Results tagged “tla”

Rather appropriately, Prince's "Party Like It's 1999" served as ring entrance music to the the main event at The Get Up Kids TLA show. The newly reunited band is currently touring to support their Something To Write Home About 10th Anniversary CD + DVD. After the new year they're off to see our friends in Australia and Japan, but it sure was nice to have them visit us in Philly for two dates.

We've been waiting for this tour since the "Very Last" Reggie and the Full Effect show at the TLA in September of 2008. Back then The Get Up Kids reunion and Someting to Write Home About 10th Anniversary Live DVD was just a rumbling on the internet. Fortunately, a rumor fueled by James Dewees is a reliable one indeed. The Get Up Kids' keyboard player and Reggie founder dropped hints all along his tour that a reunion would be upcoming, and all but confirmed it during the encore at the TLA.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if my dad was a militant slam poet who used eardrum shattering electronic beats and industrial hip-hop to communicate his message of individualism, anti-conformity and transcending the shackles of racism that have affected him so deeply.

Really, so your plan was to spend your night off in between World Series games at home, resting your liver and your wallet? Well think again, because there is a tour rolling into Philly on Friday that takes crazy to a whole new level. Tell your checking account that everything will be okay, but trust us: Saul Williams is definitely worth going into overdraft for.

Phillyist's quick-picks for your evening agenda.

Apparently it was "90s Alt Rock Radio Weekend" here in Philadelphia. Not only did we have our favorite cornflake girl, Tori Amos, mystifying the Tower Theater, but we also had the Canadian post-grunge quartet Our Lady Peace rocking the TLA on Sunday. The fact that Philadelphians who yearn for the good ol' days could see both these acts on back-to-back nights was enough to bring back many happy memories of flannel and long hair for this Phillyist. And with a newly-formed Alice in Chains hitting Philly Labor Day Weekend, Dinosaur Jr. making a stop in October, and Pearl Jam finishing off the Spectrum with four epic performances, it appears as if those of us who reminisce about the awesome music of the Bush-Clinton era will have our fill this fall as well. Just like those toothy actors in the McDonald's commercials, this Phillyist is lovin' it.

The Rx Bandits (MySpace and Twitter) played at the Theater of the Livings Arts on South Street on Wednesday. They're touring in support of their new record, Mandala (iTunes / Amazon).

It's been two and a half years—practically an eternity in Internet meme time—since OK Go (MySpace) came out with everyone's latest favorite YouTube video, for "Here It Goes Again." As fast as bands come and go these days, especially in the case of ones who get huge thanks to the Internet, you might have forgotten about OK Go entirely. But they were rocking for years before we fell in love with their synchronized treadmills, and they're still around years after. In fact, OK Go is gearing up for the release of their follow-up to the breakout . Their yet-untitled third album will be out sometime in late summer, but you can catch a sneak peak of some of the material from it tonight, when OK Go kicks off a headlining tour at the TLA. We've seen OK Go once before, and had a blast, so we expect it to be a good time.

Science! Chemistry plus mummies means new thinking about building materials and the pyramids, mice may cure MD, baldies may soon have more options than just Rogaine, and fish smoothies may help the environment. All in a day’s work for city researchers.

We did. After all, when we previewed Jack's Mannequin's recent stop at the TLA, we said that Andrew McMahon "has one of the most commanding stage presences in young music today." It sounds like hyperbole, but after last week's concert, we can safely say (and not to pat ourselves on the back " nature of the music was reflected by the audience, as we saw 13 year olds and 43 year olds at the show. (And the 43 year olds were singing along, so it's not like they were only there to chaperone the kids.)

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

We'll have a full review of the Jack's Mannequin TLA show we were at soon, but in the meanwhile, we thought that this song was worth sharing, as (a) it mentions Philadelphia and (b) it probably won't ever be recorded. It was really a special moment in a really solid show.

In the summer of 2005, Jack's Mannequin (MySpace)—the spinoff-turned-focal project of Something Corporate frontman Andrew McMahon—put out one of the catchiest, most hook-laden albums we've ever heard, was a clear, and substantial, step up from McMahon's prior work, and evidenced a young songwriter who was really starting to hit a groove.

It's surprisingly difficult, if not downright impossible, to get biographical information about The Fratellis (MySpace). Much like the Ramones did way back when, each of the three members of The Fratellis use their band's name as a surname, but as to who they are really, or what they did prior to the band's formation in 2005? Well, even Wikipedia isn't helping.

Sometimes, though, we do miss it. But not today!

