Gordon Elgart – Page 19 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010

Co-written with Dakin Hardwick

Mates of State brought their “Summer Crushes” tour to Great American Music Hall last week to promote their newest project, a covers album called Crushes. But rather than just show up and play, they brought along a traveling variety show. At the end of the night, though, it was the joyful music of Mates of State that I’m going to remember. So what else was there? Continue reading “Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010”

Spinning Platters Picks Six: Rock Poster Artists Coming to Flatstock 25

Flatstock is coming to the Bay Area for the first time in years, thanks to a new team-up with the San Francisco-based TRPS. I’m pretty darn excited, let me tell you. On July 10, at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, nearly 50 great poster artists, both local and national, classic and brand new, will be showing and selling their posters. It starts at 10AM, but I promise you there will be folks lined up for hours to get first shot at some of the hotter artists at the show.

About a year ago, I posted a list of six of my favorite artists. I’ve mentioned and interviewed two of them that are coming to the show: Kevin Tong and Gregg Gordon. And now, I present six additional artists that you’ll be able to see on July 10th in Golden Gate Park. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Rock Poster Artists Coming to Flatstock 25”

Warped Tour 2010 Diary: Shoreline Amphitheater, 6/26/2010

Sum41Crowd — Sum 41 fans bringing the love

Subtitle: Still Crazy After All These Years

That subtitle is a reference to a song from 1975. Bands will yell out things like “How many of you have seen us before?” and a few fans will yell “Whoo hoo!” If a band yelled out, “How many of you were born in 1975?” there’d be only crickets. Still, as I said in my preview post, if you are a true music nerd, Warped Tour is something you should still be going to. But, if you’re not going to go, and your idea of experiencing Warped Tour is to let someone else do it and then read about their experiences, you’re in the right place. Come with me as I wade through the masses at the 2010 Warped Tour. Continue reading “Warped Tour 2010 Diary: Shoreline Amphitheater, 6/26/2010”

Spinning Platters Picks Six: Reasons You Should Still be Going to Warped Tour

Summer’s finally officially here, which means it’s time for yet another Warped Tour to begin. Yes, the Warped Tour you went to in your youth, and now make fun of in your adulthood, is still going. If you ever catch yourself saying something like “I’m too old for that crap,” you should resign from the music nerd community immediately. There’s some great reasons to continue to go to Warped Tour, even if you’re no longer in the pit but sitting on the picnic benches in back. I’ll give you six good ones here (specifically for June 26 at Shoreline Amphitheater); feel free to leave more in the comments.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Reasons You Should Still be Going to Warped Tour”

Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010

Kate Miller-Heidke welcomes you with open arms.

Being blown away by an opener is a rare and wonderful treat. It happened a couple months back when I saw Ben Folds at the Warfield Theater. His opener, and tonight’s headliner, was Kate Miller-Heidke. She’s an Australian singer-songwriter with considerable talents in both. She’s smart, too, because on the merch table at the Warfield was a slip of paper to take home letting everyone know she was playing Cafe Du Nord in the near future. Her newly minted fans took that paper and came out to Cafe Du Nord last night, ready to blown away again. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010”

Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010

Bruce Maiden — He not only sings, he also flies the plane from gig to gig. Really.

Bruce Dickinson, British Airways pilot and lead singer of Iron Maiden, looked out into the crowd and commented on how many people were there at this sold out show.

“They told me there’s 12,500 people here tonight. Last night, we had 25,000. That’s a lot of people for an Iron Maiden concert. Perhaps we’re getting some spillover from Christina Aguilera canceling her tour.” Some laughed while other booed. It’s not spillover. For reasons that are apparent if you’re a fan, and ones I’ll explain to you, Iron Maiden has survived as a huge draw long after other metal bands have faded away. Continue reading “Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010”

Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010

Stars is one band that I like to think “gets it.” Their previous album, In Our Bedroom After the War, was released for sale the moment it was finished, letting their fans buy it before they were even offered the chance to download it. For their newest album, The Five Ghosts, they announced they were going to do a tour before the album “came out,” playing the entirety of the album. Not only that, but fans attending the shows could actually buy the album at the show as opposed to waiting for the release date. And to top it all off, each show had a website poll offering the chance for each city to pick the songs they wanted to hear in the remainder of the set. This is a band that gets how to interact with their fans in the new music economy. So how did it all go? Continue reading “Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010”

Show Review: Local Natives with Suckers at Bottom of the Hill, 6/3/2010

localnatives3-1ax — Not local, possibly native. All fashionable.

Somewhere during this show, this genre became dead to me. I don’t even know what you call the genre (besides “typical” indie rock), but I’ll try to describe it. A bunch of dudes wearing clothes they bought at thrift stores (or are meant to look like they bought them at thrift stores in Brooklyn) play mid-tempo numbers, and then occasionally the songs build to a giant crescendo where they all scream into their microphones together to let you know that this song is intense, man. It now feels a bit fake to me. Continue reading “Show Review: Local Natives with Suckers at Bottom of the Hill, 6/3/2010”

Show Review: OK Go with Earl Greyhound and Grand Lake at The Fillmore, 5/26/10

Tim Nordwind, Damian Kulash and Andy Ross of Ok Go — A rare moment without confetti

During OK Go’s show at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Wednesday night, lead singer Damian Kulash tried to explain why the band’s home is San Francisco. “Because we live on YouTube” was his explanation. Yeah, alright, whatever. But it’s clear what they meant was that the Bay Area is made to appreciate a label-leaving, DIY-video-making band of nerds like them. And this video thing is working out for them. One blog recently called them the “shtickiest band ever,” so what sort of shtick did they bring with them? Continue reading “Show Review: OK Go with Earl Greyhound and Grand Lake at The Fillmore, 5/26/10”

Show Review: Evelyn Evelyn with Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley and Sxip Shirey at Great American Music Hall, 5/22/10

P1150281 — Evelyn Evelyn answer life's important questions

When Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley decided to join together to do a musical project, they decided to literally join together. They created Evelyn Evelyn, conjoined twin musicians, built a story and characters, recorded and released an album, and they’re now on tour together. This show was billed as Evelyn Evelyn with Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley and Sxip Shirey “also appearing.” There’s a point in this absolute pleasure of a three-hour show when Amanda Palmer thanks people for coming to such an odd show, and practically begs the audience to tell their friends in whatever way they can that they should come see the show. I’m game for this; read on to be convinced. Continue reading “Show Review: Evelyn Evelyn with Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley and Sxip Shirey at Great American Music Hall, 5/22/10”