Who remembers the 2016 killer clowns craze that happened? This is not that. This is something even better. On October 8, with the help from our friends at Pirate Radio (shoutout to Doug) I was lucky enough to get to see The Garden in Philadelphia at Union Transfer.
The Garden is a band composed of twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears of Orange County, California, and their music has been broadly categorized under the “punk” title, but they would personally describe it as “Vada Vada.” I would describe their music as punk-inspired, experimental, and noisy.
They are known for their staple jester makeup (hence the reason we look like that), and it is common for fans to show up to their shows in their Jester inspired makeup- white face, and either red or black features like diamonds around their eyes or exaggerated smiles. I think it is such a cool way as a fan and listener to connect with the artist even more. Me and the friends I went with all decided to do our variations of the jester makeup and ultimately we ended up looking terrifying on the SEPTA, Philadelphia’s transit system.
Once we got to Union Transfer we somehow squeezed our way to the front to see the openers Kumo 99 and Flipper, respectively. These two openers were vastly different but very enjoyable. Kumo 99’s music leans closer to dance/house/electronic music, while Flipper is more similar to the Garden with heavy rock influences but more 80’s rock inspired.
The lead singer of Flipper, Ted Falconi, although on the older side, is probably the most energetic performer I have seen live. Flipper served as a good “primer” for what was to come with The Garden. I normally know the openers to shows I go to, but I had no prior knowledge of Flipper. I’m glad I went into it “blind” almost because there was no amount of exposure that could’ve prepared me for their performance.
Their performance energized the entire audience. Ted knows his audience and knows how to engage and energize them, and that’s exactly what he did; everybody in the crowd, whether they knew the music or not, was jamming along, and to me that seems like a really successful thing to accomplish.
The openers were amazing, and we were pumped to see the Shears twins come out. They opened with “Haunted House on Zillow” which, for a lack of better words, is a silly song to start a concert with.
For those who haven’t heard the song before, there is a creepy laugh that plays in the background and that, in conjunction with the excitement, the moshing started immediately.
For the most part, they performed songs off of their new album “Horsesh-t on Route 66” but they also did some songs from their earlier projects like “Kiss My Superbowl Ring”, “Mirror Might Steal Your Charm”, and “haha.” It was a good selection of songs from their discography and just a bunch of songs to go absolutely bonkers to. Some of my favorites they performed were “EGG,” “AMPM Truck,” “Call this # now,” and one of their most notable songs, “Thy Mission.”
Overall, I had an amazing time and I would like to thank Doug from Pirate Radio for helping me get a ticket to this show! This was easily one of my most memorable and enjoyable concert experiences. Union Transfer was an amazing venue and they made sure to hand out bottles of water to anyone who needed it, which was much appreciated after an intense hour of moshing. Unfortunately, I was having too much fun and I sweated all of my Jester makeup off, so there are no after pictures, but that goes to show how awesome the concert was.
By: Maddy Moore