Tove Lo @ Paramount Theatre - Seattle, WA
February 23rd 2023: Tove Lo, Slayyyter @ Paramount Theatre - Seattle, WA
Tove Lo - Photos Courtesy of Stephanie Dore
For a crowd rocking spectacular fashion (think fishnet bodysuits, tutus, and light up everything), Swedish musician Tove Lo stopped by Seattle’s historic Paramount Theatre for an epic dance party during her latest Dirt Femme Tour. Opener Slayyyter’s sex-positive set got the crowd pumped, hitting a tone somewhere between raunchy Lady Gaga and straight Kim Petras. Then Tove Lo took to the cloud-decked stage for a set that covered all the hits, while highlighting her latest work. There were multiple costume changes, fake boobs on a bodysuit, the requisite flashing of the crowd during “Talking Body”, and her new trademark scorpion tail. It was a set that kept the crowd dancing the whole time, somewhere between dark pop and dream sequence and joyful every minute.
Slayyyter
FOALS @ Franklin Music Hall - Philly
December 14th 2022: FOALS, Glove, Inner Wave - Philadelphia, PA
Yannis of FOALS - Photos Courtesy of Carolyn Lederach
Foals have been a bit busy since their last tour of the states. Three albums worth of busy in fact. Everything’s Not Lost Part I & II, and concluding on the Life Is Yours to wrap around their latest tour. Now with seven albums under their belts, Foals still do not disappoint, in anything their music continues to get better. COVID has ruined a lot of things for live shows, including some of our favourite past Yannis moments of crowd surfing and balcony diving. Despite missing out on some of the action of a Foals live show, they still sound flawless as they rode through their catalog spanning from Antidotes originals, What Went Down classics, along with new gems from Life Is Yours. As always, I’ll be patiently waiting for their next return.
Glove
Inner Wave
Blu DeTiger @ 9:30 Club - Washington DC
November 30th 2022: Blu DeTiger @ 9:30 Club - Washington, DC
Blu DeTiger - Photos Courtesy of Gabby Ames
Blu DeTiger played an electric show at 9:30 Club. The atmosphere was filled with a diverse crowd of all ages.
Snail Mail
Turnstile @ XL Live - Harrisburg
November 21st 2022: Turnstile, Snail Mail @ XL Live - Harrisburg, PA
Turnstile - Photos Courtesy of Gabby Ames
On November 21st, Turnstile played the last show of their US headline tour in Harrisburg, PA. They played a sold-out show at XL Live and performed songs from their latest album, “Glow On”. It was full of energy and excitement from the crowd who were also stage diving and crowd surfing.
Snail Mail
Whitney @ Union Transfer - Philly
December 10th 2022: Whitney, Squirrel Flower @ Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA
Whitney - Photos Courtesy of Carolyn Lederach
Chicago duo, Whitney, returned to the road to promote their latest and greatest album SPARK. We caught them at their Philly show this weekend with an eager crowd who has been waiting for their return since the Light Upon the Lake cycle in 2016. Now onto a more upbeat and richer sound, could help but get caught up in the flawless Whitney show.
Squirrel Flower
MAX @ Irving Plaza - NYC
November 26th 2022: MAX, VINCINT @ Irving Plaza - New York, NY
MAX - Photos Courtesy of Ann Storlie
“Young Pop God” MAX (Max Schneider) took over NYC’s Irving Plaza for the second of two sold-out hometown shows Saturday night.
VINCINT (Vincint Cannady) was the night’s opener, and he warmed up the crowd with his soaring voice and danceable tracks “Taste So Good (The Cann Song)” and “Hard 2 Forget.”
MAX began his set with an explosive energy that continued throughout the night as he played fan favorites “Basement Party,” “Colour Vision,” and “Blueberry Eyes” including the Korean rap verse originally done by SUGA of BTS in the single.
Growing up in the nearby Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, MAX spoke multiple times throughout the evening on how lucky he was to be performing in one of his favorite venues among his fans. A former Nickelodeon star (he starred in 2012’s How to Rock), MAX’s energy continued to inspire the crowd as he performed “Someday” from Rags - a Nickelodeon Original film where he was the lead; before performing more tracks and closing his set with his chart-topping hit “Lights Down Low.”
