Show Review: Foreigner at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL, 5/22/2021

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

WAIT, WHAT… A SHOW REVIEW!!  Yes!

With all of the venues in San Francisco having been shuttered since March 2020, and without knowing just how much longer Covid-19 is going to keep them closed, Spinning Platters grew tired of the waiting and decided to look far and wide to other places in pursuit of a Real. Live. Show. 

Granted, many of these other places are less safe than the cautious San Francisco (recall that SF was the first city in America to institute a lockdown), but Spinning Platters is vaccinated and willing to risk it all for you! Where did we find such an amazing live event? Well, since our rock/metal photographer has been riding out the latter part of this pandemic in Florida, we found that shows actually happen there.

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Film Review: “Dream Horse”

Collette shines in horse racing charmer 

Jan (Toni Collette) develops a special bond with her new racehorse, Dream Alliance.

With theaters slowly reopening, film lovers may be waiting for the perfect film to get them up off the couch and back into the multiplex. Dream Horse may be just that film: it’s an old fashioned, feel-good movie that should motivate the whole family to undertake a cinematic outing.

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Single Of The Week: “Barbara” by TEKE::TEKE

Holy psychedelic shit! This monster of a track is a 70’s spy movie blended with the very concept of joy and boiled down to 3:50 of horn and flute-driven rock n roll. I am pretty sure that Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson are battling to see who can write the film version of “Barbara” first. Canada’s TEKE::TEKE blend traditional Japanese instruments with horns, flutes, guitar, bass, and drums and a lovely and imaginative way. This track is AMAZING. 

“Barbara” is the lead single off TEKE::TEKE’s debut full-length, Shirushi, out now on Kill Rock Stars. You can purchase or stream this record in all of the usual places!

In Defense Of: One Last Postponement

I know, I know, I know… We are all so very sick of COVID lockdowns and masking and social distancing and everything. And with recent news from the CDC saying that vaccinated folks drop the masks and live life like it’s normal should mean that we should stop seeing new postponements, right? Yet, just today, the Hella Mega Tour featuring Green Day, Weezer, Fall Out Boy, and The Interruptors just got pushed out a few more months, starting July 24th, 2021 in Dallas. This, along with recent news of Bikini Kill, Motley Crue, (which, if you don’t immediately scream to yourself “I’m gonna win that Motley Crue mirror if it fucking kills me” when you see those two band names together, then what are you even doing reading this blog?) and Rage Against The Machine pushing their late Summer / early Fall 2021 shows even further down the line, it’s gotta be a little frustrating, right? Continue reading “In Defense Of: One Last Postponement”

BottleRock Napa Valley 2021 Preview

It’s been nearly a year since the original lineup announcement for BottleRock Napa Valley 2020. It was only January, and we hardly knew anything yet about what would become of the world as we know it, especially for us live music lovers.

Fast forward to mid-May 2021, and most of us are starved for live events we might have once taken for granted. Fortunately, there’s finally a light appearing at the end of a very long and difficult tunnel.

I haven’t seen a show since January 2020. If you know me at all, you know that festivals are my favorite – especially one I can walk to from home. And finally, finally, finally, it seems like it’s about that time again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

Bottle Rock Napa Valley 2021’s lineup! I’m happy to see that quite a few of those originally slated for last year’s BRNV will be playing this Labor Day when vaccinated music-lovers can convene to enjoy! This includes original headliner Stevie Nicks, plus Guns N’ Roses (!!) and returning headliners Foo Fighters. In addition to those three, I’m also looking forward to several smaller acts! Personally, I can’t wait to catch Finneas, the freaking Village People (!!), Absofacto, Atlas Genius, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Brandi Carlile, Cage the Elephant, Portugal. The Man, Young the Giant, Maren Morris, Black Pumas, Jon Batiste, Digable Planets, Matt Nathanson, Mondo Cozmo, Meg Myers, among many others. Who are you most excited to see this year?

Here’s my preview playlist featuring some of my faves. Enjoy, get vaccinated, and I’ll see you in my hometown this Labor Day weekend at BottleRock Napa Valley!

BottleRock ticket info: On sale 5/20 at 10 am PST. Get yours here!

Book Review: Lily’s Grooves

Full Disclosure: I write about music and sometimes comedy. I am not an expert on literature, and, specifically, I’m not an expert on Children’s Literature. I am also married to an expert on Children’s Literature, and I really should have asked her to write this review, but I didn’t. However, currently, I am living life as a stay-at-home Dad to an amazing toddler that demands that I read to her several times a day. This kid also loves music, records, and cats. So, when I opened up my mailbox and found a copy of Lily’s Grooves, the story of a record store cat, I decided that it wasn’t really my opinion or even my partner with a master’s in Children’s Literature opinion that mattered. Just the kid. 

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Single Of The Week: “Ladies and Gentlemen” by DVNCT

DVNCT is a modern R&B duo from New York. Or maybe New Jersey? It wasn’t clear from their bio. What is clear is that their latest single “Ladies and Gentlemen” is a dark masterpiece that’s closer to TV On The Radio or Algiers than most anything you’ll hear on mainstream radio today. It’s a classic soul heartbreak song only your heart isn’t merely broken. It’s pulverized. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen” can be heard in all the usual places. There is more to come in the near future from these folks, so be sure to follow them around on all of the socials!

Film Review: “Here Today”

Crystal, Haddish can’t save strained so-called ‘comedy’ 

Emma (Tiffany Haddish) and Charlie (Billy Crystal) become good friends.

Back in 1989, Nora Ephron, in her film When Harry Met Sally, posed the age-old question: Can men and women ever really be friends? Now, thirty-two years later, Billy Crystal, who played the titular Harry, returns in Here Today to tell us that not only can men and women be friends, but that their friendship can yield an uninteresting, unfunny movie. Call this one When Charlie Met Snooze

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Single of the Week: “NPC” by Ghoulies

Australia has been absolutely killing it the last few years. Like, seriously- all of the best acts seem to be coming from there: Courtney Barnett, Camp Cope, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, the list goes on. Heck, the only rock band to graduate to arenas in the last five years is the Aussie psych combo Tame Impala. For the next wave of acts to break across the Pacific, I give you Ghoulies. They do keyboard-driven, hyperactive punk rock, and they do it well. All the hooks you need and enough spunk to get the pit open, but songs so short that you aren’t likely to get hurt. “NPC” is the hookiest song on their upcoming 7″ full-length Reprogram. (7 songs in under 10 minutes!)

Reprogram is out in the digital world NOW and is coming out on vinyl on May 24th, 2021. It’s also Bandcamp Day, so if you preorder from Bandcamp today, the band gets EVERY PENNY!

Film Review: “Eat Wheaties!” and “Percy vs Goliath”

New Canadian drama and comedy now streaming

Two very different Canadian films opened in limited theatrical release this weekend (though not in the Bay Area – yet), but both are available for home viewing via VOD sites. Read on to see if you might want to check out either the comedy (Eat Wheaties!) or the drama (Percy vs Goliath). 

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