Concert Reviews – Page 9 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Styx with Yes at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 8/3/2011

The definition of “arena rock” has changed shape a great deal in this modern era of music. While it’s mostly connected to which genres of music or artists can sell enough seats to fill an amphitheater with up to 22,000 people, it is also evocative of a time when a band’s show and stage set were so extravagant, flamboyant, and over-the-top that only a massive stadium could even hope to provide ample real estate for the performance. Thus, it is always quite amazing to see both of these factors fall into place, especially when the bands in question are of a somewhat-bygone era. This isn’t the 1970s, or the 1980s, but you would never have been aware that time had passed since that era, judging from the explosive response that greeted the two biggest acts of the Shoreline Amphitheatre’s KIHNCERT 2011: Chicago rockers Styx and English progressive godfathers Yes.

Continue reading “Show Review: Styx with Yes at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 8/3/2011”

Show Review: Bettye LaVette at Yoshi’s Oakland, 7/21/2011

ScreenShot001 — Bettye LaVette performing earlier this month. Photo by Nancy Rae Gilliland.

Bettye LaVette, the 65-year-old soul phenom who toiled in relative obscurity for over 40 years before exploding onto the buzz meters with her 2005 collection of female singer/songwriter covers, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, played to a overflowing, standing-room-only crowd at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Thursday evening. LaVette has a special attachment to the Bay Area, as her self-proclaimed “return from the crypt” was largely triggered when she was signed to the SF-based Rosebud Agency. And that gratitude was lovingly incorporated into her stunning 90-minute set of one explosive show-stopper after another.

Continue reading “Show Review: Bettye LaVette at Yoshi’s Oakland, 7/21/2011”

Show Review: Keren Ann with Chris Garneau at Yoshi’s SF, 6/21/2011

Keren Ann and opener Chris Garneau put on a dreamily beautiful, strikingly intimate show at Yoshi’s SF last night. Keren Ann is touring behind her latest album, 101, which finds the French chanteuse exploring electronic textures rather than the spare, heartrending acoustics with which she has become associated; the album, with its more aggressive tone and dashes of lyrical violence, inspired the New York Times to stupidly dub it “gangsta folk”. But don’t run for your ghetto blasters just yet, because if last night’s show was any indication, Keren Ann won’t be abandoning her chansons and acoustic guitar any time soon.

Continue reading “Show Review: Keren Ann with Chris Garneau at Yoshi’s SF, 6/21/2011”

Show Review: The Shpongletron Experience Tour featuring Shpongle, Random Rab and an-ten-nae at The Fillmore, 6/17/2011

As an electronic musician, you have an unbelievable amount of competition, especially in 2011. With beats, synths and other manipulatibles being so easy to create these days with readily-available software, nearly anyone with a decently-powered computer and speedy fingers can enter the genre; with enough samples, knowledge of audio processing, and exposure, it’s easy to go from being locked in one’s basement to shaking the walls of clubs worldwide. The question is, however, why should all of the hundreds of thousands — perhaps of millions — of electronica fans come to see YOU, and not someone else? For Simon Posford, the cerebrum major behind the London-based psytrance project known as Shpongle, it has usually involved a brilliant mix of jagged synths and sweeping world instruments; this time around, however, he brought the Shpongletron, a stage and light show guaranteed to cement his place as one of the best electronic acts to see today.

Continue reading “Show Review: The Shpongletron Experience Tour featuring Shpongle, Random Rab and an-ten-nae at The Fillmore, 6/17/2011”

Show Review: The Detroit Cobras with Girl In A Coma at The Independent, 6/10/2011

The Detroit Cobras and Girl In A Coma played a sold-out show to a party-seeking crowd at The Independent on Friday night. And that crowd came to the right place, as the femme-fronted combination of GIAC’s sweaty Texas rock and the Cobras’ swaggering garage soul made for one hell of a Friday night party.

