The Brian Jonestown Massacre have basically made Union Transfer their local home in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection since opening almost a decade-and-a-half ago. However, September 10th – amidst a 40-date North American tour that kicks off this Wednesday — will be the psych-rock legends’ first stop at the Eraserhood venue since the release of Dig! XX, a remixed, remastered, and expanded edition of Ondi Timoner’s controversial 2004 doc that brought the band to mainstream attention… and much larger rooms, including a leap from the couple-hundred capacity of The Khyber to the 1,200-capacity Trocadero after the film’s fandom achieved cult status.
Recent dates throughout the UK and Europe (which included a standout set at this year’s Glastonbury, which you can see a clip of above) have included setlists boasting a plethora of musical highlights of the film, including “That Girl Suicide” (from debut LP Methodrone, which turned 30 last month), “Anemone” (off of Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request, the band’s second of three full-lengths to drop in 1996), and “Super-Sonic” (album opener of 1997’s Give It Back!), in addition to a couple choice cuts from 2023’s The Future Is Your Past, The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 20th and most-recent full-length.
Dig! proved to be somewhat contentious — originally disliked by The Brian Jonestown Massacre and co-stars (and phriends of PHILTHY) The Dandy Warhols alike — for reducing close to a decade of footage into a Behind The Music narrative that depicted BJM founder, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Anton Newcombe as far more madman than mastermind. But the 11 full-lengths and 8 EPs to drop since then (all but one courtesy of Newcombe’s own A Recordings), along with all of the biggest shows of the band’s career, has essentially rendered the film an exceptionally entertaining work of historical fiction… something like Dont Look Back on LSD.
For The Brian Jonestown Masscare’s upcoming sixth appearance at Union Transfer, they’ll be joined by Liverpool Britpop legends Cast, who will be opening the show as part of their first US dates in just under 30 years, which kicked off this holiday weekend when the band opened two nights for Oasis at MetLife Stadium, which is slightly more than 53x the capacity of UT. The band’s first North American show since 1996 featured ‘90s classics like “Sandstorm” and “Live the Dream,” in addition to recent single “Poison Vine,” off of upcoming full-length Yeah Yeah Yeah, produced by Killing Joke’s Youth and out January 30th.
*Get your tickets here.
