Alan Ralph – Page 3 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Rise Against + Descendents, Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, 8/22/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

The first show of the final week of Rise Against‘s Nowhere Generation tour was also the first show at the Masonic Auditorium in 543 days (since February 27, 2020)! Many precautions were taken, both by the band and by the venue, to ensure that this day would happen. Proof of vaccination or vaccine cards were required and checked upon entry, band crew and local stagehands were masked, an audience mask policy was also in effect (although at least half were unmasked, even as they entered the building), the bar and merchandise appeared to be mostly cashless with contactless point-of-sale card readers, and even the ticketing happened through a mobile phone app (although we scored a real one!).

Continue reading “Show Review: Rise Against + Descendents, Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, 8/22/2021”

Show Review: Korn + Staind, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa, 8/07/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

After the first couple months of 2020, as the music industry began to shutdown due to a worldwide pandemic, Korn was one of the few bands still on the road that was lucky enough to not have had the remainder of their tour cancelled. Staind didn’t have to worry at all about that, as they have been on an extended hiatus, aside from a handful of shows and festivals here and there that they reconvened for. This show at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre was the second stop of their current summer tour together as co-headliners.

Spinning Platters had to get creative at the last minute to photograph and review this show as our press request was not replied to due to a publicist change (Korn) and press access was retracted due to growing COVID concerns (Staind). Thankfully, Live Nation had their annual summer $20 lawn ticket special the week prior, and since our metal music writer + photographer (who has been in Florida for most of 2021) is a seasoned concert veteran, he was smart enough to know to bring a decent camera without a detachable lens (Nikon Coolpix P80), and was cunning enough to know how to sneak on down to the main floor in order to get these photos (they are definitely not as good as what we usually get from the Canon DSLR)!

Continue reading “Show Review: Korn + Staind, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa, 8/07/2021”

Show Review: Brad Paisley, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa, 7/09/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

With the grand reopening of live music in America already pushing ahead full-steam and it almost feeling like COVID-19 is over and done, Spinning Platters home base of San Francisco is presently a little bit behind that national trend. The Independent SF, the free Stern Grove Festival, Punch Line and Cobbs comedy clubs, and Cornerstone have each recently reopened, with Bottom of the Hill, Shoreline Amphitheatre, The Fillmore, The Warfield, The Regency Ballroom, The Chapel, August Hall, Fox Theater, and The UC Theatre all looking at August or September.

For the past several months, our rock photographer has been in Florida, a place that never completely stopped gathering for concerts. Although the vast majority of our coverage is throughout the Bay Area, with the past 16-month drought of any live event here, we have been extremely thankful to have been invited to attend and review a variety of shows down there in Florida. Even more exciting, most of these musicians (Foreigner, Styx, Sammy Hagar) have never before been showcased at Spinning Platters, and we are thrilled to be able to add one more artist and genre to this recent diversity, country music icon Brad Paisley!

Continue reading “Show Review: Brad Paisley, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa, 7/09/2021”

Show Review: Teenage Bottlerocket, Skatepark of Tampa, 6/26/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Over the past month or so, there has been a huge increase in the amount of indoor tours being announced nationwide. Despite the grand reopening of America, COVID-19 policies still exist and are different for every venue and every city and every state. Some are still intensely enforced, while others are not and were put in place just to comply with local statutes.

In early May, shortly after Laramie, Wyoming’s Teenage Bottlerocket announced a 12-date tour, their St. Petersburg (Florida) tour date garnered headlines when the local promoter Leadfoot Promotions announced, for the safety of everyone in attendance, that they will be charging $999.99 per ticket (up to four total) or a discounted price of $18 for those who could prove that they are fully-vaccinated. By the end of the month, the venue in St. Petersburg got cold feet, the show was moved to Skatepark of Tampa, and this story hit the national news circuit on CNN, even as all 250 discounted tickets to the show had already sold-out.

Although San Francisco, the international headquarters of Spinning Platters, is slowly reopening from its now 16-month COVID lockdown, our rock photographer is still in Florida. Since the promoter relied on a crew of volunteers to make the show happen, fully-vaccinated Spinning Platters volunteered to help out, and in the process, was able to photograph and attend Teenage Bottlerocket!

Continue reading “Show Review: Teenage Bottlerocket, Skatepark of Tampa, 6/26/2021”

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”

Stern Grove Festival 2021 Lineup! Free concerts every Sunday!

Stern Grove Festival just has announced the full music lineup for the 84th summer concert season kicking off on Sunday, June 20.

Stern Grove welcomes one of its biggest and most musically diverse lineups to date with headliners like Thundercat, Fitz and the Tantrums, Joan Jett, Perfume Genius, Thievery Corporation, X, and St Paul & The Broken Bones. The season concludes on August 29 with a special performance at The Big Picnic featuring Oakland legends Tower of Power and Too $hort.

Continue reading “Stern Grove Festival 2021 Lineup! Free concerts every Sunday!”

Webstream Review: Death Angel “The Bastard Tracks”, 5/29/2021

“The Bastard Tracks”. B-Sides. The meat of the record. Songs not usually on the live set. Deep cuts. Tracks the diehard fans know.

Death Angel created this web stream to dig “deep into [their] catalog to perform older favorites, newer classics and songs that have never been performed live before” with multiple interview segments containing the stories behind the songs and “a glimpse into the collective minds and souls of Death Angel.”

Continue reading “Webstream Review: Death Angel “The Bastard Tracks”, 5/29/2021″

Show Review: Sammy Hagar & The Circle at Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando, FL, 5/26/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

It must be Classic Rock Week at Spinning Platters!

With all of the venues in San Francisco having been shuttered since March 2020, and without knowing just how much longer Covid-19 is going to keep them closed, Spinning Platters grew tired of the waiting and decided to look far and wide to other places in pursuit of a Real. Live. Show.

Not only were we lucky enough to photograph rock and roll legends Foreigner mere days ago, now we can add 50% of Van Halen, the direct lineage of Led Zeppelin’s drummer, and even 25% of Mötley Crüe (more on that later) to the list. Our rock/metal photographer, who has been riding out the latter part of this pandemic in Florida, got invited to photograph and review another show!

Continue reading “Show Review: Sammy Hagar & The Circle at Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando, FL, 5/26/2021”

Show Review: Foreigner at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL, 5/22/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

WAIT, WHAT… A SHOW REVIEW!! Yes!

Granted, many of these other places are less safe than the cautious San Francisco (recall that SF was the first city in America to institute a lockdown), but Spinning Platters is vaccinated and willing to risk it all for you! Where did we find such an amazing live event? Well, since our rock/metal photographer has been riding out the latter part of this pandemic in Florida, we found that shows actually happen there.

Continue reading “Show Review: Foreigner at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL, 5/22/2021”

Show Review: Video Game Metal with DragonForce at August Hall, 10/10/2019

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Since 2007, when their song “Through the Fire and Flames” appeared on Guitar Hero III, DragonForce has appealed to the video game masses, and it showed at August Hall tonight. They had two giant video game consoles on stage that were playing a loop of late 80’s / early 90’s era video games. They also have their own channel on Twitch.tv, a live streaming video website primarily focused on video gaming, and guitarist Herman Li was wearing a backpack with a mini video camera attached to it, to live stream the entire show.

Continue reading “Show Review: Video Game Metal with DragonForce at August Hall, 10/10/2019”