Sebadoh

Its been a while since I’ve seen Sebadoh live – at least ten years. So when they hit Music Hall of Williamsburg November 12 I just had to go, if even for the fact that I loved them when I was 16 years old, unable to see them when they played at 18 and up venues in San Diego. I repeatedly played warped cassette tapes of Bubble and Scrape and Weed Forestin in my car until I was finally old enough to see them live. Fast forward to 2011. Hadn’t thought about them in a while, yet I tweeted that I was stoked to see Sebadoh that night at MHOW. Lou Barlow (or maybe it was Jason Loewenstein or a random friend) retweeted me from the RealSebadoh Twitter, which I would have freaked out about, had it been 1994. Either way, I was excited to shoot Lou Barlow again.

Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow of Sebadoh

They must have played for about 3 hours, some songs of which I was stoked about, but mostly it was so loud my ears almost exploded, standing next to the stage monitor. Some kid yelled to ‘turn it up’ which Barlow then decided to turn the monitor to face him, but the closest he could get was straight at me.

Sebadoh

Jason Loewenstein

Barlow made many hilarious references to being old now, none of which most of the crowd (early 20′s) would get. He talked about how the tee-shirts on the last Sebadoh tour sold out, so he decided to print an additional 300 or so for this one. This show in Brooklyn that night, was their last show of the tour, and they would now be hauling the 300 or so extra tee-shirts back home, as they hadn’t sold hardly any. “This wouldn’t have happened to Guided By Voices”, Barlow said with resignation.

Then this joke:

“Hey, why did the hipster fail at karate?”

(silence)

“He couldn’t get past the white belt!”

(silence)

“I guess you would have to be an old hipster to get that one.”

Me, and maybe 4 others in the crowd laughed. That alone made me happy I went and endured the ‘mosh pit’ (?) some sweaty, smelly kids started in the front row.

Sebadoh

I managed to get this video of Together Or Alone. The only song of the night my internal camera mic could handle without totally blowing out. One of my favorite songs off Bake Sale:

The Lemonheads

Despite the negative reviews following The Lemonheads‘ two nights of performances at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City back in October, I can’t say I agree. Sure Evan Dando is kind of a weirdo, fidgeted a lot, paced around on stage, and stared quite often out in space or straight in to the stage lights – but he hasn’t aged one bit. And to hear the Lemonheads hits such as It’s A Shame About Ray and Mrs. Robinson sounding much better live in 2011 than they did on my cassette Walkmen back in the 1990′s, made me thankful to be standing 2 feet from Dando rather than still in high school.

Below is a video of The Lemonheads performing Its A Shame About Ray at Bowery Ballroom that I recorded that night with not so amazing sound as I didn’t have an external mic with me (after the images):

And according to their website, they will be coming back 1.12.12 to the Knitting Factory, NYC.

Here is the hardly legible set list, scribbled out on a soiled slab of cardboard:

The Lemonheads set list

Evan Dando

Christmas in San Francisco

Visited with my old and dear friend Jasmin for a couple hours one afternoon. We wandered in to a thrift store in the Mission District, where she picked up this white dress. Then changed in to a different white dress.

Jasmin on Her Bed, San Francisco

Jasmin In Her Room, San Francisco

Wavves and Dee Dee solo (Dum Dum Girls) at Summer Stage, NYC

Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls played a solo show with Wavves this summer…. more photos on Impose Magazine.

Stephen Malkmus at Academy Records

I’ve seen Pavement play many times over the years, from opening for Sonic Youth in 1993, to their reunion show in Stockton in 2010 for SF Weekly and yet again in Berkeley , but this was by far the closest I ever stood to Stephen Malkmus. Malkmus played the first of two free instores with the Jicks at Academy Records in Brooklyn. My spot just happened to be way too close for comfort.

Click on the link for more of my photos from Steven Malkmus and The Jicks at Academy Records on Brooklyn Vegan .

House of Vans Party #5

 As anticipated, the line to enter the free, all ages show at House of Vans in Greenpoint was long, as throngs of punk and indie type kids arrived over two hours early to sit it out on the sidewalks. Shortly before doors opened, a seemingly unfair downpour soaked the hundreds of kids waiting to get in to the House of Vans for its 5th free show of the summer – either for the 5 bands, the free beer, or maybe just the free Boxed Water.

Jaja of Ninjasonik standing in the downpour:

The back patio of HOV feels like your BBQing with 500 of your closest friends – except your ordering french fries from the Frying Dutchman and trolling through ankle deep rain to get to the free Heineken Light beer stand. This show required maintaining a positive attitude, considering the band line up made no sense at all, leaving everyone bound to both love and hate something.

Starting the night was Team Robespierre, a synth-punk, electro pop cute boy band from Brooklyn. They were a fun segue, and audience energizing sound to Japanther, local Brooklyn punk duo.

Something about drummer Ian Vanek screaming and spitting into a yellow telephone receiver mic makes me curiously want to scale abandoned buildings with him and then have a picnic; his sound and persona bordering between sexy and horrifying.

Speaking of sexy, how did New Orleans’ Big Freedia The Queen Diva get the slot following, right before Against Me!? Perhaps it just fit in right before her scheduled next performance the same night at The Morgan in Bushwick, and (as she told me backstage) an exhausting day of photo shoots and interviews.

The Sissy Bounce Queen brought nothing short of high energy, ass shakin’ hits, and a whole crew of dancers, including bootie bumpin’ dancer “Frohawk” who raced out the door right after to sing onstage with Handsome Furs that same night. I overheard one guy saying,” I don’t get it. Just seems like a lot of asses all over the place.” Obviously, he is not familiar with Big Freedia’s ‘Azz Everywhere‘ hit yet.

Next up late 90′s Florida punk band Against Me! really threw the ass shakin’ good times out the door – and brought the mosh pit, angry youth punching moves out.

I watched a crowd surfing guy get pummeled over into the photo pit, and land straight down on his head, his eyes lids fluttering back, but he was okay. Another guy, not so lucky, was taken out in a stretcher with head injuries. All in all, a solid punk sound, and the show Against Me! put on must surely have redeemed their reputation to more than a few fans.

Finally Tokyo Police Club, really sweet, down-to-earth cuties from Ontario, Canada closed out the show with catchy indie rock hits from their new release titled “CHAMP”.

If you had started the night with a Four Loco then downed a few Heineken’s throughout the night, you were probably teetering on that fence between sugar crash and triple vision, and Tokyo Police Club provided a pleasantly poppy soundtrack for either.

Or as the young kids out back on the patio were doing at this point,  music to make out to under the stormy Brooklyn skies.

More images from the House of Vans party on my Flickr.

Lady Lamb The Beekeeper

I first discovered Aly Spaltro of Lady Lamb The Beekeeper thru a couple beautiful photographs by Shervin which led to his beautifully filmed, single take, video “Between Two Trees” of Aly’s band Lady Lamb The Beekeeper. Her voice is so stunning and original, I had to see her for myself.

These are photos of her show at Union Pool in Brooklyn back in June as part of L Magazine’s Northside Fest. She was unbelievably sweet and shy, but her vocals were bigger than the room!

Well, Union Pool’s stage lighting translates better in to video anyways. So does its sound.

Watch the video of her performing “Crane Your Neck” 

And “Bird Balloon” and also “Between Two Trees”

And go see her play live. Its amazing what comes out of such a small girl’s lungs.