grayling + slingshot dakota + petal @ everybody hits

Best picture of Grayling I could get

This entry will be short and sweet. After an exhausting week I only stayed for Grayling and left after their set, not remaining for the other bands. I know! What a great line-up! Why?!?! Ironically I saw Petal and Grayling both open for Julien Baker at different shows in 2016. Liked both instantly and was thrilled they were on the same bill. Grayling is one of my new favorite bands. I think they hail from West Philly. Lexi reminds me so much of Torres and Liz Phair with her singing and guitar playing. Of course I hit up the merch table purchasing the cassette tape Everything that Burns. Please check out their bandcamp and songs. According to Lexi if you buy their merch you are supporting the band's Wawa addiction and that's not a bad thing to have.

.priests @ everybody hits

My woman crush in action

Priests are a punk / riot grrrl band from Washington DC that formed back in 2012. The band consists of Katie Alice Greer on vocals, Daniele on drums and back-up vocals, Taylor on bass and back-up vocals, and GL Jaguar on guitar (he's freaking phenomenal). I have been obsessed with them since 2014 when they opened for The Dismemberment Plan. This is the first time I would see them headline so hooray!

Their new album "Nothing Feels Natural" dropped at the end of January. Since I wanted an element of "surprise" I didn't listen to any of the songs ahead of time. I figured I'd purchase the album after their set and would automatically like what I heard. Of course this was very true and so much more.

Bands Ursula and Snail Mail opened. Each unique in their own way one more angry / edgy, the other more like Sunflower Bean in their sound. Katie came out in almost a prom dress ensemble with boots. My friend complimented her ensemble and she said she hoped dancing around would make her less cold.

Katie in the moment

The band basically played almost all the songs off of their new album. The only two older songs I remember hearing off their first album was "Right Wing" and "And Breeding." She cleverly changed the lyrics in that song to "Fuck Donald Trump! I'm gonna get him for it!" Their new album should really be an anthem for 2017. I equate Katie to the likes of Nadya Tolokonnikova from Pussy Riot. She's very politically aware and not only a musician but an activist in my eyes. On the mic she's very intimidating and powerful (several times I thought she was going to crash into us during the performance!) but behind the merch table she is very sweet and soft spoken. There was a cool moment when the lead singer of Snail Mail and her friend started skanking during Priests set. Katie encouraged it. Katie also had a moment when she climbed on top of the drum kit and played around with the hanging lights. 

Sadly I didn't have a lot of cash on me and just purchased their album. The zine for sale looked pretty amazing though. I told Katie I saw them open for Ought at PhilaMoca and she said, "Thanks for coming back!" Ahhhh I love her. Today I played their new album non-stop. My favorite stand-out tracks are: Nicki, No Big Bang, Suck, and Nothing Feels Natural. The whole album is mind-blowing. I have a soft spot for their first album but this one exceeded all expectations. I highly recommend all my Sleater-Kinney fans to check out Priests. Lance Bangs is a fan so I'm assuming Corin is on board too. Here are some more shots from the show....

.chastity belt

God bless these bands from the Pacific NW or West Coast coming to the East Coast to tour. First Tacocat, then Peach Kelli Pop, now Chastity Belt. I feel like this is a new wave of riotgrrrl bands even though we are in a different decade and that's probably not what they are going for. Still. All female bands rule in my book.

Time to Go Home is their most recent album which I dig. I really liked what I heard and how the band switched it up with different members singing a few songs even though Julia sang most of the songs. The funniest thing was their banter between songs. Some guy yelled out "I love your Jag" (referring to her guitar) and the band sarcastically said "We love talking about gear. All kinds of gear." Most of their set was more recent songs. Julia said their new album would come out in 2017. Gretchen commented on the wall graffiti in the bathroom and said more people need to add tally marks to "Number of people chillin." She also commented on bulletin boards she noticed on her ride here that were pretty deep. The most annoying thing were the bros. I mean this guy near me was so annoying. After every fucking song he had to do an annoying "Yeeeee-aaaahhhh" I mean, they get it. I don't know what is worse, that or the guys moshing to Peach Kelli Pop's "Princess Castle 1987." 

