Fox Theater – Page 3 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: The Magnetic Fields with Bachelorette at The Fox Oakland, 3/24/2012

Two years ago, New England musical mastermind Stephin Merritt graced us with two Magnetic Fields shows during the Bay Area’s 18th annual Noise Pop Festival. Spinning Platters was on hand for both performances, and two years later, Merritt and his quintet have returned, with a new opus in tow, to the Fox Theater in Oakland for a new round of orchestral whimsy and symphonic folk-pop playfulness. As the musical tide has turned for the mood and feel of the band’s newest release, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea, so too, apparently, has their attitude to live performances. Rather than occupy the resonant wooden floors and still-somewhat-fresh carpet of the theater with chairs for a quiet, introspective performance, the audience was given free reign in a regular general-admission get-as-close-as-you-like setting. There was a loud and upbeat performer opening the show. The band even responded to whoops, cheers, and catcalls. What a change is here! For even the most stoic Magnetic Fields fan, however, the change of mood was a rather uplifting one, and a general camaraderie was established between both the boisterous and the simply bemused for this acoustic exploration of the band’s charming new work.

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Show Review: The Fray with Scars on 45 at The Fox Theater, 2/20/2012

P1020387 — The Fray's Ben (drums) and Isaac (atop the piano, singing his ass off)

The Fox Theater. Scars on 45. The Fray, live. A crowd that actually applauds with their hands more than with their voices. These are things that, until Monday night, I’d never before experienced. And all were, as it turned out, the beginning of a wonderful cure for a stereotypical “case of the Mondays.” Though I’ve been listening to The Fray for several years, this was my first chance to catch a show, and until last week, I’d never even heard of English opening band Scars on 45. They did, however, come highly recommended by a friend, and so I couldn’t wait for the show to start. Lucky for me, the lights went down promptly at 8:01 pm. Continue reading “Show Review: The Fray with Scars on 45 at The Fox Theater, 2/20/2012”

Show Review: Shpongle Live Halloween Ball at the Fox Oakland, 10/29/2011

We can take this huge universe and put it inside a very tiny head — Simon Posford and his band of psychedelic freaks and phantasms

October 29th, 2011. Possibly one of the biggest party nights of the year, thanks to the world-recognized holiday celebrating the bizarre, the underworldly, and the otherwordly, just around its corner. We’re speaking, of course, of Halloween, and in addition to being a fantastic occasion for costumes, candy, and chaotic parties, it’s also one of the best opportunities for live shows, allowing artists to come out in a blaze of style and passion with something unique and special for the night when spirits walk and demons dance. The Fox Theater in Oakland is no stranger to guests of many colors, persuasions, and strangeness, and with stiff competition to draw in concertgoers tonight — with deadmau5 taking residence at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Primus rocking the streets of Berkeley at the Greek Theater, and the Damned keeping the San Francisco punks packed to the gills in Slim’s — it seemed only fitting for them to play host to one of the most anticipated acts of the entire year: Shpongle Live, the full-band-plus-dancers-and-more ensemble to masterfully color the otherworldly psybient music of UK psytrance masters Simon Posford and Raja Ram.

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Show Review: Julieta Venegas, Ximena Sarinana at The Fox Theater – Oakland, 10/23/11

Historically speaking, the vast majority of popular music consumed in the world is in English. In countries where they don’t speak English, they still primarily listen to music with English language vocals. I believe that the majority of this has to do with America’s overwhelming cultural influence on the world, so maybe it’s time for the United States to start embracing musicians that perform in a language that they don’t speak in. The Fox Theater in Oakland hosted an evening with two artists from Mexico City, who largely perform in their native tongue.

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Show Review: Thievery Corporation w/ AM & Shawn Lee at The Fox Theater – Oakland, 9/16/2011

6164521637_3a4cf3aacf_z — Clavier striking a pose, Myers looking cool on the sitar, and Rob Garza on keys, one of the masterminds behind all of this

One of my favorite experiments is to go see a band that I know nothing about. Usually this tends to be a low key affair, in a small venue somewhere. It’s rare for a band to play a venue in the 3,000+ capacity range that I’ve managed to miss. Although it can easily be a gamble, the pay off can be great. On the warm Indian Summer night, I took the new band challenge.

