queens of the stone age – Spinning Platters

BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 Festival Journal, Day 3

(You’re reading Day 3. Be sure to check out Day 1 and Day 2!)

The last day of BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 started out warm and clear. Despite arriving at the Napa Valley Expo a bit later than the two days preceding, I had a full day planned. First up was The Beaches at the JaM Cellars stage. I almost missed this set because the band name didn’t ring a bell. Fortunately, another photographer mentioned that they were an all-girl band, which caused me to take a minute to look them up. As soon as I did, I realized that this was a band I’d been hearing recently (“Blame Brett”), so I tagged along to check them out. They’re a fairly high-energy pop-rock band serving plenty of attitude, and their set was a good time. The ladies of the band were cracking me up as they first took the stage, talking about wine hangovers and being “so ready to crush some grapes later!” They were trying to function after one hour of sleep, guitarist Leandra Earl explained, due to having played Red Rocks the previous night. “Who’s ready to be hungover again tomorrow?” lead vocalist Jordan Miller asked as they began “Grow Up Tomorrow.” BRNV is pretty good at putting the right bands at the right times, and this was no exception. You can find their entire setlist here. Continue reading “BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 Festival Journal, Day 3”

Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2024

Happy New Year, live music lovers! BottleRock Napa Valley has announced the lineup for this year’s festival, and as usual, it’s got me looking forward to the summer!

It may seem like there’s a long time between the lineup announcement this morning and the festival itself, but I know from experience that the rest of the winter and the spring will both fly by, and before you know it, it’ll be time to gather at Napa Valley Expo once more.

After many years of speculation, Pearl Jam will indeed (finally!) headline the BRNV stage, as will Stevie Nicks, Ed Sheeran, and Maná. Headliners aside, I may be most excited to see Megan Thee Stallion, but also Cold War Kids, Queens of the Stone Age, Norah Jones, Dominic Fike, St. Vincent, The Offspring, Nelly, Bebe Rexha, Stephen Sanchez, Cannons, Holly Humberstone, The Record Company, Royal Otis, The Moss, and Mondo Cozmo.

As always, you can plan on finding amazing food, wine, beer, and cocktails to pair with your festival weekend. Trust me – you don’t want to miss this one!

You can find my 2024 BottleRock Napa Valley Preview playlist here, so you can listen along and get excited! Don’t have tickets? Don’t worry, you can get yours here. I’ll see you in Napa this summer!

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.

Continue reading “Show Review: Aftershock 2023… West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival!”

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…

Continue reading “Aftershock 2023… and why it will be better than Power Trip!”

Show Review: Iggy Pop’s ‘Post Pop Depression’ Tour at The Masonic, 3/31/16

The Stooges were one of the greatest American rock bands of all time. That core team of Iggy Pop along with the Asheton Brothers created a brand new sound that was so thick, dirty and ferocious, it made even the heaviest bands of the 60s sound like Peter Paul and Mary. As a young punk, I devoured the three records they put out in the 60s. Those records are perfection. However, that also meant that I avoided any and all of Pop’s solo material. Sure, if people were dancing to “Lust For Life”, I’d join in, but the little solo material I came across otherwise — “Candy”, “Real Wild Child” — all sounded like over produced parodies of that animalistic beast that was The Stooges.

Fast forward to 2016. I learn that Pop is releasing a so-called “farewell” album. He enlisted Josh Homme, the “too handsome for his own good” mastermind behind Queens of the Stone Age, to produce the album. He then drafted Homme, along with other members of QOTSA and the Arctic Monkeys, as his backing band. With the majority of the Stooges having passed away, I thought that these guys were capable of emulating that sound. I had high hopes for a back to basics, thick and dirty rock record and tour.

I was wrong, but I was wrong in the best way possible.

Continue reading “Show Review: Iggy Pop’s ‘Post Pop Depression’ Tour at The Masonic, 3/31/16”