BottleRock Napa Valley...

Ahhhh, BottleRock. It’s hands-down my favorite time of year. What could be better than waking up to the sounds of fantastic headliners sound-checking from my open bedroom window? (This year, specifically, it happened twice: once with Imagine Dragons, and again with No Doubt. Not bad. Not bad at all.) Anyway, besides the excellent wake-up call, [&hellip

The Thrilling Adventure...

One of the best things about SF Sketchfest every year is getting to watch all the fantastic talent of The Thrilling Adventure Hour. For any unfamiliar with this show, it’s a live, staged version of an old time radio show, and it’s never failed to entertain me for all the years I’ve been there to [&hellip

Benson Movie Interruption:...

Would you judge me if I admit that I look forward to The Doug Benson Movie Interruption every year, because the only thing better than trash-talking your way through terrible movies is hearing some fantastically funny comedians do it for you? I admit, I always want a microphone, and maybe someday they’ll give me one, [&hellip

An Evening with...

Tony Lucca will always have a special place in my heart…and my career. I say that because it was just about this time four years ago that I wrote my first review for Spinning Platters. I had met editor Gordon Elgart not long prior and discussed writing for him, but it was completely spur of [&hellip

Nick Carter &...

If admitting that I’ve loved a boyband (one in particular, and pretty much only them) for my entire life makes me uncool, then so be it. I’m uncool. Having said that, I never really got into pop in the way many do. New Kids on the Block aside, there was only really ever one other [&hellip

An Outside Lands...

Day 3 proved to be the busiest day of the festival for me, and while it took me another full hour to find parking, it was unbelievably close and therefore worth waiting for. Even better, (well, for me, anyway) was that one band’s last minute cancellation pushed back the set for the first act I [&hellip

An Outside Lands...

Day 2 started off well-balanced: on one hand, I nabbed a great parking spot in less than ten minutes of arriving in the neighborhood. On the other, it was quite chilly all day. Thankfully, I’d dressed comfortably and had a hoodie with me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, it threatened rain [&hellip

An Outside Lands...

Ahhh, summer. What better time is there to put on your strangest clothes get out to the nearest park, desert, or fairgrounds for a festival of cool tunes, lovely weather, and all kinds of interesting food, wine, and beer choices? It’s one of my favorite things of the season, and this year I was invited [&hellip

Matt Nathanson &...

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit my folly: I was tardy to the Gavin DeGraw party. I mean really tardy. It’s not that I’d never heard of him or didn’t enjoy his music. It’s just that, for some reason, while my friends were all obsessing over him back in 2004 when he first came [&hellip