Continue reading “Show Review: The Detroit Cobras with Girl In A Coma at The Independent, 6/10/2011”

Show Review: Club BFD with Surfer Blood, Innerpartysystem, The Vaccines and Geographer at Mezzanine, 6/4/2011

SurferClubBFD — Surfer Blood are head and shoulders above the competition

This is the first time I can remember Club BFD being better than original BFD. First off, there’s the lineup which has more melody in four bands than there’d be in 11 hours on Sunday. Then there’s the Mezzanine, which welcomes its visitors with a high-res screen featuring sharp animations about tonight’s show and future events. At “real BFD,” there’s a static monitor. And in a club that holds somewhere in the 1000-person range, there’s a multi-camera shoot being projected on walls throughout the venue; at big BFD, there were no screens inside the amphitheater at all. I’m not even going to discuss the drink price competition. So the Mezzanine is all class, we know that. But how were the bands? Continue reading “Show Review: Club BFD with Surfer Blood, Innerpartysystem, The Vaccines and Geographer at Mezzanine, 6/4/2011”

Show Review: Architecture in Helsinki with Hooray For Earth at Great American Music Hall, 6/2/2011

Architecture in Helsinki is an unfortunately named band. Whenever I tell people about them, the response I hear has something to do with traveling in Europe. I have to explain that, no, they’re a fun, synth heavy band from Australia. Or more recently, since I’m going to Finland this summer, they’ll think I’m mentioning the architecture in Helsinki, for real. I can’t imagine what they go through. Apart from answering questions about their band name (which they’ve had for years — get over it already), they also come to San Francisco to play shows, including this week at Great American Music Hall.

Continue reading “Show Review: Architecture in Helsinki with Hooray For Earth at Great American Music Hall, 6/2/2011”

Show Review: Echo & the Bunnymen with Kelley Stoltz at The Warfield, 5/19/2011

The pictures on my wall // Are about to swing and fall

Roughly a year and a half ago, British post-punk dreamers Echo & the Bunnymen came to American shores for just a few stops to host a darkly gorgeous, orchestra-accompanied performance of their classic album Ocean Rain. No doubt inspired by the success of their tour and the continuing trend of artists who perform full-album sets at their shows, the Liverpool-based quintet was back in town with a similar formula, although taken to a much greater length. This time around, frontman Ian McCulloch and the rest of the crew were performing TWO of their older records — their debut Crocodiles and sophomore effort Heaven Up Here — with a 3-song encore after each. Lest the smallish crowd and the lower capacity of the venue place doubts in the mind of those who passed by the Warfield Theater on Thursday night, the excitement and enthusiasm from the fans was even more fervent than for the band’s Ocean Rain performance, and the group themselves performed with even greater intensity than before.

Continue reading “Show Review: Echo & the Bunnymen with Kelley Stoltz at The Warfield, 5/19/2011”

Show Review: Rammstein with Combichrist at the Oracle Arena, 5/18/2011

There has been a recent trend of fantastic bands, both old and new, being prevented from making their way to this side of the Atlantic due to all manner of circumstances. Most often, it’s an inability to acquire visas by an international deadline, but in the case of more controversial and explosive acts, their arrival has often been deterred by high tensions overseas — acts of terrorism and war, both abroad and at home — which put a damper on the transport of any act, musical or otherwise, that is loud, aggressive, and armed to the teeth with fire, smoke and dynamite. Last night, the biggest name on this list — the German industrial metal collective known as Rammstein — finally made their way back to the Bay Area for their first show in 10 years, and brought their full cataclysmic performance with them, offering one of the biggest, loudest, and hottest shows ever seen within the walls of the Oracle Arena.

Continue reading “Show Review: Rammstein with Combichrist at the Oracle Arena, 5/18/2011”

Show Review: Railroad Revival Tour (Mumford & Sons) at Oakland Middle Shoreline Park, 4/21/2011

Not technically the headliners, but you could've fooled me

The Railroad Revival Tour is a concept tour package where one of the main conceits is that all the bands have equal billing and play equal set lengths. That’s a nice thing to say, but the tickets sold lightning quick due to the recent boom of success of Mumford & Sons. While they weren’t officially the headliner, the singing along told another story. But by the end of the show, they convinced me that this was, indeed, a true group package. Seeing all three bands was a bit of a challenge, but worth it. Continue reading “Show Review: Railroad Revival Tour (Mumford & Sons) at Oakland Middle Shoreline Park, 4/21/2011”