couple cherry-picked choruses: 1) "When I'm with you I have fun" and 2) "You don't know why I cry."
The sentiments are true and sweet, and transparent, but too many of them in a row and you start to wonder if this band is all lollipop and no stick. Maybe this is her approach to classic songwriting, with words unshackled from timeliness or hidden meaning. And maybe we've already got enough cleverness in the world already. Regardless, I have no interest in picking a fight with all those college kids in the smoky haze at the TLA on Wednesday. In concert, the simple stuff worked, especially when it was set to low-then-loud guitars and catchy melodies. You may not give me a lot to think about, Best Coast, but when I'm with you I have fun.
Solange danced on stage with moves you’d catch at any predominately black middle school in the ’90s. She jigged; she finger-rolled; she coordinated her steps Prince-style with her guitarist and bassist. She did so in dookie twists and mixed African prints, a look that served as a reminder that this approach to style was something her sister, Beyonce, borrowed from her, and not the other way around.
Solange was just one artist in a stacked line-up. The Roots always appear to be curating a mix of indie darlings, newer rap stars and hip-hop legends, and this year they made good, tapping Grimes, A-Trak, DJ Premier and Macklemore among others. Solange’s time breezed by — she showed off her flute register in front two backup singers who sounded exactly like her, in a really referential set that showed if anything, that the blipster queen was among us.
The Baroness that headlined Union Transfer on Friday night did not look like one that survived a bus crash, or like one that endured a lengthy recovery involving extensive physical therapy, stitches, or the departure of their rhythm section. Sure, there were some slip-ups and equipment issues, but who cares?
Forget all the cult of dubstep schisms, purity debates, and heresy hunts. Call him post-dubstep (already?) if you get off on taxonomy. Whatever. But James Blake has an old-fashioned secret — he gets over on his voice.
The lone sign of organic life in a soundscape of programmed, layered, vocodered, synthesized, and looped machines, Blake’s voice is shockingly sensual in live performance, with a clear falsetto and lower register that garnered screams of delight from the audience. It even had a visible Sade effect, as couples throughout the floor decided that the sold out TLA wasn’t already hot enough.
This is not to entirely detach him from his EDM roots. On the second half of “Digital Lion” and on songs like “Voyeur,” he vibed out to his own stuff as the crowd went from bass led head bob to move your ass rave. And drummer Ben Assiter is wonderful at giving percussive force to Blake’s downtempo cuts.
But it’s the voice that sticks, makes the ladies swoon and guys shake their head in appreciation, leaves you cooing the hummed refrain of “Retrograde” four hours later at 3 a.m. in your friend’s living room. By the time he encored with “The Wilhelm Scream” I was thinking, alienated neo-soul nothing. Babies might be conceived to this.
Duly noted singer-songwriter street cred — Blake finished his encore alone on keyboard with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.” “Go to him, stay with him if you can, but be prepared to bleed.”
Were The Breeders your favorite band of the ’90s? Well, maybe they should've been. In town to play their 1993 classic album Last Splash from start to finish, Kim Deal and co. reminded everybody they've got more gears than most of their old alt-rock (did I just write that?) peers. Fast, slow, loud, soft, pretty, brutal, precise, chaotic — these songs are an emotional tilt-a-whirl. In fact, while it was a solid thrill to hear "Cannonball" live once more, "Divine Hammer" and "I Just Wanna Get Along" rocked the crowd most thoroughly. The prettiest moment was surely "Do You Love Me Now" — just gorgeous as all hell.
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