Sharon Needles, winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race and noted drag performer, did two pieces at Baltimore’s Deep In The Game party at the Hippo. The second, pictured above was a tribute to Baltimore’s own Edith Massey, perhaps better known as “the Egg Lady”, who was one of John Waters’ Dreamlanders.
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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I went and checked out the JODI exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC, and found out they have a pretty awesome permanent collection as well! (Pictured above is a life casting of the make-up for an aged Dustin Hoffman for Little Big Man). JODI are an artist’s collective that has been experimenting with making art out of new media, the web, and video games for… well since forever, basically. I really recommend checking out the show. See more of my photos from the show, and the permanent collection, here.
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!
This was a fun assignment. I have to admit, I knew nothing about Omar Souleyman going in… he is a Syrian singer who performs what sound like traditional songs (to my unknowledgeable ears) with a more modern style drone-y synth music background. Pretty interesting and a charismatic performer, to boot. Apparently he has released more than 500 albums! See more photos from Omar Souleyman’s performance at the 9:30 Club.
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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.
This one was a fun one, and a long time coming. We dumped Jesse into a tub full of ice and played around with the props… that expression, I am pretty sure, was real. Probably after I asked him to keep his balls on ice for just a few more minutes.
Thanks to Evan Tanner for the location! That location usage eventually led to these photos. Graphic design on this by Raymond Klecker.
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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Going down to see the cherry blossoms is a big deal in DC. Somehow, even though I have lived near DC for 10+ years, I’d never done it, until this year. Pretty, and I had not realized just how big the whole area is, I sort of assumed it was a couple of trees… but actually they completely encircle the tidal basin! See more of my cherry blossoms shots here.
Taken on the street in Hampden, outside of the Golden West. Sprayer is Rjyan Kidwell, perhaps better known as CEX + Jeremy Hyman (formerly of Ponytail). Since it’s Rjyan, it’s not quite a “rock band”, exactly, but still a live experience with instruments, and one that I think is pretty interesting. Click here to see more of my photos of SPRAYER.
A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to sit in the studio with my friends, grindcore band Pig Destroyer as they were recording their new album, their first with new drummer Adam Jarvis. It was, as expected, AWESOME! And Adam sounds great… everything I heard is making me really look forward to the new record, whatever it may be called. See more shots of Adam (and others from Pig Destroyer history) here.
Yesterday I attended a fashion show by Lindsay of Monster Lou. I liveblogged shots of the models and some of the prep via my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Follow me at @joshsisk to get in on future liveblogs, and if you wanna see all the instagrammed shots click here. I’ll post edited versions later in the week.
Photos from the peaceful Trayvon Martin rally at the steps of Baltimore City Hall. This event took the city by surprise, but they treated everyone well, at least from what I heard. This happened right as the national outcry over the handling of the case was peaking.
I liveblogged some of these photos previously, but here are the real deal photos.
The other week I spent an afternoon with Thaddeus Logan, author of the book Hey Cabbie! and it’s upcoming sequel. A cabbie in Baltimore City for more than 30 years, his books tell stories about the city, his experiences, and some of the more notable experiences he’s had behind the wheel – some sad, some exciting, some scary.
Thaddeus and I drove around to locations he talks about in the book, taking his photo for a City Paper article about him and his books. The image above is what ran, but click here to see other photos from our shoot.
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
Reliably a great time, the Spring 2012 MICA Fashion show, Milquetoast (hosted at the 2640 Space) was no exception. One of my favorite assignments every season, and always very different… it’s really fun to see what they come up with each year. This time, it was more of a group of themed performance art pieces than a traditional fashion show, but each piece served to highlight the student’s works, of course. I really recommend checking this out next time, if you live in Baltimore!
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!