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So what happened here?

June 10, 2022 by Paul Debraski

For nearly fourteen years I was able to keep up this daily blog of books and music.

About a year ago I got a promotion and that changed everything.  I no longer had the time to post everything I wanted to.  Heck, I didn’t even seem to have the time to read all the short stories I wanted to.  Amusingly (or not), just before this new position, I had gotten a print subscription to the New Yorker.  This now means that I (like many others) have a two-foot stack of New Yorker magazines that I haven’t even looked at yet.

For a few weeks I was limiting myself to only the concerts that I went to because that was a little easier to write about.  Although back in the good old days, I used to include photo and links, and I pretty much have neither now. And I’m several shows behind as well.

So I’m still reading books and I think I may try to post some thoughts about them from time to time.  I’d also like to think I have time to write about my concerts, but even those are proving to be challenging.

So let’s consider the blog on hiatus more or less, with occasional posts about things I’ve read or listened to.

The good thing is that I like the new position and wouldn’t change it for the world. I guess I never realized how much down time my old position gave me!

Posted in Paul Debraski | 3 Comments »

Malphas (Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, February 25, 2026) [ARKONA]

February 27, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Malphas 

When I looked up Malphas, I learned that they were a Swedish death metal band.  But when the guys in the band took the stage, I thought, these guys aren’t from Sweden.  They look like they’re from New Jersey.  Turns out they are from Philly.  They’ve been around since 2012 and have an album and an EP out.

LIke the other two bands, there was a theatrical component to them.  The two guitarists and the bassist turned their backs to us and started a kind of creepy horror movie soundtrack.  But there was some kind of technical difficulty.  I think it had something to do with their drummer not being able to hear the clicktrack. After several minutes of trying to fix things, they gave up and their bassist said they were going to raw dog it.

So, like Spinal Tap, instead of doing a theatrical opening, they all just turned around and started playing.

But they wee really good as well.  The singer played some really good solos.  But once again, the mix was weird–the bass drums were really loud and overpowered the rest of the band.

The bass player was the joker of the group asking if we were sick of the snow.  He said too bad we’ve brought more and then said a song title that I didn’t get.

I always like it when growly singers talkin a normal voice.  And this singer did.  He sounded just like a guy from Philly–thanking the other bands and dedicating songs to them.

The vocals were mostly growly but they were largely understandable, which was good.

Malphas is the main opening band for this Arkona tour, with the other bands changing depending on the venue.  So I guess Arkona must like them.  I did.  Listening to their record, they have a lot more going on in the songs (choirs and keys) which I think i would have liked even more if they included it.

But like the other two bands it felt really … amatuerish?  And by the end of the set I worried that I made a bad call coming to this show–was it going to be just like a show where the audience is all the band members’ friends?

Thankfully, Arkona stepped up.

Posted in Ametropia, Arkona, Clifton NJ, Dingbatz, Malphas, Mindrazer | Leave a Comment »

Mindrazer (Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, February 25, 2026) [ARKONA]

February 26, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Mindrazer

I saw Arkona open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  When they announced a show in Clifton,I just had to go. It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).

I was wondering how come I never went to Dingbatz if it was 20 minutes from where I grew up.  I found out it opened in 2004, the year I moved away from the area.  How about that.

So the secondband up was from Hackettstown (which the singer pointed out was only known for making M&Ms (it’s the headquarters of Mars candy).

Unlike the rest of the lineup, Mindrazer plays mostly thrash metal–clean vocals (soaring vocals like the guy from Helloween).  Both guitarists played excellent solos–some serious skills on stage there.

But as with the first band, I felt like they were demanding a lot from the audience since no one knew them. The singer insisted that everyone there get on the floor and row.  I’m not exactly sure when or where this trend started–I assume with Amon Amarth, bit I could be wrong.  I’m all for it because I think it’s hilarious and is probably a lot of fun.

A song or two later, the singer jumped onto the floor and tried to get a circle pit started while he played and soloed.  No one was really into it, I think everyone was more intrigued that he was on the floor.  I know someone took a really close up video of him shredding which was pretty cool.

