Show Reviews – Page 36 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Indigo Girls at The Fillmore, 2/19/2016

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of The Indigo Girls

The Indigo Girls were hugely important to me as an adolescent, when I was all “fuck the patriarchy,” looking at my baby boomer parents and teachers and seeing a lot of what I didn’t want, but couldn’t figure out what to do instead. They were queer and progressive and unpretentious and pensive and courageous, yet even they have complained about the dismissive labeling they’ve received from the press – “bleeding heart lesbian folk duo”. They’ve been totally cast off as wholesome and safe, banal music for lesbians. When I told my friends I was going to see them, they kidded with me. “Are you sure you aren’t gay, Becka? You have flannel shirts and you listen to The Indigo Girls and Neko Case and you have very, very aggressive looking glasses.” Long ago, prior to my current Age of Zero Fucks, I felt self conscious about my adoration for them, and then I realized that I, too, was falling for a common sexist musical trap.

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Noise Pop Show Review: Carly Rae Jepsen, Cardiknox, Monika at The Warfield, 2/27/16

2015 was an interesting year for Carly Rae Jepsen. Tasked with the impossible feat of following up “Call Me Maybe” — likely to be remembered as the greatest pop song of the decade — Jepsen managed to do something that very few people in the pop world have done: release a follow-up that became one of the most critically lauded records of the year. Very few performers do well with their sophomore record, but Jepsen’s release hit #3 on The Village Voice‘s Pazz & Jop Poll, sharing space not with fellow popsters, but with folks like Kendrick Lamar and Courtney Barnett. This, plus a slot on the indie-centric Noise Pop Festival, prove that Jepsen has attained something that very few Top 40 artists have: respect from critics, along with acceptance by the very picky indie rock community. In fact, despite the presence of such long defunct acts as Drive Like Jehu, Her Space Holiday, and American Football at this year’s Noise Pop, Jepsen’s was the most anticipated set of the festival. Continue reading “Noise Pop Show Review: Carly Rae Jepsen, Cardiknox, Monika at The Warfield, 2/27/16”

Noise Pop Show Review: Kneedelus and Kamasi Washington: Two Nights of Jazz in San Francisco

San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival has been well known for packing hordes of genres and artists into their lineup, but rarely have they picked a collection of artists that are so solidly categorized as jazz musicians before anything else. True to the latter half of its name, the festival tends to want to pick acts that have those hooks and rhythms which you want to sing or dance along to with a common familiarity, or even are comfortable with hearing on the radio. There are, of course, certain acts (like seminal hardcore favorites Drive Like Jehu this year, or Yoko Ono a few years back) that defy such conventions, but you can generally bet on finding the bands to be less on the blatantly esoteric side of things. Thus, it was a bit of a risk throwing some jazz artists into the mix; however, it absolutely paid off, as all four shows (spread across two nights, two artists, and two venues) sold out, weeks in advance, and the two performers — elecronic-wizard-plus-jazz-quartet Kneedelus, and newly-Grammy’d tenor sax master Kamasi Washington — definitely did not disappoint.

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Show Review: UnderCover Presents A Tribute to Green Day’s Dookie at The Fox Oakland, 2/19/2016

A record like Dookie, the magnum opus from the Bay Area’s arguably-most-popular punk band, Green Day, was not so much another album in the shop as it was a sonic bombshell going off, whose waves were felt in scenes across the Earth. The raw energy and youthful vigor had rarely been presented in so straightforward and familiar a manner, especially in a format and at a time that it was almost universally accessible to everyone looking for something refreshing and powerful in the current world. Dookie, by scene purists, may be remembered as the record that shoved one of the loudest, wildest dimensions of the music world into the spotlight, and while they may revile this fact, Dookie’s influence and impact on all music that came after it is undeniable. It still stands tall as one of the greatest records of its age, and one of the most famous to come from the East Bay of Northern California. It was fitting, therefore, that the Bay Area collective UnderCover culled together a collection of local players, all passionate fans of the effect this record had on them in their younger years, to kick off this year’s UnderCover Presents series with a 15-band tribute to one of the seminal works of 90s punk rock.

With so much to cover, I’ll be doing this in the style of the show: 15 mini-reviews of all of the songs, with photos for each, and a wrap-up at the end. Read on!

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Show Review: Josh Ritter and The Royal City Band at the Fillmore, 1/20/2016

Josh Ritter and The Royal City Band with Bob Weir

Josh Ritter is as gifted a storyteller as any other in today’s music scene, drawing from notes the likes of Springsteen, Cash, Dylan, and Tom Petty to create pictures of today’s America. If you’re under 45 and liberal, it’s likely you’ve felt frustrated by the lack of opportunity, by the creeping religious hypocrisy that poisons the political landscape, and the dreadful knowledge that the American dream was stolen from you before you and your peers could even walk. Ritter has his pulse on the angst and struggles of his generation, tackling themes of loneliness, disappointment, and isolation with humor and curiosity, always driving you forward to the next adventure.

