Indie Sleaze 3 was a blast! July 6th at the Ottobar, slotting in right after the legendary Lydia’ Lunch’s band played an early show, was a fun combination of old and new heads. Click here for more photos on Flickr or check my Instagram (joshsisk). Probably will post a few more throughout the week on Insta as well.
Tag Archives: music
The Make-Up @ the Ottobar – 2024/07/02
The Make-Up played at the Ottobar, and what a great show! I hadn’t seen the Make-Up since they last played Baltimore (at Lith Hall – check out the photos from that show here) in 2013, I don’t believe. Maybe they haven’t even played since then, I don’t know? They sounded even better this time, I think, and the Sassiest Boy In America still has his stage moves down pat as well, which was heartening. Speaking of that infamous article, that is actually probably how I first heard of the Make-Up, and maybe even NoU, as I remember seeing a copy of that Sassy at at a friend’s house when it came out. In ’91 I would have already have gotten into hardcore like Minor Threat and so forth, I think, but Nation of Ulysses would have probably been too weird for me.
No appearance from The Vortex at the show, at least not in costume, but I hope he is okay whoever he is. (Incidentally, I drunkenly accused Jason Hamacher of being the Vortex once and he told me who it was, but now I forget). Incidentally, it’s really hard to Google the Vortex, so if you have any good Vortex pics or stories, please reply.
Anyway, here is A LINK TO ALL THE PHOTOS
LINKS ROUNDUP
Black Eyes @ the Dirtfarm, 2002
It’s kind of scary to realize that this was over twenty years ago… anyway, in the dim dark recesses of the past I used to book shows, generally either at the punk house I lived in in Adelphi, MD called THE DIRTFARM, or at Charm City Art Space or Warehouse Next Door.
Since there is an upcoming Black Eyes reunion, I figured I would dig some photos from one Black Eyes show at the Dirtfarm. I want to say they played there twice, but maybe it was just once, and it was a great show as I recall. All these photos are from the basement.
I had moved to the DC suburbs just the year before, and Black Eyes quickly became my favorite local band. I remember buying their seven-inch from them out of the back of a car at Fort Reno and after that, I have no idea how many times I saw them in various basements or group houses around the DC area in those years, and then finally, their last show at the Black Cat. Them breaking up seemed like an end of an era moment for me, along with a few other similar events, and I ended up moving to Baltimore not long after!
In the ensuing years their early 7″ songs and the first album especially have been something I come back to often, they really hold up, as does the second album, and are super evocative and nostalgic for me. Really happy to have booked a show of theirs at my house, and even more excited to be able to see them again soon, again at the Black Cat! Enjoy these photos!
NOTE: If anyone has any other photos from this show, or video, or a flyer, please reach out! I’ll add it here. Would love any other DIRTFARM related ephemera as well.
Photo Galleries: Check out all the BLACK EYES photos from this show on Flickr (remember Flickr?) | Here’s another Flickr gallery from that era that has other show photos from the Dirtfarm
Carly Rae Jepsen @ Fillmore – 2019/07/21
Sunday I photographed the Carly Rae Jepsen show at Fillmore Silver Spring for the Washington Post , and I was super excited for this because, for one, Carly Rae rules, and two I was quite sure she would be a great and photogenic performer. I was right! it was a great time, and she was a pleasure to watch – her and all her band/stage people all seemed to be having a great time, too, which was nice. I am not an expert on her music, so not much to add besides it’s nice to see a pop star that seems to have a great relationship with their fans and really seems to enjoy what they do – that’s surprisingly rare, I’ve found. A really fun night!
There are a bunch more photos in the album below, so check em out!
TRNSGNDR/VHS at the Walters Art Museum.
A little while back, I photographed Baltimore musician and artist TRNSGNDR/VHS at a special performance at the Walters Art Museum. It was part of the Art/Sound/Now series, which brings in artists to do site-specific performances in the Walters’ space. Quite an experience, it was interesting to see the crowd move in and out of the space full of classical works, while listening to Alexandra’s very contemporary piece.
READ THE ARTICLE ON BANDCAMP | SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT
We also did a quick portrait session before the show, and I like how some of the shots turned out…
Prurient & Chelsea Wolfe.
