A couple of crowd shots from the New Years day festival. Band photos will be up later today.
I welcomed in the new year by shooting my first music festival for 2009. I was kind of excited for three reasons (1) I have never photographed at the Riverstage, it was excellent to be that close to the stage and NOT have the usual three song restrictions. (2) I have never photographed a dance, hip/hop, music festival before. It was an interesting experience. Photographing DJ’s isn’t something that will make your creative side come out, you can’t really do much with how you photograph them, it was a challenge especially at night when the light show started. (3) Public Enemy!! They were the only band/group to have a photo pit restriction.
We are having pizza tonight (yum!) my mother is making the dough as you can see, she’s the best cook.
My mother has a box of recipes.
I remember this, I don’t eat it anymore, my mother bought some while we were at the Valley they have a Filipino shop called “Best Friends”. It’s an awesome shop and brings back memories from the Philippines.
Last is a new shirt I bought today, it was half price!!
Ensaymada and Pan De Sal Filipino breads are my favourite. Ten years ago when I was back in the Philippines I practically lived off Ensaymada, it’s so delicious. When I was little I remember eating Pan de sal in the mornings. My mother can now make them. I have Pan De Sal for breakfast and have them for snacks. Each Sunday our house would smell like the bakery, it’s so yummy. Nothing beats having a freshly baked Pan De Sal, yum!
I don’t drink coffee, this is my mother’s coffee machine. I think last time I had coffee was when I was very, very little when I was in the Philippines.
The cat’s toy. It’s actually a toy for dogs, we bought it off a woman who was selling toys for dogs for some animal welfare group at the markets. The cat doesn’t play with it much, she likes the bigger stuff toys, something she can bite and kick.
My mother’s legs. She spents most of her time in the kitchen making food, cooking up something very delicious to eat. She has been bugging me to buy her a decent walking shoes, the shoes she has is not doing her feet any good. I always tell her she needs to buy shoes for her age.
Our doorway in our house.
Our kichen chairs. It’s kind of new, my mother bought it at the markets we now have a round table with wooden chairs. Our old table was square and heavy and we got it since we were living in Sydney, it has been with us forever. The round table is nice, Ma is making a table cloth for it and her next project is to add cushions on the seats.
New year’s day I’m shooting BBQ Beats, music festival happening at the Riverstage. I’m looking forward to Public Enemy they are scheduled to play late afternoon. Sneaky Sound System will headline the event.
Here is my gig wish list for January, February 2009.
1. Sunset Sounds (confirmed, woot!).
2. Big Day Out Gold Coast Parklands - (confirmed BUT with media pass no photo pit access, still better then nothing).
3. The Prodigy - Riverstage (waiting confirmation).
4. Serj Tankian/Fantomas - The Tivoli (waiting confirmation).
5. Hear and Now festival - Riverstage (no word if I”m down to shoot this or not).
6. Laneway Festival - Fortitude Valley (waiting confirmation).
7. Leonard Cohen - Brisbane Entertainment Centre (waiting…waiting..waiting.. I sent this out as a request I’m not getting my hopes up).
8. Ani Difranco - The Tivoli (waiting confirmation)
9. Jose` Gonzalez - Powerhouse (undecided if I want to shoot this or not)
10. Soundwave Festival - RNA Showgrounds (waiting confirmation - this one is massive and I”ll be getting my hopes up. The waiting game is a pain)
11. Kaki King - The Zoo (waiting confirmation - I hope I get this).
January is a busy month and February is shaping up to be exciting.
Once again I”ve been so lucky, seeing, photographing international bands. Here are my highlights from the year:
January: Big Day Out.
Rage Against The Machine were excellent. They totally BLEW me away. What an experience to see and hear them. I was taken back with the first song, I was like WOW, it’s them. I felt honored. They played all the classics everyone would know and a few oldies. Ofcourse everyone was hanging for “Killing in the Name”, it was the very last song they played. It was a sight to see, thousands of people united with their fists, middle fingers in the air and signing along to it, from the front of the stage right up to the hills. Zack looked totally tired but kept going. It was amazing.
