Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Supergroups are a hard thing to review fairly. It’s difficult to be a “brand new” band without the prejudice of their prior bands. Palms is a new project featuring 3/5’s Boston based “post metal” band ISIS and Deftones’ vocalist Chino Moreno. Two bands with an established legacy that, by a twist of fate, are two of the few bands that I am not familiar with at all. So my experience with Palms was entirely fresh.
Continue reading “Show Review: Palms, Crypts at Slim’s, 7/13/13”
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to see The Trashwomen play their first show in 12 years at Burger Boogaloo in Mosswood Park. The set was fierce and amazing, and the crowd, which ranged in age from 10 to 55, was ecstatic to see finally see this band. It got me thinking about other bands like this. The forgotten bands of the bay area. These are bands that never became big national successes, but were revered in the bay area, and I would love to see a rousing comeback show by any of thee bands. This is also the final “Picks Six” you will see on Spinning Platters. I know there are a lot of fans of lists out there, however, and we will have a regular column coming your way in the very near future that I hope you like.
Continue reading “Picks Six: Bay Area Cult Bands That I’d Love To See Play Again”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Mountain View. California. Sunny. 82°.
With every meteorologist proclaiming the apocalypse across the West Coast, it was not as miserably hot as was expected. Yet with the arrival of the first band of the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, the heat (and volume) was definitely turning up, and for the duration of the day, more than a baker’s dozen worth of bands played across four stages, culminating with the sun setting just in time for Rob Zombie to heat it up again with plenty of fire and pyro!
Continue reading “Show Review: Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem, Shoreline Amphitheater, June 30, 2013”
From here on out, every time I gaze up into the fog-filled night sky that enshrouds the top portions of downtown San Francisco’s office buildings, I’ll imagine a colossal Kaiju smashing through the buildings like tissue paper, the debris raining down upon the dimly lit streets…and a Jaeger behemoth emerging through the haze, crushing the Kaiju’s skull in with a downward punch and throwing the giant beast’s body down the length of Market street. This is the lasting effect of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim. The film makes a solid effort to tell an emotional human tale in the midst of a near-future world at war with giant alien creatures. The effort is not lost, but takes a backseat behind the extraordinarily impressive battle sequences. As a science-fiction action movie, Pacific Rim delivers and then some.
The week is going to be a glorious week of rock n roll madness.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/11/13-7/17/13”
For those of you unfamiliar with the process, this is “Live Blogging With The Devil.” I listen to a hot new release on the release date for the first time ever, and I post updates about my experience as I go along. I guarantee that I will finish the record. I guarantee that you will find typos and grammar issues. This will be the most honest review you will read of this album, as I will not have a chance to second guess what I wrote.
So, enjoy the ride!
Continue reading “Live Blogging With The Devil: Jay Z “Magna Carta Holy Grail””
In the little world that exists between the New Kids on the Block and their fans, I’m what’s affectionately referred to as a “BH:” a Blockhead. I don’t say this with any level of chagrin or irony, and there’s nothing I feel guilty about in the pleasure I take from this group. The fact of the matter is, I’ve loved them for more than 25 years, and at this point, I don’t feel the need to explain or justify that to anyone who doesn’t get it. (And honestly, why do we feel the need to ridicule each other for something that brings us joy?) If anybody is experiencing anything like the fun I have with the NKOTB, I would be a fool to try to tear it down – that’s the kind of thing I think we ought to seek out and celebrate! Which is exactly what I did, when The Package Tour (NKOTB, Boyz II Men, and 98°) pulled up to HP Pavilion last night in San Jose. Continue reading “Show Review: The Package Tour — New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, and 98° at HP Pavilion, 7/7/2013”
This is a short week. I didn’t want to work on Independence Day. Still, there is plenty left to do this week, so I hope you didn’t party too hard last night!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/5/13-7/10/13”
The first truly great summer movie has arrived today with the opening of The Way, Way Back, a delightful picture that adults and teenagers alike are sure to love. Co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, (who also penned The Descendants), in their directorial debut, have made a sweet, charming, funny film that is destined to become a coming-of-age genre classic.
“Hi-Ho, Silver! Away!”…meh. When Hans Zimmer’s rehashed Sherlock Holmes score kicks into “William Tell Overture” mode, Disney’s new re-imagining of The Lone Ranger is at its best. Unfortunately, this only happens twice. What could have been (and should have been) a fun adventure ends up being an odd concoction of conflicting tones and a bloated story. This “messiness” worked well in director Gore Verbinski’s last effort, Rango, but that film was about an eccentric chameleon in the midst of an identity crisis who ends up tangled in a Chinatown-esque conflict in a wild west animal town. So, it was obviously poised to extend the limits of the bizarre. The Lone Ranger, on the other hand, is about fun adventures. Bad guys vs. good guys. The film is 150 minutes long and easily could’ve been 90 minutes. The few action set pieces are fun and well choreographed, but they lose their effect when they are bookended by a plodding story involving genocide, power struggles, and weird spiritual visions.