San Francisco – Page 37 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Morcheeba with The Mumlers and Mariee Sioux at The Fillmore, 7/28/2010

Crowds of people wait for her: Skye Edwards of Morcheeba

Any sort of band that plays music that can be even remotely described as “downtempo” has, in some eyes, a serious disadvantage when it comes to their live performance. The energy and excitement and wildness that comes from a live gig is toned down, and re-formed into the fluid, organic compositions that make up the worlds of dub, trip-hop, and ambient performance. Often, an audience with great patience and love of such swell in a melody becomes the ultimate factor in a successful show, or act, that brings mostly slower, dreamier, and more wistful compositions to the live world of music. Tonight’s crowd at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco fit this bill perfectly, so to speak, so it was little surprise when Skye Edwards and the other Londoners of Morcheeba proclaimed the intimate venue to be one of their favorite places in the world to play. Continue reading “Show Review: Morcheeba with The Mumlers and Mariee Sioux at The Fillmore, 7/28/2010”

Show Review: Admiral Radley at The Bottom Of The Hill, 7/23/2010

Aaron Espinoza and Jason Lytle of Admiral Radley, plying their craft.

Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy plus Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray of Earlimart equals Admiral Radley.

These two midtempo guitar-and-keyboard indie rock crews plugged in their effects pedals together and now the Admiral has come to town. Continue reading “Show Review: Admiral Radley at The Bottom Of The Hill, 7/23/2010”

Show Review: Jonathan Richman with Olof Arnalds at Swedish American Hall, 7/21/10

JRichman — He puts his heart into it for you

Jonathan Richman explained the reason for the existence of his ongoing residency at Swedish American Hall this week. He was in Reykjavik playing a show, and the opener was some girl playing guitar and singing, and he was thinking “whatever” but then he started really listening and fell in love with the music, as did his drummer and constant on-stage partner, Tommy Larkins. So when they found out Olof Arnalds was looking to play some shows in San Francisco, they set up these gigs. Thanks to everyone involved for getting them together because it’s always a total treat to see Mr. Richman in action. Continue reading “Show Review: Jonathan Richman with Olof Arnalds at Swedish American Hall, 7/21/10”

Show Review: An Evening with Primus at the Great American Music Hall, 7/18/2010

those damn blue-collar tweekers. (photo by Sassy Monkey Media)

In today’s concerting world, most shows are focused more firmly on spectacle than on musicianship. We expect the bands to be at the top of their game, of course, but in case they aren’t, we’ve got pretty lights, soaring lasers, mystifying fog, and, sometimes, hurricanes of confetti to wow us and give us something to rave to our friends about. While the spectacle can be rather fantastic from time to time, it’s always refreshing to see the band pack up their light show, deflate the floating spacemen, and dismantle the fog machines, in favor of a rock-solid performance that focuses on what a concert is, truly, about: the music. The bands that are able to take all of these steps, cast off the grandeur, pack themselves — and several hundred feral fans — into a club, and rock the foundations as hard as they would in an arena, are truly wonderful to behold, and tonight’s performance by Bay Area native titans Primus was certainly no exception.

Continue reading “Show Review: An Evening with Primus at the Great American Music Hall, 7/18/2010”

Show Review: Built To Spill at Slim’s, 7/15/2010

Frontguy and basketball enthusiast Doug Martsch at work.

Had Built To Spill been resting on their laurels?

The two previous albums before the current There Is No Enemy LP displayed what could be construed as the gentle complacency of an aging NBA star on a team going into the rebuilding process: a few gems here-and-there to remind us what they were capable of, but a general sense of the motivation just not being there.

Doug Martsch‘s band had released several albums and tracks widely regarded as classics: the Perfect From Now On LP; songs like “Car,” “You Were Right,” and the gorgeous, haunting “Randy Described Eternity.” He’d spearheaded and mastered his own brand of good-natured wide-striding heavily-layered swirling guitar-heroics-based indie rock. Now what?

