Are you having a rough week at work? Thinking about playing hookie Friday, but for some reason can't? Do you just know that when you get out of work tomorrow, you're gonna be in a worked up, somewhat angry mood? Well you're in luck, because tomorrow night the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour hits the Tweeter Susquehana Bank Center. And with a lineup headed by Avenged Sevenfold and including Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, blessthefall,......

Visions of sugar plums not giving you your terror fix? Head out to the Troc tonight at 9:30 for the DVD release extravaganza of Unholy Sideshow, a local independent horror movie from West Philth Productions. Juggling, needles skewered through human flesh, women taking their clothes off, sword swallowing, aerialists performing without a net, Heavy Metal, a spectacle you will remember for the rest of your days. Sounds like a good time to us! Unholy Sideshow......

Heavy metal is a musical genre that has gone through a lot of ups and downs in popularity and quality over the years. But it's a genre we've always had a fondness for, and so we're quite happy to see it making yet another one of its many comebacks. This time one of the filthy hard rock zombies helping yank the corpse of metal out of its very unquiet grave is Mastodon (MySpace). They've been......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. It seems as if some spoilers about the upcoming season finale of Battlestar Galactica have been leaked, apparently by one of the actors, but we can't say for sure, because we're not reading any article with the headline "Battlestar Finale Spoilers Leaked." If you're curious, and don't mind having surprises ruined for you, click here and see for yourself. Apparently Nintendo didn't technically......

Man, are we going to an awesome show tonight. Wolfmother's in town, people. They're playing the Electric Factory with like-sounding "retro-rock" act Dead Meadow and indie pop rock outfit Silversun Pickups. We're putting "retro-rock" in quotes because these bands aren't just retreads; they're starting with some old sounds, yes, but they're making them fresh and new. Wolfmother is one of our favorite contemporary bands. They're Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, somehow preserved at the height......

What do you think of when you hear the word "Genesis?" A book of the Bible? A planet forbidden? Or a cheesy '80s and '90s pop group fronted by Phil Collins? If so, there's a whole other Genesis just waiting for you to discover. In the early '70s, the band Genesis was fronted by Peter Gabriel, and was writing and performing incredible, epic, complex, theatrical, beautifully orchestrated, metal-style progressive rock story-songs. Genesis in that......

Friday night I took in what I'd like to call an experimental indie rock show in what I'd like to call the "crypt" of the First Unitarian Church (actually, it's just the basement). The evening began with a performance by a two-piece band called Ching Chong Song. We weren't even aware this group was on the bill, and so were pleasantly surprised in more ways than one. It's hard to describe exactly what they......

If Wolfmother is the triumphant, vibrant rebirth of '70s heavy metal (and they certainly are, may the Gods of metal bless 'em; by all means pick up their new self-titled full-length, which is fantastic), then The Clientele are the triumphant, vibrant rebirth of '60s Brit-pop, served with a large side of thoughtful sadness to make it bittersweet. And happily, they're invading Philly tonight (the First Unitarian Church, to be exact) along with Great Lakes and......

We're just going to jump right in to Elite -ist today. It's not that we don't love writing pithy introductions -- it's just that our headline has to do with our first post. And we wouldn't want to distract you. Sampaist: Welcome, São Paulo, to the -ist fray. You're in Portuguese, so we won't be linking to you every often -- we just wanted to let you know that we care! Gothamist: You're right, Gothamist.......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Wired's Game|Life blog revels - and we revel along with them - in the text of a wonderful federal injunction just issued against a recent Louisiana state bill banning violent video games from minors. The thing is basically nothing more than a lengthy and truly awesome put-down in legalese - a sort of judicial "yo momma." The central point: The Act is devoid......

If horse racing is the sport of kings, then surely bowling is the sport of the working man (and woman!), which is why Phillyist was delighted to see the new Lucky Strike Lanes open up on Chestnut Street near Broad. Here, we thought, is our chance to hang out with friends, wear some smelly shoes that belong to who-knows who, drink cheap beer, eat bad nachos made with unnaturally Florescent cheese product, make the person......

What's interesting on TV this week. Alias (Mon; 9PM-11PM; ABC) - At long last, here's the final, two-hour long episode of "Alias." That's final as in last one ever, people. If you haven't watched in a while, like us, you might be curious to check this out, and yet you might also be harboring fears that you'd no longer have any idea what's going on. But fear not! The episode description says Sloane and Irina......

Philly Roller Girls...

Note: In this review, Phillyist is going to make some musical and pop culture references that we understand some of you may be too young to understand. For those of you, Phillyist would like to say two things. (1) We're including some helpful keywords so you can do follow-up research on Wikipedia, at your local music store, or in your parents record collection (see: LP or Long Playing Record) (2) the fact that some......

How would you describe the typical Jethro Tull fan? Well, middle-aged, for one. Phillyist has been able to drink legally for several years now, but we were still probably the youngest fan in the audience not dragged there by their parents. And white -- definitely white. We counted three ethnic minorities in the audience, ourselves included, and two of them were in our party. The band is composed of middle-aged white guys, so it's......

To the guy at the gym who doesn't shelve his weights: Hi. Remember us? We were waiting for you to finish your tenth set of reps the other day. We’re small – perhaps we escaped your line of site. So small, in fact, that we couldn't possibly have lifted a fraction of what you were lifting. And we couldn't work out when you were done because we couldn't even put your weights away. Yeah, us.......