Pure Junk @ Ottobar (plus a cool GIF)

PURE JUNK @ the Ottobar, 2015.
PURE JUNK @ the Ottobar, 2015.
PURE JUNK @ the Ottobar, 2015.
PURE JUNK @ the Ottobar, 2015.
PURE JUNK @ the Ottobar, 2015.

Digging through the stacks on this Thanksgiving eve and finding lots of old gems I haven’t posted. Here are some photos of my pals PURE JUNK from last year, playing a show at the Ottobar. Perhaps opening for Fred & Toody of Dead Moon? This was a fun night. Look for more posts soon (I always say that, but for real this time).


Also, this GIF
!!!

SEE ALL MY PURE JUNK PHOTOS (EVER) HERE | Pure Junk

UNfest 2 with Gories, Pissed Jeans, Peach Kelli Pop & more!

The Gories @ Unfest 2
The Gories @ Unfest 2
The Gories

Pissed Jeans @ Unfest 2
Pissed Jeans @ Unfest 2
Pissed Jeans

Peach Kelli Pop @ Unfest 2
Peach Kelli Pop

Obnox @ Unfest 2
Obnox

Ed Schrader's Music Beat @ Unfest 2
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat

Hunters @ Unfest 2
Hunters

Roomrunner @ Unfest 2
Roomrunner

Old Lines @ Unfest 2
Old Lines

Cult Control @ Unfest 2
Cult Control

Big Christ @ Unfest 2
Big Christ

UNfest 3 is this weekend, so enjoy the above photos from 2013’s fest! You can buy tickets for this year’s fest here.

Click here for all the photos from UNfest 2.

Click here for day one and here for day two photos from UNfest 1!

(These photos originally ran on Noisey.)

Windhand, The Pilgrim, All Of Them Witches @ the Ottobar

Windhand @ Ottobar
Windhand @ Ottobar
Windhand @ Ottobar
Windhand @ Ottobar
Windhand @ Ottobar
Windhand

The Pilgrim @ Ottobar
The Pilgrim @ Ottobar
The Pilgrim @ Ottobar
The Pilgrim

All Them Witches @ Ottobar
All Of Them Witches

Good show at Ottobar the other day (week? slowly getting my site up to date). Really dug the chance to see Windhand, as this was the first time I had seen them in a non-festival setting. The Pilgrim is always great, one of my favorite heavy Baltimore bands.

See all the WINDHAND, THE PILGRIM, ALL OF THEM WITCHES photos here!

Insubordinaton Fest 2012 @ the Ottobar.

House Boat crowd surfing @ Insubordination Fest 2012

This was a lot of fun – an annual pop-punk/punk fest from local punk label Insubordination records, I was sent out by the Baltimore Sun to cover this, but was excited to see the Mean Jeans, who I have covered before, as well as Night Birds & the Dopamines (who were playing with Mikey from the Ergs), both of whom I have always managed to miss. House Boat, who I’d never heard of before, was a good discovery – they played until they literally fell down from exhaustion. What a fun show and crowd… crazy crowd-surfing and dancing, lots of fun bands. And the organizers, including the legendary Larry Livermore, were very easy to talk to and chill. Read on for more photos or click here for the whole Flickr set from Insub festContinue reading

Dan Deacon Ensemble, Celebration, Matmos @ Ottobar.

Dan Deacon Ensemble @ Ottobar
Dan Deacon Ensemble @ Ottobar
Dan Deacon Ensemble @ Ottobar
Dan Deacon Ensemble @ Ottobar   Dan Deacon Ensemble @ Ottobar
Celebration @ Ottobar
Celebration @ Ottobar   Matmos @ Ottobar

Awesome show, from beginning to end. 3 very different, yet complimentary Baltimore music groups, all on one bill! A great weekend for the Ottobar, who also hosted a sold out Wye Oak show the following night… anyway…

I have seen Matmos several times, and they are always different. This night, they chose to create a droning/grooving sort of atmosphere with a Caribbean (to my uninformed ears) feeling type of beat, very noddable and swayable. One of their songs got pretty minimal industrial, again to my uniformed ears, and I would SWEAR that on one song they used the same sample as Ministry does on one of their “Land of Rape And Honey” era records… but maybe I am just a goth.