The highlight of my experience is seeing The Nightwatchman, Tom Morello’s solo acoustic project. He’s set was the only one I saw from start to finish. He did his own version of AC/DC’s dirty deeds, the crowd loved it.
February: PJ Harvey.
I was allowed to see the opening first three songs. During the third song, I had butterflies in my stomach and I started shaking. The moment just hit me. I never stopped shaking through out the night. I can’t believe I got to shoot PJ Harvey.
Nightwish: Very entertaining on stage, very colourful lightshow. While waiting in the pit some fan thought it would be cool to throw beer towards the stage and unfortunately my camera and myself were blessed with the beverage, how nice.
March: Laneway Festival.
Laneway Festival was a hoot! The sun was burning hot. Highlight for me would be Dan Deacon. I stumbled across his set after leaving the carpark stage heading towards the Zoo. Dan had a big crowd and I thought I would stay for a while and check it out. He was entertaining, got the crowd involved. He wasn’t on stage, he was mixing it up with the punters.
April: Smashing Pumpkins.
‘I love you Billy’, was one guy screaming out at the Convention Centre, need I say more.
May: Cog.
I had fun photographing Cog. I actually love photographing them. Luke is my favorite bass player to shoot, never a dull moment with him. Best photos I have ever taken so far.
June: Photo shoot.
June was abit busy, did my first photo shoot with a band, photographed Massive Sounds Festival, saw The Black Keys for the first time ever, experienced Cut Copy and their fans (wasn’t all that good) and had fun shooting Bluejuice.
July: Getaway Plan:
I love the photo above because I took it blind above my head. I love it when things turn out great without expecting it to be.
Shooting Mammal at the Step Inn was difficult, this photo was one of my favorite shots from that night.
August: The month of first…first shooter assignment for RAVE..
The Herd were the first band I had to shoot for RAVE magazine at the Arena.
Seeing Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator for the first time also at the Arena.
Seeing Magic Dirt for the first time at The Zoo.
Experiencing JD Samson for Picasso Uplate AND seeing the Breeders for the first time at The Zoo. August sure did burst a few bubbles. Not to forget, I bought a second camera.
September: Valley Fiesta:
October: Festivals and Slipknot.
Awesome concert, awesome light show, awesome sound, awesome everything!!
October saw a few festivals, apart from Caloundra I also photographed Rapid Festival, attended Sounds of Spring.
November: Xavier Rudd.
Disastrous photo assignments, it was the Augie March and Lagwagon gig.
This month December another disastrous assignment but getting published made up for that and receiving a confirmation to photograph Sunset Sounds and seeing An Horse play made things all beautiful again.
Now for bits and pieces, The Best of..
Best Live Tour: Slipknot without a doubt. It was massive and ear/eye candy \m/ \/m/ Smashing Pumpkins come in second because I love the 90’s and FINALLY seeing them was just…no words can describe it really.
Best live band to make me smile after been run down by a truck: The Grates.
Best concert photos: Photographing Cog in May. Photos turned out really good, I surprised myself.
Best Festival Experience: V Festival, even though it was muddy and I had no idea what bands were playing at the start I still had a good time. I didn’t bump into too many noobs. Less noobs at festivals means better experience oh and having a good line up also helps.
Stay off the drugs: Cut Copy fans (sorry) I felt so out of place at that gig it was crazy, the events that happened during their set and afterwards. I was probably the only sober person that night.
Worst live venue: The Arena. A venue that can make me feel dirty the second I step inside is not good, a venue that has wet, sticky hand rails is not good, a venue that just smells like dirty old men is not good, a venue that doesn’t believe in a good light show is not good. Will I go back there next year to shoot, maybe..it depends how bad I want to shoot a band.
