Show Review: Soccer Mommy with alexalone at The Fillmore, 10/29/21

It’s a Fillmore show so the most important question on everyone’s mind is surely whether there would still be apples. The answer was yes but not red delicious. Some sort of fuji or gravenstein perhaps. Also new was that someone selected and handed me my apple because of COVID. I guess their job could be considered apple picker.

Only 2 names on this bill, and the first was alexalone. Continue reading “Show Review: Soccer Mommy with alexalone at The Fillmore, 10/29/21”

Show Review: Johnny Marr, the Belle Game at the Fillmore, 9/26/18

A night of nostalgia for all, Johnny Marr and the Belle Game gave a 4-apple performance at the Fillmore.

First up was the perfect support for Johnny Marr—and the perfect complement to my Parallels T-shirt—the Vancouver-based Belle Game, who have been synthing it up for nearly 10 years. And, they’ve never sounded better. Even their banter was on point, asking “How many people have already seen a show this week?” Many of us raised our hands, of course. Continue reading “Show Review: Johnny Marr, the Belle Game at the Fillmore, 9/26/18”

Show Review: Tracy Bonham with Blake Morgan at The Lost Church, 4/10/2018

If you missed your chance to see Tracy Bonham in a smoke-filled ’90s concert venue, you were able to repent for your sins at the Lost Church, which isn’t even a church. Luckily for you (or is it divine intervention), it’s a cozy 50-seater with acoustics that would make a choir blush.

Blake Morgan took the stage first. The native New Yorker was decked out in a black suit with a black shirt, even a black tie. Playing a silver guitar, it makes one wonder whether he’s an Oakland Raiders fan.

A good storyteller, Morgan sharing many anecdotes from the road, which for him covered 75,000 miles during the past 2 years. And as is common these days, some of those anecdotes had political overtones. One of them ended with his encouraging us to vote, and if we couldn’t do it for us, could we at least do it for him? San Francisco seemed to be a safe space for him.

Morgan switched to his keyboard for a song, showing a professional aptitude for playing the piano. He introduced “Baby I Would Want You” as an “apocalyptic love song.” He also threw in how his girlfriend once asked him whether he would watch all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek with her. The song itself was very Posies-esque, but I was busy trying to figure out what she must have thought of Tribbles.

“Helping Hand” was a duet, with Tracy Bonham joining the stage for the first time. It would set a tone in that later he would join her on stage for several songs, including “Luck.”

Morgan finished his hour long set with a couple more on the keyboard, channeling his inner Ben Folds.

After a 20-minute break, Bonham took the stage for an hour or so. She sat behind the same keyboard-set-to-piano and launched into “Naked.”

The first thing you notice about Bonham is she sings even better now than she did during her initial rise to fame more than 20 years ago. The easiest job in the world must be to mix her vocals.

Her tremendous range extended to “Devil’s Got Your Boyfriend,” even causing her to pause and observe how the room’s acoustics enabled her to even hit the low notes.

On that point, the Lost Church has the best sound of any venue I’ve been to. The small capacity helps, but regardless, a tech bro could read the phone book, and it would sound great.

The Lost Church is less a place for a show and more a place to have a passive conversation with a performing artist. Or an active one, as there were a few back and forths with the crowd.

Anyway, the deal with Bonham is she rerecorded her 1996 record, the Burdens of Being Upright, calling the modernized version, Modern Burdens.

As part of this, she played the original and redone style of “Brain Crack,” the original on her violin, then the new version on the keyboard. It’s a fine example of the detailed thought she put into the new record.

Introducing my favorite song of hers, “the One,” she explained how it was originally about a misogynistic ex, and to be inspired to rerecord it, all she had to do was project 45’s face onto her ex’s body. It was just that simple.

At least one person cried during her performance of it. There were probably others, but I was too … distracted to notice. If you’ve heard One Dove’s piano reprise of “White Love,” it had the same haunting effect.

Rather than apocalyptic, she introduced “All Thumbs” as a “clumsy love song.” Bonham continued to show off her range in this number. She mentioned adopting a child, and you have to be jealous when you think of all the lullabies that must be sung before bed.

Bonham then dedicated “Something Beautiful” to a couple in the audience she was staying with. It was nearly their two year anniversary, and it turns out she also played the song at their wedding. What a good friend!

She updated the second verse of “Mother Mother” to reflect current events, which garnered a laugh from the audience. To be clear, her performance here was just as flawless as the rest of the set, but the relative complexity of every other song shows how the “hit single” can’t help but feel less by comparison. But of course the audience ate it up. No one attended this show by accident.

It’s cliche, but seeing Tracy Bonham in 2018 is seeing her again for the very first time.

Show Review: Book of Love, Fever High at DNA Lounge, 2/19/2017

All Photos by Amber Gregory
 
Book of Love played the third of 3 shows with their original lineup (Lauren Roselli Johnson, Jade Lee, Susan Ottaviano, and Ted Ottaviano—no relation) in San Francisco at DNA Lounge. Time will tell whether this will be their last show together, but one thing we know for sure is that this show went off without a hitch.
 

Continue reading “Show Review: Book of Love, Fever High at DNA Lounge, 2/19/2017”

Spinning Platters Interview: Susan Ottaviano of Book Of Love

Spinning Platters sat down with Book of Love vocalist Susan Ottaviano, and they discussed the band’s favorite city (spoiler alert: it’s San Francisco), fan remixes of their songs, and advice for the next generation of female fronted bands.

Book Of Love are playing DNA Lounge on Sunday, February 19th. Tickets can be purchased here!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Susan Ottaviano of Book Of Love”

Film Review: The Peanuts Movie

Something for everyone, but not everything for anyone.

Charlie and Snoopy on a mission.
Charlie and Snoopy on a mission.

The Peanuts Movie is about the Peanuts Gang. In the movie, they do a lot of things. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Okay, nine hundred eighty-three words to go! That and other classic Peanuts gags help gloss over a movie that does the best it can to pay homage to its traditional animation roots while taking advantage of the cinematic benefits of being the latest example of modern computer animation.

The movie itself will annoy Peanuts purists while providing a G-rated outlet for families with small children everywhere. And, honestly, that’s probably all one could hope for. The last Peanuts movie was released 35 years ago, and there’s honestly no reason to expect The Peanuts Movie to be anything like the four Peanuts motion pictures that preceded it.

Continue reading “Film Review: The Peanuts Movie”

Album Review: The She’s – Dreamers EP

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I’m a little burnt out and cynical at the age of 37 (in a row), and I often find things that used to be interesting to me (slot machines, the NBA) feel absolutely pointless. Next thing I know, I feel like Stan does after his 10th birthday in the South Park where everything sounds like shit to him. Luckily for you, the She’s single-handedly prevent me from being an asshole, at least while listening to these six new tracks. Continue reading “Album Review: The She’s – Dreamers EP”

Noise Pop Review: Throwing Muses, Mark Eitzel at Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 2/28/14

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We were treated to the standard older-band-promoting-a-new-album set, with Throwing Muses playing a large section of Purgatory/Paradise. I know it gets boring playing the same songs hundreds of times over 30-plus years. But sometimes that’s what people want. Luckily we got some of that too. Continue reading “Noise Pop Review: Throwing Muses, Mark Eitzel at Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 2/28/14”