When I entered the TLA on Wednesday night, I experienced a slight feeling of déjà vu. And it wasn’t even just that I had been there the night before to see Bloc Party. No, it was because I was there to see British retro-soul singer Duffy, whose sound harkens back to Dionne Warwick during the Burt Bacharach years, or Dusty Springfield, if you need me to compare her to a white person to restore the cosmic balance. The singer, who is part of the cavalcade of voices who entered the door opened by Amy Winehouse before she became a babbling crack whore, released a stellar debut album named Rockferry this year, and though she is not known for her showmanship, she is certainly known for having a voice that can make grown men spill beer all over themselves in admiration…or maybe that was just me.

At the TLA on Tuesday night, the assembled crowd witnessed a band at the peak of their powers. Bloc Party, the British foursome with two solid albums to their credit (2005’s superior Silent Alarm and 2007’s solid A Weekend in the City) gave a transcendent, 16-song performance that earned the crowd’s raucous reaction and made their two encores totally acceptable (a bit ostentatious for a mid-weekend if you ask me, but what the heck?). They also gave their fans an extra added bonus by choosing as their openers their fellow UK natives, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, four up-and-coming lads who offered a set that was never less than interesting, and often threatened to be revelatory.

Fresh off a triumphant performance at last weekend’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, in which lead singer Kele Okereke sported a fetching Barack Obama T-shirt, English dance-rock foursome Bloc Party rolls into town tonight to play a sold-out show at the TLA, along with opening act Does It Offend You, Yeah? and its annoying, grammar-check-baffling moniker. This show should be anticipated for several reasons. First, there is the opportunity to see if Bloc Party’s sailor’s-knot-tight rhythms can possibly hold up under live scrutiny. Second, there is the opportunity to find out if seemingly elastic drummer Matt Tong really does have eight arms, as his speedy beat-keeping suggests. Third, there is the opportunity to find out if the inclusion of the song “Helicopter,” off of the group’s 2005 debut LP Silent Alarm, on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock causes the crowd to be as annoyingly young as this Phillyist is expecting. And finally, there is the opportunity to find out if the warm-up band with the pretentious comma and question mark in its name is as good as their headliners would suggest. Not only are the Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom natives opening for Bloc Party here, but they will be opening for Nine Inch Nails when they make their end-of-the-month trek through Philly. Hey, who knows, maybe they are strong enough to make you clap your hands and say yeah? Early prediction: a band with two strong albums and a third in the making, along with one that has been compared to Justice and Digitalism? Should be aah-ite.

...because seriously, whatever brand they're using in their microphones right now sucks. But we'll get to that eventually, because we weren't at the TLA last Tuesday night just to see Alkaline Trio (MySpace). We were also there to see the opening act, The Fashion (MySpace). We were more or less completely psyched for this show, because we've become pretty big Alkaline Trio fans over the course of the last year, and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of The Fashion's recent album. But our evening got off to a pretty inauspicious start, and we couldn't help but walk away from the show disappointed.

Is there any band that injects as many catchy hooks into songs about suicide, murder, and all other manners of tragedy as Alkaline Trio (MySpace)? Not that we can think of offhand. Like many other people, we first heard of Alkaline Trio about five years ago, thanks to their ironically anti-establishment mainstream breakthrough, "We've Had Enough." We liked their sound from pretty much moment one, but didn't really get hooked until they rocked our socks off at last year's Warped Tour. We've been looking forward to seeing Alkaline Trio again—and for longer than a half hour—for almost a year now, so we were naturally thrilled when we found out they'd be playing at The Fillmore at the TLA tomorrow night in support of their latest album, . And apparently, we weren't the only ones who were excited; the show is sold out. But all that means is that you should see what you can find in the way of people looking to unload tickets on craigslist, because this is definitely a show worth checking out.

It seems that the Fillmore at the TLA has gone back to being just the plain old TLA, but nobody remembered to tell us! We struggled with and battled against the cumbersome name anyway, so we're happy that we can officially continue to call it what we never really stopped calling it in the first place. Now if only the Susquehanna Bank Center would go back to "Tweeter," we'd be all set—and significantly less confused.

, but we still weren't expecting much. Not that we thought Locksley would be bad. We just kinda figured that they wouldn't give us much reason to endorse their live performance versus just saying, "Locksley's CD is worth picking up." Fortunately, Locksley proved us wrong.

How's work going for you this week? Are you feeling a little bummed that it's Wednesday? The memory of last weekend has faded, and you've still got a couple days of work to plow through before you get to this weekend, right? You're feeling a little down, and you could really use a bit of a pick-me-up. Luckily for you, you'll be able to get exactly what you need at the Fillmore at the TLA tonight.

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Singer/Songwriter David Ford

Remember The B-52s (MySpace)?