Both the best and worst spot at a Helio Sequence show.
When I arrived at The Independent on Thursday, I immediately took the spot in the front row immediately in front of the draped drum kit on stage right. I knew from past experience with Helio Sequence that this is both the best and worst spot to be when they play. It’s the best because you get to watch the crazy, happy faces of Benjamin Weikel as he slams away brilliantly on his drum kit. And it’s the worst because you’re really close to that drum kit. And it’s loud. Continue reading “Show Review: Helio Sequence with Slowdance at The Independent, 10/4/2012”
One of the most difficult challenges that can face a band is the task of replacing their lead singer, since they are often one of the most important elements of the band’s sound, as well as one of the most recognizable faces in the group. When said band performs a genre of music as complex as symphonic heavy metal, that task becomes even more Herculean, especially when said vocalist possesses an incredible range, classical training, and a truly operatic quality to their voice — and such was the case in 2005, when Finnish band Nightwish were searching for someone to fill the shoes of signature siren Tarja Turunen. Two years later, soubrette soprano Anette Olzon took up the reigns, and remained with the quartet for half a decade. Halfway through their fall 2012 tour, however, a sudden hospitalization was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back for Olzon’s position with Nightwish, and former After Forever vocalist Floor Jansen was summoned with barely a moment’s notice to spare. What the band may have planned after their Imaginaerum tour is still unknown, but Jansen has risen magnificently to the challenge before her, and if the band’s performance at the Warfield was any indication, she may remain with the group for a long time yet.
Perhaps due to the myriad of musical selections these days, there’s chance you haven’t heard of them, but young English rock duo, Blood Red Shoes, are on a mission to change that. Leaving their familiar Europe, they arrive almost two years to the day they first played the States, bringing their simplistic but powerful set to entice those who don’t know and incite those that do. In an area chock full of both local and visiting fresh talent, how would these Brighton, UK natives fare?
A reminder of a time when hands went in the air without phones in them. (All photos by Mark Portillo for SF Station.)
The biggest rock band in Japan played in San Francisco last night, and you may have missed it. While the band is a household name in the Japanese community, the jingoistic American music fans are likely to be at a loss about them. And that’s too bad, because you missed a killer show by a tight live band, with a surprise in store that made it even more special. Continue reading “Show Review: The B’z at The Warfield, 9/17/2012”
The iconic Outside Lands windmill greets all attendees at some point in the festival
Additional contributions to this article by Dakin Hardwick. All photos by Jonathan Pirro except where noted.
Summer is always slow and somewhat sporadic to come to the Bay Area, and with it comes a mostly dry spell of live music, with many large groups heading overseas for massive festivals and international tours, while California and the rest of the country relax and find other ways to enjoy themselves in whatever sun decides to creep over the land. The city of San Francisco is even more prone to aberrant weather and happenings, especially since right in the middle of August is the colossal technicolor monstrosity that is the annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. In 2012, the festival enters its fifth year of existence, and a crowd of 65,000 fans plowed into the historic Golden Gate Park each day of the surprisingly chilly and foggy weekend, which was relatively unexpected based on the forecasts from earlier in the week. However, with tickets sold out and a number of huge bands set to take the 4 stages across the three-day weekend, even dreary weather couldn’t dull the enthusiasm of the sprawling, voracious crowd that clambered into the park, and raised voices, fists, and flags in unison for over 10 hours of music each day.
Nostalgia about the ’80s is a weird thing. For some reason, the “kids” of today will talk endlessly about going to see Modern English at Cafe Du Nord, hoping they’ll play both “I Melt With You” and “I Melt With You ’88.” They’ll go see endless cover bands of their new wave heroes. But the modern story of this decade always seems to forget one of the singular songwriting talents, someone with several hits up his sleeves, someone whose “one person and a synthesizer” sound was once revolutionary and is now common. That someone is Howard Jones. Continue reading “Show Review: Howard Jones at The Mezzanine, 7/12/2012”
On this first night of a completely sold out tour, New Jersey’s Gaslight Anthem showed that they are ready for the big time that’s around the corner for them. They didn’t do this by focusing on material from their forthcoming album, Handwritten, but by blowing through nearly two hours of their infectious combination of punk, pop, “New Jersey,” new wave and Americana. And the crowd sang along, every word. Continue reading “Show Review: The Gaslight Anthem with Dave Hause at The Independent, 7/5/2012”
The Warped Tour found a new home in San Francisco this year, parking itself in Lot A of AT&T Park. Like its old home at Pier 30/32, there was a view of the water, and the Bay Bridge. Unlike Pier 30, there was not plenty of room to move around. This running of the Warped Tour was a hot, crowded mess; a maze of sponsor tents, clothing companies, and band merch. Interspersed throughout were several stages with bands giving their all, often to thousands of revelers, and other times to a mere handful. My goal, as always, was to sample as many bands as possible in 7 hours. Let’s see how I did. Continue reading “Warped Tour Diary: AT&T Park, Lot A, 6/23/2012”
Rising from the ashes of a former band can be a help or a hinderance to a new act that has cut their teeth in the music scene and is ready to unleash a fresh new set of tunes to the world. When you are as volatile and chaotic of an act as At The Drive-In, it can safely be said that people will be waiting to see where your musicians will head and what songs they will craft next. While the afro-clad frontmen of the El Paso post-hardcore quintet went on to form The Mars Volta, and burst back into the world with a mindbendingly-wild blend of fusion punk and Latin-flavored experimental prog rock, co-founder Jim Ward and drummer Tony Hajjar followed in their original band’s aggressive-but-pensive footsteps with the newly formed quartet known as Sparta. While both bands endured their respective sets of ups and downs in terms of popularity and following, and despite the titanic response of the reformation of At The Drive-In all but eclipsing the enthusiasm for their sister acts, Ward and his cohorts have lost none of the furious passion that drives the aptly-named four-piece, and on Monday night, they returned to San Francisco to prove just how excited they were to share their rekindled energy with their most devoted fans.
Don’t you hate it when you’ve totally been looking forward to an event and then when it actually rolls around, something comes up that completely hinders your ability to enjoy it as much as you’d planned to? Sadly, that was my experience Friday night last. The thing I look forward to is, of course, seeing great live music. In this particular case, it was Jay Nash I’d been anticipating seeing again, at the Red Devil Lounge. Jay’s newest EP, Of the Woods, was just released last week, so of course I was also excited to hear the new material.
