Saturdays are for raging, and there are some rockin’ shows happening this evening that you would be wise to attend. But there are so many to choose from! Here’s our list of some awesome ragers:
Roger Waters “The Wall” tour makes a stop at Citizens Bank Park tonight. You can purchase tickets to the show here, show starts at 8:45 PM.
Hop Along recently had their CD release show for Get Disowned at First Unitarian Church; they play tonight at Johnny Brenda’s with Secret Mountains and DRGN KING. Tickets to this 21+ show are $10.
Today, Roger Waters announced The Wall 2012 tour dates with a stop in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, July 14th. Tickets go on sale Monday, November 7 at 10 a.m. Go here for more information and to purchase tickets. Last March Waters did an interview with Michaela Majoun for World Cafe that you can listen to here.
Right now, I am listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the first time in its entirety since probably about 15 years. The reason? Well, unlike some of the tens of thousands of folks who are actually seeing the second of two Roger Waters “Wall” shows tonight here in Philly (the third and final show is Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center) I intentionally chose to hold close the memories I have of the “real” Wall concerts I saw back in February of 1980 at the Nassau Coliseum and decided not to go.
Many of my friends were kind of stunned when they asked me if I was going to any of the shows here and I said no. I could have very easily taken the position that “The Wall just isn’t The Wall without Pink Floyd’s guitarist David Gilmour” (okay, I will just a little). I could have justified going because after all, the story and the lyrics were all Waters’ and the album remains one of the great classic rock masterpieces. I wasn’t thinking at any point when the shows were announced that I would take the position of The Wall’s opening line: “So ya thought ya might like to go to the show/To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow.” I wanted to just relish in the space cadet glow of my memories of seeing the show back in the day.
I did see two of the five performances of The Wall at the Nassau Coliseum in February 1980 and remember it being one of the first real stadium spectacles I saw in terms of the set and theatrical reach of the show. At the time it was one of the most ambitious rock shows I’d ever experienced and the shows remain sealed in my memory as two of the best rock shows I’ve seen.
So yes, even as some of my colleagues came in to work this morning raving about the fully digitally realized show last night, I really didn’t feel like I missed much. I preferred to let my memories of those shows 30 years ago carry me through this moment. And now, as I am about to flip the record to side three (starting with “Hey You”) I’m holding tight to the “warm thrill of confusion” and “space cadet glow” of those two nights long ago remembering almost every second of those shows. This little journey through the past – I’m enjoying it.
If you didn’t go to the shows here in Philly, there’s some videos that you can check out here. And for a little reminder, here are videos of some The Wall’s most classic songs.
Will T-Shirts Save Music? Results Of Hypebot’s Merchandise Sales Survey “Are increased merchandise sales helping to offset lower revenue from recorded music sales? Or is that just another bit of new music industry wishful thinking? Just 34% of those that took Hypebot’s recent poll thought merchandise was helping all that much. But the poll, while not a scientific survey, did offers insights and a bit of hope for musicians and labels working to develop new income streams.” (Hypebot)
The Khyber is Reborn as the Khyber Pass Pub “For as long as I’ve lived in Philadelphia, the Khyber has been THE bar to go to in Old City when you didn’t actually want to feel like you were in Old City. It’s been a great place to grab a beer and catch a show from a new band for as long as most of us can remember. So when rumors started flying that it was being sold or closing, there were distressed feelings from all corners of the city.” (Uwishunu)
Ninjasonik & Spank Rock special guests at Mo Money, No Problems “This Thursday at Silk City, Mo Money No Problems is going to be an extra special night. The notorious wildboys from Brooklyn, Ninjasonik, will be performing live and are bound to blow the roof off the building. As if that wasn’t already enough, our own hometown homebody, Spank Rock, will be playing a special DJ set along with Sammy Slice and Cool Hand Luke.” (Phrequency)
Roger Waters Setlist “Here’s the set list from Rogers Waters’ The Wall show at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia. Barring a miracle encore, it’ll also be the set list for tonight’s show, and Thursday’s as well. Waters goes on close to 8, and plays the 1979 album in its entirety, from start to finish, over a two and a half hours or so…My interview with Waters is here.” (In The Mix)
Philadelphia Film Festival: M. Night Shyamalan Interview & Q&A “It doesn’t matter what your opinion of M. Night Shyamalan is, because there are a few inescapable facts that you can’t deny about the man: the first being that although The Last Airbender will probably live forever in fan infamy, to his credit he has still made some amazing films like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. Second is, he is one of the greatest directors from our fair city and he is one of the few directors that continue to shoot his films in and around Philadelphia.” (Geekadelphia)
