Category: Photo Gallery

Show Review: UADA at Neck of the Woods, March 24, 2024

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

You know what’s missing at Spinning Platters? Black Metal. There’s just a lack of content related to the most extreme subgenre of metal music.  

(c) Wikipedia

There are even several bands considered influential to this genre, including Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. The most famous of these bands is definitely Mayhem, where members killed other members, committed suicide, and burned churches… ah, the good ole’ 1990’s!

While the vast majority of the subject matter here is geared more towards fans of Outside Lands than fans of Mayhem, Spinning Platters still employs a few brave souls who will immerse themselves in the mosh pits and get their eardrums pulverized, all in the name of reporting back about the glorious screaming vocals, remarkably incredible fast guitar riffs and blast-beat drumming, as well as maybe a count on the number of non-black clothing (HA!) and inverted crosses seen, and all typically without even having to stock up on corpse paint…

Fortunately for Neck of the Woods, black metal bands these days typically don’t burn down anything or commit murder anymore!

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Show Review: Cavalera Conspiracy w/Exhumed, Incite, Thrown Into Exile, and SANGRE at The Wiltern, 10/18/2023

Cavalera: The REAL Sepultura

Show Review and Los Angeles Photos by: Oliver Brink
San Francisco Photos by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

This one was a bit special for me. Sepultura is a band that I fell deeply in love with in high school, and their music and the continued projects of Max Cavalera have been with me constantly as I navigate my way through life. I always find moments where I just need a song like “Refuse/Resist” or “Troops of Doom” to help me get through a moment of angry energy. So, of course, I had to jump at a chance to see Max and Iggor Cavalera, finally, and when that opportunity arrived, I jumped right the hell on it, even if it meant going to one of my least favorite venues to photograph. More on that later; bands first!

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Show Review: Aftershock 2023… West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival!

Discovery Park in Sacramento was once again the site for Danny Wimmer Presents annual Aftershock Festival, a four-day rock and metal music festival featuring four stages of many of today’s bona fide headliners as well as plenty of promising new blood. It is also a bit of an endurance test. There are the crazy fans who run in as soon as the gates open and stand at the barricade for basically 11 hours, with no food or even the means to leave to find a restroom (because they’ll never get their spot back). Security did hand out plenty of water up there though so that nobody passed out in the mid-90° heat! There are others who try to take in as much as possible by going from stage to stage to stage all day long to see as many bands as they can. Many just get drunk and sit around on their picnic blanket or at the VIP section tables, while others take it all in stride and hit up the myriad of food trucks, beer tents, alcohol and cannabis vendors… all while everyone is dealing with a heat wave that much of Northern California happened to fall victim to over this very weekend.

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Show Review: Mac Sabbath drives thru the Great American Music Hall!

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

“More Than Meats the Eye” is what happens when McDonald’s worst nightmare Mac Sabbath books a tour with a bunch of Transformers and they all Drive Thru the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on a warm Thursday evening.

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Show Review: Freaks on Parade with Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry, Filter in Concord!

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

Alice Cooper for President!

Toyota Pavilion at Concord was the third-to-last stop on this summer’s Freaks on Parade tour. 12,000 devotees traveled far and wide to be in attendance for this rally featuring Cooper, alongside running mates Rob Zombie, Al Jourgensen (Ministry), and Richard Patrick (Filter).  

Make no mistake though… while Zombie might play second fiddle on a presidential ticket to the elder Cooper, the spectacle of his production and show easily makes him the final headliner of this co-headline gathering!

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Show Review: Flogging Molly, The Bronx at The Warfield

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

According to Spinning Platters’ crack data analysis research team, Flogging Molly has been to the Bay Area every year since 2000 (except 2010… and 2020, obviously), with eight shows at Fox Theater Oakland, seven at Slim’s (R.I.P.), four at The Fillmore, four Warped Tours at Pier 30/32, four at The Warfield, and one each at Greek Theatre, Bottom of the Hill, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and an Oyster Fest at Fort Mason. 

Before the 3rd song at this, their latest Bay Area appearance, vocalist Dave King mentioned that it has been TEN years since they last performed at The Warfield, so we simply had to fact-check him and determined that it has actually been SEVENTEEN years since they last stood on this stage! (September 28, 2006; March 14, 2005; September 14, 2004 were the only times) Continue reading “Show Review: Flogging Molly, The Bronx at The Warfield”

Show Review: Scorching the Psychotherapy Sessions in Florida

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

Ten days after attending, photographing, and reviewing Overkill, Exhorder, and Heathen at Great American Music Hall, Spinning Platters’ resident metalhead took a trip to the extremely sunny, hot, and occasionally rainy shores of Florida to ring in his 50 years of existence with a weekend of metal with The Pyschotherapy Sessions at MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa and another Overkill show at House of Blues in Orlando! 

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Show Review: Overkill Scorched San Francisco

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

It is fairly common knowledge that thrash metal originated from here in San Francisco starting in the early-mid 1980’s with most of the heavy hitters like Metallica, Death Angel, Testament, Forbidden, Exodus, and Vio-lence, among others.  The east coast, however, also had some major thrash metal bands brewing, with Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Overkill leading the pack.  Cut to today, and most of these bands are still around and still continue to rage, almost as good or better than they did all those years ago!

One of those bands actually travelled 3,000 miles from their east coast home to begin their tour here in San Francisco.  Hailing from Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, the seminal 1980’s band Overkill came to town to show-up their Bay Area thrash metal brethren, and in the process, laid waste to the Great American Music Hall, proving that after 43 years and 20 albums, they still thrash as well or better than most of their Bay Area metal counterparts… and everyone else!

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Show Review: August Burns Red 20th Anniversary in Las Vegas

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

Every band has an actual start date that they can say is their official beginning.  Likewise, every album has an actual official release date.  Somewhere along the way, some band somewhere was probably in-between albums and decided that their anniversary would make a great reason to tour… and well, the idea caught on, and is still going strong.

No one appears to like anniversaries more than August Burns Red. They have had quite a few anniversary tours — there was the 10th anniversary of their album Messengers in 2016, the 10th anniversary of their album Constellations in 2019, and the 10th anniversary of their album Leveler in 2021. For each of these tours, the entire album was performed. Now in 2023, there is the current 20th anniversary tour… not of an album, but of the band itself! Continue reading “Show Review: August Burns Red 20th Anniversary in Las Vegas”

Show Review: Lamb of God + Killswitch Engage + Mercyful Fate + Kreator in Dallas

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Throughout our cumulative years working in many components of the local music industry, the staff of Spinning Platters has been lucky enough to become friendly with quite a few bands, their management, public relations, and even their road crews. In late May, over Memorial Day Weekend, we ventured outside of our Bay Area bubble to the middle of the country (Chicago). We were subsequently offered the opportunity to cover some shows there.  Now, once again, Spinning Platters had the chance to travel to Dallas (Don’t Mess With Texas!) and was informed that we would be able to cover the final show of one tour and the first show of another! What started out as simply two photo passes for Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Animals as Leaders, Fit for an Autopsy AND Mercyful Fate, Kreator, Midnight turned into a whole lot more…