Music: 7 Shows to See This Week
Emily Wells plays Boot & Saddle on Saturday. (terrorbird.com)
Steel Panther @ Fillmore Philly | Wednesday, April 5
These guys are a spot-on send-up of ’80s glam-metal, with all the high hair, tight spandex, and skin-deep lyrics that entails. They look like Poison. They sound like Motley Crue. It’s an easy target and they nail it.
Anthrax @ Electric Factory | Wednesday, April 5
Forked-tongue-in-cheek metal forefathers with serious thrash riffs, Anthrax were never the hardest or heaviest, but they never devolved into self-parody, either. In ’80s metal, that’s a win, though it bears mentioning that Anthrax has had more lead singers than hit songs.
Diet Cig @ Boot & Saddle | Thursday, April 6
This New York twosome makes upbeat, high-energy indie rock like you used to like: half-twee, three-quarters power-pop, a bit Velocity Girl, sorta Superchunk. Totally fun.
DMX @ TLA | Friday, April 7
“Knock knock, open up the door, it’s real / with the non-stop, pop pop of stainless steel.”
Half Waif @ Everybody Hits | Friday, April 7
Nandi Rose Plunkett especially crushes it when her baroque pop synthesizer sound bleeds into other genres, be it classical, Celtic or trip-hop.
DeadMau5 @ BB&T Pavilion | Friday, April 7
He’s that DJ with the big giant mouse mask; you already know whether you care about him/his music. But did you know he has a cat named Professor Meowingtons Ph.D.? And did you also know that there’s an unrelated entrepreneur in Florida who sells her own cat-themed stuff at Meowingtons.com? Anyway, now the mouse DJ and the cat lady are battling it out in court to see who gets the name. It’s just like Itchy & Scratchy/Tom and Jerry/Marley & Me!
Emily Wells @ Boot & Saddle | Saturday, April 8
Emily Wells has facets, man. Part trip-hop, part classical, a little hip-hop and rock and pop and soul. At shows, she loops her violin over echoey beats and belts out breathy vocals that build to big-belting choruses. Wells just released a new EP, In The Hot, featuring live takes, remixes and b-sides collected on her last tour for the stellar full length, Promise.
Kate Tempest @ Boot & Saddle | Tuesday, April 11
Backed by a live band, British spoken word poet/rapper Kate Tempest returns to move hips and scratch heads. Her most recent album, Let Them Eat Chaos (dropped in October of last year), was also released in book form, but I bet she’s best with beats.