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Noise Pop Show Review: Yo La Tengo with The Urinals at The Fox Oakland, 2/22/2011

Spin the Yo La Tengo Freewheel and decide the first set!

Nearly a year ago to the day, the Fox Theater played host to the first big act of the 2010 Noise Pop Festival, which arrived in the form of Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band. The group’s first arrival to the Bay Area was met with wild enthusiasm, and the set itself was a scene of sonic mass hysteria, with the warbles and shrieks of Yoko accompanying the wild swing and over-the-top rock of her backing band. It seems only fitting, therefore, that the following year needed to be kicked off in a similar manner — a night of balls-out rock, groovy jams, and snarling static chaos — which is probably the main reason why the New Jersey indie rock trio Yo La Tengo was invited to the Fox Theater for the first night of the 2011 Noise Pop Festival.

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Show Review: Two Days with Florence & The Machine

louder than sirens, louder than bells (photo by Anna Garcia)

In the past two years, a number of new artists have suddenly sprung out of the woodwork of obscurity and made headlines and huge sales numbers with their debut records. The staying power of these acts is often questionable; the general musical mood of the public at large shifts so quickly, so often, that it is even more difficult than ever to ensure that one is not lost in the tide. In the wake of diminishing record sales, a band must tour to really gain their followers, and must, at every single show, captivate and amaze their audience, leaving no doubt of their staying power within their minds.

For someone like Florence Welch, this is absolutely no contest. She has a voice that can move mountains.

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Show Review: Jónsi with Mountain Man at The Fox Oakland, 10/19/2010

Go scream, do shout // Make an earthquake (photo by Paige K. Parsons)

The Icelandic quartet known as Sigur Rós has offered its fans, and concertgoers everywhere, some of the most emotionally-gripping, beautifully destructive, and downright astonishing shows that they will ever experience in their lives. I personally cannot think of a single show that I have seen that came close to the breath-catching feet-out-from-under-me sensation that overwhelmed me the first time I watched the band perform, at a 2,000-seat theater in Marin — possibly the most intimate setting they have allowed themselves to be contained within on this side of the Atlantic. It is only natural, therefore, to expect a show of similar caliber from the solo career of Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson, the ethereal and mesmerizing vocalist of Sigur Rós.

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Show Review: The Flaming Lips with Ariel Pink and Thee Oh Sees at The Fox Oakland, 10/1/2010

By this point in time, the average music fan who knows about The Flaming Lips and their colossal live shows has probably heard absolutely everything. This is not simply referring to the vast amount of positive-sounding adjectives and awestruck expressions on the faces of fans, but, moreso, the absolute hugeness of their performances. It seems only appropriate to give them as great a berth as possible, in order to have some hope of maintaining the glorious, wonderful chaos that is a Flaming Lips concert; thus, it was bizarre but also incredibly exciting to the Bay Area when the band announced that they would be playing in Oakland’s majestic Fox Theater. Demand was so high that tonight’s show sold out within days; this prompted a second date to be added, with a new set of opening acts. Frontman Wayne Coyne, in his pre-show address, commented that the theater was gorgeous, and that for their next tour, they would attempt to play on the ceiling itself.

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Show Review: X Japan with Vampires Everywhere! at The Fox Oakland, 9/28/2010

Toshi (vocals), Sugizo (guitar) and Yoshiki (drums) of X Japan

While there are many international artists who have made their way, as the expression goes, “across the pond” and have done well in America, most of them do so by bringing a similar formula of what is popular in today’s music and blending in before anyone realizes that they’re “not from ’round here.” The artists who stick to their own form of a creative mold and are unique and unchanging in their ways can either make or break their careers when they land on U.S. soil; some of them, indeed, will stay on the other side of the world for their entire career, despite the cult following that might have simmered into existence on this side of the States. Tonight, however, one of these artists not only came to this country for their first stateside tour, but it was on the tails of an incredible reunion tour after almost twelve years of absence from the musical world. For the first time in their career, X Japan, arguably one of the biggest acts in the country’s history, has come to the U.S. to tour — and boy, were we ready for them!

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