kung fu necktie, philadelphia, pa, 6/8/12

awesome night playing with howling fantods and metroplex with jay brown djing between and after the bands. we played about an hour long set debuting two brand new songs (summer sunday & none of them).

monsters of rock
geometric mean
finders
summer sunday
spotlight
rotten life
good intentions
starting now
nutso
none of them
weekend politics
skin i’m in
sabotage (beastie boys)
baba o’riley (who)
butterfly
stock

private party 3/11/12

we were asked if we could play a one hour set of early beatles pop songs for a private party. we said sure.

yellow submarine
eight days a week
can’t buy me love
you’re gonna lose that girl
all together now
a hard days night
you can’t do that
she loves you
ticket to ride
when I get home
all my loving
please please me
hey bulldog
i want to hold your hand
twist and shout

abbaye 9th anniversary party 1/21/12

this was our 6th year (5th in a row) as the karaoke band for our friends at the abbaye and as always it was a great time. people were invited to choose from our list of 210 songs and come up and sing with us. we had more people than ever come up and sing without the lyric sheets and everyone did a fantastic job.  for the second year in a row we got a late night request for the who’s nine minute mini-opera “a quick one (while he’s away)” which isn’t on the list but this year was performed perfectly by our friend joe from the band the marts. another highlight was meghan, one of the owners of the abbaye, surprising us by coming up and singing one of our songs “geometric mean”. no one had ever requested to sing one of our songs before and it was pretty awesome. she even had her own lyric sheet. we warmed up at the start of the night with three of our songs and then immediately turned the vocal duties over to the crowd. below is the list of what was performed for all three sets. the cover songs for karaoke have the original band’s name in parenthesis following the song title.

good intentions
butterfly
starting now
last caress (misfits)
be my baby (ronettes)
should I stay or should I go (clash)
just like heaven (cure)
can’t hardly wait (replacements)
our lips are sealed (go-go’s)
psycho killer (talking heads)
under pressure (david bowie & queen)
left of the dial (replacements)
mary jane’s last dance (tom petty & the heartbreakers)
wrong (archers of loaf)
fake plastic trees (radiohead)
fuck & run (liz phair)
academy fight song (mission of burma)
queen bitch (david bowie)
my name is jonas (weezer)
blitzkrieg bop (ramones)
glad girls (guided by voices)
slot machine (superdrag)
phaser (superdrag)
low (cracker)
basket case (green day)

a salty salute (guided by voices)
we (descendents)
geometric mean
game of pricks (guided by voices)
creep (radiohead)
here comes your man (pixies)
baba o’riley (who)
o valencia (decemberists)
cut your hair (pavement)
psycho killer (talking heads)
(what’s so funny ‘bout) peace, love & understanding (elvis costello)
bikeage (descendents)
surf wax america (weezer)

i will dare (replacements)
under pressure (david bowie & queen)
harnessed in slums (archers of loaf)
debaser (pixies)
teenage f.b.i. (guided by voices)
weed king (guided by voices)
lethargy (guided by voices)
highway to hell (ac/dc)
take the skinheads bowling (camper van beethoven)
(you gotta) fight for your right (to party!) (beastie boys)
i’m allowed (buffalo tom)
rockin’ in the free world (neil young)
motor away (guided by voices)
dumb (nirvana)
twist & shout (beatles)
a quick one (while he’s away) (who)
mary jane’s last dance (tom petty & the heartbreakers)

joe strummer tribute night, northstar bar, philadelphia, pa, december 22, 2011

featuring the music of joe strummer, the clash, the 101ers & the mescaleros  performed by the future unwritten, leland plumridge (of first capitol funk), tonight we strike, successful failures, lust2love, scarier area, mean streets and us. the proceeds were all donated to strummerville, a registered charity that gives support to aspiring musicians and help to projects that help change the world through music. set up by the friends and family of joe strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them. we performed four clash songs.

janie jones, career opportunities, safe european home, death or glory

murph’s, philadelphia, pa 12/17/11

fun night playing three sets of almost all covers at murph’s.

you can’t do that (beatles)
tree house (buffalo tom)
butterfly
gun (uncle tupelo)
tractor rape chain (guided by voices)
outtasight (outta mind) (wilco)
finders
low (cracker)
throwing things (superchunk)
i need to know (tom petty & the heartbreakers)
your little hoodrat friend (hold steady)
burned (buffalo springfield)
nutso
tired of sex (weezer)
christmas vacation (descendents)

know your onion! (shins)
harnessed in slums (archers of loaf)
fabricoh (archers of loaf)
nostalgia (archers of loaf)
you’re gonna lose that girl (beatles)
anarchy in the u.k. (sex pistols)
keep it close to me (superdrag)
o valencia (decemberists)
the kids are alright (who)
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory (guided by voices)
here comes your man (pixies)
born to lose (social distortion)
psycho killer (talking heads)
rock your ass (supersuckers)
death or glory (clash)
safe european home (clash)

makes no sense at all (husker du)
angels of the silences (counting crows)
sunshine state (superchunk)
hey bulldog (beatles)
nu bruises (superchunk)
father christmas (kinks)

milkboy, philadelphia, pa, 11/26/11

great show at milkboy with friends king class & american schoolyard opening and johnny action figure closing out the night. having just played the release show for for what it’s worse a month before we chose to look to the future and played two brand new songs, “spotlight” & “skin i’m in”, in addition to a bunch of other new songs that we’ve been premiering this past year. it was a lot of fun to play a set of mostly new material. we ended the set with steve’s christmas song to get the holiday season rolling and “under pressure” due to the great response it got at the release show.

spotlight
slow down
finders
skin i’m in
nutso
deep end
social service
infinite space
undecidedly so
wishmas
under pressure (queen & david bowie)

“for what it’s worse” record release show, northstar bar, philadelphia, pa, 10/29/11

the record release show for for what it’s worse was one of our best shows ever and an amazing night all around. we had great friends (and great bands) faux slang, knife show & the creeping weeds open and we spent the majority of their sets having people come up to us to tell us how amazing they all are. (we already knew that, that’s why we booked them).  dj extraordinaire jersey dan  from choice tasters & y-not radio kept the music going before, after and between the bands.  as for us, we played an hour and a half mix of songs from the new record, old favorites from our past records and some brand new future-hits. we closed the set with a late 70’s/early 80’s arena rock trilogy sandwiched between the first and last songs off our first record 21. that was going to be it but the crowd demanded more, shouting out song titles that eventually evolved into a chant of “gbv, gbv, gbv…..” so we obliged with two guided by voices covers. definitely one of the most fun sets we’ve ever played.

good intentions
st. nick
you never seem to mind
lifeboat
finders
me & sweet j
deep end
geometric mean
everything pales
afternoon is better
shattered leaves
starting now
the greater depression
nutso
infinite space
butterfly
stock
humpty
weekend politics
become
highway to hell (ac/dc)
misty mountain hop (led zeppelin)
under pressure (queen & david bowie)
love oven

encore:
buzzards & dreadful crows (guided by voices)
motor away (guided by voices)

the guys from “bands in the backyard” also have photos posted on their flickr page here.

also, our friend lauree drove all the way up from arlington, va for the show and she has some pictures posted here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150941645910118.763944.509435117&type=3

arlene’s grocery, nyc, 10/8/11

we finally played our first show in new york city and everyone at arlene’s treated us really well. we threw a brand new song, “nutso”, into the set and played “happiness is a warm gun” to commemorate john lennon’s birthday.

good intentions
st. nick
you never seem to mind
starting now
everything pales
stock
infinite space
nutso
happiness is a warm gun (beatles)
geometric mean
butterfly