Again, demanding a lot for a band no one’s heard of.  I found them a little hard to take seriously because they looked really young and earnest.  There was a part where he told us they were taking us on a journey through the history of horror and the horror of history.  But they were a lot of fun and captured the sound of 80s/90s thrash really well.

After a couple of songs he asked if the crowd thought they were a thrash band.  Weird, but yes.  Did we think they could do death metal too?  Who knows, we’ve only hard three songs by you.  Anyhow, the bassist then stepped up and did growling vocals as they did a cover of the Mayhem song Freezing Moon.

The best part was when they played Crusader.  They had someone dressed like a crusader, complete with sword and skull mask (with snakes dangling from its mouth).  He wandered the stage threatening the band and then he jumped down onto the floor and started a circle pit.  This was easily my favorite circle pit ever–a guy with a sword as the central focus of the pit.

It was nice to have a different style of music since the other three were pretty much all death metal.

SETLIST
1453 (Doom of the Eastern Crown)
Seeker
Unnatural Rebirth
Freezing Moon (Mayhem cover)
Crusader ♠

♠ A Thing of Nightmares (2023)

 

Posted in Ametropia, Arkona, Clifton NJ, Dingbatz, Malphas, Mayhem, Mindrazer | Leave a Comment »

Arkona (Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, February 25, 2026)

February 26, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Arkona

I saw Arkona (Аркона) open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  I liked everything about them–their look, their sound and their lead singer, band creator, and primary songwriter Masha Scream (Maria Arkhipova).  The band were dressed in burlap robes, and they all had long hair.  There was a hand drum and skulls and all manner of arcana.  I assumed that they were huge (and I think they are in Europe).

So when they announced a show in Clifton, I just had to go–their first time in the States (otherthan NYC) since 2018.  It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).  I felt bad for the band who I know has played festivals with thousands of screaming fans.  And here we were, about 75 people.  Yikes.  I hope they didn’t lose money.

The roadies came out and hung up the Arkona banner (I think at other shows they’ve projected images behind the band, but there was no room for that here).  It was pretty funny seeing them hang the banner while standing on chairs–again a whole battle of the bands feel.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Ametropia, Arkona, Clifton NJ, Dingbatz, Аркона, Malphas, Mindrazer | Leave a Comment »

Ametropia (Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, February 25, 2026) [ARKONA]

February 25, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Ametropia

I saw Arkona open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  When they announced a show in Clifton,I just had to go. It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).

So if Arkona was the headliner and not many people knew of them, you can imagine how unknown the openers were.

Heavy metal is a great genre if you want to learn about obscure words.  Like Ametropia which is a general medical term for refractive errors—including myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), and astigmatism—where the eye cannot properly focus light directly onto the retina, resulting in blurred or distorted vision.

How about that.

The band Ametropia is a trio from south central PA.  They released an album last year.  When they came out on stage, the lead guitarist/singer was wearing a read hooded robe.  They played heavy and fast and the singer was a standard growling evil death metal type of voice.

I thought the sound was pretty bad–couldn’t really hear the bass.  I’m not sure how clearly he sings the growly vocals, but I couldn’t hear them clearly. Mostly it was snare drum and low rumble.  One of the songs was a big middle finger to the Catholic church and the pedophiles that are in it (it was creepy, for sure).

It makes me laugh when opening bands insist that people act like they’re the headliners.  There were about 30 people in the room when Ametropia went on and they were insisting on a circle pit.  When it started there were about 9 people in it.

I though the robe was an effective way to present the band because as soon as he dropped the hood and you could see his face, he was just a dude growling.

I liked them more than I thought I would–they had some real grooving parts and some nice time changes.  But it almost felt like a battle of the bands show.  For all three opening bands, actually.

But there were some teenagers there and they loved it–full bodied headbanging and first entrants into the pit.

I’m not sure what their setlist consisted of, but they were pretty fun even if the sound wasn’t great.

Posted in Ametropia, Arkona, Clifton NJ, Dingbatz, Malphas, Mindrazer | Leave a Comment »

Remember Sports (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, February 21, 2026)

February 24, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 21, 2026] Remember Sports

A few years ago my son was listening to Remember Sports as I walked past his room.  I liked the song and made a mental note of the band.  I have no idea what song it was now, but it was really good.

