Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Photos by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
On Friday, April 3, Lamb of God, Kublai Khan TX, Fit For An Autopsy, and Sanguisugabugg rolled into San Francisco for a the sold-out show at Masonic Auditorium!
Continue reading “Photo Gallery: Lamb of God at The Masonic Auditorium!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
DNA Lounge has been on a tear lately with their metal bookings in the last 10 days of March. Starting with the Bay Area’s own gore metal band Exhumed, to English thrash metal band Onslaught several days later, culminating in a one-two punch of NWOBHM band Raven alongside Bay Area’s newest thrash metal supergroup Nefarious and New Orleans sludge metal masters Crowbar and Eyehategod to close out the month!
Continue reading “Show Reviews: fast Thrash meets slow Sludge at DNA Lounge!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
For whatever the reason, it has been a decade-and-a-half since Spinning Platters last wrote about Gogol Bordello (archives). Having seen at least them eight times since the last written review, it’s a real wonder why?! Last summer, Gogol’s publicist really pushed to get their Mountain Winery show covered, but that was just too far for the majority of Spinning Platters’ staff to trek to.
Continue reading “Show Review: Gogol Bordello ignites The Warfield!”
Review by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro and Emily Anderson @emilyphotoadventure
Photos by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro unless otherwise stated
Nearly one year ago, at the very end of Spinning Platters’ Aftershock 2024 review, this question was raised: “West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival had such a stellar lineup this year, HOW are they possibly going to outdo themselves in 2025?!?!”
If one hundred people were asked if 2025 was better than 2024, there would undoubtedly be one hundred different answers and opinions. Aftershock 2024 was so exceptionally good and a heavy metal fan’s wet dream – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Slipknot, Mastodon, Anthrax, Clutch, Ministry, Body Count and more! Fans of other genres of rock, punk, and loud music were still out in force, as Aftershock 2024 set an attendance record of 40,000 people per day, but may have felt neglected by the sheer amount of metal that closed every night of the festival.
For the 13th annual Aftershock in 2025, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) altered the overall lineup to cater to the rest of those fans while still appealing to the heavy metal fans, by combining every Warped Tour, Ozzfest and Rockstar Mayhem Festival lineup, put it all in a blender, and poured it in a tall glass of Discovery Park for four days of the best rock, alt-rock, metal, 2000’s nu-metal, hardcore, and pop-punk bands, all in one place at one time in the outskirts of downtown Sacramento!
Continue reading “Show Review: Highlights of Aftershock 2025!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Spinning Platters has had the pleasure of seeing Mac Sabbath seven times since 2016 yet it’s hard to believe that there’s only one other written review here on the inventors and self-appointed kings of Drive Thru Metal! This latest appearance at Great American Music Hall was part of a short West Coast tour called ‘This One Goes To 11‘.
Continue reading “Show Review: Mac Sabbath prevails in a post-Ozzy world”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
In October 2022, the singer of The Sword announced the band was splitting up after 19 years. 21 months later… they’re back! It’s hard to say whether announcements like this helps or hurts a band, but the Great American Music Hall was sold out for weeks after the tickets went on sale for the 15th anniversary tour for their concept album Warp Riders. Spinning Platter’s enjoyed a pre-show meal at the legendary Tommy’s Joynt with guitarist Kyle Shutt and a few from the other bands and crew and was informed that a great many other shows on this tour have also been sold out well in advance. The moral of the story perhaps is to break up and get back together… it may help ticket sales!
Continue reading “Show Review: 15 years of The Sword’s Warp Riders at GAMH”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Back in the day, Warped Tour was the travelling festival of the summer. It’s back after a six-year absence, but as a destination festival, with one of its three locations being in Southern California.
Historically, the Bay Area always reaps the rewards of destination festivals like Coachella where bands will book other nearby shows or West Coast tours outside of the festival’s radius clause— so much so that Spinning Platters esteemed Editor even coined the phrase Fauxchella (and owns that domain name!) — and each year keeps track of Coachella bands that make their way up here.
So now, one of the advantages of Warped Tour bringing nearly 100 punk rock bands to Long Beach is that some of them will book in the Bay Area… and in the span of four nights following Warped Tour Long Beach, five of the travelling festival veterans and one LBC newbie made the journey up here.
Continue reading “Punk Rock show reviews: Summer Circus of Discontent”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
WHAT!? There’s no way that legendary O.G. Original Gangster rapper Ice-T (and heavy metal singer… and movie star…. and longtime Law and Order: SVU television actor) would be performing at the 470-capacity Great American Music Hall?! Is this for real? Ticket purchased immediately! Yes indeed, on Friday June 27, the I the C the E the T himself rolled into “Frisco” (his words) with his O.G. DJ Evil E and performed a ninety-minute set including shout-outs, NSFW jokes, and he even showed off a few of his special Bay Area friends.
Continue reading “Show Review: the MFkn’ O.G. Original Gangsta ICE-T at GAMH!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
25 years ago, Bayside did not have to look very far for the inspiration in choosing their band name. They hail from Bayside, Queens (New York)! 25 years later, they are still actively writing, recording, and touring the world. On this The Errors tour, Bayside put together two setlists containing 44 songs spanning their nine albums and have been performing two nights of shows in every city, including a pair at August Hall.
Continue reading “Show Review: Bayside celebrates their 25 years at August Hall!”
Photo Galleries and Show Reviews by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Spinning Platters attended, photographed, and reviewed (not all) a dozen \m/etal shows in April! Beginning the last weekend of March and throughout April, San Francisco (and Spinning Platters!) had become very \m/etal! Just look at the list of 60+ band names on the left column (on mobile, look near the bottom of the page), which does not happen very often around here anymore…
Continue reading “April \m/etal show photos + reviews: Obituary, Exodus, Death Angel, and more!”
