setlist – Page 22 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Marnie Stern, Grass Widow at The New Parish, 11/4/10

Marnie Stern us the kind of performer that people are desperate to describe in a single sentence. They usually toss together the name of a well known riot grrl band of some sort (Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, etc) with a highly skilled male musician (Eddie Van Halen, Robert Fripp, Les Claypool, etc). Although I understand how quick comparisons like this make it easy to market a musician, I feel that Ms. Stern is much greater than that. Her influences are widely varied, and her skill is incomparable.

The surprisingly small crowd on a surprisingly warm November night that came out to see her last night at The New Parish got to experience an impressive show of musical heroic, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

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Show Review: Two Days with Florence & The Machine

louder than sirens, louder than bells (photo by Anna Garcia)

In the past two years, a number of new artists have suddenly sprung out of the woodwork of obscurity and made headlines and huge sales numbers with their debut records. The staying power of these acts is often questionable; the general musical mood of the public at large shifts so quickly, so often, that it is even more difficult than ever to ensure that one is not lost in the tide. In the wake of diminishing record sales, a band must tour to really gain their followers, and must, at every single show, captivate and amaze their audience, leaving no doubt of their staying power within their minds.

For someone like Florence Welch, this is absolutely no contest. She has a voice that can move mountains.

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Show Review: Shakira at Oracle Arena, 10/22/10

Shakira first became known to most of the world in the late 90’s as Columbia’s answer to Alanis Morissette. She was young, very pretty, yet very angsty. She even had the same hairdo as Alanis. As time went on, she has managed to move far beyond this, both visually & sonically. She is now one of those rare celebrities is recognizable in nearly every country in the world, and has pulled off what very few people can do: She has managed to become a pop music superstar. And she did it in the last decade, at a time when nobody was breaking out into this kind of territory. Even more impressive is that she’s done it as a musician, not some sort of business person that has musician as one of several hyphenates. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a stage show from her, in fact it’s been about 4 years since her last tour, and 7 years since she last graced Oakland with her presence.

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Show Review: The Vaselines, The Dum Dum Girls at Great American Music Hall, 10/20/10

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.

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Show Review: Jónsi with Mountain Man at The Fox Oakland, 10/19/2010

Go scream, do shout // Make an earthquake (photo by Paige K. Parsons)

The Icelandic quartet known as Sigur Rós has offered its fans, and concertgoers everywhere, some of the most emotionally-gripping, beautifully destructive, and downright astonishing shows that they will ever experience in their lives. I personally cannot think of a single show that I have seen that came close to the breath-catching feet-out-from-under-me sensation that overwhelmed me the first time I watched the band perform, at a 2,000-seat theater in Marin — possibly the most intimate setting they have allowed themselves to be contained within on this side of the Atlantic. It is only natural, therefore, to expect a show of similar caliber from the solo career of Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson, the ethereal and mesmerizing vocalist of Sigur Rós.

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Show Review: The Corin Tucker Band w/ The Golden Bears at Great American Music Hall, 10/11/10

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.

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Show Review: Biffy Clyro with Picture Atlantic and New Diplomat at Rickshaw Stop, 9/28/2010

BiffyMuppet — Shirtless Muppets? Scotish rock band? You make the call!

Put a giant band in a small club in a faraway land, and you never know what you’re going to get, or who’s going to show up. I was surprised when I walked into the Rickshaw Stop to see the sort of people I wouldn’t expect at a hard rock show. In SF parlance, we call them “Marina types,” where I had thought the place to be filled with anglophiles and socially awkward rocker types. By the end of the night, all would become clear. There aren’t a lot of Biffy Clyro fans in San Francisco, and this show won’t go too far for upping that count. Continue reading “Show Review: Biffy Clyro with Picture Atlantic and New Diplomat at Rickshaw Stop, 9/28/2010”

Show Review: The Flaming Lips with Ariel Pink and Thee Oh Sees at The Fox Oakland, 10/1/2010

By this point in time, the average music fan who knows about The Flaming Lips and their colossal live shows has probably heard absolutely everything. This is not simply referring to the vast amount of positive-sounding adjectives and awestruck expressions on the faces of fans, but, moreso, the absolute hugeness of their performances. It seems only appropriate to give them as great a berth as possible, in order to have some hope of maintaining the glorious, wonderful chaos that is a Flaming Lips concert; thus, it was bizarre but also incredibly exciting to the Bay Area when the band announced that they would be playing in Oakland’s majestic Fox Theater. Demand was so high that tonight’s show sold out within days; this prompted a second date to be added, with a new set of opening acts. Frontman Wayne Coyne, in his pre-show address, commented that the theater was gorgeous, and that for their next tour, they would attempt to play on the ceiling itself.

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Show Review: X Japan with Vampires Everywhere! at The Fox Oakland, 9/28/2010

Toshi (vocals), Sugizo (guitar) and Yoshiki (drums) of X Japan

While there are many international artists who have made their way, as the expression goes, “across the pond” and have done well in America, most of them do so by bringing a similar formula of what is popular in today’s music and blending in before anyone realizes that they’re “not from ’round here.” The artists who stick to their own form of a creative mold and are unique and unchanging in their ways can either make or break their careers when they land on U.S. soil; some of them, indeed, will stay on the other side of the world for their entire career, despite the cult following that might have simmered into existence on this side of the States. Tonight, however, one of these artists not only came to this country for their first stateside tour, but it was on the tails of an incredible reunion tour after almost twelve years of absence from the musical world. For the first time in their career, X Japan, arguably one of the biggest acts in the country’s history, has come to the U.S. to tour — and boy, were we ready for them!

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Show Review: The Dirty Projectors, Dominique Young Unique at The Fillmore, 9/25/10

About 18 months ago, I saw TV On The Radio play a show at The Fox Theater. The opening band was a group called Dirty Projectors. I thought they had a lot of brilliant ideas, but seemed a bit “loose.” The songs never seemed to end, they just crashed, but they had some great singers and it looked like, once they took the time to solidify their sound, they were going to become great. A short while later, a record called Bitte Orca was released, a stunning blend of I-Three’s inspired reggae, 21st century classical composition and indie pop. It became my favorite record of 2009. I was curious to see how they would bring this sound to the live show, especially after seeing their live show before the finished the record. After three visits that sold out rather quickly, I finally got to see it.

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