Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
I love heavy metal. Shocking, I know, and there are still so many legendary heavy metal bands that I’ve never seen, so whenever a chance arises, I try to snap it up. So when I found out that Testament and Kreator were going to tour together and that, on top of that, they got Possessed to join in? I couldn’t beg fast enough for that press pass!
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
In 1994, a simple blue cover adorned the release of the debut album of the then relatively unknown band Weezer. Three decades later, the Blue Album, as it has long been commonly known, was the central theme of their Voyage to the Blue Planet tour, which was to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Continue reading “Show Review: Weezer + The Flaming Lips @ Chase Center, 10/09/2024”
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?
Continue reading “Show Review: KK’s Priest + Accept, Regency Ballroom, October 7, 2024”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
Decapitated photos by: Zoran Theodorovic of Capital Chaos TV
After just over a month on the road, co-headliners Decapitated and SepticFlesh, along with Kataklysm and Allegaeon, held their penultimate show of the Cancer Culture Over North America tour at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. The show was packed from the first band to the last, and all four felt like they could have been the headliner!
Continue reading “Show Review: Decapitated + SepticFlesh at DNA Lounge, May 18, 2024”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
You know what’s missing at Spinning Platters? Black Metal. There’s just a lack of content related to the most extreme subgenre of metal music.
There are even several bands considered influential to this genre, including Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. The most famous of these bands is definitely Mayhem, where members killed other members, committed suicide, and burned churches… ah, the good ole’ 1990’s!
While the vast majority of the subject matter here is geared more towards fans of Outside Lands than fans of Mayhem, Spinning Platters still employs a few brave souls who will immerse themselves in the mosh pits and get their eardrums pulverized, all in the name of reporting back about the glorious screaming vocals, remarkably incredible fast guitar riffs and blast-beat drumming, as well as maybe a count on the number of non-black clothing (HA!) and inverted crosses seen, and all typically without even having to stock up on corpse paint…
Fortunately for Neck of the Woods, black metal bands these days typically don’t burn down anything or commit murder anymore!
Continue reading “Show Review: UADA at Neck of the Woods, March 24, 2024”
We, the music nerds of Spinning Platters, love K.Flay (aka Kristine Flaherty). So much so that after I submitted Mono as one of my top 3 albums of 2023, she not only made the final top ten (as voted by all of us), but she won the whole damn thing! Despite all of this, I had only seen her perform twice: once opening for Imagine Dragons and once at a LoveLoud festival in Salt Lake City. So when I saw that she was going to be playing back-to-back shows at a tiny SF venue, I jumped at the chance to finally see K. Flay headline a show! Continue reading “Show Review: K.Flay with Cam Kahin at The Independent, 3/27/24”
My favorite thing about SF Sketchfest is catching all kinds of funny people at once in the same room. Not only that, but these are the kind of people I don’t often have the chance to see live, so it’s always fun to peruse the schedule every year and see who’s slated to appear with whom, what’s being celebrated, yadda yadda yadda. As is the case with most years, there were quite a few events I was interested in, but in the end, I only made it to one. This past Saturday night, I found myself queuing up around the block at Cobb’s Comedy Club to watch old clips of Derek & Simon: The Show with the stars and creators of the show (Derek Waters, Simon Helberg, and Bob Odenkirk in particular). Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Derek and Simon (and Bob): An SF Sketchfest Tribute Celebration at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/27/24”
Does everyone else have artists they will see over and over forever, or is it just me? Sometimes, this is because I want to see what’s new in the artist’s/band’s set (as is the case with someone like Pink, who will change much of her songlist, set, costumes, etc, every time she hits the road). On the other hand, sometimes this is just because I’m such a fan of the artist’s voice, lyrics, and music that I’ll see them every single time I have an opportunity, regardless of whether or not things have much changed since the last time. Such was the case this week with John Mayer’s Solo tour, which arrived at Chase Center on Tuesday. Continue reading “Show Review: John Mayer with JP Saxe at Chase Center, 11/7/23”
Show Review and Los Angeles Photos by: Oliver Brink
San Francisco Photos by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
This one was a bit special for me. Sepultura is a band that I fell deeply in love with in high school, and their music and the continued projects of Max Cavalera have been with me constantly as I navigate my way through life. I always find moments where I just need a song like “Refuse/Resist” or “Troops of Doom” to help me get through a moment of angry energy. So, of course, I had to jump at a chance to see Max and Iggor Cavalera, finally, and when that opportunity arrived, I jumped right the hell on it, even if it meant going to one of my least favorite venues to photograph. More on that later; bands first!
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!”
