Dead Milkmen
I went to see the Dead Milkmen yesterday (10/26 it took awhile to post this) at the First Unitarian Church.
It was a fantastic show. The first time I saw them was in 2004 at the Troc for the Dave Blood Memorial Concert.
For a group of Balding Old Punks, they played a kick ass set.
It was a secret show, it wasn't advertised. It was one of two warm up shows for a big "reunion" at the Fun Festival in Texas. Why a Philly band would hold their reunion in Texas, I don't know. But they couldn't advertise these shows because of the Texas deal. I found out about the show because of the wonderful clerk at Long in the Tooth cool little record shop on Sansom between 20th and 21st.
I took the train into the city and walked to the church. It wasn't a bad walk, a little chilly. Got there about 45min early. The waiting begins. I like waiting in lines for shows. I like to watch people. I like to listen to people. Conversations start. It's easy to small talk in lines because you definitely have one thing in common with the other person, the music. Eventually they usher us in.
Upon entering the auditorium, I find myself wondering if there's another room I'm suppose to go to. This can't possibly be where they're playing, it's way to small. The room was maybe the size of one floor of a nice size house. It was a fantastic venue to see a band. There was no bad place to be. You could see the stage from everywhere and everywhere was close. The show was held there because it's one of the places the Milkmen played when they were starting out in the 80s.
In the back of the auditorium there's three merch tables, one for each of the bands playing that night. There was also a stand selling vegan food. Yeah, it seemed a little out of place but whatever.
I stand up as close to the stage as I could get, which was on row of people in front of the stage.
The night opened with the Northern Liberties. They were fantastic. Just great hardcore punk with a hyper frontman that made for a great live show. I'd love to see them again and plan to. During their set, Rodney Anonymous comes out into the crowd, right next to me, to watch them perform. Several of us gave him a thumbs up, but gave him his space and let him enjoy the show.
After the Norther Liberties was Mercury Radio Theater. They were as lousy as the Northern Liberties were good. They were an instrumental band with some kind of visual presentation. They sounded like they were going for rock-a-billy without quite pulling it off. I kind of knew we were in trouble when it took them 20 min to setup their projector. I guess you could consider them a sorbet, they were there to cleanse the palette before the Milkmen came on. It was a good idea, they didn't want to follow the Norther Liberties. After a brief recess, the headliners appear.
The Dead Milkmen got a rousing applause when they came out to setup their equipment. It became deafining when they actually came out to play. They kicked off with Punk Rock Girl and the audience became a living moving creature. It wasn't quite a mosh pit, it was the whole audience pushing and grinding. The energy was amazing. They played for more than an hour and a half. They had two encores of several songs each. It was one of the most amazing shows I've ever been to.
Rodney posted links to pictures and I found several of me. A "benefit" of being so close to the stage I suppose. They best one is below, me just after being elbowed and climbed on. I regret nothing.
Also posted below is Bitchin' Camaro from the show. I love cell phones.
It was a fantastic show. The first time I saw them was in 2004 at the Troc for the Dave Blood Memorial Concert.
For a group of Balding Old Punks, they played a kick ass set.
It was a secret show, it wasn't advertised. It was one of two warm up shows for a big "reunion" at the Fun Festival in Texas. Why a Philly band would hold their reunion in Texas, I don't know. But they couldn't advertise these shows because of the Texas deal. I found out about the show because of the wonderful clerk at Long in the Tooth cool little record shop on Sansom between 20th and 21st.
I took the train into the city and walked to the church. It wasn't a bad walk, a little chilly. Got there about 45min early. The waiting begins. I like waiting in lines for shows. I like to watch people. I like to listen to people. Conversations start. It's easy to small talk in lines because you definitely have one thing in common with the other person, the music. Eventually they usher us in.
Upon entering the auditorium, I find myself wondering if there's another room I'm suppose to go to. This can't possibly be where they're playing, it's way to small. The room was maybe the size of one floor of a nice size house. It was a fantastic venue to see a band. There was no bad place to be. You could see the stage from everywhere and everywhere was close. The show was held there because it's one of the places the Milkmen played when they were starting out in the 80s.
In the back of the auditorium there's three merch tables, one for each of the bands playing that night. There was also a stand selling vegan food. Yeah, it seemed a little out of place but whatever.
I stand up as close to the stage as I could get, which was on row of people in front of the stage.
The night opened with the Northern Liberties. They were fantastic. Just great hardcore punk with a hyper frontman that made for a great live show. I'd love to see them again and plan to. During their set, Rodney Anonymous comes out into the crowd, right next to me, to watch them perform. Several of us gave him a thumbs up, but gave him his space and let him enjoy the show.
After the Norther Liberties was Mercury Radio Theater. They were as lousy as the Northern Liberties were good. They were an instrumental band with some kind of visual presentation. They sounded like they were going for rock-a-billy without quite pulling it off. I kind of knew we were in trouble when it took them 20 min to setup their projector. I guess you could consider them a sorbet, they were there to cleanse the palette before the Milkmen came on. It was a good idea, they didn't want to follow the Norther Liberties. After a brief recess, the headliners appear.
The Dead Milkmen got a rousing applause when they came out to setup their equipment. It became deafining when they actually came out to play. They kicked off with Punk Rock Girl and the audience became a living moving creature. It wasn't quite a mosh pit, it was the whole audience pushing and grinding. The energy was amazing. They played for more than an hour and a half. They had two encores of several songs each. It was one of the most amazing shows I've ever been to.
Rodney posted links to pictures and I found several of me. A "benefit" of being so close to the stage I suppose. They best one is below, me just after being elbowed and climbed on. I regret nothing.
Also posted below is Bitchin' Camaro from the show. I love cell phones.
posted by theKrunchyFrog at
10:23:00 PM
1 Comments:
Dude, I wish I could have been there... I'm pissed I missed that and the Dropkick show tonight, although, I probably wouldn't have made the show anyway, because the Phils ended up playing that night... oh well. Four more days!
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