Outside of the Grand Prix, a group of citizens gather to protest the handling of the shooting of Officer William H Torbit, a Baltimore City Police officer who was shot and killed by fellow police in front of a nightclub early in the morning of January 9th, 2011. Last month, an investigation cleared police involved in the shooting – which involved 42 shots fired in front of the nightclub, of any criminal charges.
This past weekend was the first Baltimore Grand Prix event, currently planned to be held every Labor Day weekend for the next 5 years. I was there for the City Paper and managed to try and soak up some of the race, my first. It seemed very crowded, at least on the actual race day, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I heard some grumblings that some of the businesses of the Inner Harbor were seeing less foot traffic due to the race, but it’s hard to say. One thing I can say for sure is that people were covering every possible surface:
A few weeks back, I shot some portraits/promo shots for my friends, DC-based group Volta Bureau (featuring Will Eastman, OutputMessage, and Micah Vellian), to help promote their first release, Hope. Did you know they are named after a historical place in DC?
You can see more of my photos of Volta Bureau (and many others) in my Portraits & Promo Shots gallery.
What a fun show! A combination “back to school”/”Dan’s birthday” show, 350 or so people packed into the parking lot behind Current Gallery at 6pm sharp and got to see great sets by 3 local acts. What Cheer Brigade also played, and were great! They are a 12+ piece brass band from Rhode Island… really fun to see live. They stressed that everyone should be there on time or they would be sold out, which ruled, show started on time, ended on time. The rain managed to MOSTLY hold off, and we got to see an acapella performance by Future Islands after Garrett’s laptop shorted out from the drizzle… hopefully it’s okay. All fun!
Continuing in the trend of photos that I haven’t posted for months, here are shots from the Death Set’s matinee show at the Windup Space a few months back, during Death Fest weekend. Always fun to see these boys. Also included are some shots of Eyeball Skeleton and Adventure (with Mark Brown). And the lovable Russ & Gonz from the Windup Space.
Way late on posting these pictures! In July, Animal Collective finally played Merriweather Post Pavilion, the venue for which they named their breakthrough album. I covered it for the Baltimore Sun and SPIN. It was a great show, with some amazing stage decoration and lighting. They played mostly new material, but the crowd seemed mostly into it.
Just got back from Miller’s Island with J.M. Giordano, he was out there on assignment and I tagged along and snapped some incidental shots… Not great shots but it was raining so hard I literally couldn’t see! The wind and rain here was way stronger than in the city – when we got back in the car we heard they were starting voluntary evacuation of the island. It flooded badly during Isobel. Stay safe out there.
This past weekend I walked around the city taking photos of different hotels and other business for the City Paper BaltiManual and the Grand Prix Guide. On the way back from one of these jaunts I snapped the above shot of my neighborhood, Mount Vernon. I love my neighborhood.
I hadn’t seen Darkest Hour in years… seeing them at the 9:30 Club on the Summer Slaughter tour was a far cry from seeing them play on a friend’s driveway in 99, which was the first time I saw them, but it was still alot of fun. Definitely one of the highlights of the Summer Slaughter 2011, the other of which was Dying Fetus, of which I will post photos in a few days…
This was a really fun show. I wasn’t super familiar with this band before the show, but they are a total over the top rock band from Mexico, sort of a Latino U2 or something. More lights on stage than I have seen at almost any show ever!
Driving to a City Paper photo shoot, me and my friend (and talented photographer) J.M. Giordano saw the above… some driver who was foolish enough to try and drive through several feet of standing water on North Point Boulevard. I ran out through the rain and grabbed a few pics, the best of which is above.
I’ve done a few promo shoots in my studio lately for some Baltimore electronic music producers. Check out my Portraits & Promo Shots set on Flickr for more shots of them, and others. And contact me if you are interested in getting some portraits, head shots, or promo shots done!
2 cool shows at the Golden West, one photo post! Milo from the Descendents even made an appearance at the Scott Reynolds show and was nice enough to pose for a few photos!
Shot several shows in Hampden last week… 2 at the Golden West presented by Unregistered Nurse and another at Fraziers. Saw several new bands, including Denny Bowen (of Double Dagger)’s new band Roomrunner, and Ryan Kidwell (Cex) and Jeremy from Ponytail’s new one Sprayer. Great times all around.
Two fun, light-hearted vaguely internet-oriented bands at the Kennedy Center to celebrate a decade of the Millenium Stage, which showcases free bands EVERY DAY, which is crazy when you think about it. Pamplamoose was full of fun stage banter, while Ok Go!’s show was lots of bombast, with a big video screen that didn’t quite work, 3D glasses, confetti cannons firing every few minutes… quite a spectacle!
Two shows I shot recently for the Washington Post. Sade was interesting… totally packed, yet very chill, a very grown-up crowd (obviously). Beautiful voice and very professional, yet you got the impression that she didn’t really like being on stage, which makes sense considering her famous reticence at being in the spotlight.
A Night In Treme, which closed out the DC Jazz Fest, on the other hand was an unabashed party. Total abandon and fun from all the musicians (and famous actors, and Louisiana Congressmen) on stage. They even did a second line, right through the crowd!
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Tearsheets for the first half of July. You can see a selection of my favorites on my Tearsheets page, here. Click any of the above to see some of my Tearsheets from the last week or two. Animal Collective/Black Dice show coverage, the Big Music Issue of the City Paper cover, a few shots of mine that were used on an IFC show, and more…
Also, there was a City Paper Low Budget Photo Show downtown, where various City Paper photogs sold work. Here is a picture of my stuff on the wall:
I worked with Sam Sessa at the Baltimore Sun on a piece about the breakdancing scene in Baltimore. The monthly party 4 Hours of Funk (at Wind Up Space) and the weekly Dig (at Joe Squared) are both hotbeds of breaking, as well as popping and locking. Both parties are fun, even for the uninitiated like myself. It’s pretty impressive just to hang back and watch their moves.
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