Julian Casablancs @ La Zona Rosa

OK. I admit it. I had no idea who this dude was until about 2 hours before the show. He's the lead singer for the Strokes (in case you're dumb like me). Then again, I'm not one to keep up on all the hot new artists. Which, when you think about it, is a damn shame. Considering I shoot live music professionally and all. Anyway, yeah...

So we get to the show amble up to the front and WTF??? It looks like there's no photo pit. Upon closer inspection there is a barricade. It's about a foot wide. The security dudes tell us "you can get in if you fit in". This does not bode well. It's a tight fit and there's like nine other people jammed in there as well.

Yeah, so about ten of us jammed in there. JC's band equipment is packing up most of the stage so the opening band's gear is right up front. I'm inches away from the lead guitarist and I keep having to dodge his guitar neck. Thank god out of some miracle of foresight on my part I brought my ultra-wide angle lens.



The opening band. Funeral Party. Take equal parts 80's synth pop, emo whine, indie schlock, and sprinkle with copious amounts of 70's disco drumming and you have Funeral Party. It's an amalgam of sound and it doesn't sound good. Pick a lane buddy...





I head over to the Backstage Bar to grab a beer. The bar chick is awesome. She gives photographers employee discounts. $2.50 Lone Star tall boys. Normally they're $4.50. Quite a deal. I drink the beer and Funeral Party ends. I hurry back over and squeeze back into the "photo pit".

Here's where it gets horrible. The whole place is full of teenage hipsters who are all dressed like the decade of the 80's threw up all over them. I'm not kidding. So first thing that happens is a teenage girl who is standing behind me lets out an earsplitting shriek. I turn around and say "hey, my ear is right here." This only eggs her on. She's mad that I'm standing in front of her so she continues to shriek intermittently throughout the whole soundcheck. Which was an arduous 45 minute affair, by the way. Not only that, but between shrieks her and what I think was her boyfriend, (but he might have been her gay) babble incessantly about the most vapid shit. For instance, one topic of discussion for 10 minutes was "what if he pulls you up on stage? OMG!!! Wouldn't that just be insane? Like, no really. How crazy would that be???" Anyway. You get the point.

side note: I had a toothache all day and by the time I got to La Zona Rosa I had eaten a few codeine pills, downed a 60/40 and a Lone Star tall boy. I was feeling kinda weird.

Fast forward 45 minutes. Julian Casablancas takes the stage. The shrill shrieking sounds of countless boys and girls fill the place. The boy behind me keeps screaming "I LOVE YOU JC!!!". Hands are reaching out, groping me, grabbing me, prodding me, trying to get a touch of the illustrious JC. You would have thought the corpse of Elvis had been exhumed and reanimated for the '68 Comeback Special. It was that insane. Oh yeah, the shrieking girl was obsessed with touching JC, so whenever he came near I strategically blocked her. HAHA! Take that you teenage banshee.



So, where was I at? Oh yeah, the music. The band came out. There are like 4 guitar players and 100 million keyboards, etc. They rocked. Well, it wasn't bad. What I heard was some good guitar based rock with some indie and 80's pop mixed in to keep the kids happy. If someone GAVE me the CD I'd probably listen to it and it might grow on me after awhile. Who knows.



As far as performance goes. He kinda pulled off some kinda Iggy / Lou Reed sensual/angry thing which sent the kids into an orgiastic frenzy. From a photographer standpoint it was kinda sucky. He buried his face in the microphone and hid behind his hands. I managed to snap off some decent shots though.



All in all, it was an OK night.

Ani DiFranco @ Paramount Theatre

This is gonna be a pretty short review. I have to admit that I was never a fan of Ani DiFranco, as a matter of fact some of the music I had heard her play really rubbed me the wrong way.

I went to catch her at the Paramount the other night more or less as a novelty. I didn't have anything else going on and a gig is a gig so...

The opening act was a comedian by the name of Buddy Wakefield. I really didn't find his material funny at all. The crowd seemed to laugh half-heartedly. I dunno. I guess it wasn't intended for my demographic.

Ani took the stage to thunderous applause. She's got a pretty loyal and rabid following. I'll leave it at that.



The first thing she did when she came out was to mug for for me. I though that was pretty cool. I shot her a thumbs up and she commenced with the show. I only stuck around for a few songs, but what I did hear impressed me. She's a really great and innovative guitar player. Her music still didn't really grab me and pull me in, but again, it's not really my demographic is it?

Stolen guitars!

My friend TV Jones the renowned pickup and guitar manufacturer recently had a bunch of guitars and pickups ripped off from a trade show in Frankfurt Germany. Below is a link to the information.

http://www.tvjones.com/stolen.html

Here's a couple of photos of some of the stolen gear.


Please help out if you can. Guitar thieves SUCK!

Cross Canadian Ragweed @ Stubb's BBQ

Well, I'm not sure what to say about this one. Cross Canadian Ragweed. They are supposed to be an alt-country act. I don't want to be mean, but my take on this band is this:

Take The Black Crowes and delete all of the soul, talent and coolness and you have Cross Canadian Ragweed. They are the blandest version of country-blues-rock that I have ever witnessed. Even Nashville country music sounds cool compared to these guys. I'd rather see Garth Brook as Chris Gaines than see these guys again.

To be fair, they were decent musicians. They were a tight band. The front man could blaze a solo, the drummer and bass player were locked into a solid groove. It's just that the songwriting was bland and the music lacked hooks. There wasn't a memorable song among the set.

On the bright side. I managed to grab a couple of cool shots of them. This just goes to show that photography can make even the lamest band look cool.

Megadeth / Testament / Exodus @ Stubb's

This was probably the biggest metal event I shot this year. Three old school metal bands all on one stage for a night of metal mayhem! I must admit I was pretty stoked about seeing Megadeth. I hadn't seen them for many years since the early 90's and to catch them on the 20th anniversary of the Rust in Peace record was pretty cool. The sold out crowd at Stubb's was rife with testosterone and energy.

Exodus was the first to hit the stage, to be honest I was never a big fan and they didn't do much to convert me. They were tight and fast, but to me they were lacking something. I dunno. It was just mediocre metal as far as I'm concerned.

Next up was Testament. These guys were little better than Exodus. Just generic thrash metal. The band was technical and fast, the music just lacks any hooks and I just couldn't get into it.



Megadeth took the stage to thunderous applause and many hands in the air showing the "horns". They started off the set with a few songs from both older and newer records; She Wolf, In My Darkest Hour, and Skin of my Teeth. Then they proceeded to play Rust in Peace in entirety. After finishing up Rust in Peace they played a smattering of songs both new and old closing it out with one of my favorites, Peace Sells.



The band was tight. The guitar playing was spot on and Mustaine's voice sounded great. A little more mellow than in the early years, but he still nailed it. On board for this tour was original bass player Dave Ellefson. It was good to see him rockin' again.



All in all I have to say this was a pretty cool show. Was it groundbreaking? Not really, but Mustaine has showed that Megadeth has staying power and although they haven't achieved the super success of Metallica they've still stuck to their guns and are playing metal as they always have.