Concert Reviews – Page 6 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Ingrid Michaelson with Harper Blynn at The Fillmore, 4/25/2012

P1030143 — Ingrid Michaelson and her uke

Prior to this week, I couldn’t have picked Ingrid Michaelson out of a police line-up. I had more than a good handful of her songs on my iPod, and had seen her on at least one TV appearance and multiple album covers, but she appears to be somewhat chameleonic if you judge by those: from the girl with the ponytail and the face paint on the cover of Be OK to the girl-next-door blonde on Everybody to the bundled-up brunette in hipster glasses in last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, I really didn’t know who she was, other than a girl with a voice I really liked. Thankfully, last Wednesday night at the Fillmore, I had the opportunity to find out for myself just what Ingrid Michaelson is all about.

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Show Review: St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs with Kapowski at The Fox Oakland, 4/24/2012

If you asked someone what their favorite record by a female singer in 2011 was, odds are you would have gotten a reply that fit one of two options: 21 by Adele, or Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine. Both topped charts, and the former swept the Grammys, taking home the coveted Album Of The Year award, among others. Sadly, out of the spotlight (and off the radar for many a casual music fan) were a pair of records that rounded out Spinning Platters’ 2nd and 3rd place winners for our Album Picks of 2011, both by extraordinary women who have been captivating audiences all over the country, perhaps even the world, with their otherworldly but gorgeously eclectic brand of experimental indie rock. To pair the two together is a feat in and of itself, as the two have very different backgrounds — both in their own respective songwriting and in their own performing history — but it was, no doubt, an effective combination, as evidenced by the near sold-out crowd that arrived at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Tuesday night. The pair had skipped briefly across the country, even between two weekends at Coachella, and now were coming to the end of their trip: the Oklahoma-born, Manhattan-based Annie Clark, better known by her stage name St. Vincent, and Oakland’s own Merrill Garbus, more well known under the zanily-punctuated pseudonym of tUnE-yArDs.

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Show Review: Refused with The Hives and The Bronx at The Warfield, 4/18/2012

At the end of the day, what truly compels someone to come to a concert is their love of the music that their favorite band plays — and the sheer energy with which they present it to their fans. Take away the light shows, the falling props, the dancing backdrops, and the larger-than-life haircuts, and what brings people to a concert, what REALLY sells out a club and packs its patrons in tighter than sardines in a tin can, is the overwhelming desire to watch an artist deliver their heart and soul onstage, in the form of bellowing voices, howling guitars, and an onstage presence that drains the viewer just by beholding it. Irrespective of genre, of geographical location, and even of time period, it is truly the mindbendingly ecstatic bands that pulls in all comers — even well-known and loved artists of other musical worlds. Thus, it was little surprise that members of bands such as Rise Against, Metallica, Faith No More, AFI, As I Lay Dying, Death Angel, and Sevendust were on hand to experience one of the most incredible performances of 2012, when newly-reunited Swedish hardcore juggernauts Refused took the stage at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and delivered a set that was paralyzing and stunning in its intensity.

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Show Review: Justice with The Rapture at The Fox Oakland, 4/17/2012

2012 has already begun as the Year of the Dance Music Show, with electronic acts dominating some of the most popular venues worldwide and music festivals across the country. The Ultra Music Festival brought in 60,000 attendees per day this year; I Love This City, coming Memorial Day Weekend, plans to overflow AT&T Park with fans and over 40 huge acts of the dance music world. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the hot ticket to catch is on the club circuit: any highly-successful electronic act that packs their titanic stage show into an under-5000-people theater to shake the walls with earth-shattering bass and wild dancing. Though you’d normally be hard-pressed to find anything that isn’t pulsing house or swaying dubstep to pack a venue with concertgoers aplenty, the Fox Theater played their cards right in welcoming French dancemasters Justice to Oakland between their Coachella weekend visits, and the duo delivered brilliantly with precision, style, and a dizzying array of lights and sound.

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Show Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela and C.U.B.A. at The Fox Oakland, 4/5/2012

An acoustic/electric faceoff with Rodrigo y Gabriela

Transitioning from being a solo artist (or in this case, a minimalistic acoustic duo) to having a full band behind you is a great risk, no matter what type of musician chooses to take it. Your songs transform, in scope and shape, in feel and form, and the result can either pull in a larger audience than ever before, or cause even the most adoring critics to suddenly turn their noses up at you. Such a dramatic shift in the mood and presentation of your art requires a great deal of work and dedication to perfecting your craft, and it may even require you to explore new methods of songwriting and arrangement that you had never approached within your career. When Mexican thrash-flamenco maestros Rodrigo y Gabriela traveled to Havana and recorded their new album, Area 52, with a host of 13 Cuban musicians (tonight appearing in the form of musical ensemble C.U.B.A.), fans and critics alike paled at the thought of the super-concentrated thrill of the pair’s frenetic guitar mastery drowning in a sea of lush but overwhelming sound. On their 2012 tour, the two have set out to prove that none of the magic that they’ve amazed audiences the world over with has disappeared; indeed, new life has been breathed into it, as it scales into a higher, deeper, and even more magnificent form.

