Archive for August, 2008

Jeff

No ways I would miss a chance to roam another music festival this summer….

I took a quickie flight up north to hit the last day of this SF Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival for Wilco on the last show (this leg) of their tour. The arrived at the airport 8 hours too early to meet up with Nels who’s traveling on the Wilco bus. I staked out a corner at SFO to sleep and wait for the sun to rise. By dawn, I hauled my butt over toward the festival ground. This proved to be an unexpected adventure. By 10am, I did quite a few miles of walking back and forth around the outside of the festival gate looking for the right entrance to get in. The festival set up was ridiculously long in distance from one end to the other. Luckily I didn’t mind the mellow morning walk in the amazing San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, even with my 75 lbs on my back full of camera gear. But soon after that, my feet were done. I didn’t explore the festival itself too much due to my inappropriate shoes. I didn’t allow myself enough time to THINK ahead as I barely made it to my flight out.

Once there, and once all the fussy access issues were dealt with, I pretty much tailgated Nels Cline the entire day. The weather was warm’ish overcast. This festival was.. huge. The sea of happy people walking, dancing, laying around everywhere like ants. Good times were evidenced everywhere. I watched only a few bands; Toots & Maytals, Broken Social Science, and the one that impressed me – Bon Iver.

Then it was time for Wilco to go on. Their stage was on the opposing side of the festival where all the tour buses parked. Everyone had to get shuttled over to stage and later back. Once I hopped on the side of the stage, seeing the sea of crowd was mind blowing. This actually prompted me to soon give up on looking for my local SF resident friend Dave – who’s amongst the crowd of 60 thousands somewhere to the … west …

After Wilco finished playing, we were in a mad hurry to get out of the festival. I supposed being that it was their last show of the tour, and the day before Jeff Tweedy’s birthday, it was about wrapping it up and go chill in the City. I missed my chance to see Jack Johnson. I only heard him beginning his set from the distance as the bus leaves. I was a little bit bummed since I was looking forward to see him perform. Maybe next time, somewhere.

Off to the hotel in San Francisco, a few of us had some drinks to cap off the night.  Again, due to the fixed work schedule, I had to catch a 6am flight back to be at work by 9am. Another exhilarating event, checked.
 

policemen on patrol

Police Horse

Festival attendees watching band Wilco

Glenn as a rock drummer

Nels

Mikael

Jeff

Jeff and Nels guitar interaction

Nels

John

Jeff

Pat

Jeff - few hours before his 41st birthday

MIke Watt & the Missingmen does Warped Tour 08 – Chula Vista, CA
 

“The longest running of traveling music festival!” Mike Watt announces often on this trip. He speaks very fondly of Kevin Lyman, “the Boss”, the founder of this. I had never attended a Warped Tour out of all 22 years of its existence. When Watt brought it up the he’s taking the Missingmen to do a few of the cities around California, I asked to join. With Watt, I don’t really know how things happen – It’s between my demanding to get involved, or his invitation to participate. In any case, I’d still do my best to be a part of the experience. 

Knowing full well what I was signing up for, I braced myself for the BOAT RIDE. A space was saved for me in the co-pilot section as the Missingmen guitarist Tom Watson, drummer Raul Moreles, and general roadie friend co conspirator Richard Bonney were in the back seat. Watt signed up the band for 3 shows, and damn it all to hell, I will go to all of them. First show in Chula Vista near San Diego – 2 hour south of LA, then ‘hell ride’ 8-9 hours up the coast to Mountain View for a 9am check in at the festival office. One day break and the last one was to be back southward in Carson, just a bit south of LA. Yes, South – North – South…Watt Style. The third show was the last one to conclude Warped Tour.

This is one place where I put my ignorance to use more apparently. I decided a long time ago that I would preserve my learning about people/events from real life interaction. This is also to help me be objective in my photography pursuit. The personal impression of people I meet is very crucial, this I find over the years. It is as if all the information from somewhere else – word of mouths, others’ interpretations, internet, websites – are hard for me to filter out once received. I would then get confused and nervous of portraying people the way someone else somewhere might expect. Selfish, I know – but I pay high price to get to be like this.

Part of the huge ignorance I went in with was about anything Punk ; bands, personalities, histories, and relationships. Other than Mike Watt and his Missingmen that I traveled with, I knew no other bands. I didn’t even know that Warped Tour had always been held in parking lots. About them, I think the festival organization is quite outstanding. All bands must check in first thing in the morning, at the day of event. They were then given the schedule and stage assignment. This way, Watt explained, they will have no problems with bands showing up whenever they want. All the bands and crew get fed 2 meals, lunch and dinner. I appreciated the recycling effort implemented throughout the festival ground.

