All Time Low @ Paristown Hall - Louisville, KY
All Time Low recently brought their current North American tour to Louisville, KY to a packed crowd! Starting the night out was pop-punk band Meet Me At The Altar. A whirl of fun and upbeat energy, they had plenty of fans in the crowd singing along from the first note! Performing a variety of songs from their catalog, including a few from their latest EP Model Citizen, they also performed a short medley of covers halfway through their set, asking “Are there any emotion kids in the building? Of course there are! We’re gonna play some covers and we want you to sing along!”. The crowd proceeded to sing along to covers from Jimmy Eat World, Limp Bizcuit, New Found Glory, and LIT. Taking about how they are an all female band, singer Edith Johnson told the crowd how growing up they didn’t see a lot of female bands and were sad about it and wondered why not do it themselves? Also this evening there was a 7 year old fan in the crowd named Zoe, whose birthday it was, so the band had everyone shout Happy Birthday! It was really fun set to start the evening out with! Next up was Nothing, Nowhere, the stage name of singer, rapper and songwriter Joseph Edward Mulherin. A mix of emo rap, trap, and indie rock, he and his band had the crowd dancing along throughout the set with their infectious energy. Moody lighting and a connection with the crowd made it a fun and engaging set!
Headlining this evening was Maryland emo pop punk band All Time Low. Having formed in 2003, they have gained a strong and loyal fan base over the years, with their 8 studio albums and fun and energetic live shows. Playing songs this evening from their extensive catalog, they also performed tracks from their latest album, 2020’s Wake Up, Sunshine. Asking the crowd if there was anyone for whom this was their first show since live shows started back, they proceeded to say “Feels good doesn’t it? Thanks for being here! It feels good to be back on a stage!”. They started things off with “Do You Want Me (Dead)?” and performed tracks throughout their set that included “Some Kind Of Disater”, ““Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t)”, “Once In A Lifetime”, “Life Of The Party”, “Monsters”, and “Nightmares”. Towards the end of the evening, they talked about how there was so much love in the room this evening and how they could feel it coming off of everyone and how when they play shows, everyone in attendance becomes a collective family for a while. They then talked about how love is love no matter who you love! They ended the evening with “Dear Maria, Count Me In”, capping off the evening by shooting off a massive confetti cannon, sending colorful bits of confetti throughout the crowd! It was a fun way to end the set and left people buzzing long after the music ended!
MEET ME AT THE ALTAR
NOTHING, NOWHERE
ALL TIME LOW
Lewis Del Mar @ The Foundry - Philadelphia, PA
LANY @ The Met - Philadelphia, PA
Photos courtesy of Carolyn Lederach | October 8th
It goes without saying that LANY has been extremely busy during the COVID times with releasing not just one but two albums. Personally, mama’s boy was one of my favorite albums from 2020 so I was super excited to see some of those songs live, and Malibu Nights remains a solid pop album I still listen to frequently. Along with the new bops on gg bb xx, there were plenty of LANY classics scattered throughout the night partnered with some great graphics displays.
Philadelphia was one of the first stops on LANY’s current GG BB XX US Tour. The show certainly presented its challenges, mostly with the venue fire alarms going off not once, but seven times due to the haze machines. Despite multiple cut-offs mid-song, the crowd didn’t let it stop the songs from continuing, frequently picking up the lyrics from where the house sound got cut off, it really created some magical moments.
Glass Animals @ The Mann Center- Philadelphia, PA
Photos courtesy of Sophia Ragomo | September 28th
After missing concerts for the last year and a half, there are few things more satisfying than their return. Glass Animals at The Skyline Stage was a joyous comeback to touring that helped everyone remember how much we all love live music. Their set was high energy and captivating, and the stage was decked out with stunning lights and visuals in every color that brought each song to life. Highlights from the show included single “Tangerine,” “The Other Side of Paradise,” and “Youth.” If you are interested in catching Glass Animals live, they are playing a few dates on the West Coast before touring the UK in November.
Protomartyr with Melkbelly @ Raccoon Motel - Davenport, Iowa
Photos and words courtesy of Alyssa Leicht | October 11th 2021
The Wikipedia page for Joe Casey, lead singer of Detroit-based rock band Protomartyr, describes him as having an “anti-charismatic” stage presence. But after having witnessed his November 10th performance at the 175-cap Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa, I think it’s safe to say that’s an incomplete description, at best.
Standing mostly in place, perpetually gripping a sweating can of Miller Lite, Joe Casey isn’t just anti-charisma – he’s intense and challenging, and at times engages personally with the audience, locking eyes with individuals in an artsy game of chicken. The captivating performance perfectly embodied the range and poetics of Protomartyr’s songs. Their set was fittingly bookended by the thrashing number “Processed by the Boys” and its musical opposite, the haunting elegy “Worm in Heaven.”
Melkbelly, garage-rock band from Chicago, opened the night with a grungy set that often dissolved into art-rock noise. Their style and performance gestured toward the Breeders, whose co-founder, Kelly Deal, joined Protomartyr on keys, vocals, and percussion during their set and elevated their songs through subtle textures and experimental feature parts.
