Show Review: Highlights of Aftershock 2025!

Review by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro and Emily Anderson @emilyphotoadventure

Photos by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro unless otherwise stated

Nearly one year ago, at the very end of Spinning Platters’ Aftershock 2024 review, this question was raised: “West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival had such a stellar lineup this year, HOW are they possibly going to outdo themselves in 2025?!?!” 

If one hundred people were asked if 2025 was better than 2024, there would undoubtedly be one hundred different answers and opinions. Aftershock 2024 was so exceptionally good and a heavy metal fan’s wet dream – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Slipknot, Mastodon, Anthrax, Clutch, Ministry, Body Count and more! Fans of other genres of rock, punk, and loud music were still out in force, as Aftershock 2024 set an attendance record of 40,000 people per day, but may have felt neglected by the sheer amount of metal that closed every night of the festival.

For the 13th annual Aftershock in 2025, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) altered the overall lineup to cater to the rest of those fans while still appealing to the heavy metal fans, by combining every Warped Tour, Ozzfest and Rockstar Mayhem Festival lineup, put it all in a blender, and poured it in a tall glass of Discovery Park for four days of the best rock, alt-rock, metal, 2000’s nu-metal, hardcore, and pop-punk bands, all in one place at one time in the outskirts of downtown Sacramento!  

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Film Review: “Urchin”

Dickinson portrays the unhoused in his thoughtful debut

Mike (Frank Dillane) takes in a good moment in “Urchin.”

Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) is in the director’s chair for the first time with Urchin, an intimate and at times surreal exploration of homelessness in the UK. Urchin comes at an interesting time in Dickinson’s career. As an actor, Dickinson is experiencing a surge in popularity and recognition (Triangle of Sadness, The Iron Claw, and will play John Lennon in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles biopic), so switching gears to a directorial assignment (he also wrote Urchin’s screenplay and has a small supporting role in it) is an interesting choice. Nevertheless, Dickinson must have felt strongly about this particular project, since the care he shows towards the characters and the film’s technical aspects are unmistakable. Urchin is a timely character study about those left behind in society, an unflinching directorial debut, and a special showcase for its central star. Continue reading “Film Review: “Urchin””

Film Review: “Fairyland”

San Francisco-set dramatization one of year’s best

Alysia (Emilia Jones) shares a moment with her dad, Steve (Scoot McNairy).

One of the best movies of the year opens today, and it also happens to be a quintessential San Francisco film that a smart theater programmer (Roxie? Vogue?) might put on a double bill with the award-winning 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk. Also based on a true story, Fairyland similarly captures a time and place in San Francisco history that makes the personal political and vice versa. Continue reading “Film Review: “Fairyland””

Show Review: Grandaddy at The Regency Ballroom, 9/16/25

The Regency Ballroom has a way of holding ghosts and sound in equal measure. Once a Scottish Rite temple built in 1909, its grand neoclassical bones and domed ceilings still hum with ritual energy. Now the devotion comes from a different kind of congregation. On this late September night, that congregation gathered for Grandaddy, a band whose bittersweet blend of analog warmth and cosmic melancholy has been quietly shaping indie rock for nearly three decades.

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Single of the Week: “Lush” by Black Polish

This song is so very, very heavy. “LUSH” has all the elements of the perfect modern metal song… It’s such a ferocious bit of brutality, all without the overused scream/growl that’s a signature of today’s heavy music. Black Polish is bringing the double bass drum hits with the drop D guitars, and it’s definitely pit-ready. 

“LUSH” is the latest single off Black Polish’s upcoming full-length, YUNA, coming your way October 29th- just in time for Halloween! 

Film Review: “A House of Dynamite”

Bigelow’s thriller proposes a serious threat

Rebecca Ferguson calls for information in ‘A House of Dynamite.’

