Naked Lightbulb presents: Her New Knife, Bloodsports, Chemical, Taurus Judge
The Ethical Society
1906 Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia
March 22, 2026
This show had piqued my interest for a while, and luckily, events aligned this past weekend to make it possible to skip down to Rittenhouse Square's Ethical Society to catch Her Knife Knife, Bloodsports, Chemical and Taurus Judge. The show's promoter, Naked Lightbulb (Alex Tripodi) has been keeping very busy booking bands around Philly since 2022, with well over 100 shows to their name, 49 of them having taken place last year alone. I've always enjoyed their shows cause they're affordable (usually $15 or less), offer free earplugs (neurodivergent/forgetful types are indebted), free fruit (Vitamin C helps your eyes & ears), and are all NOTAFLOF, so you can still come even if you currently lacking funds. They've booked at The Pouch, Khyber Pass, Ruba Club, Abyssinia, Cousin Dannys, Greenhaus, Gray's Warehouse, and PhilaMoca, just to name a few, but I've never seen them booking at The Ethical Society. Come to think of it, I've never seen any band play at The Ethical Society. I've only been there for friends' wedding festivities. It felt really good to head down to posh Rittenhouse Square amongst the pretty historical architecture to go see a DIY show, and it gave the evening an out-of-the-ordinary feel.
There were a lot of things that felt very up in the air about this show. No one knew if it was going to pour rain; the temperature was a low of 47°F and overcast but hit a high of 75°F and sunny in the afternoon. The headlining band was kept a mystery on the flyer. That's because the headliner, Her New Knife, has a sizable following and could have possibly create a scene at the Ethical Society if listed. At the same time, none of the bands, or their booker, were sure how many kids would make their way across town to a neighborhood none of them live in, through potential wind and rain, to see a gig with a mystery headliner. The gods, however, were smiling on those present, and a really nice blend emerged from the experience that just seemed like it was supposed to work the way it did.
https://youtube.com/shorts/6NkQ6IyI3H4?si=c7aphiP-hjhOQnej
Taurus Judge christened the venue with the confident solidity of a band that has spent a lot of rehearsal time together. The four-piece group arranged themselves on stage such that all members were in view of one another, the bassist/vocalist in the middle front of the stage primarily facing backwards to the band and only turning at points sideways to the audience to sing. They set a tone that would recur over the night with each subsequent band as they played loud with heavy use of dissonance. Taurus' inbuilt difference to the other acts may be that the dissonance they mustered wasn't voiced through chaotic breakdowns, but in smaller, staccato phrases that they honed in on to show us they had control right before tonally resolving. Their intense, strong sound was expressed through math, and their songs had an imaginative weaving and irregular path. This is a band that would be a pleasure to watch even if the vocal mic cut out that night.
Everyone seemed pretty happy they had made the trek out after the initial performance. People were getting situated, having a quick smoke or grabbing beer from nearby stores, while Chemical set up for their set. From the first note on, it became clear why they were handing out earplugs as you entered the show. The guitarist had a 3-stack right behind him that included a Sunn on the bottom laid sideways, with a Peavy on top and a Marshal head crowning both muscles below. The mix of what I could only vaguely see was a fairly large pedal/processor board running into blasting tube distortion which gave a shocking, insolent SLAP that was cold and industrial, yet burning and alive through amplification. They started with big, slow, steady grooves that were driven capably by a great drum and bass combo. The rhythms had circular grip to them, thudding and menacing like a wolf winding around prey. This hypno-effect was doubled by the slow motion trainwreck guitar who at times had a melting, oozing sound, yet somehow managed to feel simultaneously measured. This band could borrow easily from a wide gamut of influences and felt comfortable with stylings lifted from Psyche or Shoegaze, but also Industrial or Doom Metal. They had an unhinged quality and ended up being my favorite set of the night. Find me sporting their t-shirt around town.
https://youtu.be/UBW-meQJXR0
Up next, the Denver-to-NYC band Bloodsport did not disappoint in any way. Whereas Taurus Judge had taut and controlled cadence, Bloodsport leaned heavily into emotional chaos and had some really good fall-apart moments where the band went all in and committed to the dissonance. Similar to Taurus Judge, they too had that feeling of a band that's played together a lot and seemed really adept at live performance as they were a pleasure to watch perform. As with all the bands playing this night, you could hear a lot of '90s influence in their sound, think '90s lo-fi fuzz or shoegaze or slowcore, but steeped in the heavy and emotional setting of a hard-core or even an emo scene. In addition to some really good use of dissonance and catastrophic moments, they had some pretty melodic passages. It was a pleasure to see a band that seemed to have a good time playing with each other, and given the strength of their performance and a cursory listen to their very well-crafted new album, I look forward to seeing where these folks go.
https://youtube.com/shorts/WaLOHZLK5wk?si=wjnejURn0cyv7kdv
The final, "mystery" act was Her New Knife, a band that has been getting a good amount of attention and has moved to Philly from Florida. They had a nice, big, dense sound live. Similar in concept to the warped guitar of Chemical, the lead guitarist created a quaking sensibility, as though the guitar and its voice were bending down under the weight of gravity. The chemtrail-like guitar sound associated with shoegaze took on more of a dissonant, crop spray effect as the guitarist played openly with atonality. The vocals had a throaty yearning quality and emerged at intense moments with jagged snarls and yells. Between some tricky and jazz-tinged drum fills, and some quiet and reflective classical-style guitar strains playing via pre-recorded sections in between songs, I intuited that the band had a diverse array of influences hiding behind their music, though I couldn't identify all of them.
Philly has a whole scene of bands that people refer to as "shoegaze," and although you could hear that in many of the bands tonight, I definitely caught the vibe that this genre is headed backwards towards murkier influences that preceded it like industrial, Post-Punk or No Wave. I really enjoyed this direction away from a homogenous glaze toward a different noise-rock tinged sound that has a lot of roots in Philly music scene. I also look forward to the idea that we could start seeing more shows downtown in the historic Rittenhouse Square district. Maybe the Ethical Society will play out as another hub not too dissimilar to The Church or Ukie Club. Here's to keeping your fingers crossed.
