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There are more photos over here.

I ventured out last Friday to catch a couple of bands. Peter Parker and Dept of Energy played live at The Comet Tavern. The Comet is a cool venue to see shows. The bands play live on the floor, but it’s dark as shit in there, making photography difficult. The Globes opened the show, but I didn’t have the Nikon tuned in to get any shots of them. I posted some photos of Peter Parker and Dept of Energy from the show to the Live Rock Photos gallery. Enjoy. Or not. I’ve also posted them to Flickr.

Thank you * for completing your Jury Summons response online.
Status: Not Qualified. You are excused from Jury Duty.
Reason: Moved from jurisdiction

Sweet. Extra perks.

I ventured up to Seattle last Saturday to check out Tacoma’s own The Fucking Eagles (photos) opening up a show with Denmark’s Power Solo (photos) for Jon Spencer’s (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) new project, Heavy Trash (photos).

As always, it’s always reverent to hear completely anomalous questions from Seattle people about drive-bys, meth and aroma. Some of my photos are featured on the Seattle Indie Pop Rock blog, Three Imaginary Girls in a full review of the show from heather b.

I was able to attend both dates of the Georgetown Music Festival in the Georgetown neighborhood up in Seattle last weekend. 47 bands on 4 stages. The two indoor stages at Jules Maes provided the typical conundrum of taking photographs in absolutely horrible lighting conditions. Ouside however, the sun was in full force. Consequently, a lot of the photos from the two outdoor stages turned out pretty well. After reviewing the work from Saturday, it occurred to me a circular polarizer filter would be a good choice. Sunday’s photos as a result were a lot richer as a result. This gets chalked up as learning while living, and taking photos along the way.

Check out the photos of the Georgetown Music Festival 2007 on Flickr.

“This isn’t about Tacoma, what gives?”

Tacoma needs a festival like this in a big, bad way. So the burning question is, who’s putting it on?

I was up in Seattle last week and caught an indie pop rock show at the Comet Tavern on Capitol Hill. There were four bands on the bill, and if you actually read this blog, you know I never make anything on time. Ever. I missed the first band, Olympia’s The Mona Reels. I arrived just before Spanish for 100 set up to play. I hate to play favorites, but I was impressed. These guys were really well informed. Super cool sounds. Their music is available for download, check ’em out (photos).

The Sea Navy (photos) played next with a set of tunes from their recent record, “Oh These Troubled Times.” A final set with TW Walsh filling in on the drums was smart and poignant. There were a group of juiced up gals who couldn’t help but dance. I know…. At a rock show, it’s unheard of and unacceptable. Seriously. It made for a few awkward moments. In the end, who cares? It’s a rock show. If you feel it, go ahead and dance. Nothing wrong with that.

The last group featured Robb Benson (formerly of Dear John Letters) The Dept of Energy (photos) closed the show with a set of catchy pop tunes, though I spent much of the end of the evening lusting after a Leica I saw busted out near the end of the Sea Navy’s set. Gimme a break. It’s a disease and I can’t fucking help it okay? A couple previews of their record are available on the lately ubiquitous myspace.com.

Check out the photos.

Kirk Rundstrom, guitar player for the Wichita, Kansas alternative bluegrass band Split Lip Rayfield, was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Though he endured four months of chemotherapy, the cancer spread and he was given only a few months to live. He decided best therapy would be to hit the road one last time, playing a round of shows before retiring to beat the cancer for good. They played the Tractor Tavern in Ballard on Friday, November 10th.

A couple of friends of mine, and fans of the band traveled up to Seattle from Tucson to catch the show. The Tractor was packed with fans and the band got a lot of support from Seattle. Also on hand were several family members whom I talked to briefly. I’d seen SLR once before in Tucson at the now defunct 7 Black Cats, probably 6-7 years ago. Their performance on Friday night was spirited as ever and it was good to see them giving it everything on regrettably, what may be their last tour.

Portland-via-Oklahoma’s “I can lick any son of a bitch in the house” opened the show played before SLR. I took photos of the whole show, but there was a red light shining on the stage the whole time. During ICLASOBITH, I didn’t use flash so I wouldn’t be annoying. My Nikon absolutely hates red light, and as a result, no photos of them. But I was actually encouraged to shoot photos during Split Lip Rayfield’s set, flash or not.

