Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Spiritualized, enters its third decade doing the one thing it has done and doing it well: building manifold soundscapes over rock and pop fundamentals, repetition unto transcendence.
Each track is reducible to some early Rock Rhythm and Blues motif. Continue reading “Show Review: Spiritualized at The Fillmore, 4.12.22”
San Francisco is one of the more prominent hubs for music festivals in the country, if not the world. Starting with Noise Pop in February and reaching peak saturation in the Summer, and early Fall, with Outside Lands, Phono del Sol, and Treasure Island Music Festival, just to name a few, seeing an influential or up-and-coming artist perform live is an easily attainable feat (and a mere Lyft ride away for most people). We’ve even coined the term “Fauxchella” in honor of the fact that most of Coachella’s top headliners flock our way, year after year, in between weekends performing in the Indio desert.
Despite this embarrassment of riches, in a few weeks, I’ll be hopping on a plane and joining a group of Bay Area natives heading to a city in Texas that isn’t Austin, known as the live music capital of the world, for an event not related to SXSW in any way.
Day for Night, set to take place Friday, December 16th, through Monday, the 19th, is offering an experience that transcends the boundaries of the traditional festival circuit. One of many examples: they’ve managed amazing feats by booking Aphex Twin, who hasn’t performed live in the US for over 8 years, and Björk, who doesn’t perform often, either, and left many an Iceland Airwaves attendee, including myself, crestfallen with her sudden cancellation last year. Add in DJ Windows 98 (Arcade Fire’s Win Butler), who’ll be spinning Ticketfly’s annual Holiday bash, the night before he’s set to appear in Houston (let’s hope he doesn’t crash, ha), and the it’s clear that Free Press Houston and New York-based creative agency Work-Order know how to curate a festival fitting for a city that is rapidly approaching the distinction of becoming the third largest in the US.
Add the likes of Squarepusher, Run the Jewels, ODESZA, Kaskade, Ariel Pink, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Liars, Washed Out, SOPHIE, and SURVIVE – the creators of the hypnotic Stranger Things theme music – and you have a stellar, unconventional, and sought after group of artists that are extremely selective about which bills they attach their name. There’s a reason for this and it transcends the musical aspect of this event. Read on to find out why you should purchase tickets and book your flight immediately.
Continue reading “Day for Night: The reason the Bay Area is headed to Houston for the Holidays”
We’re in the final weekend of Coachella 2016, and the consequent Fauxchella 2016 shows are coming our way. What’s Fauxchella? It’s when you can see a band that’s also scheduled at Coachella but without actually having to go to Coachella.
This week in The Bay Area we have old stars, old studio guys, old smoky guys, montage anchorpoints, as much anarchy as you’d like, and a band that just went ahead and named themselves California.
And previews. Preview time. Let’s preview. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2016-04-23 — 2016-04-27”
Every year during Fauxchella, there is always The One Show To Rule Them All. Often times, it’s a wildly infamous, recently-reformed act playing a tiny venue; other times, it’s a great swath of bands all playing one massive evening; occasionally, however, the headlining act is simply one of the most talked-about acts on the live circuit, and as luck would have it, they have that night all to themselves, and are poised to deliver a heart-stopping, utterly thrilling set to all of the lucky fans that managed to snatch up tickets to their gig. Many Bay Area concertgoers will be likely to rant and rave about all of the indietronic acts that dominated the earlier part of the week and weekend prior as the Shows To See, but this year, that honor went to the London quartet known as Savages, who took over the stage at the Fillmore and delivered one of the most ferocious and stunningly energetic performances of 2016 — in less than two hours’ time.
Continue reading “Fauxchella Review: Savages at the Fillmore, 4/19/2016”
Oh Fauxchella, how do I count the ways? While most of the world waits diligently to attend something overly populated with clutter, annoyance, and unwelcoming weather, the locally abounding intellects know you will be there for us. Engrossed entirely inside night four of eight, you gave me Bat For Lashes. While there were about seventeen other shows that night, none were more sincere than this one. So much so I’m sure the Great Pumpkin would have agreed.
While I may not be comparing Natasha Khan to a pumpkin patch, in an utmost elegance, I must say: she squashed it.
Continue reading “Fauxchella Review: Bat For Lashes at The Regency Ballroom, 4/14/13”
Fauxchella is a brutal time for music fans. The night Metric played at The Fox, we also had to contend with like minded bands How To Destroy Angels and Savages playing across the bridge. It was a tough night of you enjoy powerful women fronting danceable rock bands. And, as much as I truly love this band, I was thinking hard about what I was missing. I didn’t want to feel buyers remorse. Deep down inside, I knew this was the right place to be. And the sold out crowd at The Fox tonight knew it, too.
Continue reading “Fauxchella Review: Metric with Mona at The Fox Theater — Oakland, 4/18/13”
Oakland is a blessed city for music. We have some of the best venues and best crowds on Earth. For far too long we were treated as the ugly stepsister to San Francisco. However, San Francisco seems to do a great job of attracting the type of concert goer that attends because they feel obligated, and simply hangs on in the back of the room with their arms folded across their chest. In Oakland, the room explodes. Case in point: Vancouver, BC’s Japandroids played a sold out show at The Independent last year. It was shortly after the release of Celebration Rock, an album that hit with near universal acclaim. And, of course, the whole room stood still throughout the entire set. However, this warm Wednesday night in Oakland was a completely different story.
Continue reading “Fauxchella Review: Cloud Nothings, Japandroids at The New Parish, 4/17/2013”
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.
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.
Continue reading “Show Review: Refused with The Hives and The Bronx at The Warfield, 4/18/2012”
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.
Continue reading “Show Review: Justice with The Rapture at The Fox Oakland, 4/17/2012”
