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.
Last week I had the good pleasure of catching the assignment to shoot Dave Nada and his second Moombahton Massive party at U St Music Hall. It’s not often you get to go hang out with an old friend for work, so I relished the opportunity. I have know Dave since he was a member of Medic, a thrash/metal/hardcore band whose record I put out more years ago than I want to admit. Since those days he has been on a steady rise as an internationally-known DJ and producer, a career arc which this year hit a new high with his creation/discovery of Moombahton, a new genre of dance music that fuses elements of Dutch House and latino culture. It took the dance music world by storm and it’s momentum is still building…
Read the Washington Post Review | See the Moombahton Massive photo set
Simon Phoenix celebrated his birthday saturday night at the Golden West, and it was a blast… the Golden West is turning into a great, multi-faceted place for shows, the new management and the booking staff over there are among the best things to happen to the Baltimore music scene in quite awhile.
This was awhile ago, but just now getting to it… my good friend Dave Nada just moved to LA to further his production career, and he threw a big Moombahton dance party at U Street Music Hall in DC to celebrate. They have a no-photo policy there, but I had like 10 minutes between the two sets I was shooting that night to run over and get a few quick snaps of the artists who were performing, including Matt Nordstrom, DJ Ayres, Jesse Tittsworth, Dave Nada himself and more… We literally snapped these on the street in front of U Hall, with people weaving through us on their way to go out to dinner or the clubs, then after 10 minutes I hauled ass back to 930 to shoot Die Antwoord! Fun stuff.
Good luck in LA Dave, though I know you don’t need it!
View all the photos from the set here | View all my photos of Dave Nada from over the years 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
Friday I shot Blisspop at the 9:30 club. It was a pretty wild party, with a photo area for saucy photos courtesy of BYT. It was good to hang out with Dakota (and watch him roll around with Ms Claus). Good times.
Last week I checked out Sinden (from London, creator of that “Hit me on my Beeper Beeper Beeper Beeper” song) at Sonar. I was expecting a DJ set but he amped it up – there were THREE MCs, all British, along with him, and special appearances from Rye Rye (they did “Hardcore Girls”) and Blaqstarr. It was a pretty great time. Dave Nada and Scottie B also performed, a pretty full night.
THEN, after the show I realized that the Homosexuals, who I had seen play at SXSW earlier this year had played next door, and I had missed them. :( But Bruno, the singer, ran into me and either remembered me from talking to him at that show, or mistook me for someone else and we chatted and he even gave me a rare record:
A good night! Check here for the whole Sinden set.
Last weekend was the Virgin Fest, and after that was the inevitable afterparty at Sonar… it was a pretty good time, Dave Nada killed it of course… watch out for this guy, he is about to be huge. Which is awesome because he is the most crucially best dude ever… Celebrity DJs Vito from the Rapture and Kele from Bloc Party were also spinning, as were Emily Rabbit and Will Eastman. Check the whole set here.