The setting of Sean Moeller’s Raccoon Motel made the experience that much better for this show, providing a moody and intimate club environment packed with funky art and retro decor, and a separate bar area and listening room for a more focused and uninterrupted show experience. If you ever have a night in the quad cities, I highly recommend checking this place out, even if you don’t know the band who’s playing. They routinely have a stacked show schedule that doesn’t disappoint.
IDLES @ Riviera Theatre - Chicago, IL
Photos and words courtesy of Alyssa Leicht | October 8th 2021
British-Irish punkers IDLES’ October 8th show at Riviera Theatre in Chicago was the second night of their COVID-delayed Ultra Mono tour, and the house was packed. In addition to 2020’s Ultra Mono, the band’s lengthy set spanned earlier albums and to the joy of many in the crowd, included a generous preview of their upcoming album Crawler, out in November.
A tightly packed and intensely energetic crowd moshed and nodded along to IDLES’ performance, mesmerized by the band’s beautiful ability to conjure catharsis and camaraderie in a room full of strangers. That quality was on full display as the audience shouted out lyrics in perfect unison with lead singer Joe Talbot, song after song.
Gustaf, a Brooklyn-based art-punk four-piece, brought their dancy rhythms, arch humor, and impeccable lyrics during their opening set at the beginning of the night. Lead singer Lydia Gammill has a must-see stage presence and a refreshingly original sound that feels like a combative, grimier Talking Heads but with more earnest romance. Gammill got some extra love from the crowd for her melodic flute performance in the truly beautiful number, “Happy,” a track from their debut release “Audio Drag for Ego Slobs.”
At the end of the night, the sweat-drenched crowd lost their minds to a full-ensemble iteration of IDLES’ “Rottweiler,” with Gustaf joining in and consuming the stage with a raucous tandem performance of the final number.
Les Savy Fav & Heavy Lag @ Market Hotel - Brooklyn, NY
Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | September 12th 2021
Performing their first hometown show since January 2019, Les Savy Fav headlined Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn on Sunday, September 13, 2021. Although their previous concert at Elsewhere sold out, this one wasn’t, perhaps due to factors such as it starting at 9 PM on a Sunday rather than a Friday or Saturday night, the New York City public school year starting the following day on Monday, September 13th, New York City employees returning to their offices the next day as well, and concerns about the spread of COVID-19. The event was vaccinated only so attendees had to show their proof of vaccination and photo ID before entering the show upstairs.
Brooklyn’s Heavy Lag kicked off the evening with a great set at 9:15 PM and joked about being out of practice since they hadn’t performed in front of people in some time. The group features Greg Thornberg of Ellen and the Degenerates (which broke up in 2019), Anthony Careccia of Up for Nothing, and Josh Goan (who was in both acts). They performed with a fairly new drummer and remarked that they only have two songs on their Bandcamp page at the moment so hopefully, they’ll record more of their material with their newest member in the near future.
Les Savy Fav’s performances are a rare treat as two members of the band (guitarist, Seth Jabour and bassist, Syd Butler) being a part of “Late Night with Seth Meyers”’ 8G Band and Syd running Frenchkiss Records, among other reasons. Fans of the band and their live sets know to expect wild antics from their vocalist, Tim Harrington, and this show was no different (a list of some of the things Tim did appear below and are documented in this photo gallery). Before arriving at Market Hotel, I wondered if Tim would show any restraint as we’re currently in a pandemic and we all should be practicing social distancing, and was naturally unsurprised when their set began and I realized that answer was a resounding no. They indulged fans with favorites throughout their career and ended their set by performing all the songs from their 21-year-old EP, Emor: Rome Upside Down, which recently became available on streaming platforms.
Tim brought a broom and fake flowers on stage before their set began. At some point he brought a living plant from the venue to the stage, and then sang through its leaves.
Tim later licked the bristles of the aforementioned broom, more than once.
He removed his “I’m in Miami, bitch” t-shirt to later don a brown furry vest, followed by a white Les Savy Fav t-shirt, and then his bare chest.
The white band t-shirt was ripped open while he was wearing it.
He brought an audience member on stage to put their head through the other sleeve of the vest to become a two headed monster.
Tim placed himself against the big glass window behind their drummer, Harrison Haynes, that faces a subway platform, at least twice.
He licked the bald head of an audience member standing to my left.
Tim noticed I grabbed my beer in front of him and remarked “she said, ‘not my beer!’” and he was absolutely right.
He threw the microphone cord into a hook hanging from Market Hotel’s ceiling and sang into the mic while it was hanging from the ceiling.
This aforementioned hook was yanked from the ceiling by Tim.
He sang while standing on top of the bar in the back of the room.
Tim put a beer can, his microphone, and one of the lights from the stage, down the front of his pants.
Syd left the stage at one point, only to return to finish the song the band was playing when he left.
Tim borrowed a male photographer’s camera during their final song, which had a wrist strap, and then took photos with it.
Made in America - Philadelphia, PA
Photos courtesy of Bridget Craig | September 3rd & 4th 2021
Dugg
A$AP Ferg
Baby Keep
Bobby Shmurda
Coi Leray
Freddie Gibbs
Griselda
Justin Bieber
Kehlani
Latto
Lil Baby
Megan Thee Stallion
Moneybagg
Morray
Roddy Ricch
Tinashe
Young Thug