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Show Review: fun. at Bottom of the Hill, 3/29/2012

Sometimes when a band has a giant hit song, they cancel their long-ago-booked club gig to move into a bigger venue at a higher price. This has happened recently with Gotye, and it’s kind of a bummer for early adopters who were excited about seeing a beloved band in a small club. And other times, the band keeps those dates and plays a fantastic show to a small, ecstatic group of their biggest fans. This week, San Francisco won because the band with the current number one single in America, the ubiquitous “We Are Young,” played at both The Independent and Bottom of the Hill, and in doing so, proved that they are definitely not going to be one hit wonders. They’ll play the big rooms next time around. Continue reading “Show Review: fun. at Bottom of the Hill, 3/29/2012”

Show Review: The Joy Formidable with A Place To Bury Strangers and Big Black Delta at The Independent, 3/12/2012

A rather frustrating phenomenon that exists for enthusiastic concertgoers who follow up-and-coming artists is the long, long wait that precedes a band’s “official” rise to stardom. This term is placed in quotes, because the true mark of becoming a major player in the live music scene is being the headlining act of the tour you’ve embarked upon. The last two times that the Welsh trio known as The Joy Formidable have made their way to the Bay Area, they’ve taken residence on the smaller Sutro stage of the Outside Lands Festival, and opened for The Naked And Famous at a special pre-party concert that preceded Live 105’s Not So Silent Night. Despite bringing along some heavy hitters whose reputation and following would allow them to take the reigns and lead the way, the trio of Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd and Matt Thomas have finally claimed their spot as the main event, and they’ve taken their newfound thrones with all the explosive fury and unrelenting power that was present at their last few appearances — with absolutely no sign of slowing down as they stunned the packed-in audience at the Independent on Monday night.

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Show Review: Mia Doi Todd with Bells at Yoshi’s SF, 3/7/2012

The lineup at Yoshi’s San Francisco on Wednesday evening was basically the ideal music program for a dreamy hipster cruise of the Caribbean. It was a night of transporting melodies and gently swaying rhythms, soothing vocals and sleepy-eyed acoustics. There were moments I could literally feel little blasts of sea breeze on my face. But then Mia Doi Todd complained that the air conditioner was too strong, so they turned it off.

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Rachael Yamagata, Dan Wilson, and Madi Diaz at The Independent 3.2.12

I know it’s the biggest cliché you can think of, but somehow, I keep falling into it. Sure I’ve liked Rachael Yamagata, that’s been “Known For Years” now. She’s a great song writer, great husky emotive voice, the piano, you know, the whole nine. But at times, I get bored. She gets the mood going, this dark depressing mood, and…actually, I think she explains it very well. On stage, she mentioned how she’s always surprised that people ask her to play their weddings. In her opinion she’s better suited to play their divorce proceedings. I thought she just might be a little stale and boring live. “The Reason Why” these clichés have apparently “Worn Me Down,” I really can’t say. But what I can say is that I was entirely wrong. There’s a reason you go see an artist play live. Sure they can always disappoint and sound exactly like they do on record, but the gamble is worth it when it pays off. Continue reading “Rachael Yamagata, Dan Wilson, and Madi Diaz at The Independent 3.2.12”

Show Review: Ty Segall with White Fence, Mikal Cronin and The Feeling Of Love at the Great American Music Hall, 3/2/2012

Put down your spiked hair. Pull those safety pins out of your pierced ears. Trade in the leather jacket, the studded belt, the plaid pants, the violently political message, the inability to enjoy anyone within your immediate proximity unless you’re physically engaged in violence towards them. But don’t stop enjoying yourself. This is not the place for the energy to drop, for the volume to descend, or for the spirit of radical thought to become extinguished. This is the place for two-minute songs and stagedivers and snarling fuzz and harrowing reverb, all compacted together into a stick of dynamite that keeps burning for almost five solid hours. This is the first stop on the tour for Ty Segall, a veteran to the Bay Area garage-folk-psych-rock scene, which, tonight, has taken up residence in the Great American Music Hall, and is here to demolish the foundations — both figuratively and a significant bit literally.

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