setlist – Page 15 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Ty Segall with White Fence, Mikal Cronin and The Feeling Of Love at the Great American Music Hall, 3/2/2012

Put down your spiked hair. Pull those safety pins out of your pierced ears. Trade in the leather jacket, the studded belt, the plaid pants, the violently political message, the inability to enjoy anyone within your immediate proximity unless you’re physically engaged in violence towards them. But don’t stop enjoying yourself. This is not the place for the energy to drop, for the volume to descend, or for the spirit of radical thought to become extinguished. This is the place for two-minute songs and stagedivers and snarling fuzz and harrowing reverb, all compacted together into a stick of dynamite that keeps burning for almost five solid hours. This is the first stop on the tour for Ty Segall, a veteran to the Bay Area garage-folk-psych-rock scene, which, tonight, has taken up residence in the Great American Music Hall, and is here to demolish the foundations — both figuratively and a significant bit literally.

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Noise Pop Show Review: The Flaming Lips perform The Soft Bulletin at Bimbo’s 365 Club, 2/21/2012

Everything's explodin'! (photo by Paige K. Parsons)

Twenty years. For many fans in the live music scene, this is an impossible amount of time to fathom. The concert demographic, wide as it might be, generally seems to fall between teens and people in their 50s, and if you go twenty years back, you’ve got a whole group of people who weren’t even born yet, to those who were solidifying their first solid years of adulthood. The amount of music, live or otherwise, that has been recorded, performed, and otherwise created in that timespan is magnificent in its breadth and depth. For twenty years, the Noise Pop Festival has helped to bring acts of all leagues and backgrounds to the San Francisco music scene, peppering venues with marvelously-clashing lineups and intimate gatherings that blow the minds of even the most seasoned veterans of the club-hopping world. After twenty years, it’s good to know that the Bay Area can still be stunned, which happened when the Noise Pop folks pulled out their trump card of the 2012 lineup — The Flaming Lips were making an appearance at the barely-700-person-capacity Bimbo’s 365 Club, and were performing their magnum opus The Soft Bulletin from start to finish.

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Show Review: The Fray with Scars on 45 at The Fox Theater, 2/20/2012

P1020387 — The Fray's Ben (drums) and Isaac (atop the piano, singing his ass off)

The Fox Theater. Scars on 45. The Fray, live. A crowd that actually applauds with their hands more than with their voices. These are things that, until Monday night, I’d never before experienced. And all were, as it turned out, the beginning of a wonderful cure for a stereotypical “case of the Mondays.” Though I’ve been listening to The Fray for several years, this was my first chance to catch a show, and until last week, I’d never even heard of English opening band Scars on 45. They did, however, come highly recommended by a friend, and so I couldn’t wait for the show to start. Lucky for me, the lights went down promptly at 8:01 pm. Continue reading “Show Review: The Fray with Scars on 45 at The Fox Theater, 2/20/2012”

Show Review: Nikka Costa with Terraplane Sun at Red Devil Lounge, 2/12/2012

Why the world still has yet to catch on to what they’ve been missing all these years in Nikka Costa is a mystery to me, and frankly has been for more than a decade now. That said, though I wish her all the success in the world, I don’t really mind that she has a small-but-dedicated cult following rather than fans to fill arenas, because it allows me opportunities to see her in small venues like the Roxy in LA, the Independent here in SF, and this past weekend, the absolutely tiny Red Devil Lounge. Better still, I’m finally learning that if Ms. Costa is going to have an opening act, it’ll likely be a musician or band she’s chosen herself, as was the case with last night’s opener, Terraplane Sun. Continue reading “Show Review: Nikka Costa with Terraplane Sun at Red Devil Lounge, 2/12/2012”

Show Review: The Spinners at Yoshi’s – Jack London Square, 2/3/12

Spinners-Yoshi-2012_EAnderson-7163 — Photos By Emily Anderson

When we started Spinning Platters back in 2009, we really weren’t thinking about the fact that our name could remind people of two ground breaking, classic R&B groups. We were really trying to get at a pun on records, CD’s, and hard drives. I’m not sure where the trigger came from reminding us of The Platters and The Spinners, but I decided that we needed to be there the next time either act played. Due to legal reasons, it seems that the likelihood of a Platters show is slim, but when Yoshi’s announced a three night stint with The Spinners, well, I had to seize this moment.

Continue reading “Show Review: The Spinners at Yoshi’s — Jack London Square, 2/3/12”

Sketchfest Review: Reggie Watts, Garfunkel & Oates at Mezzanine, 2/1/12

Reggie7 — Singin' and Dancin' (All Photos by Marie Carney)

Some of the most talented people on earth hail from right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, we have so many uber-talented musicians, writers, comics, speakers, artists, chefs, and so on, that it’s easy to take them for granted. Reggie Watts is one of those performers. He seems to be performing all the time, and everyone in the bay area seems to swoon over him. Yet, I have yet to see him. It could be due to the fact that every show sells out, no matter what the venue. Which is also how Sketchfest was able to book him four nights in a row, also giving him the ability to indulge in whatever he pleases.

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Show Review: Wilco, White Denim at The Fox Theater – Oakland, 1/31/12

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.

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Sketchfest Review: An Evening With Ann Magnuson at Yoshi’s – Oakland, 1/24/12

Sketchfest brought made it’s way to Oakland for the first time. The performer that brought the fest across the incredibly long bridge was legendary performance artist Ann Magnuson, debuting her new show, A Salon des Beaux Arts for the Fin du Monde 2012. SpinningPlatters were lucky to be able to enjoy this intimate show at Oakland’s legendary jazz club/Japanese restaurant Yoshi’s.

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Show Review: Andy Grammer with Ryan Star and Rachel Platten at Great American Music Hall, 1/15/2012

Until recently, I barely knew the names Andy Grammer or Ryan Star. Rachel Platten, however, was a name I knew – I’d just seen her open for the musically delicious Keaton Simons back in October. Adorable, charming, and a catchy singer-songwriter, I made a mental note to review her set next time she came to the Bay Area. Which is how I found myself researching the likes of Ryan Star and headliner Andy Grammer last week, in preparation for last night’s show at SF’s Great American Music Hall. I knew a song or two from each guy (“Start a Fire” and “Breathe” from Mr. Star, and last year’s catchy hit “Keep Your Head Up” from Andy), all of which I liked enough to get excited to discover new tunes. As it turned out, the show would exceed my expectations tenfold. Continue reading “Show Review: Andy Grammer with Ryan Star and Rachel Platten at Great American Music Hall, 1/15/2012”

Show Review: Devo with The Punk Group at the Fillmore, 1/14/2012

While there is all manner of serious business involved in a tour, a concert, or even a single small show at a tiny club down the street, there’s no reason to think that the performers involved can’t have a sense of humor about their craft. To enter a career where one spends a great deal of time under a many-headed microscope, subject to all form of criticism and judgment, it’s a stifling gig to churn out a repetitive set, stick to the shadows, and keep your eyes to the floor as if you’re just waiting for the experience to end. It makes far more sense to abandon that sense of self-severity in the name of fun and celebration, to embrace the rock concert as the spectacle it has always been revered as, and to explode with enthusiasm for every minute of the evening. This is a job best suited for seasoned veterans, as well as musical acts that decide to live outside the realms of defined genres and formulaic sounds — and the Akron, Ohio quintet known as Devo proved themselves more than up to the task.

Continue reading “Show Review: Devo with The Punk Group at the Fillmore, 1/14/2012”