Here are some of the images taken at the show.

Best of luck Kirk. Hope you beat it.

Ventured up to Seattle last night to see the Little Steven’s Rolling Rock and Roll Show. On the bill were four bands, newcomers The Charms from Boston, garage rock pioneers The Chesterfield Kings, Seattle-via-Tucson’s Supersuckers and the New York Dolls. To be honest, the whole thing stunk of corporate advertising and bumptious, celebrity notoriety exploitation, but we had a get-in-free pass. What the hell, right?

The Charms were on when we arrived, but the line to get a drink was so long that I didn’t see a lick of their set. (Seriously, we were in line for 20 minutes. For beer. While a band was on. Ugh.) $13 later and two beers later, we made our way into the main room to find The Chesterfield Kings (instant audio and ridiculous, skip intro screen. You’ve been warned.) on stage doing their thing. This was the first time I’d seen them play, and they looked pretty tired. I’ll sum this up with one word: meh.

Countryfied, punkish and self-proclaimed “The greatest rock n’ roll band in the world”, The Supersuckers (instant audio warning) were up next. Say what you will of these guys. Are they breaking new ground? No. Are they gimmicky? Totally. Do I think they’re the greatest rock n’ roll band in the world. No. Do they care? Absolutely not. Will they leave at the end of the night having put on a entertaining show doing exactly what they love to do? Count on it. I’ve never left a Supersuckers show feeling slighted. Put a stamp on it and stick it in the mail. They deliver the rock.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO WORRY. I’m rolling my own eyes at that last line FOR YOU right now.

Protopunk glam rock veterans New York Dolls (photos) headlined the show. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? In one incarnation or another, these guys have been putting on this show since before I was born. El Corazon was super crowded and I didn’t really have the vantage to bust out the camera earlier in the show. When the Dolls hit, I decided to just stick it up there and see what happened. These photos were all taken from pretty far back in the crowd. The stage was pretty well lit, but there were a ton of asshats in front of me. These shots are all digital and held overhead. It would have been nice to get up closer and actually compose the shots, but I mentioned the whole asshats thing, right? Whatever happened, happened.

Again, here are the photos of the New York Dolls.

Made a trek up to Seattle on Thursday night to see the Boss Martians play at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. The Hot Rollers played first, but I missed the majority of their set. The Boss Martians played a strong set of songs, some of which I was familiar with and some of the newer songs I hadn’t heard. This was the first outing I had seen them play with former Midnight Thunder Express & ex-Valentine Killer Scott (the Machine) Myrene on the bass, who seemed to easily lock it in step with newer drummer Thomas Caviezel. Playing for about an hour, they blasted through their set of pop-tinged punk rock n’ roll. It was loud & fast(how it should be, duh?). Evan Foster has been a busy man lately, writing tons of material for the Martians’ forthcoming record (demos on myspace) and evidently also co-writing songs with Iggy Pop. What a job? That does NOT suck.

As far as the photography goes, I did things a little differently than usual. Recently, I’ve decided if I was really going to learn to shoot photos, I was going to have to learn how to shoot them on film. Sure digital is easier, and I’d probably get better results, but it’s akin to recording music to tape. Neither method is without merit, but learning the way everyone else did can offer some insight into the craft. Anyway, I removed the crutch. I didn’t bring my Nikon D50. I took 2 rolls of Kodak BW400CN black and white film, a roll of Kodak Ektachrome P1600, a 50mm 1.4 lens and the Nikon N80. I figured this way, I’d have to pay more attention to what I was doing and not just let the camera do the heavy lifting.

I was kind of stoked to see the depth in some of the shots. I shot 108 frames—most of them totally sucked, but I expected that. The shot in the lede of this post is the only (of 37) from the Ektachrome roll that made the cut. Enough of my blabberin’, the frames that did not suck are online. Go on, take a looksee there, punk rocker.

Last weekend, my wife and I got the chance to get out of town and head up to Mount Rainier National Park and stay at Three Bears Lodge. The lodge is about 200 yards or so from the Nisqually gate to the park. Friday afternoon, I packed up a few things, charged up the iPod and hit the road.

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