Last week I was able to shoot Kylie Minogue’s show for the Washington Post… it was a pretty amazing affair. I am not a huge fan, or even a casual fan… in fact I can only think of one Kylie song off the top of my head! But the show was really fun, full of drama and pomp and an INCREDIBLE stage setup and performance… some of the most over the top stage stuff that I have ever seen at a concert. I was told that the tour cost $25 million… and I believe it. Check out photos below:
A little while back, I had a chance to shoot BIG K.R.I.T.’s sound check at the awesome DC venue, the U St Music hall. I love shooting here, the staff is always great. They have a policy that we have to shoot the sound checks, not the show itself, which is real different from most clubs, and has it’s good and bad points. The good is we get to shoot portraits of the artists, if they are down, like the quick one I shot of Big K.R.I.T. above. He was really chill and his soundcheck sounded great. Check the links below to see more photos and read a review of the actual show!
A couple of weeks back, I caught an assignment from the Sun to shoot Wye Oak’s homecoming show at the 2640 Space in Baltimore. This is a great venue, a retired/decommissioned church in Charles Village… huge, and beautiful, withc great acoustics. I have seen a lot of great shows there over the years, such as Celebration, Future Islands & Arboretum and negativland.
Wye Oak was extremely tight, coming off a month(s?) long US tour in support of their new Merge Records album, Civilian, and the sold out crowd was super receptive… after a weird incident with a drunk guy screaming about how he loved Titus Andronicus ended with crowd members escorting him out, anyway. As Erik Maza from the Sun said to me after the show, “Who gets drunk on Sunday BEFORE going to see Wye Oak at a Church?!” But back to the show… Wye Oak were good, and supplemented with a horn section for a few songs, which I thought was interesting and sounded good, I wonder if that is going to become a normal thing?
I had never seen TV On The Radio before, nor ever been the hugest fan, but after getting the chance to shoot their tour opener in Philly, then a show a day or two later in Baltimore, I am a bit of a convert… they were GREAT live, full of energy, racing around the stage, etc… They seemed to be having a great time. I was surprised to hear that two of the touring line-up was new, thenvery happy to learn that their new drummer was none other than my friend Jahphet Landis from the Death Set! So happy for that dude. Anyway, these shows were great fun and tour opener Celebration also delivered, even though their Philly set was cut short.
This band was not what I expected… I guess the name and the pedigree made me think this would be some driving, semi-aggressive indie rock, but in actuality they are basically the exact opposite… soft rock, made me think I was at a waterfront restaurant in the 80s or something. Not bad, though, and the crowd certainly enjoyed it…
This is a good example of why I have always liked shooting on assignment… I would never have gone to this show on my own, as I don’t really know much about African music, but this was quite a lot of fun, and fun to shoot as well. I had never shot in Lisner Auditorium before, but it’s amusing how basically every college auditorium feels and looks the same… a nice venue though, and really friendly staff.
A couple of weeks ago, I shot Paramore & Tegan and Sara for the Baltimore Sun. You can see the gallery here on the Sun site.
I am not a huge Paramore fan, but man… they were totally in control of their crowd. Especially Hayley Williams, the lead singer – she had the whole arena in the palm of her hand. As big as Paramore are now, I would be really suprised if she/they wasn’t a much bigger star in a few years…
Tegan and Sara are a band I used to like a bit, but hadn’t listen to them in a few years… they had a much calmer, but also more friendly and affable relationship with the crowd, and their set was way more pro/rock and less indie/intimate than I would have expected. Good set though.
Check out all my Paramore & Tegan and Sara photos on flickr here.
Last week I saw NOBUNNY at the Talking Head, it was a lot of fun. In case you don’t know them, they are a rock/punk band that sounds sorta “retro”, with catchy songs and really shoutable choruses…. and a singer who wears a rabbit mask, S&M/fetish gear and tightie-whities. It was packed, people were crowdsurfing, throwing beers/waters, generally going nuts. Some crowdsurfer landed on my head. Afterwards I helped a half dozen people look for their phones/wallets/sadly smashed glasses. Good show. click here for more NOBUNNY photos
I also recently shot Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club at Rams Head for the Baltimore Sun. Click here to see the review, and here to see the gallery of my shots. You can also click here to see all of my Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club shots on my Flickr.
