My second day at the Gathering of the Juggalos was my longest of the four day festival. As I mentioned in Part 1 yesterday, I actually skipped Wednesday and only spent about 4 hours there on Thursday, but on Friday I was there from about 3pm to about 2am. The heat combined with my back injury made it seem even longer. But at least I took a lot of photos. 

When I got down there I walked over to the tent where the Faygo Wet T-shirt contest was happening. That tent is a red abomination of heat, moisture and horrifying color balance so I usually try and avoid anything happening in there. However the Faygo wet t-shirt contest is always absolutely chaotic and has been hosted by my buddy Clownvis the last couple of years so I figured I would deal with the heat and then just make all the photos black and white which is the easy way out of color balance hell. Taji Ameen from Vice was there filming a series called Better Man which I had just watched several episodes of. It was a very weird coincidence. Like literally three days earlier I had gone down a YouTube hole so I made sure I got some good shots of him looking uncomfortable while juggalettes showed their Faygo drenched buttholes to the crowd. Honestly the photos are totally insane but you can only see them on Girls of Driven By Boredom because I still haven’t fixed my gallery system yet. There’s some video from it on my OnlyFans too.  Just give me $4.99 and we can all move on with our lives. 

After the Faygo contest there was some sort of stunt show happening in that tent but I had no interest in taking any more photos in there so I did a lap around the campgrounds. When I made my way back around I heard screaming from the tent and went inside to see some total madness happening including Super Humman doing one of his famous stunts. I just caught the very end though and suddenly everyone went outside for a car stunt. The stunt group and brought a car to destroy and I believe the plan was to have Taji drive the car down a path and aim for a ladder, and a guy standing on the ladder would jump over the car. I can only speculate because while they were setting up one of the security guards started yelling for people to get off the port-a-potties they were standing on to get a better view. The juggalos didn’t appreciate getting yelled at so they did what juggalos do best and threw some Faygo at the security guard, she freaked out and radioed for the police. They showed up and the whole thing turned into a really ugly scene and the cops were totally outnumbered. I thought one of them was gonna do something stupid and things were gonna go really badly, but luckily they didn’t and Violent J’s brother Jumpsteady showed up and got everyone to calm down. That’s when I left to do another lap.

When I came back around the car was flipped over and juggalos were standing on top of it. It had become quite the party around that and at some point someone was selling merch off it The whole thing was honestly pretty fun, unlike in 2012 when someone who got caught stealing had their car destroyed. Eventually the owner of the campgrounds came by with some sort of heavy machinery and took the car away while all the juggalos followed him like the juggalo pied piper. A situation that seemed pretty dark turned out totally fine in the end. Juggalos usually do a pretty good job of policing themselves and glad the cops didn’t intervene more than they did. 

After that we did some more running around until the mainstage music really kicked off. Sir-Mix-A-Lot was the first artist we were aloud to get into the photo pit before and I was pretty psyched about that. After I mentioned his performance he actually Tweeted at me telling me how much fun he had and I think everyone really enjoyed his set.

By the time he was done my friends in Ho99o9 had shown up. The last time the played the Gathering I followed them around for a Vice story. This time they had experienced the Gathering already and were mostly just focused on the show. I went over and just hung out with them while they were sound checking and stuff until I heard Ouji Macc on the main stage. I don’t really listen to any juggalo music except when a random ICP song will pop into my head, but I really like Ouji as a human, his shows are a lot of fun and his managers are friends of mine. He also gave me a pair of his record label’s (Chapter 17) socks which I think I am actually going to wear today. So when I heard him start playing I ran down to the main stage and got there just in time to shoot one of his songs before they kicked us out of the pit.

As soon as Ouji’s was over Ho99o9 launched into their set. They absolutely killed it as always. I have seen them more than a half dozen times, but not in five years or something. They are more polished, and even creepier, but as energetic as always and it was great to see them again. After I went backstage and shot them and Ouji together and then said hi to Dana Dentata who I briefly met at the Gathering in 2019. Esham was playing between Ho99o9 and Dentata and that dude is an absolute legend. He invented horrorcore and Eminem, ICP and everything that came after them wouldn’t exist without him. Finally Dana Dentata went on and I was only going to shoot one song but her set was incredibly interesting and I couldn’t find a reason to leave. Finally when she was over I escaped into the night and got back to my hotel after 3am. I was in an incredible amount of pain and honestly my photos on Saturday suffered because of it, but I had shot a ton of photos and had some fun and it was probably all worth it. 

Click here to see my photos from day 3 of the 2022 Gathering of the Juggalos and come back soon for the final chapter. 

Ps. Buy my juggalo NFTs.

This has been one of my weirder South By Southwest experiences. After 14 of these things in a row I am very used to working 20 hour days and not sleeping for a week straight and shooting thousands of images a day. This year? Not so much.

