Show Review: Styx at St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine, FL, 6/16/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Spinning Platters’ home of San Francisco has officially reopened from its 15-month Covid-19 lockdown, yet many of its concert venues are taking a cautiously optimistic approach and waiting until August or September to resume operations. In recent months, we grew tired of the waiting and decided to look far and wide to other places in pursuit of a Real. Live. Show.  

Our rock & metal photographer has been riding out the latter part of this pandemic in Florida, and noticed that a small amount of shows never really stopped happening there.  Lately, as the rest of the country reopens and more nationwide tours are being announced, Spinning Platters got invited to photograph and review a couple of these shows, including rock legends Foreigner (in Clearwater) and Sammy Hagar (in Orlando).

Tommy Shaw, Chuck Panozzo, James ‘J.Y.’ Young, Ricky Phillips, Lawrence Gowan, and Todd Sucherman, otherwise known as rock icons Styx, returned to St. Augustine for the first show of their 2021 summer tour and for their first time performing since March 2020, and Spinning Platters was there! 

Continue reading “Show Review: Styx at St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine, FL, 6/16/2021”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 1/22/2015 – 1/28/2015

Playing The Warfield this Friday night.
Playing The Warfield this Friday night.

The nerds of San Francisco have some incredibly tough choices to make this week when it comes to their live entertainment. They could be comedy nerds, seeing all of what SF Sketchfest has to offer. Perhaps they’re film nerds, and they’ll be spending the week at The Castro Theater for Noir City. But what of the music nerds? Where should they be this week? Read on to find out!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 1/22/2015 — 1/28/2015”

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.

Continue reading “Show Review: Styx with Yes at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 8/3/2011”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/28/11-8/2/11

From the "whatever happened to?" file: One of these people is playing a show this week.

So, I’ve spend the last few days drooling over the Treasure Island Festival line up… So much that I almost forgot to do this. But, that would be sad for everyone out there, because this week is awesome. Besides, there are great shows every night until that shindig happens.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/28/11-8/2/11”

Show Review: Styx at the Regency Ballroom, 1/17/10

Up close and personal with the legends.

Styx gets a bad rap. They’re one of those punch-line bands that people claim to like ironically. This is both unfair and stupid. There’s a subset of great classic rock bands that are being kept out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for having the gall to be too popular. Along with Journey, Kiss, Rush, Boston and Chicago, it seems that success and longevity have worked against them. No matter, though, because an evening with Styx is what rock n’ roll is really all about. Continue reading “Show Review: Styx at the Regency Ballroom, 1/17/10”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: January 13th-January 19th

I like to put funny photo that spoofs the band name. But, when your band is Styx, and you look like this, I have to just put up a picture of Styx.

This week is the beginning of Sketchfest. We already have that covered, so how about some music? Eh? How about Styx? Did you know Styx were playing? I think it’s awesome that you will get to see Styx.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: January 13th-January 19th”