setlist – Page 21 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Tony Lucca with Joey Ryan at Cafe Du Nord, 2/8/2011

His name is Lucca. No idea if he lives on the second floor.

Of all of the LA-based singer-songwriters I enjoy seeing live, Tony Lucca is perhaps my favorite. While his peers seem content to bask in the sun, studio, or local LA venues, Tony faithfully treks up to the Bay to play for his “neighbors” on a regular basis. Furthermore, his show is sure to be a crowd pleaser, as he’s literally got something for everyone. Face-melting vocals? Check. Sincere, relatable, clever lyrics? Check. Rockin’ guitar skills? Check. Wit and charm to spare? Check. Former-Mousketeer good looks? Check.
Wait. What? Yes, you read that right, so let’s get it out of the way now: as a teenager, Tony was part of the Disney Channel’s MMC cast, alongside the other smiling faces of Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, and Justin Timberlake. As an adult, however, he’s been steadily working as a solo artist since 1997. Since 2006’s Canyon Songs, he has toured steadily, sharing the stage with other talents like Tyrone Wells, Keaton Simons, Curtis Peoples, and most recently, Matt Duke and Jay Nash (with whom he released the excellent TFDI EP).

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Sketchfest Review: Music Night at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/29/11

Garfunkel-&-Oates- — The real stars of Music Night: Garfunkel & Oates

I chose Music Night as my finale to a wonderful Sketchfest mostly because of my long-term fangirl love for Chris Hardwick (I even watched Shipmates back in the day, Shipmates!). So, just like the night before for the Nerdist Podcast, I got to Cobb’s early hoping to be right up front. I was rewarded with a front row seat for one of the best and funniest nights I’ve ever seen. With so much talent on stage: Mike Phirman, Eli Braden, Zach Selwyn, Garfunkel & Oates, David Koechner doing 10-20 minute sets each and Chris Hardwick MC-ing, it was bound to be non-stop entertainment. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Music Night at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/29/11”

Sketchfest Review: The Dave Hill Explosion at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/16/11

Moby, the famous pacifist, finally breaks and attacks Dave Hill

The attendance at this show was a little light. It might be because the show happened on a Sunday night. It might also be that few people in the west coast are aware of the genius of Dave Hill. Maybe people were just thrown off by the notion of Moby being involved in comedy. No matter how you slice or dice it, for the 2nd year straight, people really missed out on one of the best shows in Sketchfest.

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Show Review: The Velvet Teen with Silian Rail at Bottom of the Hill, 1/7/11

The Velvet Teen is a force of indie-noise-pop-rock to be reckoned with that everyone should know about. This is something I spent years of my youth slowly convincing all my friends of, and now, finally, this show proved that people have been listening. Bottom of the Hill was packed before the first band even started playing and the energy in the room was palpable. There was no question that something great was about to be heard. Continue reading

Show Review: The Dresden Dolls with Pomplamoose at The Warfield, 12/31/2010

Forget what you thought you knew about how to celebrate for the beginning of a new year. Forget what you thought could happen with two Bostonians, a collective of YouTube musicians, a pile of balloons, two cannons of confetti, and two thousand lovers of punk cabaret. If you were not one of the aforementioned fans that filled San Francisco’s Warfield Theater to nigh-overflowing to see the triumphant Bay Area return of the Dresden Dolls, you missed one of the greatest shows in the band’s career, and one of the best shows of 2010, and, quite likely, 2011 as well.

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Show Review: X-Mas with X (An Evening With) and Ray Manzarek at Slim’s, 12/28/2010

John Doe of X and Ray Manzarek of The Doors

As 2010 comes to a glorious end, it’s once again that time of year for annual traditions. While the New Years’ Eve shows will be gigantic and exciting, and the late November / early December weeks are filled with last-minute surprise gigs, it’s good to have a few things that can always be counted on to keep up that holiday spirit. Of course, this is not to say that said traditions can’t be spiced up with a few new flavors added to the recipe, and the Los Angeles punk quartet known as X returned to Slim’s this year to prove it.

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Show Review: Live 105 Not So Silent Night with Smashing Pumpkins, My Chemical Romance, Phoenix, The Black Keys and Broken Bells at HP Pavillion 12/10/10

MCR_fullbandpose — My Chemical Romance poses for the cameras

Not So Silent Night really lived up to its name this year. It was loud and booming in the half empty HP Pavillion in San Jose. Unfortunately this made for some pretty bad sound, especially from the back of the room. Why it was so empty I have no idea as the line up of Broken Bells, The Black Keys, Phoenix and My Chemical Romance seemed like they could draw a crowd (yes I’m leaving Smashing Pumpkins out on purpose). Or was this a case of just too many disparate bands? Continue reading “Show Review: Live 105 Not So Silent Night with Smashing Pumpkins, My Chemical Romance, Phoenix, The Black Keys and Broken Bells at HP Pavillion 12/10/10”

Show Review: Peter Hook and The Light performing Unknown Pleasures at The Mezzanine, 12/10/2010

2010 has been a year for a different kind of performance: the full-album gig. While not necessarily filled with the same wonder and anticipation that your more common setlist will contain, a full-album set guarantees the kind of rapt excitement that comes with knowing that your favorite songs from that record will all be played, and the surprises at the end of the set become that much more exciting. There have been a few artists who selected the albums that truly defined their careers — Weezer performed their classics, the Blue Album and Pinkerton, and Roger Waters recreated The Wall with modernized visuals and ideas, capturing much of the same excitement and wonder that had accompanied the album upon its release in 1979. In the case of Peter Hook, co-founder and bass guitarist of the seminal post-punk masters Joy Division and New Order, Friday night’s performance at the Mezzanine was truly the best time and place for a full performance of Unknown Pleasures, the album that began Joy Division’s career, and the only record to be released before the death of their singer, Ian Curtis, in 1980.

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Show Review: Wild Flag with Grass Widow and Royal Baths at Bottom of the Hill, 11/18/2010

Mary Timony, Janet Weiss, and Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag. All photos by Christopher Rogers.

WOW.

Wild Flag, the much-buzzed new supergroup featuring Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Mary Timony of Helium, Janet Weiss of S-K and Quasi, and Rebecca Cole of The Minders, made their Bay Area debut last night. And what a debut it was.

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Show Review: A Perfect Circle performing eMOTIVe at The Fillmore, 11/18/2010

As massive undertakings go, a tour focused around three-show residencies, full-album sets, and no-opener-just-what-you-paid-to-see performances is pretty high up on the list. The ante is upped even further when the third night of said shows is focused on an album entirely comprised of cover songs — most of which, according to the band tonight, had never been played live before. The thousand-plus fans that showed up to witness A Perfect Circle perform these songs at the final night of their Fillmore residency reacted to such a statement with awe and applause — while all good things must, eventually, come to an end, the precision and care that the band emphasized in tonight’s show helped their stay come to a brilliant conclusion, and the crowd was all the more excited to witness it.

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