This year was the eight Maryland Death Fest, a annual music festival at Sonar in Baltimore that is, without a doubt, the best metal/extreme music festival in the US/North America. It is always a great time and has been getting bigger and more well-organized with each successive year. This time around there were TWO outdoor stages, an indoor stage, a merch room, and dozens of vendors… not to mention thousands of devoted metalheads deposited right into downtown baltimore.
It’s hard for me to go to the WHOLE thing, it’s just overwhelming, but luckily it’s located centrally and close to my house so I usually just dip in to check out the bands I want to see. This year that included EYEHATEGOD, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Pentagram, Deceased, and Converge. I also checked out a few new (to me) bands, my favorite being Captain Cleanoff from Australia. For me, the standout shows of the weekend (besides Captain Cleanoff) were Autopsy and Pentagram…
If you like metal, try to make it to this fest next year!!!
Click here to see more Maryland Death Fest pictures!
See also: My post about Maryland Death Fest 2009
A long time posting but I did the damn thing at SXSW this year and here are some photos. Pictured: the Dum Dum Girls, the XX, Dave Nada stagediving, me and one of the GWAR dudes, Dam-Funk, Major Lazer, Rye Rye, Haushka. This year was a lot of fun… even though it was freakishly cold!
Last month Michael Byrne and myself covered this festival for SPIN. You can see the coverage here. We saw, among other things: Andrew WK performing classical music with Calder Quartet, the Ex, Terry Riley and Bang the Can performing In C, Saint Vincent, Vampire Weekend, Ben Frost, DJ/Rupture (several times), the xx, Joanna Newsom, Adrian Belew… and many more.
Knoxville is also a great town! So many great and beautiful music venues and every seems to be really nice. One thing that I thought was really great is all the people working at the various venues that were hosting the festival seemed VERY knowledgable about both the history of their venue and music in general. And they were super polite and friendly. Also don’t miss King Tut’s Egyptian Diner if you ever are in Knoxville… its a treat!
Last week, I shot Of Montreal and James Husband’s tour kick off in Baltimore. It was a fun show, though I was SO SICK. I apologize to anyone I spoke to at that show, I was totally delirious with fever and probably made no sense. This was one of the most grueling photo editing sessions ever, since I had to file the photos by 9am. Somehow I managed it between fever dreams and dry heaves.
Check out the full Of Montreal photo set here.
This was one of the best shows I went to all year – I was nervous, I sort of generally expect reunions to be underwhelming, but this was way more than I could have expected. David Yow was frenetic, full of energy, jumping into the crowd constantly, whipping his dick out (see above), yelling at the lighting crew to turn the lights up all the way. The band was incredibly tight, the sound was great – all in all, a great show.
Last sunday, I went and saw GWAR. It was mind-bending. It was really a challenge because Gwar soaks the crowd in fake blood/pus/semen/gore. And those things don’t work well with cameras. So I wrapped my camera in a hastily-assembled plastic sheeting condom, which made it VERY hard to shoot. I think i did okay, though… you can see the rest of the photos here.
Maryland Death Fest 2009 was amazing. I only was there for one day, but it was incredible! So many bands… I never expected to see Bolt Thrower, ever! Much less with Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death and Wolves In The Throne Room! Not to mention Misery Index, Birdflesh… too many bands to name, really. Also the festival was very well run, which was impressive for just how big the scope of it all was. So many metalheads in one place and there were not really any major problems, at least not that I heard about… congratulations to everyone involved at MDF and Sonar!
Click here to see the rest of my Maryland Death Fest 2009 photos. Or, click here to to see a Slideshow from Maryland Death Fest 2009.
It was an interesting night – Sonar was transformed into a huge art installation. Band/theater troupes/entertainers/performance artists took turns performing for just a few minutes at a time, so you never knew where to go next. It was pretty exciting! I drank too much. I wish I had gone to the second night!
Last week I went down to DC to catch one of my favorite bands from the “old days” of Maryland Hardcore (the early 00s), Tradition Dies Here. Mikey is leaving town for a year or two to travel the world so they had this show in case it is the last one. Good times, old friends. Good luck Mikey!
