Tag: Slipknot

Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.

Review and All Photos by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF 
Additional interviews and content here by: Emily Anderson @wisefoolfilms

For decades, Europe has led the way in the heavy metal and loud rock music festival space. Monsters of Rock (the originator, which started in 1980!), Wacken Open Air, Dynamo Open Air, Hellfest, Graspop, Copenhell, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Summer Breeze, Sweden Rock Fest and Download have always dominated the landscape with their amazing lineups year after year. 

United States was never close in offering an equivalent heavy metal experience. Sure, there was Ozzfest and Mayhem Festival, but those have been gone since 2017 and 2015 and Americans have always leaned more towards indie rock music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonaroo, and Outside Lands anyway.

For the last twelve or so years, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) has been chipping away at the supremacy of the European heavy metal festivals, with Welcome To Rockville, Louder Than Life, Sonic Temple, Inkcarceration, Rock on the Range, Rocklahoma, Carolina Rebellion, and Northern California’s very own Aftershock Festival. With the best lineup it has ever had, West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival definitely lived up to its name in 2024!

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Aftershock 2022: What you do not want to miss!

It’s not often that we leave the breezy confines of the San Francisco Bay Area, but on occasion, we like to venture outside of our comfort zone, and the annual Fall festival in Sacramento known as Aftershock is one huge reason to do so.  They definitely didn’t hold back on the lineup this year, and it looks like a great opportunity to go and show off all the black t-shirts that we’ve collected over the past year of catching up on live events.  Like any other music festival with multiple stages and dozens of bands, Aftershock doesn’t happen without a bit of scheduling conflicts that will make it impossible to try to decide which barricade to consider posting up on.  Fear not though, as Spinning Platters will attempt to breakdown any major conflicts and present reasonably valid reasons to choose one band over another throughout the four-day weekend. 

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A local stagehand’s review of Slipknot’s Knotfest Roadshow at Shoreline, 7/26/19

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

After a few days of rehearsals at Toyota Amphitheatre in nearby Wheatland to figure out how to put together their massive stage set, Slipknot‘s Knotfest Roadshow officially kicked off at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on July 26. Joining Slipknot was an international array of metal including Volbeat (Denmark), Gojira (France), and Behemoth (Poland).

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Show Review: Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater, 7/1/12

I think these guys may have been part of the Christian organization protesting the show from the parking lot. (All Photos by Alan Ralph)

 

I don’t listen to heavy metal music very often. There are two or three records that I pull out on rare occasion to fill a certain void, but at no time would I consider myself part of the movement. So, when the opportunity fell in my lap to cover Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, I wasn’t entirely sure if I was the right man for the job. But, I do really like Motörhead, and life isn’t about doing the safe thing. So, I decided to throw caution to the wind and see what happens when I spend an entire day absorbed in the metallic crunch of a heavy metal show. I put on my most “metal” of t-shirts, which was, most ironically, a Yelle T-shirt that was all black and had “Dance Or Die” written in bold red.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 6/28/12 – 7/4/12

Appearing at the Mountain Winery on Thursday

Happy Independence Day! That’s why you are getting the rare list where nearly every band is from the US. And the only English band has an umlaut in it’s name.  Alright, enough chatter:

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