Spinning Platters – Page 332 – Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds

Green Day at the Independent 4/7/2009

Billie Joe's Setlist did not match the actual setlist. Thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekstinkbreath for allowing sharing of his photo!

When the email came through announcing that Green Day was playing the Independent (a 500-or-so capacity venue in San Francisco) that same night, I bought tickets before I could consider whether I could actually go. How did I get the email fast enough to buy tickets? I thank Blackberry push email. Thanks Blackberry!

When I arrived, there was still a lengthy line at will call. There were folks walking up and down the line offering big money for tickets, but I decided $200 a ticket wasn’t worth both missing the show and the ribbing I would take from people for missing the show. (My price was going to be $500 a ticket, but I wasn’t going to ask and no one was going to offer.) Besides, you wouldn’t be reading this if I had taken the money, and you–the readers–are very important.

As expected the show leaned heavily on the material from the new album. Thanks to the photo above and Wikipedia, I was able to determine the likely song titles for everything they played. The setlists and my full review are below:

Continue reading “Green Day at the Independent 4/7/2009”

The Leaky Faucet: Silversun Pickups – Swoon

Silversun Pickups – Swoon.

Retail Release Date: April 14, 2009

The Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 26, 2009

The Silversun Pickups new album Swoon landed on my hard drive last week. I wasn’t thrilled with the last Silversun Pickups album. I really liked their live show, but the energy of that show didn’t end up on the record. This album continues that trend, but is overall a far better album anyway. Why’s this?

Swoon is the kind of album that simply isn’t made much anymore: a major-label 90s alternative rock record. What I mean by this is that it has that shiny perfection in every sound and an overall gloss that makes it really easy to listen to. There’s strings in parts where there should be strings. The guitar is fuzzy but never distorted. The vocals are clean with just the proper amount of reverb. If you fondly remember the production style of Bush’s Sixteen Stone or Candlebox’s debut album, then you’re totally going to dig this record.

The songs are good here, especially the driving rhythm section. There’s a decent amount of dynamics here; Silversun Pickups don’t do Pixies-ish loud-quiet-loud too much, but rather slow builds from soft to loud. The lyrics sound cool, but in the end have no real meaning to me. I might not be paying attention that much because the groove is really quite excellent.

Again, these songs are likely to sound even better live, but this album is a good listen. Recommended.

Dakin’s SXSW Diary, Part Two

Dakin saw the Decemberists and more on Wednesday night

On to the more of my SXSW thoughts…

Back to Wednesday Night! Continue reading “Dakin’s SXSW Diary, Part Two”

Gordon Answers Your SXSW 2009 Questions

Dead Sexy Inc bring the rock and roll to SXSW 2009

I sat down to make a top 5 list of my favorite musical moments from South By Southwest 2009, but as I started putting it together, I thought I’d rather just give my comments in each of a few different categories. Read ahead to see:

Which band had the best choreography?
What was the most average performance that suggested a great album?
What band is most likely to cause an indie music nerd pit to break out?
Who was my biggest surprise of the festival?
What band clearly got tired of playing shows and seeing me at them?
What act caused my fanboy drool reflex to start?
Which band needs the most practice to go from interesting to awesome?
Who caused a crowd to go from standoffish to dancing madly?
Which show that I tried to attend got visited by the fuzz?

Continue reading “Gordon Answers Your SXSW 2009 Questions”

Dakin’s SXSW Diary, Part One

SXSW thoughts before the memories fade away…

So, I made the trek to Austin, TX for the South By Southwest Festival for the 2nd year in a row. I am pretty sure that I will be heading down there every year I can for the foreseeable future. I’m going to try to hit up a few words about everything with out looking at notes, but that might prove to be a futile operation. Continue reading “Dakin’s SXSW Diary, Part One”