Last Saturday I had the privilege of shooting the CD Release of Break Me from two-year-in-a-row winners of the Dallas Observer Music Award for Best Punk Act, Spector 45, at LaGrange in Deep Ellum. I think this is far and away the most I’ve been jostled, grabbed, and shoved around shooting a show. Ever. Which I found both mildy amusing and somewhat disconcerting. They put on one hell of a show. Good times all around.
I freaking love these guys.
Alright, so I’ve had multiple requests to see the pieces I displayed recently at the fundraiser for Help the Children of Ecuador. This is for those of you who live out of state and couldn’t make it. The rest of you who live in town and simply declined to drop by — you have lame excuses and I would hide this post from you if possible. :-D
(I kid! I kid!)
Some of these you may have seen before. The first ten were shown at 12×18, and the last 7 were roughly 15×23. (And I’m just sayin’, but they look awesomer large and in person than tiny on a computer screen…) A few are music pieces from various artists I’ve shot live over the past few months. The six black & whites span five different states — California, Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. The abstract light images are from an evening spent at Port of Long Beach. The abstract color mess is a bartender in Austin. And of the remaining color images, two are from Point Dume, Malibu and the last was taken when Heather took me to Edward’s Crossing over South Yuba River in Nevada County, California. (Miss you, Girl, by the way!)
This girl. is. brilliant.
While I was staying with a friend in Long Beach, he randomly mentioned this friend of his who’d recently moved to San Diego from Texas and was in some band. So we pulled up this band on MySpace and they just look incredibly fun. They’ve got this unique style and presence that I found absolutely captivating. To which I discovered myself exclaiming audibly, “Wow. I would LOVE to shoot this band!” That was that and I moved on with the rest of my week — didn’t think anymore about it.
Fast forward a week later and I’m in northern Cali, staying with one of my dearest friends in the whole universe. March 17th we’re having a lazy start of the morning (read: afternoon) and discussing how to spend our St. Patrick’s Day. We decide on a block party in downtown Sacramento about an hour away. We continue about our laziness and slowly get ready. (Which includes picking up some green beer ties to wear in adorable twinkiness together. Which we pulled off superbly, for the record.)
The block party is humorous, at any rate. It’s one entire city block of downtown Sac sectioned off with overpriced tickets to get in, followed by overpriced beer. It’s not even 5 p.m. and the surrounding drunkenness is astounding. (Not to mention wildly entertaining.) Some band is setting up. We allow ourselves to be amused by the random antics of the drunkersby, (Yes, I just made up a word. Deal.) and the poor characters dressed as a pint of Guinness and a lion on stilts. (I know, right?! WTF?)
The band starts playing. A song or two in, we start making our way up to the stage area and through the gathering crowd. I look at the stage and it takes me less than five seconds to realize, “Holy F*@!. This is the band Jayson was telling me about!” (Sorry… that’s truly the direct thought process that happened there.) I flip through my iPhone and fish out the picture I have saved from their MySpace page (…to analyze the lighting. Yes, I’m a photo-nerd. This has been established. Moving on.) for extra confirmation, and to share the extraordinary coincidence with Heather.
So… Heather and I get down and shake it through the hour. and a half. long. set. They are PHENOMENAL live. They are beyond fun to watch. The beats are more than danceable. They are just insanely, crazy GOOD.
After they finished, we kind of walked back stage (I’d say snuck… but it’s not like anyone was there to stop us,) and met Joshua, followed by Jayson’s friend, Tim, and eventually the rest of the guys. At the end of the night and even more craziness (that I will not expound upon here. ha!) We were able to catch back up with the guys at Shady Lady — this swanky, little saloon in downtown Sac that rapidly became one of my favorite places in the world. As it turns out… The Silent Comedy was playing at Shady Lady the following night and I did get that opportunity to shoot them — that band I said I’d LOVE to shoot. :-)
I recently had the opportunity to shoot the McGrath Project again. In a venue with significantly better lighting, no less.
pretty lights + giant mug of Blue Moon = happy photographer
So, I randomly got invited last minute to check out a friend of a friend playing at Spencer’s Corner on December 18th, (of last year!) I went in with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised to discover they were really quite a bit of fun. And I had no intention of using a camera, but since it was in the car… the temptation was just too great:
While I was up in Fort Worth over Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to shoot The McGrath Project, based out of LA, playing at the Aardvark. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but have decided that the Aardvark is a black hole and is a downright pain to shoot in! Anyway, hereyago:
