Judas Priest – Spinning Platters

Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.

Review and All Photos by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

For decades, Europe has led the way in the heavy metal and loud rock music festival space. Monsters of Rock (the originator, which started in 1980!), Wacken Open Air, Dynamo Open Air, Hellfest, Graspop, Copenhell, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Summer Breeze, Sweden Rock Fest and Download have always dominated the landscape with their amazing lineups year after year.

United States was never close in offering an equivalent heavy metal experience. Sure, there was Ozzfest and Mayhem Festival, but those have been gone since 2017 and 2015 and Americans have always leaned more towards indie rock music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonaroo, and Outside Lands anyway.

For the last twelve or so years, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) has been chipping away at the supremacy of the European heavy metal festivals, with Welcome To Rockville, Louder Than Life, Sonic Temple, Inkcarceration, Rock on the Range, Rocklahoma, Carolina Rebellion, and Northern California’s very own Aftershock Festival. With the best lineup it has ever had, West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival definitely lived up to its name in 2024!

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Show Review: KK’s Priest + Accept, Regency Ballroom, October 7, 2024

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

In the last decade, there seems to be a trend of band members who can’t get along and someone ends up leaving and creating another version of the same band: Great White and Jack Russell’s Great White. L.A. Guns and Riley’s L.A. Guns. Ratt, Stephen Pearcy’s Ratt and Bobby Blotzer’s Ratt Experience (three versions!). Yes and Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman. Queensrÿche and Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche. So, does Judas Priest and KK’s Priest fit the criteria?

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Show Reviews: Mid-November (2014) METAL Overload with Slayer, Exodus, Suicidal, and Judas Priest!

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

There really is no such thing as “metal overload”. If there was this many epic metal shows per week every week of the year, that would be more like “metal heaven” (except all metalheads are Satanic, right? So, “metal hell”?) …

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New Release Round Up, 11/3/09 – 38 Instant Album Reviews

Someone needs to build this guy a Wikipedia page.

Pouria is in Korea for the next couple of weeks. He’s been studying the Pimsleur Korean tapes to prepare himself for this trip, so when I asked him if he was going to have time to do his new release column before he left, he muttered something in Korean that I’m assuming was a polite no. As a reaction, I decided to write the longest New Release Round Up yet! And glad I did, because buried near the bottom is my favorite album of the week. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 11/3/09 — 38 Instant Album Reviews”

Spinning Platters Unofficial Guide to $7.11 Tickets

Oh thank heaven this is the most disturbing picture of a slurpee I can find on the internet... Got better? E-mail me: dakin.hardwick@gmail.com — Oh thank heaven this is the most disturbing picture of a slurpee I can find on the internet... Got better? E-mail me: dakin@spinningplatters.com

So, as some of you may know, 7-11 is giving away free slurpees on July 11th this year. What you may not know, is that those slurpees come with a coupon code that allows you to buy tickets to select LiveNation tickets for a deep discount. These are all GA tickets, and most of them are for $7.11. Some are for a bit more, but all are very cheap. Since neither Livenation nor Slurpee is telling people what tickets will be discounted, we did the research for you. Here is a list of the events that they will be selling in the bay area. Go to LiveNation.com on July 11th. Remember, these events are subject to change, and only a small quantity will be available at that price. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Unofficial Guide to $7.11 Tickets”