Dirty Beaches, Live @ FUC

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Alex Zhang Hungtai, Canadian Bands, concert video, Dirty Beaches, Dirty Beaches Band, first unitarian church, fuc, live music, live philly concerts, R5 Productions

Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai and Alex is Dirty Beaches.  The boutique label holy-grail maker engineers tracks of dirty croon-filled depths.  His stage presence has an amalgam of personifications peering through it; although, their intention is rightfully mysterious. We saw glimpses of Chuck Berry and Elvis through the dimly lit stage and sludgy tracks.  Based out of Canada, Dirty Beaches comes through Philadelphia several times a year and we are damn lucky for it.

A Dirty Beaches show touches on auditory sensibilities difficult to define but easy to appreciate.  Blazing new trails in sonic bliss, the band graced the FUC stage on May 3rd, 2012 and delivered a reverent performance  to his musical influences and the lucky crowd.  Grinding through numerous tracks and ferociously brandishing his guitar Alex, with his Dirty Beaches bandmate, provided us with yet another exhibit behind the crime of missing his live performance.  You can beat the case by catching his July 23rd performance at Johnny Brenda’s after his Spanish tour.  In the meantime, we have some dark and dirty videos:

Bear In Heaven, Live @ Voyeur

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Bear In Heaven, Bear In Heaven band, brooklyn, concert video, Dead Oceans records, Home Tapes, live music, live philly concerts, making time, making time philadelphia, Spotify link, voyeur nightclub concert, voyeur philly

Philly is lucky this year.  It gets to see Bear In Heaven at least twice in 2012.  We have been looking forward to seeing them since we heard You Do You two and a half years ago.  The Brooklyn based band formed by Jon Philpot plays an experimental, psych-synth, indie rock medley and is damn hypnotic.  Bear In Heaven was playing this Philly show at Voyeur on March 9th prior to their SXSW jaunt and they made it count.  Tracks were delivered with the same sound as captured on wax and the show was wildly engaging with Jon coming into the audience and dancing while also playing multiple instruments and singing.  Joe Stickney, and Adam Wills laid down guitar and drums seamlessly and the entire set piece was brilliant.

++ Spotify Playlist ++

With their most recent album, Bear Rest Forth Mouth, getting some best new music honors from Pitchfork we know the critics realize the power in Bear In Heaven’s music too.  On the back of this release will come I Love You It’s Cool, their fourth release since 2003.  We look forward to this and Bear In Heaven’s May 2nd performance at FUC in Philly.  Cop your tix here.  We did (plus Blouse off Captured Tracks is opening and they are simply fantastic).  Check the Bear In Heaven vids:

Cave, Live @ Kung Fu Necktie

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Cave, Cave Band, concert video, Drag City Records, electronic jam, indie music, kung fu necktie, live music, live philly concerts

Cave is a psychedelic rock and drone band based in Chicago, IL, by way of Missouri,  consisting of keyboardist Rotten Milk, guitarist/organist Cooper Crain, bassist Dan Browning and drummer Rex McMurry formed in 2006.  They arrived at KFN in Philly coming off their Junior release of their LP Neverendless on Drag City Records and put forth a mesmerizing performance capped off by the one of longest (17:09) and most entertaining songs we have ever heard live (video to follow).

These four were stunning on this evening; Rotten Milk’s outfit in particular – we couldn’t take our eyes off that zebra top/beard combo.  It underscored his skills on the keys but definitely added a lovely bit of flair.  Cave’s performance on the 27th of September was tight and entertaining.  They moved through the set with ease and captivated all with the organ-keys combo.  The methodicalness of Rex’s drumming was hypnotizing.  We watched nervously as Cooper’s organ perched precariously on a KFN stool, teetering, as he hammered out the rich notes.  It was amazing.  The whole set came together like a feast for the senses.  We thought Cave was fantastic and look forward to catching them again in the future.

Check out some video from the evening below and know that watching this pales in comparrison to getting out and seeing them live: