Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 10/01/09

Locomotion
Tonight was all about The Locomotion for me.

Kylie Minogue. The sound of her name conjures images of bubbly goodness. As my memory serves, I celebrated my 9th birthday at Round Table Pizza, and insisted that we put “The Locomotion” on the jukebox. It’s the song with the dance in the lyrics that I have always wanted to see performed. I kept waiting for her to play a concert. This was 1988.

In 1998, I decided to look up Kylie Minogue. Since I am an American, she hadn’t had a song on the radio in a decade. That’s when I learned that she plays stadiums in the rest of the world, and is a huge star still. I also learned that she was in “Bio-Dome”. So I watched it and pretended that I’m nine again. In 2002, she has some hits in America. I decide that I’m going to see Kylie when she comes around. Doesn’t happen. Rumors of American tours pop up on the Internet for the bulk of the decade. And finally, in 2009, it happens. I finally see Kylie Minogue. I buy a ticket right away, only not fast enough. I miss the first show in America. I bought a ticket for the second. Tonight, I finally learn how to do The Locomotion.

Continue reading “Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 10/01/09”

Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 9/30/09

The stage was hardly big enough to contain Kylie's show.
The stage was hardly big enough to contain Kylie's show.

First off, a spoiler warning.  Although usually seen in movie reviews, I think one applies here.  If you don’t want to know what songs she played, how many costume changes there were, and how she reworked some of her classic songs, then read no further.  If, on the other hand, you want to know what’s coming soon, or you aren’t going to have a chance to see for yourself, jump on board, take a ride, yeah. Continue reading “Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 9/30/09”

Show Review: The Postmarks and Saturday Club at Hotel Utah, 9/29/09

Swirling lights kept the lead singer in the comfortable darkness.
Swirling lights kept the lead singer in the comfortable darkness.

It will be a bit surprising to regular readers of this site that last night was my first ever visit to Hotel Utah, but I finally made it over there to see The Postmarks and Brookville for an early Tuesday night show. When I arrived, a sign announced that Brookville’s lead singer had a family emergency, and instead, the other members of the band would be performing as Saturday Club.  Having never heard Brookville before, I found myself unable to be too disappointed, although I had been hoping to check them out as well. Continue reading “Show Review: The Postmarks and Saturday Club at Hotel Utah, 9/29/09”

Show Review: Rain Machine, Diane Cluck at The Independent, 9/28/09

img_3166

When TV On The Radio announced that they were going to “take a break for a year or so,” every music critic on earth wept. Mostly because we are going to go through 2009 and 2010 without a bona-fide record of the year. Yes, TVotR released the best records of 2004, 2006, and 2008. (All apologies to 2002’s OK Calculator- you were still finding your footing.) But I believe that after all that hard work and genius deserves a vacation. I’d rather the band take a break now than break up completely later.

It seems that these guys don’t take vacationing very well. David Sitek has been taking on many extra production assignments, and vocalist Tunde Adebimpe is working on a record with Mike Patton. Despite all this, the prize for the quickest end to the vacation goes to guitarist/harmony vocalist Kyp Malone. Merely five weeks after the announcement of the break, Malone released a solo album called Rain Machine and quickly assembled a four-piece backup band to take it on the road. This show at The Independent marks the fourth performance of this band with an audience.

Continue reading “Show Review: Rain Machine, Diane Cluck at The Independent, 9/28/09”

Show Review: Living Colour and Fishbone at The Regency Center, 9/25/09

Corey Glover is dressed like a serial killer because he murdered it.
Corey Glover is dressed like a serial killer because he murdered it.

Seeing Living Colour and Fishbone on the same bill is my 1991 fever dream.  Put Primus on there, too, and I may have passed out from excitement.  As it is, I was pretty darned excited to be seeing these bands together.  While I’d seen Living Colour a couple of times recently, I hadn’t checked in on Fishbone for more than a dozen years.  I was ready for a loud funky night in the city. Continue reading “Show Review: Living Colour and Fishbone at The Regency Center, 9/25/09”

Show Review: Manic Street Preachers and Nico Vega at The Fillmore, 9/24/09

Same jacket, different show.
Same jacket, different show.

I’m wholly unqualified to a review a Manic Street Preachers show.  This is because I’m an American.  The Manics (as I’ll refer to them for the rest of our time together) never did have any hits stateside.  They were always a cult band here, and I was never part of that cult.  If I were to make a ranked list of all the Britpop bands that I like (as opposed to ones I’m either ambivalent about or dislike), the Manics would be at the bottom of that list.  They’d make the list, for sure, but they’d be right below Ash, and apologies to Kula Shaker.  That said, I’m going to review it anyway. Continue reading “Show Review: Manic Street Preachers and Nico Vega at The Fillmore, 9/24/09”

Show Review: Pet Shop Boys at The Warfield, 9/23/09

What a couple of squares ...
What a couple of squares ...

Pet Shop Boys concerts exist in their own universe. A universe of abstract expressionism, interpretative dance, avant-garde fashion, modular sets and (for this tour anyway) Adidas sports wear. They are such elaborate productions that the Pet Shop Boys themselves are almost accessories in their own shows. But that’s how it should be. From the very beginning they knew their minimalistic style couldn’t carry an entire concert. So they hired world class dancers and set designers to produce dazzling abstract synthpoperas. Continue reading “Show Review: Pet Shop Boys at The Warfield, 9/23/09”

Show Review: Bon Iver at The Fillmore, 9/22/09

The merch needed its own seat on BART
The merch needed its own seat on BART

What I learned last night: when going to a live Bon Iver show, it’s best to not have any expectations.

What I saw at the Fillmore last night went far beyond anything I imagined.  It’s not that he had some stage act or any gimmicks; the tracks you love will be drastically different, but in an amazing way.

Bon Iver made a point to smash my expectation of a purely acoustic set, into a mixture of sounds and methods.  Distortion, thumping bass, electric-slide guitars, ROCKING, respect-gathering falsettos, crowd participation, and delicate acoustic sets were what he served me up.  I ate it up and was left wanting more. Continue reading “Show Review: Bon Iver at The Fillmore, 9/22/09”

Show Review: Titus Andronicus and The So So Glos at Bottom of the Hill, 9/21/09

img_3079
Your life is over. Your life is over. Your life is over.

Titus Andronicus is one of the unofficial official bands of Spinning Platters.  This is because we saw them four times at SXSW last year, and hatched the idea for this blog upon our return.  It got to the point where we were pretty sure they were sick of seeing us, even though we hadn’t tired of seeing them.  So when we saw they were playing at Bottom of the Hill on Monday night, we recorded our podcast and headed right over.

Continue reading “Show Review: Titus Andronicus and The So So Glos at Bottom of the Hill, 9/21/09”

Show Review: Little Boots and Music Go Music at The Independent, 9/19/09

We were dancing too much to use our cameras.
We were dancing too much to use our cameras.

A bunch of the Spinning Platters gang went to The Independent last night to see British pop sensation Little Boots perform on her first American tour.  Because we enjoyed the No Doubt review, where we all shared our brief remarks, we thought we’d repeat this.  Yes Giantess was also on the bill, but four fifths of us worked earlier that night, and got there only in time to see Music Go Music. So what did we think of Little Boots?  Were her boots made for walking out the door or for dancing the night away? Continue reading “Show Review: Little Boots and Music Go Music at The Independent, 9/19/09”