I saw my favorite New Zealand indie/power pop band The Beths en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T… . Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie introduced them to me a few months ago, and I really like them. They sing in four-part harmony. They have a female lead singer/guitarist. They play guitar solos. They engage in charming banter and play pranks on each other. They sing in their kiwi accents. It was a real Christmas show. They're amazing, and should be much bigger than they are already.

It was at Union Transfer utphilly.com , which is a 1,300-person venue very much like the Batschkapp in Frankfurt, but much darker and without the cheap beer ($9-12 with 18% the lowest guilt tip to free up a card transaction ... is that why people nowadays smoke so much dope?), but the tickets themselves were inexpensive.

The audience consisted of the nicest group of people I've ever seen at a live rock show. There was even a guy in a hooded sweatshirt from a university ham radio club, which tells you everything you need to know about fans of The Beths 😉

"Whatever" is my favo(u)rite song of theirs youtu.be/qtqX7rWtR8A .

"Expert in a Dying Field" hits a bit close to home youtu.be/-KACt6YhOyY .

They're also quirky, funny travel writers breakfastandtravelupdat… (the bass player does most of the legwork).

The opening band en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P… was another New Zealand "dream pop" band on The Beth's label, who managed to make a gaffe in their audience banter by mentioning that they'd tried a "Philly Cheesecake" today en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C… . She also mispronounced "Reading Terminal Market" readingterminalmarket.o… . 0 for 2 on the local references.

I really, really enjoyed it. I'd envisioned how this whole thing would all work out logistically, and was amazed at how my mind's-eye-view was 100% accurate.