I hadn’t really heard much about them since.  I assumed they had broken up.  But no, they just took four years to make their latest album.

They announced an album release show at Kung Fu Necktie and I grabbed a ticket, not really knowing what to expect.  Although during the show, they admitted that they’d played in Brooklyn the night before.

I felt a little bad being right at the front of the stage since I wasn’t a huge fan, but whatever–the songs were new (mostly) so I assumed most people didn’t know all the words yet.

They opened the set with the first three songs on the album.  The opening song Across the Line has been getting lots of airplay on WXPN so I knew that one well.   And I had listened to the album a few times so I recognized most of the songs. Continue Reading »

Posted in Eraser, Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, Remember Sports, The Afterglows | Leave a Comment »

Eraser (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, February 21, 2026) [REMEMBER SPORTS]

February 22, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 21, 2026] Eraser

Eraser came up next.  There are four people in the band Sonam Parikh: vocals, synthesizer;
Pier Harrison: guitar; Kat Bean: bass and Juliette Rando: drums. Before the show I had watched a video online of them at PhilaMOCA so I knew what was coming.  I don’t know if you’d call it No Wave or just good old fashioned noise rock, but that’s what it was.

Pier Harrison was so much fun to watch.  They would play simple melodies and then go nuts making wild sounds and playing bizarre chords.  The keyboard was pitched to what was almost a toy keyboard sound–tinny and noisy, playing usually one or two note melodies like early new wave bands.

The rhythm section was solid.  I especially enjoyed drummer Juliette Rando who kept the beat but added fun flourishes as needed.

Sonam Parikh was an aggressive frontwoman.  She seemed annoyed that people weren’t dancing (even though the music was pretty weird and not entirely danceable).  Twice, she jumped down next to me and sang from the audience.  She said they were going to be playing in France soon, which kind of blows my mind that a weird Philly band was playing in France, but good for them.

Their set was fun and relatively short, so that was good.

I can’t tell what the setlist was, although they do have an album out on bandcamp.

One song from the setlist:

Simon Says ♠

♠ Hideout

 

Posted in Eraser, Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, Remember Sports, The Afterglows | Leave a Comment »

Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broehmel / Maggie Halfman (Milkboy, Philadelphia, PA, February 22, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

February 22, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 22, 2026] Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broehmel / Maggie Halfman

I grabbed tickets for my wife and I to see this show despite it being on a Sunday night.  It was a fun hance to see Carl Broehmel up close and personal (after having seen him twice with My Morning Jacket) and to see Tyler Ramsey who left Band of Horses a while back but who was very important to the early BoH sound.   They put out a really lovely acoustic album together.  I wasn’t sure if we’d be standing for this mellow show (probably), but I knew it would be a delightful show and it wouldn’t run too long.

And then we had a blizzard.  A full scale “no driving allowed” kind of emergency.  As soon as the snow was announced, we knew we weren’t going to go, but when it turned into such a big deal, we assumed the show would be cancelled.  BUT IT WASN’T!

I guess Carl, Tyler and Maggie were already in Philly, so the show went on.  I can’t decide what’s worse–to cancel and reschedule or to actually go ahead on a night when a lot of people probably won’t show up.

I’m a little bummed to have missed it,but I would never go out on a night like that.

Maggie Halfman is a folk singer from Kentucky.  She has a nice voice and sings pretty melodies.  A perfect opening act.

Posted in Band of Horses, Carl Broehmel, Maggie Halfman, Milkboy, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, Tyler Ramsey | Leave a Comment »

The Afterglows (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, February 21, 2026) [REMEMBER SPORTS]

February 21, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 21, 2026] The Afterglows

The Afterglows are a Philly band–a duo–Sam Cook-Parrott and Michael Cantor (although I’m not sure who was who).

They took the stage at 7 (the show was pushed up a but, I guess because KFN had an event at ten).  One guy on guitar and another on bass and keys/drum machine.

Their songs were simple but their harmonies were really great.  They had a kind of slow, dreamy quality–retro in a pleasant way.

