BL0G

Hiii. I will be using this space to blog about the shows I attend. You guys will get my full and honest takes. Remember, these are just my opinions. Read and enjoy! -Aly

I went to Corbin’s show at Webster Hall by myself. When I saw that Bobby Raps and Corbin were touring together, I knew instantly that this show would heal something in me. They’re a Pisces–Capricorn duo, which makes perfect sense. I’ve got a good dose of those signs in my own chart, so their art has always felt like home. I’ve loved both of them since I was about 13 or 14 — the golden age of Tumblr scrolling and music discovery during Catholic middle school classes I definitely wasn’t paying attention in.

I first found Corbin back when he was Spooky Black, through his song “Without You.” That song still defines his career in a lot of ways. When he played it last night, he introduced it by saying, “Let’s get this one out of the way.” I remember getting some of my first flashes of gender envy watching that music video — oh, to be a white boy in a durag with an angelic voice singing in the snow. Meanwhile, I was in Miami, sweating through humidity and battling frizz. But as a winter-born New Yorker, I longed for the cold. A year later, I moved back to NYC to fulfill my prophecy of becoming an Ice Boy. As Corbin says in “Hunker Down”: “I’m going North.”

After discovering him, I kept up with every project. When I first listened to Mourn all the way through, my brain chemistry changed forever. Thankfully, he played all my favorites from that album last night.

At the last Corbin show I went to, he told the crowd he’d been working on his stage presence. But honestly, his voice is the presence. With a voice that otherworldly, he doesn’t need to do much besides stand there and sing. It’s siren-like — the kind of voice that surprises you because you can’t believe it’s coming from him. He’s like the Rick Astley of our generation, if Rick Astley’s songs sounded like snow melting under streetlights. I was completely entranced. His keyboardist and guitarist added perfectly to the ethereal atmosphere, and Webster Hall’s lighting design tied it all together.

Corbin does little to no speaking to the crowd, maintaining that mysterious aura he’s always been known for. But at one point, he broke character — getting political and shouting out Zohran Mamadani after saying, “Fuck ICE.” The crowd erupted. Today, I voted.

The encore was easily the highlight of the night. Corbin and Bobby Raps came back out to bless us with the first-ever live performances of songs from their 2015 collab album, Couch Potato. That album is sacred to me — one of my all-time favorites. They played “Welcome to the Hell Zone” and “Burdened,” and hearing those songs live for the first time in nearly a decade felt surreal.

Both Corbin and Bobby’s music have always spoken directly to my soul. Their lyrics linger in that space between loneliness, hopelessness, and existential dread — but they carry it with this swagger, a cool detachment that somehow makes the sadness feel beautiful. It’s that yearning to feel alive, that nostalgia for pain that once made you stronger—a solid reminder of your humanity. It builds character, confidence, and self-assurance. Their music takes me back to the Northeast in winter — skies dark by 4 p.m., the world muted in gray. There’s something comforting about that gloom, like the weather finally matches how I feel inside.

3/22/25

Clyb Cyberia

I went to Club Cyberia. I had so much fun! Club Cyberia is the notorious fictional club from the 1999 anime Serial Experiments Lain. The club was brought to life in NYC thanks to the creators of the event, a Brooklyn based breakcore collective. You can find their events on Instagram: @cyberia.nyc. When I saw the promotion for the first rave, I knew I had to attend because of my affinity for Lain. It's one of my all-time favorite animes. If you've watched it, you know Lain is all about becoming one with technology and losing yourself in multiple realms of existence. It's known primarily for its stunning aesthetic and complex/confusing plot, which both highlight the early internet. It also has a fire soundtrack which has inspired many current breakcore artists.

I attended the first Club Cyberia event in December which was at a different venue. I had a good time and I was very impressed with the set up. This time around, the Club Cyberia experience did not dissapoint. I enjoyed this rave more than the first simply based on the premasis that I talked to more people, I got a rave bracelet, and I danced a lot more this time around. There were lain cosplayers, there were furries, there were awesome outfits. Most importantly: EVERYONE WAS DANCING! I really enjoyed the DJs I saw perform: dolphin uppercut avenger, bensn, and shoji. BENSN was mixing classic breakcore with some afro-Caribbean beats, which I really liked. During their set, I felt like I was in the Mii Plaza. Shoji played a 90210 Travis Scott breakcore mix that is stuck in my head.

