Concert Reviews – Page 16 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010

Co-written with Dakin Hardwick

Mates of State brought their “Summer Crushes” tour to Great American Music Hall last week to promote their newest project, a covers album called Crushes. But rather than just show up and play, they brought along a traveling variety show. At the end of the night, though, it was the joyful music of Mates of State that I’m going to remember. So what else was there? Continue reading “Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010”

Show Review: Goldfrapp at The Fox Oakland 6/26/10

Alison Goldfrapp. Photo by Kara E. Murphy.

With everything that’s been going on lately on the job interview and contracting front, it’s almost a miracle that I found the time to get this review posted. I’m thrilled with the photos I took for the Goldfrapp show at Fox Theater this past Saturday evening and I’m hoping the words in the post can do the incendiary performance some justice.

Continue reading “Show Review: Goldfrapp at The Fox Oakland 6/26/10”

Show Review: Ani DiFranco at Ex’pression College For Digital Arts, 6/24/2010

Ani DiFranco played a set of new unreleased songs before a tiny audience of mostly students at Ex’pression College Of Digital Arts in Emeryville.

Opening with an atonal labor song from the 1930s that she’d written new verses for, DiFranco invited the crowd to sing along. Continue reading “Show Review: Ani DiFranco at Ex’pression College For Digital Arts, 6/24/2010”

Warped Tour 2010 Diary: Shoreline Amphitheater, 6/26/2010

Sum41Crowd — Sum 41 fans bringing the love

Subtitle: Still Crazy After All These Years

That subtitle is a reference to a song from 1975. Bands will yell out things like “How many of you have seen us before?” and a few fans will yell “Whoo hoo!” If a band yelled out, “How many of you were born in 1975?” there’d be only crickets. Still, as I said in my preview post, if you are a true music nerd, Warped Tour is something you should still be going to. But, if you’re not going to go, and your idea of experiencing Warped Tour is to let someone else do it and then read about their experiences, you’re in the right place. Come with me as I wade through the masses at the 2010 Warped Tour. Continue reading “Warped Tour 2010 Diary: Shoreline Amphitheater, 6/26/2010”

Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010

Kate Miller-Heidke welcomes you with open arms.

Being blown away by an opener is a rare and wonderful treat. It happened a couple months back when I saw Ben Folds at the Warfield Theater. His opener, and tonight’s headliner, was Kate Miller-Heidke. She’s an Australian singer-songwriter with considerable talents in both. She’s smart, too, because on the merch table at the Warfield was a slip of paper to take home letting everyone know she was playing Cafe Du Nord in the near future. Her newly minted fans took that paper and came out to Cafe Du Nord last night, ready to blown away again. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010”

Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010

Bruce Maiden — He not only sings, he also flies the plane from gig to gig. Really.

Bruce Dickinson, British Airways pilot and lead singer of Iron Maiden, looked out into the crowd and commented on how many people were there at this sold out show.

“They told me there’s 12,500 people here tonight. Last night, we had 25,000. That’s a lot of people for an Iron Maiden concert. Perhaps we’re getting some spillover from Christina Aguilera canceling her tour.” Some laughed while other booed. It’s not spillover. For reasons that are apparent if you’re a fan, and ones I’ll explain to you, Iron Maiden has survived as a huge draw long after other metal bands have faded away. Continue reading “Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010”

Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010

Stars is one band that I like to think “gets it.” Their previous album, In Our Bedroom After the War, was released for sale the moment it was finished, letting their fans buy it before they were even offered the chance to download it. For their newest album, The Five Ghosts, they announced they were going to do a tour before the album “came out,” playing the entirety of the album. Not only that, but fans attending the shows could actually buy the album at the show as opposed to waiting for the release date. And to top it all off, each show had a website poll offering the chance for each city to pick the songs they wanted to hear in the remainder of the set. This is a band that gets how to interact with their fans in the new music economy. So how did it all go? Continue reading “Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010”

Show Review: LCD Soundsystem at The Fillmore, 6/3/10

It’s truly a pity that James Murphy, the man behind LCD Soundsystem and the legendary DFA record label, which has released all of the band’s material including their 2002 hit breakthrough single, “Losing My Edge,” has decided to pull the plug on what is inarguably one of the coolest, most transcendent musical outfits to emerge in the past decade.

Just as Jerry Seinfeld and the cast bowed out at their peak after a nine-year run with their hit television show, Seinfeld, Murphy has decided to call it quits after the same amount of time when fan interest is at its most fervent, dedicated level. Continue reading “Show Review: LCD Soundsystem at The Fillmore, 6/3/10”

Show Review: Matt & Kim with Golden Filter and The Soft Pack at The Mezzanine, 6/5/10

All Smiles — Matt & Kim are all smiles. Thanks to Paige K Parsons for sharing her photo.

Blown away. That is how the night ended for me. Unfortunately the night didn’t start out that way. I was tired from partying too much on Friday and then taking an epically long hike on Saturday. I wanted to sleep and wasn’t sure if a show was the best thing to be attending in my sleepy daze. Fortunately The Soft Pack came on and gave me a bit of an energy boost. Continue reading “Show Review: Matt & Kim with Golden Filter and The Soft Pack at The Mezzanine, 6/5/10”

Show Review: Local Natives with Suckers at Bottom of the Hill, 6/3/2010

localnatives3-1ax — Not local, possibly native. All fashionable.

Somewhere during this show, this genre became dead to me. I don’t even know what you call the genre (besides “typical” indie rock), but I’ll try to describe it. A bunch of dudes wearing clothes they bought at thrift stores (or are meant to look like they bought them at thrift stores in Brooklyn) play mid-tempo numbers, and then occasionally the songs build to a giant crescendo where they all scream into their microphones together to let you know that this song is intense, man. It now feels a bit fake to me. Continue reading “Show Review: Local Natives with Suckers at Bottom of the Hill, 6/3/2010”