Kate Miller-Heidke - WXPN Free at Noon Concert - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA - July 9, 2010

While trolling WXPN’s website on a Tuesday for XPoNential Music Festival schedule updates, Mama noticed that their upcoming Free at Noon concert would feature Kate Miller-Heidke. Mama called to Carter in the next room to tell him that the opening act from when we saw Ben Folds and a Piano back in April would be playing the Free at Noon on Friday at World Café Live. Carter instantly appeared in the doorway and asked, “well, can we go?” Mama couldn’t think of any reason why we couldn’t, so we reserved our spots, booked some train tickets, and got psyched.

Mama: Philadelphia is a really easy day trip for us, especially by train. World Café Live is less than two blocks from 30^th Street Station, so we planned to go out there, catch the show, grab a bite to eat, and hop the train back home by late afternoon.

Carter: The train is a good place to read because it’s usually silent and if you’re sitting next to a stranger sometimes they don’t talk at all.

Mama: But on that train ride, we got to sit together and have breakfast and talk and read our books. And when we got there, we had some time to kill before the show, so we got to run over to Capogiro at 13^th & Sansom and have gelato.

Carter: Capogiro is the most delicious, heavenly gelato place in the world.

Mama: It's definitely one of my Happy Places. I try to always stop there at least once on every trip Philly. After our mid-morning gelato, we walked up to the Avenue of the Arts and got a cab back up to World Café Live.

Carter: When we got to World Café, the doors to the downstairs venue weren’t open yet, but we got to line up and they checked our names off the list and gave us door prize tickets for tickets to some other show (we didn't win). Then they opened the doors and we went in and I got us seats right in front of the stage.

Mama: Kate Miller-Heidke is already a pop star in Australia, but her recent stateside appearances are her first U.S. headlining shows. She sings and plays the keyboard. She’s accompanied by her husband, Keir Nuttall, who is a fantastic guitarist.

When she came out to start playing, she opened with “Space They Cannot Touch,” which is one of my favorites. She’s a trained soprano – an opera singer – which gives her pop songs a distinct flavor. She’s also incredibly charming.

Carter: When she hits the high notes it startles me because I’m used to pop music more than opera.

Mama: I saw you jump a few times when she sang high notes. It sounds pretty though, doesn’t it?

Carter: Yes it does!

Mama: Carter asked me before the show started if I thought she’d play his favorite song. I told him it wasn’t suitable for radio, and since they broadcast Free at Noon concerts live on WXPN, there was no way she’d play it.

Carter: But they finished the broadcast, and she came out for an encore, and said, “here’s a song that’s not suitable for the radio.” When she said that, I laughed really hard because I knew it was my song.

Mama: You really like songs that use curse words. I thought it was fun to see the people around us react, because most of them were probably hearing it for the first time. They were cracking up. It was fun to watch them have the same response to it that we had when we heard her play it back in April. We already knew the punchline.

Carter: Afterwards they had meet & greet and I got her autograph.

Mama: We brought our CD from home. It was lucky for us that we got an opportunity to meet her, because when we saw her at the Hershey Theatre, the meet & greet area was too crowded to get near her. This was a much better set-up. She was very gracious. She seems like such a lovely person.

Carter: Then we went upstairs for lunch and I had the best burger ever. The bun tasted like garlic bread. Then I looked over and saw Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband having lunch a few tables over.

Mama: World Café Live is such a great, intimate venue. We’ve seen a lot of really great shows there, both in the upstairs area and the larger downstairs venue. It’s become one of my favorite places. Do you remember the first show we saw there?

Carter: Sara Bareilles!

Mama: Another lovely, funny, and talented singer/songwriter. Tony Lucca was the opener at that show. And now I have Tony Lucca lyrics tattooed on me! That was the first time I'd ever heard him.

Carter: Anyway, then we walked back to the train station and went home.

Mama: See? I told you. Easy trip.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: The Felice Brothers, highlights from the XPoNential Music Festival, and Dawes at the Capitol Theatre!

Delta Spirit with The Romany Rye and Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - First Unitarian Church - Philadelphia, PA - July 2, 2010

This was Mama’s first show at the First Unitarian Church, and Carter’s first time seeing Delta Spirit live. We were both really excited about the show.

We also got to have an early dinner before the show at Le Cochon Noir in West Philly (right by the Mann Music Center). Special thanks to Jamal for his hospitality. We HIGHLY recommend this place and can’t wait to go back.

Mama: We got to the venue and found out the show was downstairs in the church basement (the upstairs sanctuary is also used for concerts). The basement looks like…well, a basement. It’s got wood paneling and a very small stage. It was a warm evening, and the temperature went up considerably as we took the stairs down into the venue.

We got a spot right up front and settled in for the opening acts. We enjoyed The Romany Rye, and were very impressed with Ezra Furman & The Harpoons (Ezra Furman is kinda like Gordon Gano + Conner Oberst, with a tiny pinch of Joey Ramone).

Carter: Mama met people standing near us. One of them looked exactly like our friend from home.

Mama: We were comparing notes about other Delta Spirit concerts we’d been to.

Carter: I got so hot.

Mama: We were all really sweating by this point. Delta Spirit started and after a few songs, Carter asked me if he could sit down, but we were all the way at the front, and the place was packed.

