set list – Page 19 – Spinning Platters

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.

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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.

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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: Goldfrapp at The Fox Oakland 6/26/10

Alison Goldfrapp. Photo by Kara E. Murphy.

With everything that’s been going on lately on the job interview and contracting front, it’s almost a miracle that I found the time to get this review posted. I’m thrilled with the photos I took for the Goldfrapp show at Fox Theater this past Saturday evening and I’m hoping the words in the post can do the incendiary performance some justice.

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Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010

Bruce Maiden — He not only sings, he also flies the plane from gig to gig. Really.

Bruce Dickinson, British Airways pilot and lead singer of Iron Maiden, looked out into the crowd and commented on how many people were there at this sold out show.

“They told me there’s 12,500 people here tonight. Last night, we had 25,000. That’s a lot of people for an Iron Maiden concert. Perhaps we’re getting some spillover from Christina Aguilera canceling her tour.” Some laughed while other booed. It’s not spillover. For reasons that are apparent if you’re a fan, and ones I’ll explain to you, Iron Maiden has survived as a huge draw long after other metal bands have faded away. Continue reading “Show Review: Iron Maiden with Dream Theater at Concord Pavilion, 6/20/2010”

Show Review: Greg Behrendt’s “Bring The Rock”

Spinning Platters is, according to the banner, is a “Community Of Bay Area Music Nerds.” So when I learned of this show at Cobb’s, I got very excited. The premise is comedians telling stories about music, and singing a song relevant to the story with a live band. Of course, this event causes my music nerd soul to glow.
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Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010

Stars is one band that I like to think “gets it.” Their previous album, In Our Bedroom After the War, was released for sale the moment it was finished, letting their fans buy it before they were even offered the chance to download it. For their newest album, The Five Ghosts, they announced they were going to do a tour before the album “came out,” playing the entirety of the album. Not only that, but fans attending the shows could actually buy the album at the show as opposed to waiting for the release date. And to top it all off, each show had a website poll offering the chance for each city to pick the songs they wanted to hear in the remainder of the set. This is a band that gets how to interact with their fans in the new music economy. So how did it all go? Continue reading “Show Review: Stars with Dead Child Star at The Independent, 6/19/2010”

Show Review: LCD Soundsystem at The Fillmore, 6/3/10

It’s truly a pity that James Murphy, the man behind LCD Soundsystem and the legendary DFA record label, which has released all of the band’s material including their 2002 hit breakthrough single, “Losing My Edge,” has decided to pull the plug on what is inarguably one of the coolest, most transcendent musical outfits to emerge in the past decade.

Just as Jerry Seinfeld and the cast bowed out at their peak after a nine-year run with their hit television show, Seinfeld, Murphy has decided to call it quits after the same amount of time when fan interest is at its most fervent, dedicated level. Continue reading “Show Review: LCD Soundsystem at The Fillmore, 6/3/10”

Show Review: The xx, Phantogram at The Great American Music Hall, 6/1/10

In case you didn't know the name of the band...

Whenever a hot new band bursts on to the scene, there is inevitably a backlash. At some point, all of the critics, bloggers, and tastemakers that once adored a band eventually decide that they no longer have that affection they once did. They start calling the band boring, and then they start following something else. Although many people complain about the backlash, I think it’s time to embrace it. Because seeing a band during the backlash is the best time to see them. The people that are only at the show to brag about being at the show are gone, as well as the hipsters in the back that are only at the show because “they are supposed to be.” Instead, you get to really enjoy the music, and it feels really good to be in a room full of pure fans.

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