Outside Lands Journal: Day 3, 8/10/14

Photo by Paige Parsons
Photo by Paige Parsons

Ending a festival is always a little bittersweet. Because you had fun, but you are also tired. So tired that you will end up seeing fewer acts, but it’s OK. Quality over quantity, eh? And these were probably the best sets of the weekend.

Continue reading “Outside Lands Journal: Day 3, 8/10/14”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/6/12-12/12/12

Auditioning for the band opening for Kopecky Family Band on Sunday.

I know that December tends to be a time to purchase gifts for friends and family members. But Shopping kind of sucks. Instead, go to a show?

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/26/12-2/1/12

Tickets to see this guy go on sale Friday morning, but his pants are opening for Wilco all throughout the Bay Area this week.

The brain of Dakin Hardwick, our managing editor, looks like this right now: Sketchfest, Sketchfest, Sketchfest. So when he sat down to write our weekly guide to Bay Area Concerts, he just wrote “Sketchfest” next to everything.  Now, I’m going to deny that you should be going to lots of Sketchfest events (and then reading about them here on Spinning Platters), but there are a few concerts worth mentioning this week. And if I mention a Sketchfest event, too, well …

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Show Review: An Evening With Brandon Flowers at Slim’s, 8/19/2010

No photos allowed, and it was really dark anyway, so I instead bring you a picture of Michael Pare from Streets of Fire. That's what Brandon looked like.

Not only did Brandon Flowers look like Michael Pare from music-nerd-must-see Streets of Fire (not the leather jacket look but the suspenders look), but the music was reminiscent of that film as well. All tales of rock n’ roll bleeding hearts and people down on their luck, but with occasional rousing singalong moments, the new material from Brandon Flowers is close enough to The Killers’ own tunes to make me wonder why the solo album was necessary. He’s always been the center of attention of that band, so that can’t be the motivation. So it must have been musical in nature. I just didn’t hear enough to know what makes this difference. Perhaps if he had played longer. Continue reading “Show Review: An Evening With Brandon Flowers at Slim’s, 8/19/2010”

Spinning Platters Picks Six Interesting Cover Versions from YouTube

Keep that furniture clean!
Keep that furniture clean!

A rather quirky habit of mine is to search through youtube looking for cover songs. I love to watch amateurs do covers of my favorite songs and I love to watch my favorite bands doing their versions of interesting tunes. I have to say there are some really good amateur performances out there but this list focuses on the pro’s. My biggest problem here was keeping this list down to six, but here we go Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six Interesting Cover Versions from YouTube”

Show Review: The Killers, The New York Dolls and The Nervous Wreckords at Shoreline Amphitheater, 9/12/09

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A wild swarm attacks The Killers?
A wild swarm attacks The Killers?

There’s a rumor going around that I’m too old for concerts. Well it’s not true, the concerts are fine, it’s the driving there and back that I’m too old for.  Well today I ventured out to that rare event, for me anyway, a stadium show featuring The Killers and, what tipped the scales for my attendance, The New York Dolls. Continue reading “Show Review: The Killers, The New York Dolls and The Nervous Wreckords at Shoreline Amphitheater, 9/12/09”