“GWAR LIVES!”
I have a death wish. A metal death wish. So it was clear that I had to work 9 hours and high tail it straight to Downtown Los Angeles for a night of total fucking metal at The Belasco Theater. The occasion? GWAR. Need I say more?
Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
I have a death wish. A metal death wish. So it was clear that I had to work 9 hours and high tail it straight to Downtown Los Angeles for a night of total fucking metal at The Belasco Theater. The occasion? GWAR. Need I say more?
Sometimes, you need to get the hell out of the house and go to a punk show. Especially in times as trying as these, perhaps because of times as trying as these, it just feels good to go somewhere where you can yell and get all that pent up anger at a seemingly unstoppable corrupt world with a bunch of like minded people. So, I hopped on the scooter and puttered off to Echo Park to the surprisingly dark-lit Echoplex for a night of punk rock fury.
Continue reading “Show Review: Subhumans, Neighborhood Brats, SMUT, Fissure at Echoplex 10/22/2019”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Since 2007, when their song “Through the Fire and Flames” appeared on Guitar Hero III, DragonForce has appealed to the video game masses, and it showed at August Hall tonight. They had two giant video game consoles on stage that were playing a loop of late 80’s / early 90’s era video games. They also have their own channel on Twitch.tv, a live streaming video website primarily focused on video gaming, and guitarist Herman Li was wearing a backpack with a mini video camera attached to it, to live stream the entire show.
Continue reading “Show Review: Video Game Metal with DragonForce at August Hall, 10/10/2019”
I do not get out to enough concerts. I work in live theatre which means when I’m on a “show run” I’m locked in with only Monday nights off for the next two months of my life at a time, so I have to fit in whatever I can between plays. Therefore, it’s almost serendipitous that the first show I’ve been to since May happens to also be an IDLES show, this time at The Wiltern in Korea Town.
Continue reading “Show Review: IDLES, Surfbort at The Wiltern 2019/10/08”
I’ve always wondered why the Waterboys are not regularly mentioned in the same breath as U2, their more successful cohorts in Big Music. Mystic Celtic themes, wide genre experimentation, reckless ambition, and earnestness occasionally lapsing into bathos — it’s all there. Perhaps it’s because founder Mike Scott has been a bit too wide and reckless in ambition and scope. Perhaps it’s because the Waterboys as a cohesive band, has pretty much been just Mike Scott.
I suspect that a less raggle taggle band might have made Scott’s musical forays more cohesive over time. If so, the current lineup, no larger than needs be, tight and effortless enough to riff and be fun, would be a solid contender for posterity. Veteran fiddleman in a low top hat, Steve Wickham, took the stage as Scott’s equal, the latter in Canadian tuxedo and cowboy hat. The complimentary front men were supported by steadfast Zach Ernst on rhythm guitar, and Ralph Salmins on drums, who showed his chops during the second set in a solo tribute to the recently late drum god Ginger Baker. The big sound was rounded out by blistering keysman ‘Brother’ Paul Brown.
We can be grateful the Waterboys are not a bigger act and are still free to fill relatively intimate venues like the Fillmore with waves of sound up close and personal, starting appropriately with the rolling title track from the current release, Where the Action Is. The album is less a return to form, as a welcome integration of the new wave proto-pagan soul of the first three albums, with the rampant experimentation of the previous album Out of All This Blue, and their more unfortunate recent forays into rock, rhythm & blues by way of Austin. They then settled into some familiar territory with a couple solid Celtic folk tracks off 1988’s Fisherman’s Blues, and the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers.” The next two tracks were homage to primary influences. Scott was clearly excited about new single ‘London Mick’, a Replacements style tribute to Clash’s Mick Jones. It was a nicely complimented by ‘A Girl Called Johnny’ the very first song recorded by the Waterboys, and a tribute to Patti Smith that brilliantly held promise of what was to come.
They followed this unblemished block with ‘Still a Freak’ from Modern Blues, which is a song that fully qualifies as Dad rock, with watery blues riffs and embarrassing lyrics assuring us that, though 60 years old, yes Mike is still cool. ‘Nashville Tennessee’ is better but more of the same.
And that pretty much sets the pattern for the night: Solid new material, vibrant first iteration tracks, then unfortunate dad rock, with ‘Rosalind (You Married the Wrong Guy)’ as the standout offender. Miraculously, each and every clunker ascended to a brilliant room-filling jam thanks to that virtuoso fiddle player, and a madman on keys who at varied points stripped off his shirt, and came to center stage looking like RiffRaff wailing on a keytar!