The visuals and lighting were great with projections of Lain and other animes playing on the walls. A Lain TV installation by artist Peilin was the visual star of the night for me. There was also a secret back room that you could acess by walking through the venue's kitchen. This room had Lain playing on a big screen and laptops set up with retro video games that I attempted to play. The one downside to the night was how expensive the drinks were - but after two margaritas, I was gone. Overall, I had a great night and I will continue attending Club Cyberia events. It was very special to come together with Lain lovers like myself. Let's all love Lain.

9/26/24

Bôa

I saw Bôa at Warsaw, which isn't my favorite venue, however, they were really amazing. Of course, I discovered Bôa through the Serial Experiments Lain opening so I had to go in my Lain shirt. I had approximately two drinks and was the perfect amount of turnt. Jasmine Rodgers is an amazing singer. I think she has such a soulful voice. It just reminds me of nature, like the forest and birds singing. She has a way of entrancing you with her vocals. She's got a Mitski-esque vibe to her where her music makes you feel incredibly sad and you kinda want her to be your mother. She's also so British lol so I had a hard time understanding her when she was speaking. The rest of the band was also amazing.

I screamed the lyrics when they played Duvet, which they played as the very last song at the end of the encore, which I thought was perfect. I like when artists leave their most famous song for the end of the concert. The guitar rift during Duvet was also perfect. This is one of my all time favoirte songs, everything about it is so beautiful and nostalgic and I feel like hearing it live fuflfilled a prophecy for me. When we were leaving the concert, heading towards the train, some random guy asked us what the best Bôa song is and I said Duvet and they said "real fan". They also played some other bangers from that infamous album like Twilight and Elephant. I also really like some of their new songs from their 2024 album Whiplash. My favorite is Beautiful & Broken. Before playing that song, Jasmine gave a cute anectdote about how her first steps were in New York so NYC is special to her. All in all, I had a great time. Bôa makes me have hope for the future. You know what millenials..y'all are cool.

4/11/24

VS Self

I went to see some emo bands at Warsaw. The line up was party hats, Catalyst..., and VS Self. I want to preface with the fact that I hate this venue lol. Security there always makes it difficult for us and are super strict. I was supposed to interview the bands, so my friend and I managed to get backstage with our media passes. While we were back there, Catalsyst... was performing and they were awesome. It was hard to hear the details of the music from backstage because it is so loud but I could tell they were giving their all. I know that with emo bands, it's more about the vibe, and I was impressed by their high energy. My friend and I were headbanging and dancing along. Then, we decided we wanted to get into the crowd for a little. This was when things got a bit chaotic.

As soon as we exited the backstage area, security walked up to us and told us we were not allowed to go backstage regardless of our media passes. My friend and I had left our bags backstage with all our shit, so we needed to get it back, but security was not budging. I literally argued with this security guard for like 10 straight minutes. After talking to several people from the venue, we just had to wait until the show was over to get our bags back. I was very stressed out. At this point, my friend and I just wanted to get drunk. So we keep drinking and enjoy the rest of the show. VS Self's set was great from what I can remember. They closed with "Mourn" which was so great to see live. I recently started getting into the band and midwest emo in general, but I do really love the genre. It's so earnest and makes me feel like an overly angsty teen in suburbia. I wish I had more to report on but I was not being very observant on this messy night. Shout out to the bands tho...I LOVE EMOS!

4/5/24

Snow Strippers

I got to see Snow Strippers last night. Shout out to Graham for inviting me to the show :) This electronic duo is the definiton of swag over talent. I can't lie, I used to be a SS hater, because I saw them live at a different show in NYC right as they were first blowing up and I couldn't understand a word that girl was singing on stage. But after listening to their discography, they've grown on me a lot, specially after Night Killaz Vol.1 came out. I feel like their production really elevated with that album. My favorite songs of theirs are Just Your Doll, which they opened with, and Just A Hint, which they closed with. So I was very pleased.

Now onto their performance. In terms of vocals, Tatiana is not the strongest. But damn that girl will literally dance all night long. I was very impressed with her stamina. Graham was also killing it with the soundboard, abusing the fuck outta that airhorn and producer's tags. They really had the crowd dancing the whole night, which was awesome. They also had really good visuals playing in the background. It was a super entrancing video with gifs of dolphins and anime girls and macbook videos of them - reminded me of the 2014 tumblr days. I was literally staring at that video the whole night. The duo definitley has an indie sleaze vibe, they remind me a bit of Crystal Castles and early Yung Lean.I wanted to buy their cute anime merch but the shirt was $60 so fuuuck that!

I had a lot of fun at this concert, mostly because I loved dancing to loud electronic music in flashing strobe lights. I was very dissisociated at this concert, but a good kind of dissociation. I almost felt like it was a dream and all the people in the crowd were dream citizens.