Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Spinning Platters has had the pleasure of seeing Mac Sabbath seven times since 2016 yet it’s hard to believe that there’s only one other written review here on the inventors and self-appointed kings of Drive Thru Metal! This latest appearance at Great American Music Hall was part of a short West Coast tour called ‘This One Goes To 11‘.
Continue reading “Show Review: Mac Sabbath prevails in a post-Ozzy world”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
In October 2022, the singer of The Sword announced the band was splitting up after 19 years. 21 months later… they’re back! It’s hard to say whether announcements like this helps or hurts a band, but the Great American Music Hall was sold out for weeks after the tickets went on sale for the 15th anniversary tour for their concept album Warp Riders. Spinning Platter’s enjoyed a pre-show meal at the legendary Tommy’s Joynt with guitarist Kyle Shutt and a few from the other bands and crew and was informed that a great many other shows on this tour have also been sold out well in advance. The moral of the story perhaps is to break up and get back together… it may help ticket sales!
Continue reading “Show Review: 15 years of The Sword’s Warp Riders at GAMH”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Back in the day, Warped Tour was the travelling festival of the summer. It’s back after a six-year absence, but as a destination festival, with one of its three locations being in Southern California.
Historically, the Bay Area always reaps the rewards of destination festivals like Coachella where bands will book other nearby shows or West Coast tours outside of the festival’s radius clause— so much so that Spinning Platters esteemed Editor even coined the phrase Fauxchella (and owns that domain name!) — and each year keeps track of Coachella bands that make their way up here.
So now, one of the advantages of Warped Tour bringing nearly 100 punk rock bands to Long Beach is that some of them will book in the Bay Area… and in the span of four nights following Warped Tour Long Beach, five of the travelling festival veterans and one LBC newbie made the journey up here.
Continue reading “Punk Rock show reviews: Summer Circus of Discontent”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
WHAT!? There’s no way that legendary O.G. Original Gangster rapper Ice-T (and heavy metal singer… and movie star…. and longtime Law and Order: SVU television actor) would be performing at the 470-capacity Great American Music Hall?! Is this for real? Ticket purchased immediately! Yes indeed, on Friday June 27, the I the C the E the T himself rolled into “Frisco” (his words) with his O.G. DJ Evil E and performed a ninety-minute set including shout-outs, NSFW jokes, and he even showed off a few of his special Bay Area friends.
Continue reading “Show Review: the MFkn’ O.G. Original Gangsta ICE-T at GAMH!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
25 years ago, Bayside did not have to look very far for the inspiration in choosing their band name. They hail from Bayside, Queens (New York)! 25 years later, they are still actively writing, recording, and touring the world. On this The Errors tour, Bayside put together two setlists containing 44 songs spanning their nine albums and have been performing two nights of shows in every city, including a pair at August Hall.
Continue reading “Show Review: Bayside celebrates their 25 years at August Hall!”
If you’re anything like me, you can’t think of anything better on a warm spring Friday night than catching a great show, especially at a cozy little venue. Case in point: I had a recent opportunity to do just that when AWOLNATION stopped at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom for the penultimate show of their Phantom Five Tour. Continue reading “Show Review: AWOLNATION with Makua and Bryce Fox at Regency Ballroom, 5/9/25”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Max Cavalera tours a lot. Max and his brother Igor G. are best known for starting the band Sepultura in the early 1980’s, and since leaving that behind nearly 30 years ago, he has Soulfly, Nailbomb, Go Ahead and Die, and Cavalera Conspiracy keeping him and the Cavalera family very busy. They have plenty of good reasons to perform for their fans as much as they do, and that is because there is so much music to play! In fact, alongside Max on this particular excursion, both in the band and crew, is drummer/brother Igor G., guitar/son Igor A., manager/wife Gloria, and merchandise/son Richie.
Continue reading “Show Review: Max Cavalera’s Schizophrenia”
Thank god for SF Sketchfest! Seriously, if there’s one thing I hope we can all agree on in America right now, it’s this: we need comedy. Give us a reason to laugh. We may never see eye to eye or agree on who’s right and what needs to change, so there’s never been a better time for us to come together and soothe our uncertainties with the balm of a few hours’ worth of laughs. And last Friday night, that’s exactly what I did. I grabbed my cousin (and fellow Jeopardy! lover) and we headed to Club Fugazi for Jeopargay! with Spike Einbinder and Honey Pluton. It promised to be a fun night of trivia and humor. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Jeopargay! with Spike Einbinder and Honey Pluton at Club Fugazi, 1/24/25”
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 @ConcertGoingPro
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”
