Two shows I shot for the post, both bands I hadn’t heard before. Imagine Dragons (playing at the Fillmore) were super energetic live, or at least the singer was, but not really to my taste. Veronica Falls (playing at the Black Cat), however, I loved. Very poppy indie rock with melodic vocals… I thought they would fit in opening for the Smiths in the 1980s, or something. Check them out!
I was lucky enough to have my photo of SUNN O))) at Hopscotch Music Festival selected as #5 on SPIN’s Top Music Photos of 2012. Pretty cool.
This was my first time at Hopscotch, and I had a blast. A really cool, eclectic festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is a nice town. All the fest venues are fairly close together in or around downtown, so it’s really low pressure, very fun and easy to see alot. I’ll definitely be back. Click on to see my favorite shots (as always, mouseover to see the band names). Continue reading
This year’s Scapescape was a blast. Bigger than any previous year, hosted in Station North, with 4 stages over 3 nights with 80+ bands, and for a low price of $20. Click on to see the rest of my favorite photos. Continue reading
Every year local neer-do-well Dustin Diamond has a cover band show at the Talking Head… well, next year it will have to be somewhere else, sadly, but it’s historically a great time. Different Baltimore bands or mixtures of Baltimore bands get together and do cover sets. This year among the bands were Fairies Wear Beards, which featured most of The Pilgrim doing Black Sabbath songs, and PISS, which featured most of Murder + Josh Seipp (formerly of Triac and Maudlin of the Well) and Matt Gabs from the Biters doing KISS covers… in full make-up! Continue reading
Another fun Unregistered Nurse joint. See all the photos from this show here. Continue reading
I went into this show not sure what to expect – I knew Little Richard was old, I hadn’t heard about him playing any shows in recent years… but was pleasantly surprised overall by what I saw and heard. Sure, it was a little sad that he was brought out on a bench, unable to walk on his own, and he certainly seemed a little fragile – but his charisma and voice were still there, and he cracked jokes with the audience and told anecdotes, and with a iconic artist like this, that’s half of what you hope to see at their show. Backed by a great (and large) band, the music sounded great, too. See more of my Little Richard photos from the Howard Theater here.
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Fun night! Sprayer are one of my favorite local groups to see right now, and Balaclavas were really good as well. Unregistered Nurse continues to kill it! See all the photos from this show here!
I screwed up and forgot my camera battery (violated the “always take a picture before you leave the house” rule) and had to go home, thus missing Nobunny, who opened this show. Always check your gear before you leave the house! Even with that misstep, this was a fun show, with a great set by Natural Child (even with a few technical difficulties) and a crazy, chaotic set by Hunx & His Punx, with the kids in the crowd going crazy the whole time. Click here to see more photos from the show and the inevitable after party.
Look at GSP go in that second photo! Whew, this is the end of my SXSW posts, this year I managed to finish before leaving for the following year’s fest, at least! This may be a first for me… See more shots from this show, and more, in my SXSW Day 3 set.
Finally clearing the vaults of the last of my SXSW 2012 photos… to see more shots of A$AP Rocky and/or Spank Rock (plus plenty of others), click here.
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Eyehategod crowd shot from 2010.
Reunited in 2011, with City Paper cover.
For the last near-decade, Maryland Death Fest has been a Baltimore Institution, bringing the best current and historic extreme metal bands to Sonar in Baltimore to play for thousands of fans. It’s literally the best and most interesting metal related event in the US. Spanning over several days (4 this year), dozens of bands play to a crowd of thousands, who travel from all over the world to be there. Because of it’s prominence, many bands choose to reunite to play it, or have their last show there, or play for the first/last/only time in the US there. Basically, it’s an amazing event. And this year’s, the TENTH Annual, starts thursday and last til sunday. For a list of bands and set times, click here. Here are some of my favorite shots from the last several years: Continue reading
Last weekend, checked out the Sweetlife Fest at Merriweather Post Pavilion for the Baltimore Sun… a rainy, dreary day but the kids in attendance could not be deterred… lots of smiling youths who were partying HARD. Also, some pretty great food courtesy of local vendors (I had a Toki Underground pho dog, myself… yum!) Weird to see Kid Cudi rocking a huge stage at an arena, last time I saw him was a little more intimate…
Check all my photos from Sweetlife! (there are alot more than above, including other bands like Delta Spirit & Explosions In The Sky).
Another fun Unregistered Nurse show at the Golden West! i didn’t take too many of Quintron though, it was too crazy during his set… him and Miss Pussycat are always so fun to see!
This was a great show… to celebrate the release of Ed Schrader’s Music Beat’s new album JAZZ MIND, out now on Load Records (it is great, you should get it!).
Black Pus is Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Mindflayer, drawing comic books)’s one man drums+electronics band, and it was really fun… the crowd went crazy for him and his wall of sound, constantly stage-diving and dancing. One girl next to me went up easily 12 times in a row… pretty fun. Even Chester got into the action!
Ed and Devin’s set was energetic and awesome… everyone singing along, dancing, the crowd spill forward onto the stage over and over… there was an amazing moment when the power died and Ed led the crowd in a capella version of Air Show, which was just awesome to have happen.
See all the Black Pus & Ed Schrader photos from Floristree here!
Wow. I had never heard of this band before, though I realized once I was there that I had heard their hit single “Tonight Tonight”, but WOW. This was the first show I have been to where the crowd (comprised mostly of teenage girls) was louder than the music… much louder. A sold out 9:30, all screaming in unison, without much pause! Pretty wild.
Trying to get all these SXSW photos out the door… but I keep taking more photos. It’s a never ending cycle… anyway, I saw Lower Dens play a day show at SXSW for the Sun. One of my favorite new Baltimore bands, really looking forward to their next record. The out of crowd town seemed to love them too, based on the response from the large crowd at this early show.
I had never even heard of this band when I shot them the other day for the Post, but they had a good sound and the singer/guitarist Brittany Howard has a great voice and really strong stage presence… this was fun.
See the rest of the Alabama Shakes photos (and others) in my APRIL SHOWS set.
This was a pretty great time. No openers, just Bruce & the band. I can’t say I am a deep cuts-style Springsteen fan, but I of course like many of his songs and he is an icon… it was great to get to shoot this for the Post. And the (sold out) crowd loved him, as you would expect.
