On November 7, 2024, The The returned to the stage at Oakland’s historic Fox Theater, presenting a performance that transcended the boundaries of a standard rock concert—with a two-set format and no supporting act, the evening highlighted their new album, Ensoulment, and a retrospective of their catalog, offering a reflective journey that resonated profoundly with fans. Continue reading “Show Review: The The at The Fox Theater — Oakland, 11/7/24”
Category: Show Reviews
Festival Review: NOFX -The Final Shows-
41 Years of Fucking Up: NOFX Bids Us Farewell
To call this an end of an era is the most obvious understatement. Forty years of fucking shit up as a punk band is a long time, and while some bands have been at it for just as long if not longer, the impact of NOFX cannot be overstated. They did things DIY when their peers were signing on with and subsequently getting dropped by major labels. They’ve courted controversy, spoken their minds, and rocked the fuck out while doing it. It was fitting that the final three performances of the band’s career would be celebrated in Southern California, where it all began.
Show Review: Danny Elfman with Johnny Jewel + Desire at Shoreline Amphitheater, 11/3/24
I remember it like yesterday. October 26th, 1995. The eve of my 16th birthday. Oingo Boingo were scheduled to play their final SF show, and I couldn’t have been more excited. As a “ska” teen, despite Oingo Boingo not being a ska band, they were still part of my world, and I was eager to suit up and get sweaty. Well, the band was too eager to close up shop and canceled every show except the one that was recorded for their Farewell album, and I ended up having a beach bonfire and broke a femur running from the cops instead.
Dammit Danny. Continue reading “Show Review: Danny Elfman with Johnny Jewel + Desire at Shoreline Amphitheater, 11/3/24”
Show Review: Pretty Girls Make Graves with Cig Corpse at The Regent Theater DTLA, 11/2/24
When When We Were Young dropped their 2024 lineup, I only barely glanced at it at first. It was all album plays, and I assumed that meant there wasn’t anything surprising in the lineup. Then I looked at the poster again and saw a familiar, blurry image in the corner that looked like Pretty Girls Make Graves’ classic record, The New Romance. Sure enough, someone did what they needed to do to get what I considered to be the greatest band of the early oughts emo revival back together. The band is near the top of my list: “I’d do anything to see them again.” Tour dates opened up, and, sadly, nothing in the Bay Area. So, I used Southwest credit and decided to spend less than 24 hours in Los Angeles. Continue reading “Show Review: Pretty Girls Make Graves with Cig Corpse at The Regent Theater DTLA, 11/2/24”
Ashe Announces A Return To The Road!
As a Bay Area music blog, we are always excited when one of our own overcomes something big. San Jose Native Ashe had to cancel the tour for her brilliant album Raye last year to deal with mental health issues. I honestly thought she was moving away from music in general. Instead, she gifted us with an amazing new record, Willson, and is doing a tour supporting her three most recent albums, making up for lost time while still touring the brilliant new record.
Tour Dates are below, and everything goes on sale 11/1/24 at 10 am local time:
May 28—Variety Playhouse—Atlanta, GA
May 30—9:30 Club—Washington, DC
May 31—Royale—Boston, MA
June 3—Brooklyn Steel—Brooklyn, NY
June 5—Danforth Music Hall—Toronto, ON
June 6—Saint Andrew’s Hall—Detroit, MI
June 8—Metro—Chicago, IL
June 11—First Avenue—Minneapolis, MN
June 13—Ogden Theatre—Denver, CO
June 14—The Depot—Salt Lake City, UT
June 16—The Showbox—Seattle, WA
June 17—Revolution Hall—Portland, OR
June 19—The UC Theatre—Berkeley, CA
June 20—The Bellwether—Los Angeles, CA
Show Review: Nilüfer Yanya with Angélica Garcia at August Hall, 10/22/24
There is nothing I love more than music that doesn’t fit into a tidy little box. And on this late fall Tuesday Night, August Hall presented two very different performers: Nilüfer Yanya and Angélica Garcia, two artists whose only thing they have in common is that I have to look up how to type diacritics to write their names. Oh, and their 2024 albums, My Method Actor and Gemelo, respectively, are works of genius likely to end up on everyone’s EOY lists. And when they came together at August Hall, they presented a thing of beauty.
Continue reading “Show Review: Nilüfer Yanya with Angélica Garcia at August Hall, 10/22/24”
Show Review: GWAR at The Regency Ballroom, 10/20/2024
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
As with every four-year election cycle, this 2024 United States presidential election season has been equally as boring as it is annoying, with the 24/7 news coverage and the debates and the spam texts and emails and the constant ads on the social feeds as well as in the physical mailbox.
Thankfully, the greatest live band in the universe, Antarctica’s very own GWAR, has once again stepped up to help out the American public… by executing all of the presidential candidates, present and past.
Spinning Platters is never one to avoid a good ole bloody mess, and with the expensive camera equipment properly covered, GWAR marched onto the stage and wasted no time in chopping off heads, hands, arms, and anything else available to spew their fluids onto all of those awaiting their bloody destiny.
Continue reading “Show Review: GWAR at The Regency Ballroom, 10/20/2024”
Show Review: TsuShiMaMiRe with skapeche mode at The Moroccan (DTLA)
What do you know about sex and food?
TsuShiMaMiRe destroys Los Angeles.
I’ve never been to the Moroccan Lounge in DTLA adjacent to Little Tokyo –the heritage center is right across Vignes Street–, but its homey charm immediately won me over. Most of the venues I cover have been on the larger size so it is always refreshing to be somewhere closer to the tiny clubs of my youth. If that sentence sounds familiar, it’s because that’s my nostalgia. It was also quite fitting that our proximity would be so close to the Japanese heart of Los Angeles since we were about to get our faces rocked off by a Japanese band, but first…
Continue reading “Show Review: TsuShiMaMiRe with skapeche mode at The Moroccan (DTLA)”
Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.
Review and All Photos by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
Additional interviews and content here by: Emily Anderson @wisefoolfilms
For decades, Europe has led the way in the heavy metal and loud rock music festival space. Monsters of Rock (the originator, which started in 1980!), Wacken Open Air, Dynamo Open Air, Hellfest, Graspop, Copenhell, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Summer Breeze, Sweden Rock Fest and Download have always dominated the landscape with their amazing lineups year after year.
United States was never close in offering an equivalent heavy metal experience. Sure, there was Ozzfest and Mayhem Festival, but those have been gone since 2017 and 2015 and Americans have always leaned more towards indie rock music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonaroo, and Outside Lands anyway.
For the last twelve or so years, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) has been chipping away at the supremacy of the European heavy metal festivals, with Welcome To Rockville, Louder Than Life, Sonic Temple, Inkcarceration, Rock on the Range, Rocklahoma, Carolina Rebellion, and Northern California’s very own Aftershock Festival. With the best lineup it has ever had, West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival definitely lived up to its name in 2024!
Continue reading “Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.”
Show Review: Weezer + The Flaming Lips @ Chase Center, 10/09/2024
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
In 1994, a simple blue cover adorned the release of the debut album of the then relatively unknown band Weezer. Three decades later, the Blue Album, as it has long been commonly known, was the central theme of their Voyage to the Blue Planet tour, which was to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Continue reading “Show Review: Weezer + The Flaming Lips @ Chase Center, 10/09/2024”