Show Reviews – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Phoebe Bridgers with Alex G at Chase Center, 10/28/26

Photo Credit: Wes Ellis / Instagram: @atwes

Chase Center opened its doors in September 2019, bringing the Golden State Warriors back to San Francisco after decades of playing across the bay at Oakland’s Oracle Arena. The privately financed, approximately $1.4 billion project took seven years of planning and development to become a reality. It was an ambitious undertaking, and not without controversy. Concerns about traffic, parking, emergency access, and the impact of a major entertainment venue on the surrounding Mission Bay neighborhood accompanied the project from its earliest days. Continue reading “Show Review: Phoebe Bridgers with Alex G at Chase Center, 10/28/26”

Show Review: heavens to betsy, The Street Eaters, The Lilies at Bottom Of The Hill, 10/17/26

As regular readers know, my favorite band is Sleater-Kinney. I’ve probably seen them around 50 times at this point, and it never gets old. For folks who don’t know, Sleater-Kinney was originally a supergroup comprised of members of Excuse 17 and heavens to betsy. heavens to betsy are an important part of the story, and their sole full-length record, Calculated, as well as the These Monsters Are Real EP, have been a steady presence on my turntables, in my DiscMans, and on my portable digital music devices for the vast majority of my life. Continue reading “Show Review: heavens to betsy, The Street Eaters, The Lilies at Bottom Of The Hill, 10/17/26”

Show Review: DOMi and JD Beck at Nuemos, 10/5/26

Domi & JD Beck are singular.

A jazz duo consisting of keys and drums, DOMi and JD Beck fill a space musically that does not quite exist outside of them as an artistic unit. As more and more bands search for gimmicks that demand their audience dive a little bit deeper into the music to find sustenance. DOMi and JD require no costumes or theatrics to speak to their audience within a culture that often lacks an interest in complicated compositional weirdness. They’re hard to pigeonhole, and thank your deity of choice for that. Continue reading “Show Review: DOMi and JD Beck at Nuemos, 10/5/26”

Show Review: She & Him with Jordana at The Moore, 9/29/26

I’ve been listening to Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s She & Him since the release of their debut record in 2008, and I got to see them perform live once in 2010 at The Fifth Ave Theater in Seattle, WA. Their body of work includes 3 albums of originals, two Christmas albums, a covers album, and a Tribute to Brian Jones of The Beach Boys. I am drawn to She & Him for their songwriting, but since their last album of original material was released in 2013, I’ve been on the ropes about how vocal I can be about my fandom for them. Zooey and Ward are simply put two of my favorite songwriters of all time. I find myself listening to She & Him when things get bad, and I need to put something on that I know will make me feel better. I brought my son to see that She & Him concert at the 5th Ave when he was in grade school, and he grew up listening to them to the point where one of the first songs he ever had memorized was “Sentimental Heart,” and he grew up dancing to and asking to hear “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” on repeat. They are a part of my life in a way that I can’t quantify in a concert review article, but it is important that you, as the reader of said article, know I am not a casual listener. Continue reading “Show Review: She & Him with Jordana at The Moore, 9/29/26”

Show Review: Robert Plant with Saving Grace and Suzi Dian at Orpheum Theater, 10/2/26

Back in 1991 or ’92, my mother took me to Costco. This was before everyone had become addicted to it and reliant on it for just about everything. Back then, they had introductory box sets of bands, and Led Zeppelin came in a big yellow box, with a zeppelin floating over what I remember as crop circles. It contained all of their albums in chronological order across four extra-long CDs—or maybe eight CDs? I can’t remember exactly, but there was a lot of music in that box. Continue reading “Show Review: Robert Plant with Saving Grace and Suzi Dian at Orpheum Theater, 10/2/26”

Single of the Week: “Hands Tied” by Emma Ogier

Remember Lost Highway Records? The label behind O Brother, Where Art Thou and all sorts of great bluegrass and alt. country tracks in the 00’s. Well, looks like they are still around and signing… GREAT ROCK ACTS? “Hands Tied” by Emma Ogier is reminiscent of Juliana Hatfield and Liz Phair and is a bloody great little rock song.

“Hands Tied” is off her upcoming release Fly 1111, coming out, you guessed it, November 11th!

2026 Portola Festival Diary: Day 2

Editor-in-chief, Dakin Hardwick here! Introducing you to the latest addition to the Spinning Platters team, Ammar Hasan! He’s a great photographer and writer, and he joined us in a pinch when our original photographer on Portola had an emergency and couldn’t make it. Without further ado, here’s his coverage of Portola Music Festival 2026: Continue reading “2026 Portola Festival Diary: Day 2”

2026 Portola Festival Diary: Two Days on a Pier With Beats, Not Boats

I’m the kind of person who prefers a person with a microphone fronting a live band, so if you had told me I’d basically stop going to Outside Lands and become a regular at Portola, I wouldn’t have believed you. Yet here we are! Continue reading “2026 Portola Festival Diary: Two Days on a Pier With Beats, Not Boats”

CARLY RAE JEPSEN 2027 TOUR DATES

Carly Rae Jepsen is a favorite of Spinning Platters. I mean, we road-tripped to her intimate EMOTION show at the Troubadour last year. That record was also #2 on our top albums of the 2010’s. We love her. Night & Day is her best record in a minute (which is saying a lot, since Dedicated and The Loneliest Time are both excellent). Suffice it to say, we are STOKED that Ms. Jepsen has gifted us with a Spring tour next year. I CAN’T WAIT!

Sign up for Artist Presale Access HERE by Sunday, October 4 at 11 pm ET. Public onsale Thursday, October 8th at 10 am local time. Tour dates below: Continue reading “CARLY RAE JEPSEN 2027 TOUR DATES”

Show Review: Weezer a real “The Gathering” with The Shins and Silversun Pickups

The Gathering tour was a long-anticipated family BBQ. Fans of all generations packed the almost sold-out Chase Center Arena. Weezer, the geek-pop-rock band, connects to the fun side of everyone. Frontman Como Rivers mentioned the warnings for listening and “thank you anyway.” Everyone knew every word of every song, vintage or fresh; every word in tune and as loud as possible. No one mentioned this wasn’t a sing-a-long, and a few times during the song “Beverly Hills,” my section of the stadium was louder than the band.

It is still a mystery how fans are selected for the “air-guitar” feature, but Anastasia Gorski from the upper deck was fabulous during ‘Buddy Holly.”

Just after “Pork and Beans,” while Cuomo was on the drums, Patrick Wilson (drummer) picked up a guitar riffed as if it was a 1982 heavy metal concert. Cuomo ran over, reminded Patrick it was 2026, and he returned to his beautiful gold drum kit. What would happen to the Weezer world if Patrick’s metal riff continued? Only smiles from me.

The Shins

The shiny happy side of the Shins came out 30 seconds in on the 1st song, with the audience blissfully swaying with their cell phones in the air. It all ended with an all-out release of madness when they closed the set with REM’s “It’s The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

Silversun Pickups

The night started with the Silversun Pickups. Despite the many months they were touring their latest record ahead of “The Gathering” tour, their energy could give the local power company shutdown notice. “Lazy Eye,” despite the song title this band energy could put PG&E out of business. Hair flying like the original headbanger days. Everyone should see them play more than once.

[Show as slideshow]