Spinning Platters – Page 238 – Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds

SF Sketchfest Review: SEX aka Weiners and Boobs at Marine’s Memorial Theater, 2/8/13

The year was 1998. The State, MTV’s highly influential sketch comedy show had just gotten the axe. Three cast members: Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Showalter, and David Wain were asked to if they had a play they could do for a theater festival in New York. They were given a week to write, cast, and rehearse it. The name came first: SEX aka Weiners and Boobs. Because if you are going to title something, that’s about as good as a title can get. Fast forward 15 years, and the good people of Sketchfest managed to put together nearly all of the original cast for an encore performance of this fine piece of theater.

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: SEX aka Weiners and Boobs at Marine’s Memorial Theater, 2/8/13”

Spinning Platters Interview: Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert on Beautiful Creatures [VIDEO]

Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

On paper, Beautiful Creatures may look like just another film adaptation of a bestselling YA series about a supernatural romance. Alden Ehrenreich stars as Ethan, a restless high schooler in podunk Gatlin, South Carolina, who yearns to break free from the oppressive small-mindedness and cultural atrophy of his hometown. Ethan is charming enough to seem like a standard-issue popular guy, but in private his tastes lean toward the cerebral (he is a voracious reader of banned books) and he dreams of the day he’ll leave Gatlin for good. Ethan’s thirst for something different is what attracts him to new girl Lena (Alice Englert), the quiet and witchy-looking descendent of one of Gatlin’s most notorious families. Lena is immediately targeted as a dangerous freak by the town’s many gossipy Bible-thumpers, and while Ethan rushes to defend her from their attacks, it turns out that Lena does present a very real threat: she comes from a family of Casters (read: Southern witches), and on her rapidly-approaching 16th birthday, she will be “claimed” for either good or evil – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert on Beautiful Creatures [VIDEO]”

SF Sketchfest Review: Garfunkel & Oates, Dragon Boy Suede at Rickshaw Stop, 2/10/13

Garfunkel & Oates have played Sketchfest twice before. In 2011, they were part of Chris Hardwick’s (No Relation) Music Night as one of several acts performing. In 2012, they opened for the great Reggie Watts at Mezzanine. Tonight, however, we got to experience them play their own headlining set. It meant that every single person in the crowd was their just for G & O. And, considering this show sold out several weeks in advance, it only proved that the good folks of San Francisco were quite thirsty to see these wonderful woman play a full set.

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Garfunkel & Oates, Dragon Boy Suede at Rickshaw Stop, 2/10/13”

Sketchfest Review: The Doug Benson Movie Interruptions: Twilight at the Castro Theatre, 2/9/2013

Can you think of any way to spend a Saturday afternoon that’s more fun than in a crowded Castro Theatre with everyone’s favorite stoner and funny man Doug Benson making snide and silly comments over some of pop culture’s most fun (and fun to trash) films? I couldn’t either. Announce that, among films like Anaconda, Catwoman, and The Notebook, he planned to also poke fun at the hilariously and fabulously terrible Twilight, and I was putting my shoes on. Throw in that he was bringing in big comedy guns Greg Behrendt, Patton Oswalt, Michael Ian Black, and Zach Galifianakis, and I’m the first one to arrive. (Well, not really…it’s really hard to find parking in the Castro. I actually missed the introduction and had to sit on the floor. But I digress.) Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: The Doug Benson Movie Interruptions: Twilight at the Castro Theatre, 2/9/2013”

Show Review: fun., Andrew McMahon at The Fox Theater – Oakland, 2/7/13

This would be my fourth time seeing fun. within the last twelve months. The first time was in the parking lot of a record store in Austin, TX. That show only featured the core of the band: vocalist Nate Reuss, keyboardist Andrew Dost and guitar player Jack Antonoff. It was 2 o clock in the afternoon in the baking hot sun, and the crowd was simply mad for them. I knew from that moment that this band had the right balance of sincerity and showmanship to make it big. It was a rare moment when I wanted to get to see a band play the big rooms. Shortly after this show, “We Are Young” became a monsterous hit, and their full band, electric club tour that was booked at tiny clubs turned into the hottest ticket in town. Tonight, a short 11 months after that first time in the record store parking lot, I got to see this band do the “full big room” show. And, by golly, the succeeded at it.