After the show the band was preoccupied with friends so I didn't have a chance to say "Hi." Bro grabbed the set list and two others grabbed the remaining ones as well. Since my friend missed the show I picked her and myself up tee shirts with a caricature of the band posing in front of the Space Needle. Can't wait to sport it! 

.peach kelli pop

Let's just start off by saying Peach Kelli Pop are the cutest band ever. Their outfits were adorable and I loved they were all wearing their Peach Kelli Pop (almost a nod to the Pink Ladies) jackets outside before the show. Unlike last time with Tacocat, the bands all went within their time frame so no one's set was shortened due to ridiculous time constraints. The openers were Pouty (they gave us free pins), Mannequin Pussy, and Pony Time. My favorite was Pony Time who hail from Seattle. When Peach Kelli Pop went on, they informed us about their light they bought from the Sky Mall. It flashed all of these amazing colors as they played their set. Now P and I both commented how alarming it was that so many guys were at this show. She didn't notice (I'm shocked because I could feel the vibrations on the ground) they were moshing to a lot of the songs behind us. Really? I mean Princess Castle 1987 is a song to mosh to? Seriously?! We noticed one of the members of PKP sported a Screaming Females shirt and that was pretty rad. P and I both got set lists after the show. We stood in the merch line and chatted with Allie about what a great line-up it was. Their merch was super cute. I'm kind of bummed I did not walk away with a shirt, there were so many amazing cat ones. I ended up purchasing their latest LP, the Halloween Mask 7" (it's cherry red vinyl!) and a holographic pin with the Sailor Moon wand (they covered the song during their set). Allie threw in another pin for me for free which was sweet. I gave it to P. Here is the set list. I'd love to catch them again!

GIRLS OF SUMMER
TRUE BLUE
HALLOWEEN MASK
PRINCESS CASTLE 1987
RED LEATHER
EENIE
SOCIETY OF ENOCH
HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL
DREAMPHONE
HEART EYES
SAILOR MOON
DOO WAH DIDDY
RAMONES

ENCORE:
PAVED TO ? LOVER (hard to make out what she wrote)

.6 concerts 6 days

So yes, I came up with the idea to do six back-to-back shows in 6 days on top of work. Was this a dumb idea? Actually no! I took off of work for a 3-day weekend, spent most of Saturday sleeping in bed to catch up and had the energy of a firecracker for the last show. Instead of doing separate entries it would be easier to just do short, mini-reviews on all six. Ready? Here we go! On Monday The Kills played Union Transfer. I've liked them since 2005 and tend to like their earlier songs. When A&J hit the stage kicking into "No Wow" it took me back. The show was phenominal. Alison has amazing stage energy and presence. Hotel killed it on guitar and used the mic stand to actually shred. I got some pretty amazing shots and I got to catch up with one of my Sleater-Kinney friends and her friend. After I hung around in hopes of getting a set list and it was graciously handed to me. Here are the songs..

NO WOW

URA FEVER

HEART IS A BEATING DRUM

KISSY KISSY

HARD HABIT

DNA (crossed off)

HEART OF A DOG

IMPOSSIBLE TRACKS

BLACK BALLOON

DOING IT TO DEATH

BABY SAYS

WHIRLING EYE

POTS & PANS + MONKEY

TAPE SONG

BITTER FRUIT

SOUR CHERRY

Kim and the Created opened for them. I was not feeling it nor was my friend. However I did like her stage outfit of a fireball cat suit. She crowd surfed a few times and I enjoyed the lights around her guitar. At the merch table I bought the most amazing Kills poster. That is getting framed and hung on my door.

Night #2 was Sheer Mag at my favorite venue, The First Unitarian Church. I love seeing all of the "punk people" as I call them. Because I am a tiny thing I usually don't stand front and center since the pit is alive and well at these kinds of events. The first band was Blank Spell and they were pretty good. The second band was from Ontario called Triage. I really loved them and purchased their album. The third band was Fuck SS. They had some followers there and the pit became more crazy when they performed. Finally Sheer Mag came on. Tina is so great. Since the man in front of me was 6'7" I could barely see and had to get footage on my tip-toes. They are playing again at Phila Moca in May so I'm definitely going. Sadly I do not have a set list from this show so I don't know exactly what was played other than most of the songs off their third EP.

