Category: Show Reviews

Show Review: John 5 & The Creatures, DNA Lounge, 04/20/2022

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

It’s interesting when successful musicians branch out on their own solo projects.  Maybe they have too much creative energy that doesn’t flow with their band and need to expand on it, or maybe they just have free time between recording and tour cycles to do their own thing.  Whatever the case may be, the best moment to see these performers live is not with their marquee name bands, one hundred yards away in some stadium… no, the best time is when they are on their solo tours!  Paul Stanley of KISS once performed at The Fillmore to 800 people.  Joe Perry of Aerosmith also performed at The Fillmore in front of only 400 people.  When John 5 is not performing to thousands of people with Rob Zombie, he very often makes solo records, tours with his own solo project called John 5 & The Creatures, and when in San Francisco, always comes back to the intimate DNA Lounge.

Show Review: Boy Harsher and Troller at The Belasco Theatre (Los Angeles) 04/19/2022

“Take me down to LA, I wanna go down”

It’s wild to think that the last time I wrote a show review was in 2019. Here we are in the waxing and waning throes of a two-year-long global pandemic and while still testing regularly and waiting for information on the next COVID variant it seems like we’re beginning to move toward a new normal. There’s something surreal and strangely dystopian about going to a concert, let alone to a MinSynth one, but that didn’t stop the many, if any, from attending Boy Harsher’s return to Los Angeles.

Continue reading “Show Review: Boy Harsher and Troller at The Belasco Theatre (Los Angeles) 04/19/2022”

Show Review: Spiritualized at The Fillmore, 4.12.22

Spiritualized, enters its third decade doing the one thing it has done and doing it well: building manifold soundscapes over rock and pop fundamentals, repetition unto transcendence. 

Each track is reducible to some early Rock Rhythm and Blues motif. Continue reading “Show Review: Spiritualized at The Fillmore, 4.12.22”

Show Review: alt-j, Portugal. The Man, Cherry Glazerr at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 4.1.22

As an alt-j fan celebrating The Dream release and larger venue openings in the bay area the joke was on me when it came to the night of the show and what happened vs what I expected from this sold-out venue and bill.

The Bill Grahm Civic Auditorium might as well be the venue that “Band Aid” Penny Lane spins around to Cat Steven’s (Yusuf Islam’s) “The Wind” in Almost Famous. An iconic movie scene where a super fan relishes the empty room after an incendiary performance of their fav band. If this venue could talk. Continue reading “Show Review: alt-j, Portugal. The Man, Cherry Glazerr at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 4.1.22”

A Love Letter to Nightlife, and Plans for an Oral History

 

Nightlife is a sacred pursuit, especially when the world is bleak. Lately, the clubs and the bars feel emptier, and it’s harder to find our people there. In the 80’s and early 90s, we had a similarly dark moment, but it felt like it was easier to be with other people. They matter, for so many reasons. A dark bar or club can be the heart of a community. I’m on a journey to collect and share stories of what happened in these venues. Continue reading “A Love Letter to Nightlife, and Plans for an Oral History”

Show Review: Wet Leg at Bimbo’s 365 Club, 3/29/22

If you’re reading this on Spinning Platters, chances are this isn’t the first time you’re heard of Wet Leg. I’ll spare you the lengthy gushing and simply say that Rhian Teasdale speaks in plain terms about modern life with idiosyncratic idioms with a deceptively blasé elocution. Continue reading “Show Review: Wet Leg at Bimbo’s 365 Club, 3/29/22”

Show Review: Perfume Genius with Hand Habits at The Fillmore, 3.21.22

Photos by Tiffany Black-Darquea
 
For one night, as Perfume Genius (Michael Alden Hadreas) brought the second show of their tour to the bay, The Fillmore had a spectacular mirror ball swinging across its stage, all graceful arcs and delicate reflections.
Continue reading “Show Review: Perfume Genius with Hand Habits at The Fillmore, 3.21.22”

Show Review: John Mayer with Yebba at Chase Center, 3/18/2022

Holy hell, it’s been a while. It’s been more than two years, in fact, since I last saw a show. For a music nerd like me who considers live music vital to her mental health, that’s saying a lot. But as things slowly seem to be moving closer and closer to what we considered “normal” pre-pandemic, I’ve been missing the whole concert experience more and more. Fortunately, the arrival of John Mayer‘s Sob Rock Tour at San Francisco’s Chase Center arrived just in time – last Friday night, to be exact… Continue reading “Show Review: John Mayer with Yebba at Chase Center, 3/18/2022”

Show Review: Shinedown, The Warfield, 01/26/2022

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Live hard rock music seems difficult to come by within the city limits of San Francisco.  Music fans here seem to mainly gravitate to EDM, thrash metal, or anything that resembles the types of artists that play at Outside Lands (indie / alternative) or Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.  Therefore, it is not impossible to believe that a hard rock band who has sold 10 million albums worldwide (and were recently named #1 on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists Chart) has not performed in San Francisco city proper in 10 years (since March 2012).  On January 26, 2022, multi-platinum rock band Shinedown decided to finally visit us once again, this time with the very first show of their 2022 tour cycle at The Warfield in support of their upcoming new album, Planet Zero!