I’d like to assume that most people would not welcome a nuclear apocalypse, and would prefer that the few individuals with access to nuclear launch codes  avoid it at all costs. Writer/director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker; Zero Dark Thirty) apparently shares this assumption, though she has instilled her fears of a (not-too-distant) nuclear holocaust into her new thriller, A House of Dynamite. Taut and unnerving, A House of Dynamite attempts a realistic portrayal of a horrific “what if” scenario. Bigelow’s film doesn’t point fingers or attempt to push the needle of public opinion in a particular direction. Instead, Bigelow frames the film as a cautionary tale that exists simply as a visual representation of our deepest nuclear fears. Continue reading “Film Review: “A House of Dynamite””

Portola 2025: In Words and Pictures

Additional Reporting and Photos by Matthew Meyer and Dakin Hardwick

Portola has figured out how to live in the impossible: a perfect balance between a giant warehouse rave, an art-party fever dream, and a legacy showcase built around titans like The Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. The festival grounds themselves were half the trip, stages stretched across a working port, tucked between hulking cranes and an airplane-hangar-sized warehouse. One side of the grounds was dominated by a massive ship; the other opened out onto the Bay, where the breeze mercifully cut through the heat.

Scantily clad post-Burning Man pilgrims roamed like the playa had drifted into San Francisco, fur and neon armor still glowing. Unlike so many other festivals, Portola spared us the dreaded sound bleed; every stage claimed its own sonic territory without stepping on another’s toes. Continue reading “Portola 2025: In Words and Pictures”

Show Review: Baroness, Weedeater at The Lodge Room (Highland Park), 09-20-2025

“We’re having a great time up here!”

Upon pulling up to the Lodge Room and parking my motorcycle on the street for the second show I would be covering that week, I made a discovery that is every photographer’s nightmare. In my rush to pack up and leave my house, I forgot to pack my SD cards. This part of Highland Park is relatively small and while there was a camera shop nearby, it had closed an hour or two ago, which meant I would have to haul ass to the closest target, panic coursing through my veins, mixing with adrenaline, where I would find the only SD card they had in stock. A quick purchase and a semi-reckless speeding jaunt back to the Lodge Room later, I had luckily made it with time to spare and also discovered that a guard rail had been set up —a first for my experience with this venue, rendering my previous panic somewhat unnecessary. After a celebratory beer, I readied my camera for a night of heavy metal.

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Show Review: Swans, Little Annie and Paul Walfisch at The Lodge Room (Highland Park), 09-15-2025

“You guys brought earplugs, right?”

Although I gravitate towards, and certainly cover, a lot of heavy and angry music, my tastes are more eclectic than I let on. It’s a bit of a mood thing for me, as I’m sure it is for many, and believe it or not, but my moods fluctuate rather wildly. I may not be the picture of poly-jamorous, but I’m just as comfortable listening to avant-jazz as I am death metal. So, it might be surprising to learn that I have never seen Swans before. I’ve listened to them on and off for years and even been ridiculed by my more obsessive peers for never having made it to one of their performances, so when the opportunity finally lined up, I pressed that go button.

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Film Review: “The Smashing Machine”

The Smashing Machine feels like a lightweight bout before the main event

Mark (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) feels the brief glory in “The Smashing Machine.”

Over the past ten years, I’ve asked and been asked a recurring question when a conversation turns to movies: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a good actor, so why isn’t he choosing better projects? For a moment, let’s set aside the very entertaining Jumanji reboot, the fantastic Fast Five, and the Moana phenomenon, because the rest of his filmography between 2014-2025 is abysmal at worst, forgettable at best. Johnson has raked in enough dough and created enough global popularity and goodwill to justify his choices. However, ask any of Johnson’s biggest fans (and some of his detractors) and they’ll tell you he maintains an undiscovered level to his acting abilities, the sort of emotional range he inched toward in 2004’s Walking Tall remake, Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales, and even Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain. Instead, Johnson has returned to lackluster, CGI-laden IP projects over and over again, resulting in diminishing returns. The combined trio of critical and box office disasters Black Adam, Fast X, and Red One were the final straw, and Johnson now appears to be shifting gears. The Smashing Machine is an impressive and appropriate first step in Johnson’s new career path, though the film lacks invention and purpose. Continue reading “Film Review: “The Smashing Machine””