Pennywise – Spinning Platters

Festival Review: NOFX -The Final Shows-

41 Years of Fucking Up: NOFX Bids Us Farewell

To call this an end of an era is the most obvious understatement. Forty years of fucking shit up as a punk band is a long time, and while some bands have been at it for just as long if not longer, the impact of NOFX cannot be overstated. They did things DIY when their peers were signing on with and subsequently getting dropped by major labels. They’ve courted controversy, spoken their minds, and rocked the fuck out while doing it. It was fitting that the final three performances of the band’s career would be celebrated in Southern California, where it all began.

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Abroad in Toronto: Dropkick Murphys, Hanabie., Hatebreed, Carcass, and more!

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Occasionally, the dedicated staff of Spinning Platters gets the opportunity to watch, photograph, and/or review shows from outside of our comfortable Bay Area confines. A few previous trips have included Chicago, Dallas, and Las Vegas, to cover Deftones, Gojira, New Found Glory, Suffocation, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Mercyful Fate, Kreator, and August Burns Red. This time around, one of Spinning Platters’ two resident metalheads was somehow allowed into Canada eh and spent the week in the 416, where we saw Jinjer, Hanabie., Born of Osiris, Scream, Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise, Hatebreed, Carcass, Harm’s Way, and Crypta!

(Korn + Gojira, Benighted + Cognitive, Gatecreeper + Frozen Soul, Galactic Empire + Powerglove were also here during our week-long stay but was not able to attend any of these for various reasons, but mostly due to them being on the same night as another show!)

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Show Review: Aftershock 2023… West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival!

Review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks and Emily Anderson @wisefoolfilms
Onstage Photos by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
AFI/Avenged/Korn Photos by: Kyle Kellogg @ Kellogg Foto

Discovery Park in Sacramento was once again the site for Danny Wimmer Presents annual Aftershock Festival, a four-day rock and metal music festival featuring four stages of many of today’s bona fide headliners as well as plenty of promising new blood. It is also a bit of an endurance test. There are the crazy fans who run in as soon as the gates open and stand at the barricade for basically 11 hours, with no food or even the means to leave to find a restroom (because they’ll never get their spot back). Security did hand out plenty of water up there though so that nobody passed out in the mid-90° heat! There are others who try to take in as much as possible by going from stage to stage to stage all day long to see as many bands as they can. Many just get drunk and sit around on their picnic blanket or at the VIP section tables, while others take it all in stride and hit up the myriad of food trucks, beer tents, alcohol and cannabis vendors… all while everyone is dealing with a heat wave that much of Northern California happened to fall victim to over this very weekend.

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Aftershock 2023… and why it will be better than Power Trip!

Show Preview by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks

The extended weekend of October 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the year 2 0 2 3 has been leaving fans of heavy metal music in decision limbo since the beginning of April. In mid-March, the annual heavy metal pilgrimage to Sacramento, called Aftershock Festival, announced another stellar (as always) 4-day lineup for an unforgettable weekend of Rock N Metal. What nobody knew then is that a mere two weeks later, Power Trip (not the band) would announce a killer classic metal lineup for their festival, to take place simultaneously on the same weekend, albeit in the southern California desert. Goldenvoice had just put Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) on notice, and fans then had to decide which to go to! Now, with t-minus two weeks and counting, Spinning Platters is here to explain why Aftershock Festival is thee festival to attend and how they will not be relinquishing their West Coast Fall Festival crown…

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Festival Review: Punk Rock Bowling – Day 3 (Las Vegas, NV)

“No one can take away our memory!”

Discharge Kids

If Day One was about old school and hardcore and Day Two was about politics, then Day Three was about unadulterated partying and England. Admittedly, I am not much of an “oi/streetpunk” fan. It’s not that I am opposed to it, mind you, it’s just that very few of the bands in the genre have impressed their importance onto me. So it was with some trepidation that I embarked to the site of the final day of the festival, with every intention of keeping my mind open and enjoying some hearty music from across the pond.

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Spinning Platters Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 7/30/15 – 8/5/15

Summer is past its halfway point. It’s getting really hot, so if you are looking for a reason to spend your evening indoors, here are a few good ones: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 7/30/15 — 8/5/15”

Show Review + Photo Gallery: Aftershock Music Festival – September 13-14, 2014

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

Across the Midwest and Southeast United States, from the last weekend of April through May 31, were seven Monster Energy Drink sponsored rock music festivals dubbed “The World’s Loudest Month”. Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome to Rockville, Fort Rock, RockFest, River City Rockfest, and Rocklahoma collectively entertained hundreds of thousands of hard rock and heavy metal fans in Columbus, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Ft. Myers, Kansas City, San Antonio, and Pryor (OK), respectively. Music fans most certainly traveled long distances to attend these festivals, with their amazing 1-3 day lineups featuring the likes of Rob Zombie, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit, Avenged Sevenfold, Kid Rock, Slayer, Deftones, Twisted Sister, Staind, and Godsmack, just to name a few.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/28/14-9/4/14

The Offspring are coming to town on Sunday!

Summer is nearly over, but there is still plenty to do. Including two really inexpensive, all day music events in the Bay Area for you to celebrate this holiday weekend.

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