I have a few jobs this week but mostly I have been just hanging out, seeing friends and eating food. I was pretty upset when the jobs I thought I had lined up fell through (especially because I didn’t bother to get a press pass or RSVP for anything) but honestly it’s been a lot of fun and super stress free which is not something I ever thought I would say about SXSW.

I even had time to do this update while I am in Austin, so let’s catch you guys up…

On Tuesday I did my first ever shoot Playboy which was kinda great. I’ve wanted to shoot for Playboy forever so it was kinda a dream come true. In my high school year book they did one of those “In 20 years…” things and mine was “Playboy photographer” which I beat by a few years but shout out to whoever on the yearbook staff came up with that.

On Wednesday I went down to Fader Fort with my Playboy editor and she interviewed Playboi Carti because how could she not and we did a thing for Playboy’s social with Lil Yachty. I shot photos for that stuff and shot them performing live as well. I will get that stuff up later.

Anyway, on Wednesday night I hit the IHeartComix showcase at Clearport ATX because my friends and current favorite live band Ho99o9 were playing. They are one of the most insane bands around and they have a new album dropping soon so I had to go hang and shoot them. When I got to the party Sad13 were playing and I got a few shots of them.

Pomo was next and they played super smooth dance music. I dug it but I couldn’t imagine what people were going to think of Ho99o9 after grooving to Pomo. Sweater Beats was DJing after them so it was a really weird idea to put an insane punk band in between that stuff but shout out to Franki Chan for booking it. I love shows like that.

When Ho99o9 got on the place exploded. A mosh pit broke out even before they started playing. It was fucking wonderful and it lasted for all of two songs before a fight broke out and a bunch of kids rushed past the bouncers working the door and suddenly it was complete chaos. The club had no idea how to deal with any of it so they just cut the music as club security dealt with a mosh pit like people were rioting.

So the show got shut down after 5 amazing minutes and when we got out side kids just started tearing down all the Ho99o9 posters and took them all home before the cops even  showed up. Good times.

I didn’t shoot a ton of photos because I was mostly there to see Ho99o9 and they only played for a second, but the photos are probably worth looking at anyway. I mean if you read this far down the page you probably care enough to spend a few more minutes looking at 30 photos right?

So click here to see the pictures of Ho99o9 and more from the 2017 IHeartComix SXSW Showcase.

After a few days to recover getting up this year’s South By Southwest posts is going to be really easy. I didn’t shoot the film fest and unlike in past years I pretty much just suck to one event during music week. I got hired by two different clients to cover Flood Magazine’s FloodFest day parties at Cedar Street Courtyard. I was there starting at 11am so I had to be up every day by 8:30 or so. Normally I would just get no sleep all week but it was my 13th SXSW and for once I decided I would take it easy. I did shoot two other parties but one of em was a private thing so I only have one update after this one. Praise rock music Jebus.

So yeah, FloodFest day parties! 30 bands over four days! I could list them all or you could just look at this list over here. I was there for Sailor Jerry again who had Keith Underwood and Phillip LaRocca doing tattoos all week and Original Penguin the classic men’s wear line that was gifting bands and had one of those evil photo booth things set up that cost me jobs (just kidding).

Let’s just bang out some highlights.

Best band: I really loved Sir The Baptist. Gospel, hip hop and r&b mixed with a hell of a live show. Real worth checking out.

Most fun band to hang out with after: September Girls were these rad Irish babes who played on St. Patrick’s Day because of course. I ended up running into em later in the day too and they all got Sailor Jerry tattoos.

Worst/ Best tattoo: The winner of the best and the worst tattoo goes to the front man from the band American Bombshell who got SXSW 16 tattooed to his knuckles. Holy shit.

Best babes in Austin: I had Ela Darling and Carter Cruise come visit me. Always good to see my worlds smash into each other. Ela was in town for the Interactive part of SXSW and was giving talks on VR in the Adult industry. Carter was in town DJing and ended up getting a pretty sick SJ tattoo.

Other friends getting tattooed: The homies Ho99o9 came to get tattooed and get some free Penguin gear. It was awesome to see this savage punk band in button up shirts. Hollywood Holt also came by to get his hand tattooed. My friends Keaton and Tess came by and got little jammers too and while not that interesting as far as the write up goes it was nice to hang out with them.

Other bands I dug: The Heavy, Deap Vally, So Pitted, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down and although they were a little to chill for me Polica was a huge crowd favorite. Over all most of the bands were pretty good although there were a few exceptions that made me want to murder all of music but I will probably just go ahead and not mention their names.

Anyway, go look some photos and thanks to Sailor Jerry and Original Penguin and Flood Magazine for having me out. Also thanks to Phil for the absurd SJ tattoo! Now go look at way too many pictures!