Standouts of the evening were ‘We Will Not Be Lovers’, ‘Morning Came Too Soon’, and ‘Ladbroke Grove Symphony’, a jazzy piece closing the first set with the running rhythm of Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’. The band survived a significant soundboard disruption with grace and humor, and closed the show with cheesy but endearing ‘In My Time On Earth’
The single encore was the Waterboys’ only stateside hit, ‘The Whole of the Moon’ which epitomizes their early sound. Derailed a bit perhaps by the sound malfunction, it wasn’t the strongest rendition. Yet, singing along loud and off-key as can only be done to those recognizable singles, a clump of burly middle-aged Irishmen swayed and danced and bumped into each other and hugged and took embarrassed offense and patted each others backs with forgiveness in big over earnest rapture.
Maybe I don’t get out enough. When I think multiple local bands on a single bill, I think of Noise Pop Fest, or maybe Phono Del Sol. Certainly something of a local festival flavor, or maybe a tiny bar. That’s why I was excited to hear about Andrew St James pulling together some friends and fellow local musicians at The Chapel for an event billed as FAST TIMES. Continue reading “Show Review: Fast Times: Holy Spirit, Sandy’s, French Cassettes at The Chapel, 9/14/19”
It’s been a tough couple of weeks as a nation. Mass shootings in Gilroy, Dayton, and El Paso were not particularly well timed with Outside Lands. In the days leading up to the festival, many people were debating whether or not it was safe to go. Maybe we were next? I had a long talk with my partner about going this year, which included a plan for alerting each other to our safety, and talking about all of the steps that I’ve observed in my years attending this festival that have made me feel safe. In fact, I think I feel safer in Golden Gate Park during Outside Lands than pretty much anywhere else on Earth.
I’m also a firm believer in “not letting terrorists win.” We can’t let these folks scare us off from living. And, seriously, if you don’t have communing with friends and strangers to appreciate live music, is life really worth living? I’m going to keep going to shows and supporting life music because, well, I really think my life depends on it. Continue reading “Outside Lands 2019: Instant Gig Reviews”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
After a few days of rehearsals at Toyota Amphitheatre in nearby Wheatland to figure out how to put together their massive stage set, Slipknot‘s Knotfest Roadshow officially kicked off at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on July 26. Joining Slipknot was an international array of metal including Volbeat (Denmark), Gojira (France), and Behemoth (Poland).
Continue reading “A local stagehand’s review of Slipknot’s Knotfest Roadshow at Shoreline, 7/26/19”
Featuring three possible fathers and a collection of ABBA hits, Mamma Mia! tells the story of mother-daughter Donna and Sophie as they navigate love, loss, and self-discovery. Widely staged throughout the world, SJSC’s production brings a level of intimacy to the story. Due to the space and set design (Michael Palumbo), the show feels a bit like the movie starring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried where the focus becomes less about theatrics and more on the interactions between cast members. Songs include big hits such as Dancing Queen, Voulez-Vous, Lay All Your Love on Me, and the musical’s namesake, Mamma Mia. Continue reading “Theater Review: Last Weekend to Catch San Jose Stage Company’s Production of Mamma Mia!“
It’s July, and another successful SF Pride Parade is in the books… or so I hear. I personally missed it, sadly, but I did so for good reason. Obviously, we live in one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, and while it would have been fun to come out to share the celebration (not to mention the spectacle) that is Pride in the Bay Area, I chose instead to celebrate with the LGBTQ+ youth of Salt Lake City.
Utah is, of course, fairly synonymous with Mormonism. Imagine growing up LGBTQ+ and having to consider whether to stay closeted, or to come out and risk being shunned, rejected, or excommunicated not only from your entire church, but your community and likely your whole family, too. It’s not hard to see why the LGBTQ+ youth in the LDS church have an incredibly high suicide rate. Enter one of the most famous Mormons this side of Donny & Marie: Imagine Dragons’ frontman, Dan Reynolds. Reynolds founded the LoveLoud Foundation, which puts on an annual festival in the Salt Lake City area every June to allow a safe place to celebrate Pride while raising money for local and national LGBTQ+ charities.
Continue reading “Festival Review: LoveLoud 2019 at USANA Amphitheatre, 6/29/19”