What would it look like if Boise’s second-favorite export had something to prove?

San Francisco got the answer when Built To Spill took the stage at Slim’s.

Continue reading “Show Review: Built To Spill at Slim’s, 7/15/2010”

Show Review: Wakey!Wakey! with Wave Array and Doom Bird at Hotel Utah, 7/14/2010

My favorite Billboard chat was always the Heatseekers Chart. Defined generally as the best selling new artists, it was always the place to go if you wanted to hear someone before everyone else heard them. Blogs such as this one have pretty much destroyed the value of this chart, as now to hear someone first, you need to be the first person to Tweet about them. Well, I still enjoy this chart, and tonight, it led me to Wakey!Wakey!, a Brooklyn band that recently held down the #1 slot with their album, Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said the Last Time I Saw You …, as they played their first ever show in San Francisco. Continue reading “Show Review: Wakey!Wakey! with Wave Array and Doom Bird at Hotel Utah, 7/14/2010”

Show Review: Tool with Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 7/12/2010

no one is innocent (photo by Shannon Hazelip)

I will preface this review by stating a fact which, while well known to my friends and colleagues, is not widely expressed within my concert reviews, given their number and the scale of the bands that I go to see. This fact is a simple one: I loathe arena shows. I’m more specifically referring to any venue that seats over 10,000 people, although 7,000 — the capacity of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium — is pushing my limit to a mild degree. The fact of the matter is, however, that there will always be certain bands that are far, far too big to play in small clubs, large theaters, or even modest amphitheaters, and these bands will be reason enough for me to go, no matter the size of the venue. These bands will be the driving force behind the show that they put on; this is no festival with twenty acts, nor a set of competing giants wrestling for the title of “biggest rock god ever”. This is a band that has been around for nigh-on twenty years; in fact, the singer was heard tonight saying, “Pop quiz: how many of you are under 21? Really? Well, you weren’t even alive when this song was written.”

Who would this be? Tool, of course.

Continue reading “Show Review: Tool with Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 7/12/2010”

Show Review: Marina & The Diamonds at Popscene, 330 Ritch, 7/8/10

Marina&band — Marina & the Diamonds - Stripped down

Four songs into the set, Marina Diamandis, the songstress that is Marina & the Diamonds (the Diamonds being you, the fans, duh!) announces boldly that this is “the last chance you’ll get to see me like this.” Whether or not this is true, at this moment in time, Marina & the Diamonds is bigger than the packed dance floor of Popscene at 330 Ritch. Of course, Popscene is notorious for giving you the opportunity to say “I saw them when” but could Marina really back up her claim that she will be one of the greats, or will she just fade out once popular culture is done with her? Continue reading “Show Review: Marina & The Diamonds at Popscene, 330 Ritch, 7/8/10”

Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010

Co-written with Dakin Hardwick

Mates of State brought their “Summer Crushes” tour to Great American Music Hall last week to promote their newest project, a covers album called Crushes. But rather than just show up and play, they brought along a traveling variety show. At the end of the night, though, it was the joyful music of Mates of State that I’m going to remember. So what else was there? Continue reading “Show Review: Mates of State with Free Energy and Nick Thune at Great American Music Hall, 7/1/2010”

Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010

Kate Miller-Heidke welcomes you with open arms.

Being blown away by an opener is a rare and wonderful treat. It happened a couple months back when I saw Ben Folds at the Warfield Theater. His opener, and tonight’s headliner, was Kate Miller-Heidke. She’s an Australian singer-songwriter with considerable talents in both. She’s smart, too, because on the merch table at the Warfield was a slip of paper to take home letting everyone know she was playing Cafe Du Nord in the near future. Her newly minted fans took that paper and came out to Cafe Du Nord last night, ready to blown away again. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Miller-Heidke with Goh Nakamura at Cafe Du Nord, 6/22/2010”