Album I have over indulged in: Kings of Leon - Only by the night. You know when you listen to an album and think it’s great and can’t stop listening to it, and when you do you don’t listen to it again and the thought of listening to it again is tiring and when you do listen to it that excitement you had in the first place for the album is gone, yeah that’s what happened here. I’m not dissing the band or the album.
Nerve racking moment for 2008: Photographing PJ Harvey. I never had the shakes so bad.
Most treasured photo pass: PJ Harvey.
Biggest tool moment for 2008: Me handing Kate a note and Kate asking if it’s acid, oh wait that happened last year…hahaha. Biggest tool moment for me would be turning up to a gig only to be told the gig isn’t happening till the next night..d’oh!
Thank god I”m alive moment/s: Surviving the storms in November. I live in the outer northern suburbs of Brisbane and I was very thankful and lucky that the area we lived in didn’t experience the full force of the storm, having said that we did get some serious storms our way, it was very intense and has scar me forever, when I see dark clouds I fear the worse.
I think that is it. My predictions for 2009, An Horse will snob Brisbane/Australia and expect them to relocate overseas. Kate will be a dominant female force in the music industry, Tegan and Sara will soon add a permanent member and change their name to Tegan, Kate and Sara or Tegan, Sara and Kate which ever takes your fancy. Violent Soho will turn their back on grunge and embrace screamo/emo but in spoken word. The Grates will collaborate with Blood Duster to produce the most played “pop” song in Australian radio history and I shall be Batrider’s official tour photographer when they come back to Australia (I wish). Ok, I’m taking the piss. 2009 shall be the year of “damn if only I had the money for…”.
Valve x-mas smash was held at The Zoo on Saturday, bands playing that night were: Secret Brids, Del Toro, Sekiden, An Horse and I Heart Hiroshima.
Secret Birds (which included all members of I Heart Hiroshima and two memebers from Del Toro) had four drummers on stage, five, maybe six guitarists (I think, I lost count), a bass player and Keyboards. I would describe them more of a noise rock band. The drums were awesome, guitar riffs were ear bleeding. It was my first time seeing them and the crowd were really into them.
Del Toro had to follow up afterwards. I didn’t see much of their set. Last time I saw them was at the Valley Fiesta (speaking of which I read ages ago that it might not be happening next year, which is a downer) they had equipment issues and I don’t remember much of their set. From the last few songs I caught last night they sounded alright, abit more animated on stage, which made me get into them.
Sekiden, power pop trio were entertaining. I like them, another band I have never seen live. The drummer was brutal on the skins. Seja (synths, singer) seem to have a mini fan club happening behind me. Mirko (drummer) got out behind the drums and took to the mic and motivated the crowd to join in and tell them to raise their fists in the air and yell out “wow” (I think, I couldn’t hear what he was trying to tell us) but it was entertaining to watch him get all worked up.
Last time I saw An Horse was way back in January this year. I did have the opportunity to see them again half way through the year BUT something come up and I missed out. The ever popular An Horse took to the stage and it was straight to business playing songs from their latest DEBUT album ‘Rearrange Beds. I was disappointed they didn’t have their album for sale last night. They are supporting Tegan and Sara in January the same month their album comes out, can’t wait.
I did take photos of the bands except for I Heart Hiroshima, I left before they went on stage, I”m not too bothered about missing their set I”ll be seeing them in a few weeks at Sunset Sounds.
Photographing An Horse was bittersweet, Damon was on the good side of the stage, meaning he had lights on him while Kate was on the dark side with dim lighting. Anyway, it’s a bit of a change posting photos of Damon, it doesn’t seem like I”m too much of a stalker (which I”m not). Speaking of stalkers, my friend and I were talking about how he feels like he’s a stalker when his at the front shooting at gigs. I never really thought about it like that. When I”m at the front I have a few thoughts like, yes, I have a good spot!! Go me!!, second, I hope they have good lighting, I don’t feel like I”m crossing that line of stalker status, yes I bring my camera with me almost everywhere but I like to photograph gigs, display the photos online and sometimes email them to bands, plus bands should be used to it…right? Anyway hope that made sense.