Been sitting on some older photos from Hopscotch Music Festival 2015. Hopscotch is one of my favorite music fests, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The close proximity of all the venues and the great staff and locals make it a super fun time, year after year… here are some photos of Prurient, one of the more famous noise artists. He played in the big opera house venue in downtown Raleigh, an odd setting for this performance, perhaps, but it was cool to see him there. I noticed the various ushers and staff of the venue shaking their heads in confusion – I assume they normally don’t host this kind of show there.
Right after this, at another venue, I got to check out Chelsea Wolfe, who I’d been waiting to see for quite awhile – great performance (with a guest appearance from Mike Sullivan from Russian Circles, pictured above). Her album Apokalypsis is one of my favorites, highly recommended!
Dope Body.
Enslaved & Yob @ Soundstage Baltimore
Consistently great metal shows at Baltimore Soundstage. I had never seen either of these bands before. Yob was a band I’ve heard alot and enjoy, thought they might have been a “relaxed” band life before I saw them, but the life show was good. Made me want to crank the albums up when I got home. Enslaved is a band I’d always heard a lot about, but wasn’t super familiar with – they were great! Amazing stage presence, with little to no ‘kult’ stuff that can sometimes be a little much with European bands. They loved the crowd and played to the crowd (and the photographers) perfectly, really great performance.
See all the ENSLAVED & YOB photos here | BUY PRINTS of my photos, including some from this show
Pharmakon & the Soft Pink Truth @ Metro.
PHARMAKON
THE SOFT PINK TRUTH (aka Drew Daniel)
Two of the most interesting people making experimental music today performed to a packed Metro Gallery last week. Pharmakon’s two full-lengths, Abandon and last year’s Bestial Burden, both made it to close the top of my best of lists in their respective years. She has a way of making challenging music that easily fits into the realm of noise but also is very listenable in a way that most music from that genre is not. “Listenable” is probably not the best way to describe the hellish soundscapes she creates, yet they are extremely captivating records that seems to be able to cross over to metal listeners as well as avant-garde/experimental. I’ve seen her perform three times now and each performance she seems to bring in new elements and work with the crowd aspect more and more – at Metro Gallery, she wound her way through the crowd, getting her microphone snagged on people and furniture, at one point the audience had to struggle and pull on the microphone cable en masse as she ascended back onto the stage – it was pretty interesting to watch.
Drew Daniel (of Matmos fame)’s the Soft Pink Truth project flew under my radar for many years, but when he announced that his most recent record would be a series of Black Metal interpretations entitled Why Do the Heathen Rage?, I took notice. It’s a really odd record, idiosyncratic electronic/dance versions of classic black metal tracks. And, lest you think Daniel is making fun of the genre… well, he is, sort of, but it’s the loving sort of jibe that comes from a true fan who has encyclopedic knowledge of his source material. The record won lots of accolades, including “Best Thing Ever” from the City Paper, and has led to several pretty amazing live performances, the latest of which is the one pictured above. Really unique artist that I recommend you go see if you have a chance.
VIEW ALL PHOTOS FROM PHARMAKON & THE SOFT PINK TRUTH HERE | SEE THE CITY PAPER GALLERY HERE
BUY PRINTS HERE (including a few from this show)
A389 Bash 2015.
HAYMAKER (look at A389 head honcho Dom’s expression in that last one)
Scaled down a little this year, but still a blast! I was only able to make it to half of the 4 shows that comprised this year’s event but still managed to catch a bunch of great performances, see some homies, and dodge some fireworks at Haymaker. Seeing them in that small, smoke-filled room was really a surreal highlight of my show-going so far this year.
VIEW ALL MY PHOTOS FROM A389 BASH 2015 HERE | Read my preview of the bash in City Paper
Odds & Ends: Thomas Dolby, Birth (Defects)
Uploaded some odds n’ ends last night, among which were included the above: photos from Thomas Dolby’s (of she blinded me with science fame) first DJ performance, which was at the Paradox in Baltimore, and photos from a Birth (Defects) show at the Wind-up space, among many more. I still post photos on my Flickr, because of ease of use and the fact that I just have such a huge library already there, so if you want the raw feed, follow me there.
