Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
QUINN CHRISTOPHERSON
“Welcome to the Fillmore,” the top-hatted greeter with gentle eyes said as their generous gloved hand-stretched an apple towards me. “Thank You.” Continue reading “Show Review: Thao with Black Belt Eagle Scout and Quinn Christopherson at The Fillmore, 5/7/22”
What is it that makes Future Islands great? Over fifteen years of consistent output has been compelling but can tend toward monotony. At first blush, the song lyrics are as boxy and obvious as the titles. The music is almost entirely devoid of melody. So what is it? Continue reading “Show Review: Future Islands with Oh, Rose at The Fillmore, 9/4/21”
Tonight was an intimate, unique, and heartwarming night of music at the Fillmore, despite being a little rough around the edges at times. Continue reading “Show Review: Wynonna & The Big Noise featuring Bob Weir and Cass McCombs, Christina Vane at The Fillmore, 2/6/2020”
When Entering the iconic SF Fillmore, you are immersed in the 60’s & 70’s rock n roll scene, familiar whether you were there or not. Technicolor posters swirled with psychedelic, lettering illegible to sober eyes, line the walls from floor to ceiling. Bill Graham’s spirit awaits guests at the top landing of the stairs with a barrel of shiny red apples — for free of course. Bill created the perfect container for musical adventurers. Continue reading “Show Review: Cass McCombs, Sam Evian at The Fillmore, 4/5/19”
The year is 1995. I’m a 15 year-old that was just starting to figure out my musical tastes. I learned that MTV had a two hour-long program at midnight early Monday mornings, that aired “underground” music videos. (Underground is in quotes because, as a grown up, I’m aware that you couldn’t be that far underground to be shown on corporate television). Due to school getting in the way, I would set the VCR to record these videos to watch later. The music from these programs became the primary thing that encoded my tastes for the rest of my life. Two videos that I would rewind and re-watch incessantly, were Liz Phair’s “Never Said” and “Supernova.” 23 years later, I am finally fulfilling that dream of getting to experience this musician, who’s had such an intense effect on my development, perform a full-length concert. Continue reading “Show Review: Liz Phair, Speedy Ortiz at The Fillmore, 9/20/18”
Kate Nash is somebody that too many people have forgotten about. She put out Made Of Bricks, a massive, brilliant record of bright, yet jaded, pop nearly 16 years ago. The kind of album Elvis Costello could have done if he had been a teenage girl. Her follow up, My Best Friend Is You, recast her as a garage punk heroine. She put away the piano, picked up the guitar, and managed to put out an even better record than her first one. It was such a departure from the first album that few fans followed, and with her name tied to the unfairly mocked “pop” genre, few fans of garage rock followed. This is OK, because this gave her the freedom to follow that with the riot grrrl flavored, lo-fi masterpiece, Girl Talk. And, just this last week, she followed up Girl Talk with yet another reinvention. Yesterday Was Forever is another lo-fi treat, with her signature sharp, biting lyric writing, fuzzy guitars, and adding in analog drum machine beats and trap-influenced syncopation, making a very surprising and highly listenable record. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash and Miya Folick at The Fillmore, 4/9/18”
Show date: January 19/20, 2018, 7:00 pm
Venue: The Fillmore
City: San Francisco
Do you know what today is? It’s June 13, yes – and that means today is the anniversary of the day that Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition caught sight of the Great Falls of the Missouri River for the first time. Bet that made for a pretty good day.
Speaking of finding things, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: low people, electric people, minimal people, and a trivia night hosted by the people in Spinning Platters. It’s looking pretty good out there!
So, let’s preview. Preview time. Preview time is go. Previews are starting now and we are going to start the previews now. Previews go!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-13 — 2017-06-18”
If you can believe it, five long years have passed since the last time that Japandroids came to San Francisco and took over The Fillmore, and it’s been far too long of a wait. Their 2012 work Celebration Rock marked a pivotal shift from their laden-with-chaos-and-noise debut tunes to the triumphant, thundering anthems that their singles are now gleaming with, and 2017’s Near To The Wild Heart Of Life continues in this fashion, offering up a slab of pieces full of vitality and potency — this time with the extra sheen of studio magic. Lest you be concerned that the slick sounds of overdubs have marred the energy level that the Vancouver duo are famous for possessing, worry not: if anything, their chemistry has reached an all-time high, their precise delivery pairing magnificently with the massive walls of sound they can tirelessly deliver. If Japandroids were tired at the end of the tour, there was no sign of such weariness at this performance.
It’s really hard to find a concert that was better, and more well-attended, than the 2012 show at the Warfield that marked the triumphant return of the Swedish hardcore giants known as Refused. Alumni and newcomers from all scenes of loud, angry music were found wandering the crowd en masse, and the band themselves, fresh off of their first gargantuan performance at Coachella, took the tinier stage they were offered and absolutely demolished any doubts held about their ability to still blow the minds of their audience. To this day, every time Refused has returned to the Bay Area, they acknowledge that performance as the one that actually convinced them to stay in the game. Singer Dennis Lyxzén regularly has stated that the gig brought them back down to earth, from the lofty, uncertain heights of trying to conquer the main stage down in Indio, and the energy expressed in every one of Refused’s shows since that time has always seemed to be a display of gratitude for that night. The question, then, was whether or not Refused would treat the early ’10s as their victory lap back in the race, or actually return with a new path to follow as an active band creating new art.
The answer, of course, is the latter — and they show no signs of slowing down.