VINCINT
State Champs @ Concord Music Hall - Chicago
November 18th 2022: State Champs, Young Culture, Between You & Me, Hunny @ Concord Music Hall - Chicago, IL
State Champs - Photos Courtesy of Allie Loven
State Champs stopped at Chicago, IL’s Concord Music Hall on November 18th on their kings of the New Age tour accompanied by Young Culture, Between You & Me, and Hunny.
The night started off with some dancy rock music from Young Culture. The New York based band played a variety of songs old and new. Chicago is listed as Young Culture’s top listeners on Spotify; so, it makes sense that the crowd was screaming lyrics back and moving around all throughout their set. Young Culture’s captivating performance set the bar high for the rest of the night. The crowd was packed by the end of the last two alternative rock bands Between You & Me and Hunny. The crowd was steadily moving and singing along. There was even a little bit of crowd surfing going on.
By the time State Champs was ready to start, the room was packed with excitement. As they took the stage, cheers echoed from all throughout the room. The band opened with their most recent album Kings of the New Age’s track “Just Sound.” They continued their set with a variety of pop-punk songs old and new. When Derek, lead vocals, stated they were about to play “Elevated” off of The Finer Things he also announced that the band will be doing a 10-year anniversary tour for that album next year. Since the start of their set fans were moshing and crowd surfing and they didn't let down for the remainder of the night.
Young Culture
Hunny
Between You & Me
Puscifer @ The Louisville Palace- Louisville
LA rock group Puscifer brought their Existential Reckoning Tour to Louisville, KY on 11/11 and drew a packed venue of fans! Led by singer Maynard James Keenan, who also fronts Tool and A Perfect Circle, he has a wide variety of fans who love all three of his bands and were ready to rock out this evening! Having recently released their 4th studio album Exisatential Reckoning, the band performed the album in its entirety this evening. Opening the show was the LA darkwave electronica band Night Club. Consisting of Mark Brooks on keys/synth and Emily Kavanaugh on vocals, they definitely got the crowd warmed up. With dark, moody lighting of blues, reds, and bursts of white, Kavanaugh paced the stage and engaged the crowd, her powerful voice cutting through the electronic beats! With plenty of singles, Eps, and albums in their catalog, their most recent being 2020’s Die Die Lullaby, they sang a nice selection of songs and were a great start to the evening.
Next up was Puscifer. Starting out their set, before the band came out onto the stage, was Keenan’s alter-ego agent Dick Merkin on the screen at the back of the stage humorously relaying the band’s no phone policy, saying anyone who violated the policy would be ground up by two meat processors into a fine paste and added as an ingredient in SPAM. The stage production for their set was amazing, with the band presenting the audience with a multimedia experience that had the band investigating alien abductions by men-in-black agents! The first song, “Bread and Circus”, saw the stage dimly lit with only a couple of the members present, drummer Gunnar Olsen, bassist Josh Moreau, and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell on keys, easing everyone into the evening. A few minutes into the song, we saw Maynard’s agent Dick Merkin, along with Carina Round (vocals), enter the stage. The second song “Postulous” saw a slew of special agents come out to take away a Billy D imposter, who breached the camera policy, after being pointed out by Agent Merkin.
Although their set was heavy on songs from Existential Reckoning, they delighted their fans with songs from their other albums, as well. About halfway through their set, the video screen showed a second message from Agent Merkin, telling the crowd that Pusciforce had identified an alien-owned and operated hidden mobile cloning facility whose purpose seemed to be to duplicate or replace red-carpet celebrities whom they felt were mediocre or had bad fashion tastes. Later, after a brief intermission, Keenan came out atop the scaffolding at the center of the stage as his Billy D persona as costumed aliens joined the band on stage, with plenty of hilarious alien antics ensuing. With an 18-song set, ending the set with “Bedlamite”, the band gave the crowd an incredible evening of music and visual delights. The thought and production that went into this evening’s performance were impressive and engaged the crowd from start to finish!
PUSCIFER
NIGHT CLUB
