05-13-2011 Midnight Ketchup Cravings at the Gates of Hell

SO. PHOTOS.

Last weekend my ride or die FRIEND Anthony and I went back to Humboldt to retrieve some belongings at our old house and help shut the place down. We had some glorious times there, I feel that we shut it down with a right proper rambunction, without messing up any of the things we had repaired/cleaned already.

Got to see all my old crusty lookin friends because I planned the trip around a show at THEBIGTREE. Which is a good name for the place as I forgot the address. Still working on finishing the edits on most of the concert stuff. Trying to decide what to do with my really disorganized photo presence online. AH WELL.

The photos of the clearly drunk and awesome guy on the top right and bottom are my good friend Ross. He is an engineer. He had just graduated. His department gave him a ring of power to wear on his pinky. His new found powers clearly went straight to his head.

Maaaaaaan. I feel like I had a ton of profound knowledges to drop all over about my experience and how it was good to reconnect with old friends and stomp around. Oh damn well.

5-6-2011 Eddie Adcock Brings the Noize

This here is Eddi Adcock. He apparently played his banjo as doctors were working on his brain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjX6ErmKY14. Damn. I think I remember them saying that the operation was about a year ago. While his triple bypass was more like five years ago. Given all the patching up this man has endured, and how skillfully he played last week, I have come to the conclusion that he is in fact a machine.

A banjo playing machine.

And while it is no small coincidence that all the good photos I took were of Eddie, mostly the reason I focused on him was the superior lighting on his wizened face. Most of the other players, his wife and my mothers dobro teacher among them, were positioned on parts of the stage with much worse lighting.

This show was at Constable Jacks in my hometown of Newcastle. Not sure if it was the spice of the gator burger lingering in my mouth, the delicious beer sloshing around in my brain and belly, or if I was simply in a good mood, but I officially fell in love with Newcastle that night.

10-5-2010 Obscura Mattress Fingers Tickle The AIDS Wolf

So.

Made my first camera. Out of a bathroom. There it is up there, on the left. That is the view from my bathroom. Camera. Which needs to come down (I will destroy it tomorrow) before the blue tape does that weird I-used-to-be-malleable-but-then-I-changed-my-mind-and-ruined-all-your-stuff-tape-puberty thing. I'm not telling the secrets that I used to make the top right image, but I will share the facts that I used no photoshop (aside from the watermark) and that it was shot digitally.

Went to the 90.3 KDVS Restore Maximum Freedom shindig with Tina. To see AIDS Wolf (bottom left) although my PBR-addled brain didn't recognize them, even as I took photographs of them. I was all "Oh! Another woman-fronted harsh noise quintet! That's cool. When does AIDS wolf play?" during their set. Ludicrous, but I think that it made me enjoy them more honestly. Or something else that sounds less like drunken rationalization.

All the lopsided haircut, bra strap exposin, vintage shit wearin people there seemed to enjoy (or "get,") AIDS Wolf. They were one of the gentlest crowds I had ever encountered. Let me go wherever I wanted. I think the drunk middle aged farts on the grass at the Sleep Train Amphitheater when Steely Dan played there frightened me more. But I was about fourteen at that concert, and though all middle aged people made me wary back then; the hypothesis that middle aged men wearing club shirts and drinking beer from plastic cups are not to be trusted has certainly maintained its veracity.

Basically the incredibly hip are fun to look at, but generally harmless; while middle aged men who still "go to shows," are all little pieces of the Antichrist.

8-28-2010 Howlers, Mutilators, Nekromantix

Show photos from last... what? Saturday. Yes. Saturday the Nekromantix played the Boardwalk in Orangevale. Howlers and The Mutilators opened. Whatever prefix you wanna add to billy (psycho, hell, rocka, punk, vomit) type of goodness abounded.

Howlers pictured on the bottom left were good, they got the normally boring Boardwalk crowd to move a bit, but they were nothing surprising. The Mutilators frontman (woman?), pictured top left was a real throwback to drape freakdom. That dude (dudette?) played in pantyhose, a long blond wig, and a blood drenched nurse uniform. The generally lousy Boardwalk crowd put up with this guys (gals?) antics to a surprisingly high degree. The Nekromantix destroyed. Duh. Kim Nekroman may be the most photogenic lead that I have ever shot, though you can't quite tell in the photo here (top right).

Brought my younger cousin, Elia to the show. She even hung around the edge of the pit! Yanked her out of there right before the encore, which was all for the best as most concert goers are all about climaxes. The crowd all went mad for the last Nekromantix song, and we slipped out a few seconds early.

7-24-2010 Harcore Kids Love Captian Planet

Jessica was in town! That was rad. Went to The Boardwalk, a semi-shitty venue that I haven't been to since I was sixteen. Tons of screamo type of bands. Would've shot all of their sets regardless of our aesthetic differences, but Jessica was there (!) and hanging out with her in the back was drastically preferable to abandoning her to take pictures of bands I don't enjoy.

Did get up there eventually though, for the last two bands. Attila was good, though how much I enjoyed them last night may have been influenced by how much I didn't enjoy everything else. All the previous bands had adopted the screamo/hardcore/autotune "sound," while Attila veered closer to metalcore with some gnar gore vocals at points. So I dug all up on them after trying not to laugh at the other bands; though when it really comes down to it, at least them screamo fellas are pursuing their interests and expressing themselves creatively. Bottom photos are both Attila's set. Up top are the most diametrically opposed images available in The Boardwalk; peaceful and serene lighting alongside blown out marketing toilet.