Click here to see a TON of photos from the 2016 SXSW FloodFest at Cedar Street Courtyard in Austin.

Headed back to NYC today after four days hanging with insane clowns and then a quick trip to Indianapolis. Assuming I don’t miss my flight I will be in NYC just in time to get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. On Thursday I go on a mini vacation so I am going to try to get as many Gathering of the Juggalos galleries up as possible before I leave.

We start with the beginning: Ho99o9. If you have been following my site I shot the punk/rap band Ho99o9 at SXSW and then again at their record release party in LA. When I found out they were playing the Gathering I knew I had to see them again but I took it a step farther and pitched the idea of following them to Noisey. What I thought was going to be a paragraph with a photo essay turned out to be a proper article about the trip with just a handful of photos for illustration.

So instead of me blogging anymore, just read my Noisey article about Ho99o9!

And then if you want to see more photos click here to see a full gallery Ho99o9at the Gathering of the Juggalos!

I saw Ho99o9 last night and it was awesome. Now let me make this shit about me real quick.

I don’t really like photographing bands. I did almost nothing else for the first decade of my photo life and I just got sick of it. Most bands are easy to shoot and with the “three songs; no flash” rules that most medium sized and up clubs have everyone’s photos look exactly the same. Added to that is the fact that everyone is a photographer now since digital photography is easy and cheap so you have the same photo taken by twenty people every single night. Who gives a shit?

So when a band like Ho99o9 comes along I get excited. Here’s a band that is both fun to photograph, fun to listen to and is also relevant so people actually want to take 11 seconds out of their lives to look at the photos. I fucking love Ho99o9 and shooting them is challenging and really god damn fun.

When I found out their record release party was the day after I landed in LA I was fucking stoked. So last night I went to the Mystery Box, pushed my way to the front and started taking photos in the middle of the pit. Unfortunately I am not the only photographer psyched to shoot Ho99o9 and there were as many photographers at the front of the stage as their were people. I took about 10 shots, 8 of which were blocked by lenses and flashes and iPhones and I gave up and just jumped in the pit to have fun. Of course I still had my camera on me and I went down pretty quick.

I ended up subluxating my shoulder because I was trying to help this guy not get trampled while also being on the ground and also holding my camera in the air so it didn’t break. It felt like my arm had been ripped off and I thought I was done for the night. Fortunately after a few minutes I could lift my camera again and I said fuck it and went back in. I didn’t want my night to consist of a handful of mediocre photos. So I went back in.

By this time most of the photographers had cleared out of the front and were either gone or on the stage. At one point Eaddy was on the ground on the stage singing and the photographers surrounded him and started taking photos inches from him. This shit drives me nuts, especially with the video guys who just hold their camera’s right in front of the bands face ruining the show for everyone.

I took a photo of them all and Tweeted it with some angry caption. I invited Hannibal Buress to the show last night and when he saw my photo he retweeted it to his 500k followers and I got to spend the next hour editing images while arguing with strangers on the internet.

I just wanted to go on this rant because photographers need to check themselves a bit. When shooting live bands or news or events or pretty much anything outside of the studio we have to make choices. Should we try and get the best shot possible or do we need to get out of the fucking way and let shit happen. I don’t think I took the best photos last night and I am sure if I got on the stage it would have been easier to shoot. If I spent the whole show holding my camera two feet above my head I might have got a few nice shots I wouldn’t have had normally. But a show isn’t about the photographers, it’s about the band and the fans. I just think we sometimes need to compromise between getting the shot and getting in people’s way. Sometimes you take the shot at all cost, but if you spend the whole show doing that you are gonna make it shitty for everyone else.

So last night I sublimated my shoulder, bent my knee the wrong way on the stage, got covered with beer and sweat and got fucking birthday cake all over my camera. On top of everything else I didn’t even take any photos I was exceptionally proud of, but you know what? I had fucking fun and I think if nothing else I captured the energy of what was a fucking awesome show.

Fuck it, I am glad Ho99o9 exist and I am glad people want to take their photo. I would rather 20 photographers shoot them than 99% of every other boring fucking band that stands around looking at their guitar pedals. So I am gonna end this rant and try and hang out with some babes cause I am in LA and mostly on vacation.

Now go download Ho99o9’s new EP Ho99o9s Of 1999. It’s free.

And then click here to see all the photos I took of Ho99o9 EP release party at the Mystery Box. (NSFW for Eaddy’s dick.)

The perfect conclusion to my SXSW photos is shots from the band Ho99o9 aka Horror. They were the very last thing I did at SXSW. I caught their late night show at the North Door as part of the We Are Family showcase. I only saw a couple bands all week, but the one set from Ho99o9 made up for it. They were fucking incredible.

