This was a really fun show, way moreso than I expected… I only knew Ke$ha’s hits, but all the songs I saw were fun, and well-done live… full of energy. The crowd was also more psyched than almost any crowd I’d ever seen before, cheering and dancing to the music they played between acts… and totally dolled/glittered up, as well.
I’ve seen them a couple of times this year already, but TVOTR are always good live, and they were one of the highlights of this year’s Virgin FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Two bands with club in their names that played at virtually the same time at the FreeFest 2011! It took some wrangling, but I managed to get to shoot both bands and even got a aerial view:
Closing out the main stage, and the last rock band of the night, the Black Keys (who I’d never seen before) had the crowd anticipation stoked high before they came on stage… and they didn’t seem to disappoint, though I was way too burnt out to really appreciate their set. I’d like to see them again someday without having to work for 11 hours before they played!
Raver culture was there in full effect at Virgin Fest this year… perhaps fitting, since we are apparently in the midst of a full-fledged rave/dubstep takeover… Deadmau5 brought out a huge throng of kids, who stayed til the very end of FreeFest, the west stage area by the ferris wheel reaching the biggest capacity it had all festival.
There were also a lot of dudes doing Deadmau5 cosplay:
I never expected to see Patti Smith live, but was very pleased to be wrong about that… she put on a great, fiery show at FreeFest, and was one of the only artists I heard speak about politics and other weighty topics (which DID generate a few boos from some people in the audience). Her band was tight, she was full of energy, playful… great show. I’d love to see her again in a setting where she had time for a full set.
Two groups I had never seen before, both put on good live shows, though Okkervil River surprised me more, I didn’t expect them to have as much energy live… they put on a pretty rockin’ performance.
Natural Child are a pretty awesome band from Tennessee, I have seen them twice now (both times brought to Baltimore via Unregistered Nurse Booking), and both times they impressed me. Slowed down, very melodic garage-y punk rock, with funny lyrics and song concepts… good stuff. Check them out when they play your town.
Fun little show in the Black Cat backstage… they did a cool layout for the Washington Post story, too:
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.
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!
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.
