I shot the Morrissey/ Smiths Fest at the Music Box in Hollywood for the LA Weekly. You can see that gallery here.  Or you can keep reading to see the rest of the pictures on my site.

I am not at all a Smiths fan but I love photographing conventions and things and meeting people who are just completely in love with something I don’t really know anything about.  Listening to people talk to eachother in some sort of code language that only the truely obsessed can understand is great. Most of these people probably rarely get the chance to talk about whatever it is they love in their every day lives, so they can come together at conventions to geek out together.  I feel the same way about football.  I have very few friends who give a shit about sports, much less football, much less the Miami Dolphins.  I had to start my own Dolphins club in NYC so I could just have a place to talk football a few times a year.

As part of doing the Moz Con, I had to help interview people for the LA Weekly article and I learned a few things about LA Morrissey fans.  The first thing is nearly 90% of the people we met were latino.  I actually suggested we intentionally try to talk to some white kids to diversify our questioning sample and the first white dude we asked’s last name was Sanchez or something.  The other thing I learned is that there are a lot of really big rockabilly chicks who are into the Smiths.  Like dozens of huge girls with rock and roll looks and bad Moz tattoos.  They were all super cute and super nice though, so I’m not trying to talk shit.  I learned that Moz Con is super family friendly and lots of people brought their really fucking adorable kids out. And lastly I learned that Morrissey fans are really awkward dancers.

The convention was actually a lot of fun even though I don’t care for the music.  There was a trivia contest and an Irish Smith’s cover band called These Charming Men.  There was a Moz impersonator and a lot of people selling Smith’s merch and bootleg records.  I bought Nirvana and Black Flag bootlegs so I would have CD’s to listen to in my rental car.

Also I should mention that Richard Blade who was a radio DJ who helped introduce The Smiths to the US was the host of the thing, and Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex Luthor on Smallville was there to watch it all go down.

Lastly, what is your favorite Smiths/ Morrisey album? And who do you prefer: The Smiths or Morrissey?

Click here to see all the Smiths/ Morrissey Convention photos at the Music Box in Hollywood.

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