Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Summer is nearly over, but there is still plenty to do. Including two really inexpensive, all day music events in the Bay Area for you to celebrate this holiday weekend.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/28/14-9/4/14”
The good people of Sketchfest have decided to grace our Summer with another weekend of epic programming at The Castro Theater. Thus proving that you can, indeed, laugh in the Summer as well as the Winter. These four events at The Castro Theater are all going to be wonderful, joyful affairs. (Note: All events are at The Castro Theatre) Continue reading “Sketchfest Summer Social Preview”
This is the week leading up to Outside Lands. Which means, of course, that you should be training. Listening to music at loud volumes, walking 7 miles a day, subsisting on beer and trail mix, etc. Of course you should go see a band a day until it’s time to spend three days in a park with, well, BANDS! So go see a few: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/31/14-8/6/14”
There are a lot of great reasons to show up early to Outside Lands. It’s rather beautiful to walk around at noon, seeing the empty festival and taking in the peace before the chaos. It’s also a great time to explore the various different food vendors, especially the much more popular establishments. Instead of waiting 20 minutes in line to enjoy Farmer Brown’s amazing Chicken & Waffles, you’ll get your food in under 5, plus you can pretty much guarantee a seat at a picnic table while you get to enjoy some of the lesser known acts on the bill. This year has plenty of acts that are well worth crawling out of bed early to enjoy. (Also, the N Judah and 5 Fulton at 11am is way nicer than at 2:00, when most people show up.)
The full schedule has been released, but here are my personal Top 10 acts from the lower part of the bill. Trust me, you’ll be happy you came out and had breakfast in the park.
Continue reading “Top 10 Outside Lands 2014 Acts From the Bottom Half of the Poster”
Another weekend in July. Another excuse to hang out in some of the Bay Area’s under-appreciated parks. Last weekend’s Burger Boogaloo was amazing. This weekend brings us Phono del Sol. A one day event that brings the absolute best in indie rock to it’s natural habitat- The Mission. I’ve gone every year, and at $25, it’s a steal! For one price, you get Wye Oak, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Nick Waterhouse, Tony Molina, Blackbird Blackbird, White Fence, Yalls, A Million Billion Dying Suns, The Tambo Rays, and Bill Baird. It’s going to be an epic time for all. Oh, and we’ve got other shows this week, too: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/10/14-7/16/14”
Thursday, June 26th
Veruca Salt, The Echo Friendly at The Independent
Veruca Salt released two fine pieces of fuzzy guitar pop goodness in the mid 90s. It’s been far too long since Louise Post and Nina Gordon have put collaborated on a project, but the new Veruca Salt record is another classic piece of Alternative Nation era rock goodness. Kennedy would be proud!
Southern Culture On The Skids, Aloha Screwdriver at Great American Music Hall
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 6/26/14-7/2/14”
Thursday, May 29th Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 5/29/14-5/28/14”
Thursday, May 15th Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 5/15/14-5/21/14”
Thursday, May 8th Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 5/8/14-5/14/14”
I should start this post off right away by admitting a few things: first of all, if you’ve seen any of my previous work on this site, you’ll already know, but I’m by far the most “mainstream” music listening on the Spinning Platters staff. Many of the bands my cohorts write about are those I’ve never heard of, while I’m running around checking out John Mayer, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and Pink. Also, and perhaps more importantly, I’m a huge novice when it comes to music festivals. I’ve been to a good handful of the one-day sort of radio station assembled festivals, and several consecutive years of Warped Tour. But bigger, multi-day festivals? I’ve only been to one so far: BottleRock Napa Valley 2013.
Continue reading “Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2014: 5/30-6/1”