Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Twas the week before Christmas, and all throughout the Bay Area clubs, things are looking a bit sleepy. But, fear not! Because there is something high quality in the cards every night for the next 7 days, including a few rare performances by legends!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/16/10-12/22/10”
For the last few years, local alternative rock radio station Live 105 has managed to put together one of the most interesting new music showcases out there. It’s called Club Not So Silent Night, and it happens the day before their much bigger event, simply named Not So Silent Night. Where the original Not So Silent Night is a showcase for already well known acts that receive substantial radio play to get up and play for the masses, the “Club” version features newer acts that wouldn’t normally be getting this kind of push from a commercial radio station, and the audience gets have bragging rights by saying that you saw the band in front of 900 people, instead of 10,000. (Case in point: 2008’s edition featured Vampire Weekend & The Cold War Kids and 2009’s featured Passion Pit & The Gossip) If the trend continues, this show was the last chance to see at least one of these acts in such a small space.
I know that it’s pretty rainy out here in the Bay Area, and also very cold, so going to shows is a tough thing to do, but I think that these options are worth braving the elements!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/09/10-12/15/10”
Another wildly eclectic week of amazing live music here in the Bay Area! Check out the awesomeness!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/02/10-12/08/10”
Happy Black Friday, ladies & gentlemen! I was very busy yesterday, and fell alseep while trying to compile this list for Thursday, so I apologize if my lack of guidance made Thanksgiving horrible. Please enjoy these tips, instead, and we will be back next week on schedule!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/26/2010-12/01/2010”
Marnie Stern us the kind of performer that people are desperate to describe in a single sentence. They usually toss together the name of a well known riot grrl band of some sort (Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, etc) with a highly skilled male musician (Eddie Van Halen, Robert Fripp, Les Claypool, etc). Although I understand how quick comparisons like this make it easy to market a musician, I feel that Ms. Stern is much greater than that. Her influences are widely varied, and her skill is incomparable.
The surprisingly small crowd on a surprisingly warm November night that came out to see her last night at The New Parish got to experience an impressive show of musical heroic, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Continue reading “Show Review: Marnie Stern, Grass Widow at The New Parish, 11/4/10”
I’d like to thank Jason LeRoy for taking over the list for the last couple of weeks. I hope that you listened to him, because if you didn’t, we’re just going to have to turn this website around and go back home…
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/4/2010-11/10/2010”
Shakira first became known to most of the world in the late 90’s as Columbia’s answer to Alanis Morissette. She was young, very pretty, yet very angsty. She even had the same hairdo as Alanis. As time went on, she has managed to move far beyond this, both visually & sonically. She is now one of those rare celebrities is recognizable in nearly every country in the world, and has pulled off what very few people can do: She has managed to become a pop music superstar. And she did it in the last decade, at a time when nobody was breaking out into this kind of territory. Even more impressive is that she’s done it as a musician, not some sort of business person that has musician as one of several hyphenates. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a stage show from her, in fact it’s been about 4 years since her last tour, and 7 years since she last graced Oakland with her presence.
Continue reading “Show Review: Shakira at Oracle Arena, 10/22/10”
The Vaselines are a band from a very different musical era. They are a hard-to-define band from a period of time when it was difficult to find bands that you couldn’t easily market to people. They didn’t really do punk rock, they don’t really do folk music, they aren’t a new wave band, they are merely themselves. They put out a few ep’s in the 80’s, and were supposed to fade away into obscurity. That was, of course, until a young man managed to come across some imports in his local record store, became entranced by them, and ended up covering not 1, not 2, but 3 of their songs with a little rock trio that became one of the most influential bands of all time.
They officially broke up in 1990, but played a few shows in the early 90’s supporting Nirvana in Europe. Then, in 2008, they decided to reunite at the urging of another influential band from the 90’s. This time it was Belle & Sebastian urging this band back into the limelight. After all, their blend of girl group, twee, punk and lyrics that would make Luther Campbell blush is something the world will finally be ready for. And, at the Great American Music Hall, we experienced what that band sounds like today.
Treasure Island Weekend is upon us… And, if you still have the energy, here’s a few more shows to go to, as well!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/14/2010-10/20/2010”