I have known Eaddy from Ho99o9 for ages and he used to come see my old band Fucking Bullshit, but I hadn’t seen his band Ho99o9 yet even though I was at the LA Art Book Fair up until about 30 minutes before they played. I did want to see them, but I sort of hate bands and I didn’t know how  a punk band with no guitars was going to go over. Plus nothing is worse than seeing one of your friends bands and realizing they suck.

That was not a problem with Ho99o9. I had been hearing all this hype about them all week in Austin but I didn’t think I was going to get to see them. I was booked up and it just didn’t seem like it was going to work out. Fortunately the We Are Family showcase was less than a block from the Sailor Jerry Gallery and Saturday night was rainy and pretty relaxed everywhere so I knew I could slip out for a minute.

The show was even better than the hype. Ho99or put on one of the best shows I have seen in years. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had that much fun watching a band. Between the two vocalists, a sequencer and a drummer they put out so much fucking noise and put on a hell of a punk show without it feeling tired. Eaddy is one of the best front men I have ever seen and his partner in crime, Jean Lebrun, would be outstanding on his own.

When they launched into the Bad Brains anthem Attitude I forgot I had my camera in my hand and jumped into the mosh pit to sing a long. Fucking Bullshit used to cover it and I had just received an Attitude themed tattoo just hours earlier. I also ended up starting a circle pit at Eaddy’s request because the crowd seemed incredibly confused by the concept. Nothing some circular violence couldn’t fix.

I needed to head back to the SJ Gallery before their set was over but Eaddy kept jumping off shit and I kept missing it. I waited and waited and waited with my camera fixed on Eaddy. He finally jumped off an amp and nearly hit the ceiling and finally I caught it. Once I got the shot I needed I got the fuck out of there, totally pumped about the band and the photos I shot. One of my shots of them ended up in Rolling Stone’s gallery of SXSW photos and I can’t wait to see these dudes again. Honestly I just want to tour with them even though I know it will end up in my camera getting destroyed.

Now go look at all the photos of Ho99o9 at SXSW and keep up that PMA.

Ps. In totally unrelated news there is a sale on Girls of Driven By Boredom today. 20% off using code “america”.

If you know me at all you would probably agree that I am not the most exuberant of humans. I tend to be monotonous and often pessimistic. I live a pretty great life and while I appreciate it, there are few things that really bring me joy. If you were to ask me what makes me the most happy in life I would immediately answer the Miami Dolphins winning a game, but that happens pretty rarely. My second answer would be when I open the first box of something I have created.

When I was 15 I started a magazine and a record label and assembling that first box of records was one of the greatest moments of my life. Since then I have made all manor of media and merch and it always brings me great pleasure. Recently I have produced four photo books/zines/albums and I brought them all to the LA Art Book Fair and it was the best thing to happen in ages despite spending the previous week photographing naked porn stars.

I have been to the NY Art Book Fair a bunch of times and it’s always great but thanks to PaperWork NYC this was the first time I have ever sold anything at an art book fair. I had copies of my new book Dinner With Igor, the zine Food Tattoos, my expensive Vegas photo album and the special Fuck LA zine and print I made just for the fair.

I actually sold a ton of stuff. I got back less than 10 Dinner With Igor’s and I had Dana DeArmond sign five of those. I got back about 15 of the 50 Fuck LA’s that I made and I had April O’Neil sign five of those. I even sold one of the Vegas albums even though I mostly brought them for display. I have sold more than 10 of them but they have all been to fans of my work, not just people who picked it up randomly at the book fair. I got a ton of Food Tattoos back but I brought a ton of them too but still I think I have less than 100 of the 300 I originally printed. All good news.

Aside from selling stuff I also bought a ton of stuff and met a few of my favorite artists. I bought Ed and Deanna Templeton’s out of print zine collection and I finally got to meet Ed. I ran into Tony Stamolis who I love as an artist and have been friends with via the internet for years. He loved Fuck LA so I traded him one for a print which actually came in the mail today. I met Tom Neely of Henry and Glenn Forever fame and got him to sign a copy of the first book. I also got to meet Bill Daniel an old punk rock photographer who I have bought several photos from over the years (including photos of Henry Rollins & Glenn Danzig oddly enough) and got a photo he shot of Glen E. Friedman who I also own a photo (and many books) by. I probably spent another $200 on top of that so I probably didn’t make quite as much money as I could have, but I have no complaints. Pretty epic weekend.

I took a handful of black and white photos and a few snapshots at the book fair and a few at the Love//War show. I figured they made sense together as a small 35mm gallery you guys might enjoy.

So click here to see my 35mm shots from the 2015 LA Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA! (Very mildly NSFW)

And click here to see my recently updated Etsy store featuring all my books, zines and other photography items perfect for Valentines Day or Presidents Day or some other holiday that you could justify spending money on my arts.