Watt and his band was to play at the Old School Stage – this is unique to the West Coast leg of the tour. Bands like Fear, TSOL, The Germs, The Dickies and Watt’s played on this stage. Watching Watt glowed catching up with old friends from ‘back in the days’ was something else. I only caught performances here and there feeling very scattered and ineffective in photo coverage. I couldn’t help it but being crazy distracted by EVERYthing else that was going on. There were at least a dozen stages, and must be close to a hundred bands playing back, and at the same time. I had to constantly remind myself this was another Watt-centric photo coverage. That way I wouldn’t get tempted to stray far. 

Partial photo report 

Watt on stage in Chula Vista where the concert was not

Raul's smile qualifies to effect world's peace

Richard, Tom, and Raul

Band loading out - Chula Vista, CA

Watt - Chula Vista, CA

neo-retro-punk fashion?

Family Force Five or FF5, the most animated band I had ever seen - Mountain View, CA

Lee Ving of Fear - Mountain View, CA

Mondo Lopez of Fear - Mountain View, CA

Watt with Kevin Lyman

Watt - Carson, CA

Jack Grisham with TSOL - Carson, CA

Lorna Dooms and Pat Smear - the Germs, Carson, CA

Shane West - the Germs, Carson, CA

The Dickies - Warped Tour, Carson, CA

Watt - Chula Vista, CA

Mike Watt & the Missingmen Raul and Tom after festival in Mountain View, CA

A video diary of a day.

FINALLY I will get to see one of my most fondest of all bands, The Dillinger Escape Plan. I’ve been listening to them for sometimes now. They are the only band of this mathcore genre that I like. All screaming heads are not created equal. As opposed to other bands of a similar stripe, I prefer them for the music. They are stylistically superior in my opinion… and are still a band currently.

I have always wondered to show up in one of their gigs to get the full experience. They were supposed to play at the House of Blues in West Hollywood AND Anaheim. Somehow, they found out that they are banned on the Disney property? So the HOB in Anaheim was out. I didn’t go to see them at the closer W.Hollywood location on Tuesday because some other conflict of schedules. The following day, I drove down to Chain Reaction in Anaheim instead. This venue is all ages, so I was curious to see how DEP translates in the young crowd.

Regretfully I barely made it to the gig. They happened to start early for some reasons. I only caught a few last songs. Watching the sober, love-filled, crowd-surfing Orange County kids cranking out their best with the band was a little surreal. I didn’t really have a good spot to photograph. I ran out of time quite quickly too. Next time.

Greg Puciato

Jeff Tuttle

Billy Rymer

Still into it. I made another one for more laughs.

Royston Langdon

Spacehog -  a band famous for a dramatic 70s style glam rock in the 90s is back. I have seen them many times, the first being on Sunday April 14, 1996 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. I only know that date because I just googled it… The other few times in Los Angeles, I couldn’t find the dates. Oh, wait -Here’s another – Saturday March 13, 1998 at the Hollywood Athletic Club was the one I took the most pictures posted here under the vintage area.

This is a great band. Each member have their own vibes. Together they are fun to photograph because they can be so animated. I find it challenging to really get that energy translated in my photography style framework. Maybe I might have to break down and use a flash on them? Depends. 

So, August 1, 2008 – First time in possibly 10 years I’ve seen the band. I was excited to see what they are about these days with the reunion. I was also nervous to see what kind of fans do they have these days? Maybe people my age who remember them the way I do? I ended up didn’t analyze the crowd so much. It was hard to say if the people were there for them, or for the headliner The Subways, which band I knew nothing about. They were actually a great band as I later found out. 

So, my impression of the show was this – They were just as I remembered them. A slight bit ‘lose’ as for them trying to reach out to connect with the audience. They didn’t seem to have as much fun as before (which was overly) – understandably they are 10 years older. As was I – who is viewing them from a different state now. I do look forward to hear what their new material, and hear more about what they have been up to all these time.
 

Friday August 8, 2008

more Royston, easy target

Antony Langdon

Vintage

The following are pictures I’ve taken over 10  years ago. Starting from 1996 as stated earlier. 

Sunday April 14, 1996

Richard Steel, Great American Music Hall 1996

Royston Langdon, Great American Music Hall 1996

Jonny Cragg at the Great American Music Hall, SF 1996

Spacehog Antony Langdon

The following ones were from The Hollywood Athletic Club Saturday March 13, 1998 – Apparently I’m missing a ton of photos from when they played at the Dragonfly a couple of times in between these 2 shows.

 Saturday March 13, 1998

Spacehog at the Hollywood Athletic Club

Antony

Royston and Richard

Royston

Royston

Antony

Richard