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Show Review: Puscifer with Luchafer at the Fox Oakland, 12/8/2015

Puscifer (Mat Mitchell, Paul Barker, Jeff Friedl, Carina Round, and Maynard James Keenan)

Let’s get one thing out of the way before this review starts: Puscifer is not a side project. It’s a sprawling, multifaceted, genre-defying, borderline-synaesthetic outlet of artistic expression, the brainchild of Tool vocalist/winemaker Maynard James Keenan and musical mastermind Mat Mitchell — and at this point, they’ve been grinding the axe for nigh unto a decade (closer to twenty years, if you count their brief appearance on Mr. Show way back when), and it absolutely shows. The collective has been refining the elements of what their sound, their mission, and their performance entails, for that entire span of time and 2015’s Money Shot — the album, the tour, the experience — is the next step along the journey within the minds of this collective of visionaries. As with everything released during their career thus far, don’t let the smirk-inspiring record title (nor its positively comedic artwork) lead you into dismissing them outright. If anything, it’s a bit of a relief to know that the men and women of Puscifer have a sense of humor to match the seriousness with which they take their production, both for the live show and the music itself.

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Show Review: FFS at the Fox Oakland, 10/15/2015

Nick McCarthy, Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos of FFS

Just over two years ago, timeless whimsical art-pop duo Sparks made their first appearance in the Bay Area in years, in the form of a stripped-down two-man show that spanned the entire course of their career. What probably WASN’T immediately well known, however, was the presence of members of another band at at least one of those very same shows: Alex Kapranos and the other musicians of Franz Ferdinand, who watched the show as regular members of the audience (and then joined the boys backstage after the gig). This wasn’t the first time that Ron and Russel Mael, the brothers of Sparks, had discussed working with the Glasgow rockers, but this gathering became the impetus to make something even bigger — and less than a year after those concerts, the supergroup FFS (named for the bands that make it up) was formed, with their eponymous album cranked out a few months later. The album and the band are their own unique experiences; FFS has a playfulness that recalls the best work of Sparks, which blends smartly with the bombastic showmanship of a big rock show — the sort of thing that Franz Ferdinand is well known for. Lest fans be worried that there’s a clear divide between the two groups, the truth couldn’t be more clear: the two sets of musicians play off of each other marvelously, and when it all comes together under one roof, the FFS live show is a different experience all by itself.

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Show Review: Chelsea Wolfe with Wovenhand at The Regency Ballroom, 9/26/15

It’s getting increasingly difficult to find innovation in truly dark music — the sort of sound that disturbs, frightens, and continues to offer intrigue at the same time. A lot of musicians stick to standard scare-tactic fare — blistering static buzzsaws, sampled shrieks, and all manner of cacophonous ear-fuckery — and come off as too abrasive or experimental to be embraced by anything larger than the local noise-rock community. For those less interested in the loud-as-all-hell technique, of course, there’s neo-folk and similarly spooky ilk, but it’s difficult to be taken seriously and/or create the right sort of ambiance — especially when there are so many extremists in the scene that are not ironic in their tales of fantasy and fiction. Every so often, however, someone like Chelsea Wolfe comes along and absolutely lays waste to any detractors or raised eyebrows, likely by virtue of melting said faces off before they’re able to pass judgment. Incredibly dark, massively loud, and chilling in its intensity, Wolfe’s live performance is the kind of shadowy gloom that today’s sonic apocalyptics can only dream to achieve.

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Outside Lands 2015: 19 Instant Gig Reviews

Just a bunch of hippies in Golden Gate Park

Every year Outside Lands gets bigger and better. This year was a great year for a lot of reasons – it was an excellent, diverse and well-paced line up. They also switched up the set-up of the grounds this year, opening up walkways, adding more bathrooms and in general, making a much more comfortable festival experience. The weather was amazing, as well. None of the usual ice cold and overcast OSL, this year was all about having fun in the sun. I also got to see a slew of excellent sets of music & comedy!

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Burger Booglaoo 2015: The Best Show Around

When I visited Gonpachi, the restaurant that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1, I watched as a teenage bus boy, carrying a tub of dirty dishes, tripped on the second floor landing, sending a cascade of water on two well-suited Japanese business men at the bar below. Resulting in a flash and flury of apologies, towels, and more apologies, I waited for something to happen.

In all honesty, I hoped this was the open action sequence to a movie – the bus boy, who would *really* be an bus GIRL would be a high-stakes arms dealer attempting to get far undercover into mob headquarters to take out the mob boss who’d killed her father. Amid the building tension and suspicion, Mr. Mob, realizing his restaurant would now be the scene for said revenge, The 5, 6, 7, 8’s would loudly tear into: “I’m Blue.” Brilliantly choreographed knife and fist fights (imagine Kill Bill meets The Raid) between our starring underdog crime fighter lady and the mob’s henchmen would ensue. And above the nash of fists, faces, and katana swords and the interlude of “Bomb the Twist”, John Waters would quietly take the open seat next to me: “Soooo, hmm, yakitori?” he would ask calmly, coyly peeking at me through delighted eyes.

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