A local stagehand’s review of Slipknot’s Knotfest Roadshow at Shoreline, 7/26/19

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

After a few days of rehearsals at Toyota Amphitheatre in nearby Wheatland to figure out how to put together their massive stage set, Slipknot‘s Knotfest Roadshow officially kicked off at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on July 26. Joining Slipknot was an international array of metal including Volbeat (Denmark), Gojira (France), and Behemoth (Poland).

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Photo Gallery: Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – July 6, 2014

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

As it has every summer for the past 6 years, the Rockstar Energy Drink MAYHEM Festival rocked Shoreline Amphitheater on July 6, 2014.

While it was nearly impossible to photograph all 18 bands that performed on 4 stages, and due to not yet being able to be in two places at one time, I missed King 810, Texas Hippie Coalition, Miss May I, Veil of Maya, and all of the bands on the Victory Records stage (Wretched, Islander, ErimhaEmmure started the tour on the next show).

Below are photo galleries from Avenged Sevenfold, KoRn, Asking Alexandria, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Body Count w/Ice-T, Suicide Silence, Mushroomhead, Darkest Hour, and Upon a Burning Body.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/26/13-10/2/13

I remember the video was all austere and stuff.
It’s going to be like 1990 all over again at The Shoreline tonight, y’all.

October is nearly here. Match pre-Halloween candy sales with some concert-going and that’s a recipe for general happiness.

Here’s what’s coming up this week.

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Show Review: Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem, Shoreline Amphitheater, June 30, 2013

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Mountain View. California. Sunny. 82°.

With every meteorologist proclaiming the apocalypse across the West Coast, it was not as miserably hot as was expected. Yet with the arrival of the first band of the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, the heat (and volume) was definitely turning up, and for the duration of the day, more than a baker’s dozen worth of bands played across four stages, culminating with the sun setting just in time for Rob Zombie to heat it up again with plenty of fire and pyro!

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Show Review: Styx with Yes at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 8/3/2011

It's hard to believe such a calamity
It's hard to believe such a calamity

The definition of “arena rock” has changed shape a great deal in this modern era of music. While it’s mostly connected to which genres of music or artists can sell enough seats to fill an amphitheater with up to 22,000 people, it is also evocative of a time when a band’s show and stage set were so extravagant, flamboyant, and over-the-top that only a massive stadium could even hope to provide ample real estate for the performance. Thus, it is always quite amazing to see both of these factors fall into place, especially when the bands in question are of a somewhat-bygone era. This isn’t the 1970s, or the 1980s, but you would never have been aware that time had passed since that era, judging from the explosive response that greeted the two biggest acts of the Shoreline Amphitheatre’s KIHNCERT 2011: Chicago rockers Styx and English progressive godfathers Yes.

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