SF Sketchfest Review: Kirsten Vangsness: MESS w/The Right Now and Kevin Yee at PianoFight, 1/15/2017

The lovely Kirsten Vangsness is a MESS.

It’s that time of year again: SF Sketchfest 2017 is in town, and as always, brings with it the promise of some great talent and good times. It also marks yet another anniversary for me with Spinning Platters (my 6th), which also always makes me smile. Anyway, this year is no exception in terms of the fun shows I went to, the first being this past weekend, at PianoFight. Kirsten Vangsness may be best known to many of us as her character Penelope Garcia on CBS’ Criminal Minds (or, as Shemar Moore’s character Derek Morgan called her, simply “Baby Girl”). But even if this is the only thing you know her from, my guess is that you, like me, adore her for the quirky, sweet lady she plays on the show. Her original one-woman show MESS intrigued me: I learned that she wrote it based on ideas from a TED Talk (which, admittedly, I haven’t had time yet to watch). I wondered if she would be anything like Garcia, or something else entirely. I admit, I had no idea what to expect, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
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Album Review: Liars – Mess

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Rating: Silver

Seven albums in and Liars are still one of the most notorious and formidable bands around. From their debut They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top to this year’s Mess, they’ve continued to defy expectations and challenge listeners. With each release the stacks have been raised and Liars have met these expectations by taking their music in a completely different direction. From their dance punk origins through the post punk and even noise offerings of Drums Not Dead to the more subdued but darker Sisterworld they’ve refused to stay true to one identity and in turn their identity has become protean and malleable. This can be an admirable trait in an artist but it can also be a hindrance as the artist’s allegiances begin to shift with the changing trends their artistic integrity is challenged. This is the quagmire that Liars finds themselves in with Mess.
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