Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
There were more reasons to visit The Greek Theater last Saturday night than a mere love of ampersands. It was a rare night at The Greek where the weather was absolutely perfect- not too warm, not too cold. The early signs of the upcoming “Super Moon” were in the the sky. The crowd, a bit older than expected, and happily ironic mustache-free, arrived early enough to make sure they enjoyed every act on the bill.
Live 105 has managed to put together, once again, a fantastic line up for their annual holiday spectacular. So much so, that they had to split it into two days. One day was a bit more “new wave” oriented, and another day was purely guitar driven. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to check out the first night, the “guitar” night. It was, surprisingly, one of the most interesting and diverse arena rock shows I’ve ever been to, filed with a wide array of guitar music, from acoustic folk to earnest, working class punk, all the way to classic blues rock. I don’t know how they are going to one up this one:
Continue reading “Show Review: Live 105’s Not So Silent Night at Oracle Arena, 12/7/12”
I first stumbled across Japandroids while waiting to see No Age at SXSW in 2010. These were a bunch of noisey rock duos playing a venue that was normally set aside for DJ dancing. The sound guy had no idea as to how to deal with a band. As Japandroids were doing their line check, the sound guy yelled into the PA, seemingly frustrated to no end:
“That’s Loud As Shit!”
The singer / guitarist responded, even more upset, “IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE LOUD AS SHIT!!!”
That’s when I knew that this band was going to be great. And they killed it. And, finally, three years later, they are playing the legendary Fillmore Auditorium. Few bands deserve this honor as much as these guys do.
Continue reading “Show Review: Japandroids with Bleached at The Filmore, 11/12/12”
When The Whole Love was released late last year, I believe that anyone that heard it knew that it was a record that was screaming for a tour. Of course, when it came out, instead of doing a big road show, they opted to play midsize theaters, locking out only the folks with the fastest internet connections or the pockets deep enough to purchase from a scalper. It took almost a year for these guys to finally book a full fledged tour, playing these songs the way they should be played- outdoors, in front of thousands of people. I guess they needed to really get to know these songs before playing them on the big stages. The wait paid off.
Continue reading “Show Review: Wilco with Cibo Matto at The Greek Theater — UC Berkeley, 9/21/12”
It’s been a few years since Jenny Lewis last graced our presence. In the two years since the release of I’m Having Fun Now, her Rilo Kiley bandmate Blake Sennett declared the band broken up, and her first ever acoustic tour (which would have included her first appearance at Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit) ended up getting derailed due to a family emergency. When she finally returned to San Francisco, so booked the incredibly intimate and historic Swedish American Hall, and it sold out in moments. Since this show was initially announced in late Summer of 2011, people have been waiting almost a year for this show. This show was a big deal.
Continue reading “Show Review: Jenny Lewis with Nik Freitas at Swedish American Hall, 6/16/12”
The success of Chicago experimental-alt.country-indie rock combo Wilco really defies the conventions of a successful rock band. Where most bands become as big as they will get within about 5 years of performing, these guys seem to get bigger and bigger every year. At nearly 20 years into their career, they are doing a “small venue” tour of 3,000 seat theaters, and each date on this tour seemingly sold out in minutes. SpinningPlatters were lucky enough to check them out on the third night of a mini Bay Area tour, where the hit San Jose and San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Continue reading “Show Review: Wilco, White Denim at The Fox Theater — Oakland, 1/31/12”
Every once in a while, something completely out of left field comes into your vision, often times unexpectedly. Yelle were one of those bands for me. I was at SXSW, and I wasn’t sure what I was in the mood for. Then, I stumbled across a crowded room and got to experience wonderfully high energy performance. The room was far too crowded to enter, but I was able to catch some of it through an open window. I couldn’t tell what language the music was in, and I had to fight a little to find out what I was listening to, but once I did, I made careful note of who it was. I checked out their SXSW schedule, and proceeded to try to get into one of their many sets, in order to actually get to “watch” the band, but to no avail.
Continue reading “Show Review: Yelle at Mezzanine, 11/12/11”
One of my favorite experiments is to go see a band that I know nothing about. Usually this tends to be a low key affair, in a small venue somewhere. It’s rare for a band to play a venue in the 3,000+ capacity range that I’ve managed to miss. Although it can easily be a gamble, the pay off can be great. On the warm Indian Summer night, I took the new band challenge.
The Vaselines are a band from a very different musical era. They are a hard-to-define band from a period of time when it was difficult to find bands that you couldn’t easily market to people. They didn’t really do punk rock, they don’t really do folk music, they aren’t a new wave band, they are merely themselves. They put out a few ep’s in the 80’s, and were supposed to fade away into obscurity. That was, of course, until a young man managed to come across some imports in his local record store, became entranced by them, and ended up covering not 1, not 2, but 3 of their songs with a little rock trio that became one of the most influential bands of all time.
They officially broke up in 1990, but played a few shows in the early 90’s supporting Nirvana in Europe. Then, in 2008, they decided to reunite at the urging of another influential band from the 90’s. This time it was Belle & Sebastian urging this band back into the limelight. After all, their blend of girl group, twee, punk and lyrics that would make Luther Campbell blush is something the world will finally be ready for. And, at the Great American Music Hall, we experienced what that band sounds like today.
I need to level with you, my loyal readers. Sleater-Kinney is my favorite band. End of story. I have seen them more times than any other band, and, quite happily, only once has seen them as a support act. (As sub-headliner at This Is Not A Festival in 1999)
Since their hiatus began in 2006, I’ve been eagerly awaiting some musical output by the band members. Yes, Janet Weiss has been putting out Quasi records at the same frequency, but her SK-time has been devoted to Stephen Malkmus and Bright Eyes session work. Carrie Brownstein has been writing and doing comedy, amongst other things. But, Corin Tucker has been quiet, at least comparatively so. She’s made a handful of public appearance, but for the most part, she’s been the reclusive one.
This year, Corin Tucker finally put out a solo record, and then pulled together a band to do a short tour in support of it. I’m equal parts excited and worried that it’s not going to be up to expectations.