Continue reading “Show Review: fun., Andrew McMahon at The Fox Theater — Oakland, 2/7/13”

Film Review: Identity Thief

Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman in IDENTITY THIEF

starring: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Bateman, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau, T.I., Genesis Rodriguez, John Cho, Robert Patrick, Eric Stonestreet

screenplay: Craig Mazin

directed by: Seth Gordon

MPAA: Rated R for sexual content and language

Continue reading “Film Review: Identity Thief“

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 2/7/13-2/13/13

We’ve got a pretty excellent week of shows coming up. However, you really shouldn’t miss our first ever Spinning Platters film night at The New Parkway in Oakland this Friday and Saturday night at 11:55 PM. We will be screening the Stop Making Sense, which is simply the greatest rock n roll film ever. Head over to our Facebook page to win tickets! Or you can buy tickets here, because it may sell out.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 2/7/13-2/13/13”

Show Review: Two Gallants with Akron/Family and Future Twin at The Fillmore, 2/2/2013

Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel of Two Gallants

The formula of reverb-drenched-rock, guitar-drum-vocal, two-man band has proven itself, time and again, to be a successful combination. Acts like the Black Keys and the White Stripes proved that it could be done, and tore their way up the charts while they did so. It is, nevertheless, challenging, blending a careful balance of lo-fi and limited composition with gripping vocals, intricately crafted licks, and thundering percussion, maintaining a smart pop sensibility the entire time. To avoid being pigeonholed, however, as another blues-rock soldier on his quest to the top, it’s important to bend the rules of the genre, throw in some curveballs, and introduce some unique elements to one’s sound, such as the close, soulful cousins that are bluegrass and western folk music. San Francisco duo Two Gallants have done just that, constructing a sonic experience that bears this variety of genres, and yet still stands unique and full of raw passion, which they brought to the Fillmore on Saturday night for their end-of-the-tour hometown show.

Continue reading “Show Review: Two Gallants with Akron/Family and Future Twin at The Fillmore, 2/2/2013”

Midnight Music Movies at The New Parkway: Stop Making Sense

See Stop Making Sense Feb 8-9 at The New Parkway in Oakland

This weekend kicks off the Spinning Platters Midnight Music Movies screening series at The New Parkway in Oakland. When we decided that we wanted to curate a series of midnight screenings of our favorite music movies, one jumped right to the top of everybody’s list: the classic Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense. If the name alone is enough reason to come to the movie, then buy your tickets here. If you want to know why this is the greatest concert film ever made, I’ll be glad to tell you. Continue reading “Midnight Music Movies at The New Parkway: Stop Making Sense”

SF Sketchfest Review: Billy Eichner and Friends at Cobb’s, 2/2/2013

billy_eichner

Confrontation comic Billy Eichner, the screamingest queen to ever brandish a microphone in a bewildered stranger’s face, curated a comedy showcase called Billy Eichner and Friends at Cobb’s on Saturday night as part of SF Sketchfest 2013. Eichner has been a rising star on the New York comedy scene for several years, building his uniquely abrasive brand through popular YouTube clips that gradually led to getting his own show, the Funny or Die production Billy on the Street, currently airing its second season on Fuse. The vast majority of the show’s content features Eichner and a cameraman running up to strangers on the streets of New York and screaming at them; sometimes it’s pop culture opinion/trivia, and occasionally it’s something absurdly basic that somehow proves challenging given the intense nature of the situation (he once famously stymied Rachel Dratch by asking her to name 20 white people; a clip he showed on Saturday showed a young woman failing to meet Eichner’s command to “name any woman”). He has become a talk show staple, and is turning into a regular on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, on which his gay-leaning cultural obsessions seem to find the most receptive audience. So given all this, what kind of performance did Eichner have in mind for Sketchfest?

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Billy Eichner and Friends at Cobb’s, 2/2/2013”