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Last weekend, I shot HFStival, which used to be a big deal music festival in Maryland but disappeared for half a decade or so… they are trying to bring it back. It was mostly 90s bands, with one exception… BILLY IDOL, who ruled the main stage (even though he wasn’t officially the headliner). It was awesome seeing him, he is still in great shape… eerily so, actually. Between this and seeing Joan Jett this past weekend, I am in the midst of an early 80s revival.

view the whole HFStival photo set

This is one of the only concerts I have been to where the opening act absolutely flattened the headliner. Janelle Monae was amazing, energetic, charismatic, and dominated this show. Of Montreal were focused more on their complicated stage show, which just fell flat… a shame. In summary, go see Janelle Monae if you get a chance.

view the whole photo set here | read the SPIN review here

After seeing Double Dagger & Sick Weapons at Hampden Fest, we high-tailed it over to Merriweather Post because I got a last minute assignment to shoot the Vampire Weekend show with Beach House and the Dum Dum Girls. I’d seen all them before, but never at Merriweather, which is one of my favorite places to shoot. We had to race in due to some issues with my friends’ passes, so I only got to shoot one song of Dum Dum Girls, but I got a few good shots. It was really surreal seeing Beach House, who I first saw play on the street in front of the old talking head, playing on that stage to 10,000s of people… but they did good, and had a nice stage setup and a few new touring members to fill out their sound. Vampire Weekend… was Vampire Weekend.

view the VW/BH/DDG photo set here.

A few weekends back, I managed to go see Hollywood wreck the Golden West, then check out Dave Nada’s last Taxlo before he moves to LA to become a famous record producer, then Hampden Fest to see Double Dagger and Sick Weapons. (And THEN I went to shoot Vampire Weekend/Beach House/Dum Dum Girls, which I will post in it’s own blog entry soon). What a weekend, I love Baltimore.

see the Hampdenfest set here | see the Hollywood photo set here | see the Dave Nada going away set here – also posted in different form on BYT

I had never seen Fucked Up before, but this was a good show… the singer Damian is, of course, well-known for his antics and he didn’t disappoint this night, jumping in the crowd, wrestling people, pouring hot wax on himself… but the most interesting thing about it was he did all that while managing to retain a personal-feeling connection with the crowd… it didn’t really feel like a STUNT, it just felt like he was goofing off, and we could, too. Fun time, go see them if you haven’t.

view the whole Fucked Up photo set | read the Wahsington Post review

I like a few of Best Coast songs, but don’t know much about them… I think this was a pretty common sentiment among the crowd, which was sold out, but alot of people seemed unfamiliar with them, and just going on the strength of a few really catchy songs. They sounded pretty good, but I think I’d rather see this band outside where i could lay on some grass. Aslo some of the people at this show were realllllly drunk and annoying. Not the band or the venues fault, of course…

see the whole Best Coast photo set | read the Washington Post review

This was my first time at Iota in Arlington, VA, I believe, nice little place. The show was nice and relaxed, not too crowded and Jim kept telling us stories about the songs so it felt like we were just all hanging out together, not at a show.

When I went back to my car, these guys were sitting on it and we joked around about how they were doing me a favor by cleaning that spot (my car is pretty dusty).

View the whole set | read the Washington Post review

I shot a couple of pictures OF Pig Destroyer (mostly avoiding) working on their new record for Decibel magazine. Check out some more photos here.

Fun/ridiculous night. View the whole photo set here.

Last week I saw the Oxes play a reunion show at the Wind-Up Space in Baltimore. It’s a cool spot that my friend Russell owns, it has a very different interior design than most bars/clubs, in that it is super clean and fairly well lit, but I like it. The Oxes were awesome… I never really saw them when they were a going concern, but I have seen them a few times at reunions over the years and they are always awesome.

view all my Oxes shots here

in other news…

Nerve City, at the Golden West. Shot this for Dana’s Unregistered Nurse Booking.