A note about the Dolby DJ set- it was pretty disappointing, I must say. Partially because so much effort was spent on presentation, so I was expecting something pretty cool. He had a DJ booth set up like a machine gun emplacement, with sandbags and walls and stuff, and a big projection thing going. But his DJ selections were just standard 80s fare… nothing too bad or anything, but the song selection just didn’t match up to his level of art direction.
Marilyn Manson ‘The Pale Emperor’ Tour Opener.
I shot and wrote a thing for Noisey about the Marilyn Manson tour opener at the Fillmore… photos above, here is the text:
Yesterday, I got the all-clear to shoot the Marilyn Manson tour opener in scenic Silver Spring, Maryland. After a hiatus of sorts, my generation’s number one shock rocker is back with a comeback album, The Pale Emperor, and this show would be the first chance for live impressions. I’ve never been a Manson fan really; as a teenager, I liked some of the early songs like “Lunchbox,†and once saw him open for Nine Inch Nails, but by the time he hit full superstar mode, I was too busy listening to hardcore and screamo records to care very much about what Brian Warner was getting up to. Still, the guy is an icon—of course I wanted to see his show!
After navigating a line that literally wrapped around the block (later, I was told that concertgoers had started lining up twelve hours before doors), I went in expecting some serious 90s rockstar antics. I wasn’t disappointed. In a set filled with solid hits, Manson’s show also featured multiple costume changes (including four costume changes for the microphone itself), casual cockiness and furious anger at the sound guy, calls for fans to throw drugs on stage (he casually picked up one baggie containing an impressive amount of powder and filed it away in his back pocket for later), a contingent of women with their tops off and Manson lyrics written on their bodies, and of course, calls for the crowd to suck his dick. In true rock star fashion, any time he was done with an object—a microphone, an open bottle of water, a glass of liquor—he just let it drop to the ground, and someone would scurry over there to put it back in its rightful place without the show missing a beat.
After the show—which was entertaining enough to me, a non-fan, to stay until the end—the overall fan reaction seemed pretty ecstatic. One gothy teenager beamed at me and asked if I also thought that it had been the best concert ever. A few people I spoke to did say that they were disappointed with his vocals (though I must say that they sounded generally fine to me). I asked them if they thought that made the concert suck, and one of them replied enthusiastically, “No! Marilyn Manson can’t do a bad show!â€
Read WELCOME BACK TO THE DOPE SHOW: PHOTOS FROM MARILYN MANSON’S ‘THE PALE EMPEROR’ TOUR OPENER on Noisey | SEE ALL THE PHOTOS HERE
Cocksparrer in Baltimore.
Always amazing – one of my favorite bands of all time. So stoked to get to see them in my city. If you ever get the chance, don’t sleep. I almost skipped their Philly show in 2013 and it ended up being one of the best shows I have ever seen, and I see ALOT of shows. Classic band.
Municipal Waste, Torche, Nightbirds, War On Women & Old Lines.
STACKED show. Managed to see two of the best local punk bands opening for a pretty great array of touring bands. Fun night. Soundstage continues to kill it, show-wise.
Watain & Revenge @ Baltimore Soundstage..
Black metal legends Watain are always so good live. The times I’ve seen them before I was never able to get too close, either because of circumstances, fear of getting actual pig’s blood thrown on me/my equipment, or inebriation, but this time it worked out well. Blood was still there, but less than previous tours and you could still smell the scent of grave dirt as soon as they walked out on stage…
SEE ALL WATAIN & REVENGE PHOTOS HERE | Select images from this show are available as prints
FKA Twigs @ 9:30 Club
Wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but after an uninspiring set by an opener I hadn’t heard of before, FKA Twigs proved to be worthy of all the hype. The music she plays isn’t my thing, really, but she had the crowd in the palm of her hand and had a great stage setup as well. Fun show, she is going to be big.
SEE ALL MY FKA TWIGS PHOTOS HERE | Read the Wash Post review here
Nadastrom.
The other day I had an extra twenty minutes (literally) between a photo shoot and a train I needed to catch so I shot these photos of my old friends Dave Nada & Matt Nordstrom, who make dance music together as Nadastrom. We shot these close to U Street Music Hall before their monthly residency.
Check out more photos of Nadastrom from over the years here.