sparkrobot

“Hey man, you can’t bring that in here. This is a signed band and they’re on a record label. Are you with the press?” says bouncer. “Um, no. Just a local guy with a camera. I’m here for the show.” I reply.

If I had a minute to think that through, I probably should have just said, “Yes, I’m with the _____ here to take shots for the upcoming issue.” Better yet, being a graphic designer, I should just make some legitimate cards or a “press pass” for myself and produce them on demand, but hey—this is Maggie O’Tooles, not some exclusive venue. Come on… I’m at a place that has squeezed in a Mudhoney show literally between Ladies Night with cover band x and Bikini Contest Fridays. I asked the guy, “Are you sure I can’t bring this in?” He calls over another guy—presumably management—and double checks. This guy affirms the policy and tells me they have a pro on site, and also they “pay a lot” for photographs, but I can leave a card and they might hire me to do shots in the future. A little pissed, but at least considerate of the rules of the seedy joint, I took my camera back to the car and locked it up.

Once inside, I noticed a girl from the local camera shop walking around with a Canon Digital Rebel in plain view. Out of curiosity, I stopped to ask her if she was being paid for shooting. She said she was working for the bar. Okay. Great. Good for her.

I had wanted to run a roll of B&W through my Nikon N80, and perhaps a roll of expired Ektachrome 1600 for kicks. I’m not a pro. This is not pro gear. I don’t get paid to take photographs. Nor was it my intention to sell shots of the band with ridiculous ass Bud Light banners advertising the bar’s trite promotions as a backdrop for cold hard cash. It wasn’t even friggin’ digital this time. As I said, I shoot photos for kicks. It would have been what I considered… practice. I didn’t imagine Mudhoney to be the kind of band that would be really uptight about their image, and as it turns out, I was right. Instead, all I was able to get in the door was my cell phone camera and take a few awful pictures with it. Oh well. Suck. Suckafried. Sucktastic. Suckatocious.

Mudhoney played a good set with songs from their entire catalog. Stuff from the early days and a smattering of tunes from from the recent Under a Billion Suns. Mudhoney is one of those bands that has always done things their own way, a rarity on the radar these days. The show started out with less than a bang, but picked up steam and closed pretty strong. Mark Arm broke a string on his sparkle top Gretsch on the opening song. Never the best way to start out. It wasn’t the best show I’ve seen Mudhoney play, but considering the venue and frankly, the crowd, it was good times.

The reason for the whole rant on the man preceding my brief review of the actual show is simple: Once the band started playing, not only was the pro shooter up in the front row snapping away, but there were about 15 additional asshats lined up at the stage with small point and shoot digital cameras. They were firing off tons of shots in plain view. Shots with flash that I’m absolutely certain are going to suck. Why I was forced to leave my amateur film SLR in the car is well beyond me. I thought to myself, “Sure… I’m going to leave you a card. Eff that. This is the first and last time I’m coming to your dungheap. Mudhoney or not.”

You can see my crappy photos from the show here.

Girl Trouble played live at the Commencement Bay Coffee Company in Tacoma last Friday with The Plastards and Skangst. I missed the opening act. Call me fashionably late if you will. The CBCC is in an old warehouse downtown on Jefferson. This was the first live show they’ve put on in the venue. Though the show was all ages, there were libations available for the over 21 crowd. Here are some photographs from the gig.

I’ve never been to Jazzbones. It’s not a bad venue, it’s just that the usual events typically feature generic acts that I’ve no interest in. The opening acts for the show were abyssmally mismatched. While the first act Weather wasn’t altogether terrible, it was actually physically painful for me to sit through the second group, Dedset. Seriously, it hurt.

I’ve never seen The Posies. They’re a band I’ve been following since the early 90s, but I’ve just never had the opportunity to catch them live. The played a great set of songs from their catalog and sounded great. I’ve put up some photos from the show.

I posted some new photos to the photos gallery. These are shots from Hell’s Kitchen on Saturday. I decided to hit a free show last weekend. Seemed like a totally different crowd for the Hell’s Kitchen. Usually, it’s metal as all get out. There were four bands that played. I missed the first band, Friskey, but cought the others. Paris Spleen was a local group. Meh…They’ve got a ways to go to develop a real sound of their own. Next was The Turn Ons (photos) from Seattle, who started off softly but eventually got the kids shakin’. Incidentally, they should get an award for the most pretentious “I’m a rocker” move I’ve seen in a while. Dude actualy put down the guitar and pulled out some leather gloves and put them on — as part of the show. Wow. Wowee-wow-wow. Last up was The Elephants (photos) from Tacoma. They played catchy pop tunes, but switched up instruments about 42 times which was distracting to me. The crowd didn’t seem to care.

There are some photos up from a High On Fire show at Hell’s Kitchen in Tacoma back in December.

Well… sorta. Some of it is rather old. I finally got a few minutes to edit some photos – new and old – and add them to the rock photo gallery. I’ve recently updated my equipment from the old FujiFilm to a Nikon D50. So. Wow. I guess next up is actually learning how to use the damn thing. Reading the manual though? Come on. That’s SO boring.

Anyway, if you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting for me to update the gallery, your time has come. Check out photos of band like The Little Killers, Valis, The Stuckups, The Cinch, X27, The Earaches, Bob Log III, The Eastside Suicides, Ronson Family Switchblade, The Electric Kisses and the Urgencies to name a few. I’ll be adding new photos as well as a backlog about a mile long.

Ran across this on The Website Development Process. Clever stuff.

I published a bunch of new photos from the Estrus Records Party in Seattle at the Sunset Tavern last Saturday night. There’s now new photos of The Dt’s, The Knockout Pills and The Fallouts. You should bust on over to the photos section and check it out.

No, I’m not going to deliver a sermon, I’m going to deliver The Sermon. Some photos taken last night at The Stanwood Hotel. They ripped through 10 or 12 charged up garage rock tunes for about 30 mins or so. Fuzz on everything, including a reissued Foxx Tone Machine and a Mosrite Fuzz Rite. Reissue Russian black Big Muff on the bass. Even a Theramin played through an old Ampeg Gemini II. Good stuff.

I’m working on getting a new series of photos up to the old Live Rock Photos gallery. It’s moved and now lives here. There’s more to come, but for now, check out these photos of The Riverboat Gamblers in Tacoma at Hell’s Kitchen last year.

I’m publishing this site now using WordPress and iPAP: Photo Album Publisher from Marku Seguerra.