Night #3 was Pins at The Milk Boy. My friend recommended I see this band with her as they opened for a band called The Subways. Waiting in line I ironically met two Sleater-Kinney fans that ironically attended the NY shows since they looked semi-familiar. They claimed they were also there for Pins as well. Pins are from Manchester. They are pop / punk. During their one song "Girls Like Us" they kick into "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It was neat to hear. The four of us stood up front and danced the entire time. Faith and Lois came out into the audience a few times to interact with us and it was a blast! They enjoyed us so much they tweeted and wrote on Instagram "Thank you Philly, love all you ladies at the front." We said they basically put on a show just for us. After buying tons of their merchandise we spoke briefly to them and they told us thanks for dancing. Here is their set list...

MOLLY

YOUNG GIRLS

TOO LITTLE

TROUBLE

LUVV4LYF

GET WITH ME

GIRLS LIKE US

MAD FOR YOU

OH LORD

WFTE

DAZED

MISFITS

Night #4 was Bleached at Johnny Brendas. Ironically we did not catch the opening act, went upstairs five minutes before Bleached went on and still nabbed front spots. We loved the stage decor of fake flowers around amps and drums. Very 90s vibey. Their sound is very grungy, California pop. Jennifer was really great and the band as a whole sounded really great live. The girls came close to the end of the stage and in the audience. My favorite song is "Wednesday Night Melody" and I was elated to hear it live. Hitting up the merch stand we bought their coloring book which was just adorable, pins, tee shirts, etc. My friend nabbed some discarded drum sticks on the stage and got those signed by the drummer. Here is the Bleached set list...

TRYIN LOSE

KEEP ON

WEDNESDAY

SLEEPWALKING

SEARCHING

RAMONES

ELECTRIC CHAIR

THINK OF YOU

DESOLATE TOWN

TELEPHONE

CHEMICAL AIR

SOUR CANDY

NEXT STOP

DEAD IN YOUR HEAD

Night #5 Taco Cat from Seattle. My friend was so excited for this show, I was too. It was the first time I've been to Everybody Hits which is a batting cage but it hosts bands which is different and cool. I LOVE feminist girl punk bands. This was stellar. There were 3 opening bands; Audacity, Pujol, and I honestly forget the name of the other. The venue was FREEZING inside so I started to get the chills by the end of the night which sucked majorly. Taco Cat did not go on until midnight and had to cut their set because of curfew issues with the building. Major suckage when they are the headlining band! Damn it. They played some awesome songs as "Hey Girl!" which all the girls in the crowd chanted along to, "I Hate the Weekend" "FDP" and others. Their wardrobe was killer as it consisted of cats, eye stickers, guitar stickers, emoji leggins, and just fabulous attire all around. Their merch was amazing as we bought pretty much everything. We talked to Emily about Kathleen Hanna and the band was so excited about that moment and picture with her. Anyway my friend nabbed a set list, I did not but I'll come back and post what songs they played.

Night #6 Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. With tons of sleep and Dayquil Saturday afternoon I made it. Thao? Twitter was all abuzz about her so I decided to check out her songs. At first it took me a few listens to "A Man Alive" but it clicked and I was hooked. Her lyrics were not really hard to memorize so I was happy to sing along to most of her songs. I met up with some Sleater-Kinney fans from NY that I went to shows with. It was fun. The crowd was great, she was into it. I honestly did not want it to end. The best was at the end she kicked into a cover of Missy Elliot's "Get Your Freak On." There was also audience participation sing-along and just rocking out. At the merch table I bought two of her albums (most recent and We the Common). My friend was very kind to let me have his set list, here are the songs...

EVENING

CITY

DEPARTURE

ASTONISHED MAN

HOLY ROLLER

FOOL FOREVER

AGE OF ICE

SWIMMING POOLS

HAND TO GOD

MILLIONAIRE

EVERYBODY

SLASH/BURN

KINDNESS

BEAT

WHEN WE SWAM

GUTS

NOBODY DIES

M BIRD

GET YR FREAK ON

WE THE COMMON

Apologies if this entry is completely incoherent and my brain is mush trying to articulate how amazing all the shows were. I would probably do this again. A lot of people think I'm nuts but people need to realize, your job is secondary. You need to have fun in life.