Carter: And YOU were being the meanest person on Earth at that second. You wouldn’t let me sit down.

Mama: I was afraid you’d get stepped on!

Carter: Our friend took me outside because I was hot and couldn’t stand it anymore.

Mama: I thought they were going out for some fresh air and would be right back. But I didn’t see them again until the show was over.

Carter: I was hanging out outside. We met and talked to people. I met one of the guys from the Harpoons.

Mama: I thought you guys came back and stood in the back of the room. I didn’t know until later that you never came back in.

Carter: We also went to a restaurant down the street for a little bit. I hardly saw Delta Spirit at all.

Mama: Then I guess it’s up to me to deliver the recap. I’m sad you missed it because I think it was my favorite Delta Spirit show I’ve seen so far.

They played a fantastic show, with a great mix of old and new songs. The temperature really was an issue – I don’t think I’ve ever been that sweaty in my life. The fact that I stayed put for the whole show in that sweltering heat is a testament to how much I love this band, because I can’t stand to be hot.

Highlights for me were two songs off the new album: “Bushwick Blues” and “White Table.” The last time I saw them performed was the first time I’d ever heard them, before the new album was released. Loved them then, loved them even more now that they’ve become familiar favorites.

When they played “Motivation,” Matt Vasquez came out into the middle of the room and made everyone crouch down (“a little bit softer now…”). The place was so jam-packed with people, that in order to squat, you had to hang onto the people around you. We all started to rise as Matt sang, “a little bit louder now…” until he hit the crescendo and the entire room began to pogo in unison (“heeeey-ey-ey-ey!...”). Vasquez shot up out of the center of the room and crowd surfed back to the stage.

Even if this show hadn’t been in a church basement, it still would have been a religious experience.

When the show was over, I was surprised to find that Carter had missed almost the whole thing. The good news was that we had tickets to see them the next night in Washington, DC, at the 9:30 Club. But we were worried that after two nights in a row of concerts (we saw Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears the night before back home) and staying up late, that he wasn’t going to have a good time at the show in DC.

Carter: So I decided not to go, and I was glad because I was really tired and didn’t want to feel like I was going to pass out during the concert. I’ve been wanting to go to that venue, but if I go, no other concerts for a few days before.

Mama: Yeah, three nights in a row would have been too much for you. I was sad you didn’t go along the next night, but I want you to be able to enjoy it. So we still have to get you to your first show at the 9:30 Club, and I don’t think that the First Unitarian show should count as your first Delta Spirit show, since you didn’t really see any of it.

Carter: I love shows with seats and air conditioning. I’ll go see Delta Spirit when they play a show where there are seats and air conditioning.

Mama: Sounds like Delta Spirit needs to play a CapLive show!!

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Kate Miller-Heidke, The Felice Brothers, and the XPoNential Music Festival!

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Capitol Theatre - York, PA - July 1, 2010

This was the first show where we had seen an artist (in this case, at the 2009 WXPN non-commercial radio convention, or Non-COMM), gotten booking information, and as a result, saw them added to the CapLive concert series line-up. It was Carter’s first time seeing Black Joe Lewis perform live, but he knew the music well, and we were both really excited for this show.

Mama: I had seen them before, but it was so much fun to see them at what we consider our “home” venue.

Carter: We were walking by on our way to the show and we saw some of the guys from the band smoking outside. We got a picture with them.

Mama: It’s always fun when bands play at the Capitol, because it’s so small and you usually get the opportunity to hang out with them before or after the show, or at least meet them. Like, remember the time when you hung out with the guys from The BibleCode Sundays for a whole evening?

Carter: Yeah, some of them were totally drunk. But they were definitely fun. I got my picture taken with them, too.

Mama: When I came to find you, they were like, “Are you Carter’s mum? Will you take our picture with him?” Anyway, back to the Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears show. The opening band was called Hacienda, and I thought they were really good.

Carter: They weren’t awful, but they weren’t my favorite band.

Mama: I liked them a lot. Their merch was cool, too.

Carter: When Black Joe Lewis started, I was excited. I like them a lot.

Mama: Me too. Everyone got up and started dancing right away.

Carter: Even though I really like the band, somehow I managed to accidentally fall asleep halfway through the show. But I woke up for my favorite song [“Get Yo Shit”]. The lyrics are funny:

She said, ‘You don’t even buy me presents.’

‘Yeah, I did. I bought you a box of chicken, but I ate it on the way home.’

Just thinking about it makes me hungry for Bair’s chicken.

Mama: His lyrics are really funny. And he’s an excellent guitarist.

Carter: The horn section was kick-ass.

Mama: Carter! Don’t curse.

Carter: Kick-butt.

Mama: [dirty look]

Carter: Bad-butt?

Mama: So you liked the horn section?

Carter: Yes. Yes I did.

Mama: If you stick with the trumpet, do you think you’d like to play in a band like that?

Carter: No, I’d rather do classical stuff. I liked it, but it’s not something I would want to do.

Mama: So overall, what did you think of the show?

Carter: Awesome. I thought that it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Delta Spirit, Kate Miller-Heidke, The Felice Brothers, and the XPoNential Music Festival!