The lead vocals we shared between the two, with the bassist’s voice being the higher.  For one song, they switched instruments (and apologized for the delay) and then they went back to the basic setup.

Their set was really pleasant.  Songs of love and loss with simple melodies and nice harmonies.  None of which were more than 3 minutes I don’t think.

The last song, How This Ends rocked a lot more.  It was louder and even had a noisy guitar solo at the end.   A fun way to end the set.

SETLIST

Don’t Make Me Lonely §
Sea of Hate §
I’m Closing the Door ∇
The Nearest Window §
Here Comes the Night §
Bless My Soul ∇
Born Again §
How This Ends §

§ The Sound of the Afterglows
∇ The Afterglows

 

Posted in Eraser, Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, Remember Sports, The Afterglows | Leave a Comment »

The Rural Alberta Advantage (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, February 18, 2026)

February 19, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 18, 2026] Jordan Burchel

Jordan I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage two years ago at The Foundry and it was such a great show I couldn’t wait to see them again.  I even grabbed a ticket for my wife because I was sure she’d love them.  She didn’t feel up to going but I did and it was even more fun than last time.

The RAA is a trio with an unusual setup: Keys, guitar and drums, with the drums on the right side and the drummer facing the other two.  Nils Edenloff sings and plays acoustic guitar.  Amy Cole plays keys and (most importantly) bass foot pedals that add so much to these songs. She also has a floor tom that she occasionally bangs on.  And Paul Banwatt plays drums (which is the biggest understatement I can make).

I wrote this last time and I’ll say it again

But no drumming could compare to Paul Banwatt.  He has a fairly small kit, but it’s amazing that it’s still standing by the end of the show.  He throws in all kinds of fills on the snare and even the hi-hat.  He has speed and power and is simply amazing to watch.  I think that since the songs themselves are fairly simple, it gives Banwatt the ability to fill in any open spaces as needed.  Banwatt, who is also a lawyer (!) has to be the most underrated drummer out there.  The way he plays the drums in counterpoint to the guitar in “Drain the Blood ” is just incredible to watch.

He broke two drumstick by about the fifth song.

Amy Cole has a lot to do in the songs, but she also has parts where she doesn’t do anything.  So she skips around the stage, claps, or just hangs out in the back of the stage until one of her responsibilities is called upon.  She and Paul seem to communicate a lot on stage with meaningful looks.  They even had a kind of dance move for one of the songs when Nils was singing by himself.

For a band whose songs are so intense (Nils’ voice is so intense, I love it) they have a lot of fun.

They are not very prolific–they were still calling their last album (2023) their new album.  Although Nils did say that his friend got him to participate in a “write a song a week” session which really loosened up his creativity. They have been around for almost 20 years and have put out 5 albums (an easy band to get caught up with). Continue Reading »

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Jordan Burchel (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, February 18, 2026) [THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE]

February 18, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: February 18, 2026] Jordan Burchel

Jordan Burchel is a folk singer from Florida.  He writes clever lyrics over simple, catchy melodies. I’d never heard of him before the show but I liked him a lot.  I almost bought a T shirt from him (they were cool designs) but the line was too long.

He sang and played guitar and his wife (I’m fairly certain) Sam (he mentioned her last name briefly, but said Sam several times) sang the harmonies (which added so much to the songs!)

He joked that he wrote the setlist on a plate (a Johnny Brenda’s tradition, I feel) but that he couldn’t read the plate from where he was.

He was very funny telling stories between songs.  He even joked that he felt weird about bending over to get his water because he was afraid he looked like Marco Rubio in that video where he bent out of frame to drink a water–and he doesn’t want to be associated with that man in any way.

He made a joke comparing Florida where he was born and raised to his Aunt Jane while at his wedding. She hit on all of his friends.  Like Florida, he loves his Aunt Jane, he just wishes she were different.

And on another song he has a lyric about taking all the spoons and knives.  He said he didn’t really know what that meant and if anyone had any ideas they could tell him.  He said that after one show a very intense guy came up to him and said I know what it means.  You took the spoons and knives…. but you left the forks [end of statement]. Continue Reading »

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