Yes, I'm looking at you.
At one point late in the Silversun Pickups set at The Fox Oakland, lead singer Brian Aubert started listing off all of the Bay Area venues they had played: Rickshaw Stop, The Fillmore, Bimbo’s, Cafe Du Nord, Bottom of the Hill (this one got the biggest applause), BFD, Outside Lands. They’ve been here a lot. Because of this, it’s a bit of a surprise that it took them nearly 18 months after the release of their last album, Swoon, to finally play a headlining show in the Bay Area. So, was it worth the wait? [read the whole post]
Friday night at The Fox Theater in Oakland, the Bay Area had Wolf Parade back in town for the tour for their 3rd album, Expo 86 ,which came out last month. The guys in the band are made up from quite a few other successful bands such as The Handsome Furs, Sunset Rubdown, and Hot Hot Heat. There’s an Arcade Fire song under their belt, among others projects as well. That’s some major Canadian indie rock street cred. [read the whole post]
Alison Goldfrapp. Photo by Kara E. Murphy.
With everything that’s been going on lately on the job interview and contracting front, it’s almost a miracle that I found the time to get this review posted. I’m thrilled with the photos I took for the Goldfrapp show at Fox Theater this past Saturday evening and I’m hoping the words in the post can do the incendiary performance some justice.
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The ethereal She.
When Zooey Deschanel walked on stage in a sparkly dress you would have thought it was the next messiah walking out to greet her followers. In a weird way I guess she is the messiah of sweet indie-ness. Between her movie career and the success of She & Him, Zooey Deschanel is the It girl of indie rock. She certainly looked the part at The Fox: bouncy perfect hair, cute make-up, black tights and kitten heels, but what really sold the show was her voice. From the first note it was strong, clear and emotive, and for the next hour and a half it was glorious. [read the whole post]
As most everyone knows, Bradley Nowell passed away in 1996, months before the release of their self-titled record that ended up taking the world by storm. Very few people actually saw Sublime live because of this. Which may have been to the benefit of the band, because Sublime were a terrible live band. Nowell was wasted about 90% of the time, and rarely was able finish a song. The vast majority of the people that are offended by this reformation of the band aren’t aware of this. This version of Sublime is more than just a chance for the original rhythm section to hit the road again, this is a shot a redeeming Brad Nowell’s memory
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Thanks to Flickr user Alloyous for the use of the picture
Vampire Weekend proved without a doubt at their two sold out shows at the Fox in Oakland that they are a strong band. I didn’t hear any mistakes either night. The drums, brought to you by C.T. (Chris Tomson) were solid, holding everything together. Chris Baio danced and played the bass masterfully. Rostam Batmanglij fleshed out the melody with keyboard and guitar and Ezra Koenig gave it all a focal point with his charm and strong vocals center stage. This was the third and fourth time I’d seen Vampire Weekend and I knew they could deliver a good show like this, but could they still surprise me? [read the whole post]
