Phillyist Tried to Review... Albert Hammond Jr.

Basically I am still pissed about last night's concert, though it really had nothing to do with Albert Hammond Jr. Yesterday in my preview post I told you, "It will be worth it." It was definitely NOT worth it. It was not worth the hearing loss I suffered, the headache I still have or the fact that I didn't even get to finish listening to Albert Hammond Jr. Yep, that's right folks, I didn't stay the entire time. Now this is a first since I started at Phillyist a couple of months ago. Everything boiled down to the fact that Albert Hammond Jr. didn't grace the stage until just after 10PM. WTF?

Just like usual, I arrived a bit after the starting time, which for last night, was 8PM. I usually can suffer through the ending of the opening act and then I'm ready for the headliner. Sometimes there's two opening acts but I have never seen an opening act play more than 20-25 minutes. For some reason, whoever was in charge thought it would be smart to have his openers play never-ending sets. I guess it would have been fine if they were any good. But I hated every second of both bands.

Dead Trees sounded like a bad high school garage band that needs to stay in the garage. Their songs were poorly written, lyrics not understood, guitars were too loud, and the drummer looked like he was on crack. Oh, did I mention that the vocals sucked? Yeah, they sucked; everything sucked.

The Mooney Suzuki was just as loud (if not louder) and just as uninspiring. They might be okay on a CD when you can listen to them at a normal decibel. I didn't care for their repetitive chord changes and rhythmic patterns. They almost seemed like they were making fun of rock bands by how "over-the-top" they were performing. It reminded me of Christopher Guest in This Is Spinal Tap, just not as funny.

Overall, everything was too loud last night. You needed earplugs to enjoy any of the concert. I think the sound engineer was deaf. Loud does not mean good. It just means that everyone there is now likely to have some hearing loss. It had to be close to 140 dB.

After an extremely long break between the two acts, Albert Hammond Jr. finally came on stage. I stayed for about six songs. They were great. His vocals were spot-on, his songs cleverly crafted and overall the band was awesome. I really wanted to hear him play "Back to the 101" and the rest of his songs. Unfortunately, I was exhausted, my ears were ringing, and I was ready to go home. I made my exit.

If anyone actually saw the entire performance and would like to comment, please do. I feel bad for not staying, but it sucked that Albert did not make an entrance until two hours after the show started, especially on a school night. So yes, I thought it would be worth it and maybe it was to some, but definitely not for me.

Photo taken by author