Celebration remains one of my absolute favorite bands to see live in Baltimore… I love their old material and their newer stuff is growing on me more and more now that I have seen it played live a few times. Their set has morphed into only having one or two songs from the “The Modern Tribe” era, and they are still a treat to watch.

Dan Deacon used this show to introduce his new five piece ensemble (who I have posted about here recently) , and I really enjoyed the additional instrumentation. I think it worked best on the newer songs, ones that I assume were written for this group, but even on the classic Deacon songs, I think they added alot, especially the dual percussion. Live drums really can create a feeling like nothing else. The crowd seemed to agree, they went CRAZY, which is too be expected, and it was a really really fun set. Somehow I managed to stick it out the whole time at the front… a bit of a while since I managed that, but I was having a blast!

See the rest of the photos here!

Double Dagger’s Last Show.

Double Dagger's last show.
Double Dagger's last show.
Double Dagger's last show.
Double Dagger's last show.
Double Dagger's last show.

Great show, best night. I stage dove, in fact all the photographers stage dove… wait, EVERYONE stage dove. Denny’s dad held it down at the front for the whole show! So much fun, what a good send off for one of the best bands the city has ever seen. Thanks for the memories, guys.

If you are interested, you can also:

Natural Child @ Ottobar.

Natural Child @ Ottobar

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.

White Wires, Deep Sleep, Hollywood @ Ottobar.

deep sleep @ ottobar
hollywood @ ottobar   hollywood @ ottobar
white wires @ ottobar

This show was REALLY fun. Brought to you by Unregistered Nurse, this was a good time sunday rock and roll show upstairs at the Ottobar, a great venue for punk/rock shows… great bar staff, lots of room, good prices… I love the Ottobar. I imagine it must be a bitch to move all those amps and whatnot up the stairs though…

Anyway, good times, good tunes, friends. Deep Sleep and Hollywood are local Baltimore bands, Hollywood is more on the garage side of things, while Deep Sleep is a fast hardcore band, fronted by Tony from Celebrated Summer records. The White Wires are from Canada, which they kept referencing, and were also REALLY DRUNK. They kept talking about how many centiliters of whiskey they had drink, which was funny since no one in the crowd probably had any idea how many centiliters are in a normal shot… or maybe even what a centiliter is. They were great live though, and tore through a quick set of poppy rock songs.

public image limited.

public image limited / john lydon
public image limited / john lydon

two nights ago i saw PiL in baltimore, it was a pretty fun show. i was really hesitant to go because i sort of assumed it would be terrible… but they were good! really it was many John Lydon’s show, but the sound was great and the band was tight and they played a lot of classics. Check out all my shots from Public Image Limited.

Continuing the 70s post/punk train, last night i saw the Buzzcocks at the Ottobar in baltimore. I was more confident going into this one, I’ve seen them recently-ish and they were good, and they did not disappoint. Great show and it was all old material, go see them if they come to your town! (I didn’t shoot at this, just watched and saw lots of old friends).

Fool’s Gold Tour @ Ottobar, Baltimore

trackademics.

The other week I worked the Fool’s Gold/Scion/Taxlo show at the Ottobar (with Jokers of the Scene, Trackademics, Nick Catchdubs, Sammy Banannas)… met several of the people at Fool’s Gold, who were all really nice and awesome, and checked out the various artists. It was a good time. I felt like the crowd was sort of confused when Trackademics started, as if they didn’t expect some live hip hop at this show, but what can you do? Click here for the full Fool’s Gold set

DMBQ & Monotonix @ the Ottobar.

DMBQ @ the Ottobar
Monotonix @ the Ottobar

Monotonix @ the Ottobar    DMBQ @ the Ottobar
DMBQ @ the Ottobar    DMBQ @ the Ottobar
DMBQ @ the Ottobar    Monotonix @ the Ottobar

Two of the most wildly audience interacting live bands around played at the Ottobar monday… it was a great, great time. DMBQ are still one of the best bands I have EVER seen… Monotonix was fun and a spectacle (even taking the show outside before Ottobar staff chased everyone back in), but musically I don’t think they quite compare. Still, it was one of the funniest shows I have been to in a long while… View the full set here.