Here comes Gathering of the Juggalos post 3 of 6. I told you 7 the other day because there is a 7th post, but I will be posting in a couple weeks or something because it’s not exactly part of this coverage and I wanna get a couple other posts up before I drop it. Anyway we got Gathering Bands today and then one post a day until Monday and then we can all move on with our lives. Deal?

Okay so this could take me forever but I am technically on vacation so I am just gonna do this as fast as possible so it’s gonna be mostly a list of artists I photographed in order with a couple of notes. Also, I only shot the mainstage this year. I am too old to spend 12 hours at a music festival unless I am getting paid way more than I was to shoot the Gathering. Sorry. 

I got there a bit late on Wednesday so the first artist I photographed was Young Mo$h followed by Shaggy the Airhead who I will shout out cause 1) I dig his clothing line and 2) much more important, he came up to me to tell me how much he likes my photography so he and his clothing gets a shout out. He was followed by the Hatchet Man Project, Scum and Insane Poetry, and horrorcore legend Esham headlined.  

Thursday I missed Darby O’Trill accidentally. I did wanna shoot him cause he’s dating my friend but I fucked up. I did manage to catch Mastamind, the Dayton Family and Merkules. ICP headlined with a throwback set to their House of Horrors show in 1998 which is a tour I actually saw them on because my first ever girlfriend really dug them. Shout out Latiffa.

Friday my old friend Zac Amico was hosting the stage so I got some shots of him doing his thing there including getting stapled in the head. Apparently I missed SalamanderX, but I caught Twisted Insane and Ganksta N-I-P. I was most excited about seeing Rakim which was fucking awesome. It was mixed reaction from juggalos. Too many had no idea who he was, but then others were even more excited than I was. I talked to one older juggalo who should know better who had no idea who he was and he told me he didn’t listen to rap which kinda blew my mind. Anyway, Rakim was by far the musical highlight. Kim Dracula was a favorite of the crowd, someone told me they were a less problematic Marilyn Manson which is a great way to describe anyone. My dude Ouija Macc headlined who I am always psyched to see. 

The last night was a shit show for me. My phone got wet and the charging cable stopped working and I drove to a Walmart to get a wifi charger and I missed the first few artists. My goal was to get back in time for DJ Paul but I just missed the beginning of his set so I wasn’t allowed to take photos up close. I pushed my way into the pit and got a couple from the crowd but then it started pouring rain. I went and hid in a carnival booth and just jammed out to Three Six Mafia hits while keeping my camera gear dry. I also helped a carney put away all his stuffed animals which he really appreciated and told me I could stay dry in there all night. My poncho was in the car but a juggalette gave me one which was awesome of her and I stuck around for Static X. Their front man died since the last time they played the Gathering and it was very weird that they just replaced him with like a cyborg version, but at least it was fun to photograph. ICP closed out the night but it was raining hard and I was exhausted and in pain because I am old and my phone was fucked and I didn’t want to get covered in Faygo because I had to go on vacation and I didn’t want my beach clothes to smell like mildew so I said fuck it and went back to my hotel. If you need any photos of ICP, feel free to look at the other two dozen times I have photographed them.

Okay, that’s it. See you tomorrow with a bunch of night time photos and events.

Click here to see all the music from the 2023 Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, OH.

What could be more on brand for me than going to photograph a holiday Insane Clown Posse concert in international waters in the middle of the night? Okay, technically the boat was just circling the Statue of Liberty in the East River, but still, it was a weird time that I had to attend even though I wasn’t working for anyone. Just seemed like it was my journalistic duty. Did I mention it’s not the first time I have gone on an insane clown cruise?

Ballas on a Boat was a Christmas themed juggalo cruise put on by Rocks Off who specialize in doing shows on boats. The original event was scheduled for 7pm, but that one sold out so quickly that they added a second midnight cruise. When I saw the two options, it seemed like a no brainer to attend the late night one. Not only was the homie Ouija Macc playing, but I figured being on a boat with juggalos until 4am seemed like it had the potential for way more weirdness. 

When I arrived at the boat, juggalos from the first show were getting off and juggalos were set up selling nitrous balloons on a poorly lit dock which just felt really perfect. Reminded me of home, and by home I mean the Gathering of the Juggalos. I got on board and spent the first hour or so really just catching up with some juggalo friends I have made over the years including Ouija’s manager Kev Buc who I have gone to like a half dozen Gatherings with (who also got me on the boat) last minute. 

When we passed the Statue of Liberty so I had to go photograph juggalos photographing Lady Liberty and then Ouija played and the combination of my cold lens mixed with the heat of the show fogged my lens up. I also decided to bring my old camera and started messing around with dragging my shutter a little bit like in my old nightlife days so it made for some blurry but appropriately hectic Ouija photos. The lower level of the boat was so hot that the show felt more like a Bushwick basement show than it did a rock cruise.

Of course I made the same mistake after Ouija because it was so damn hot and I went on the deck again and almost immediately ICP started playing so I had to run downstairs and spend half the set wiping my lens. Fortunately there was a juggalo in front of me in a santa hat which was perfect for wiping my lens off. Eventually I got shoved to the front and was on my knees shooting the band which was a new experience for me shooting ICP. Usually it’s a huge production with a ton of Faygo flying everywhere, but this time I was almost too close to them in the hull of a sweaty boat. They played a short set with a bunch of Christmas songs, but it was fun to get to see them in a more intimate setting. 

After we docked I made it to land only to realize that I couldn’t get an Uber, but a juggalette offered to drive me home. I just had her drive me to a subway stop, but it’s the kindness of juggalos that makes me keep wanting to photograph them, even when any rational person would be done after 13 years documenting fans of a middle aged horrorcore rap group in clown makeup. 

A little housekeeping update, before we get to photos. I have an update from my recent trip from Miami ready to go, but I wanted develop the film first. I should have it back in a couple days so I will probably get it up towards the end of this week. You can sponsor one of those rolls and get cheap print of one of the photos on that roll (feel free to request the roll I shot on the juggalo boat). And while the sponsor a roll thing takes a while to get delivered, anything else ordered in my store by Wednesday will ship on Wednesday so you can maybe get it by Christmas. Just saying. And while we are here, I should plug my juggalo NFTs (and yes we are still trying to make NFTs happen. And fuck it, let’s plug Girl of DBB too. I will put some sort of NSFW juggalette content up there right now because I love you. Okay, now go look at clown boat photos. 

Click here to see all my photos from Ballas on A Boat, the Insane Clown Posse late night Christmas cruise. 

As promised, I bring you my third DBB update in less than a week! Recently I put up a round up from my two week trip to Louisville, Nashville and back to Louisville for Sailor Jerry which explained everything and gave some highlights. Then on Friday I dropped a ton of photos from Bourbon & Beyond and today I bring you a bunch of photos from the Louder Than Life Festival. 

Louder Than Life is a (mostly) rock festival in Louisville, Kentucky that was thrown one week after Bourbon & Beyond.  They both are thrown by the same company and take place at the Highland Festival Grounds. B&B is more about drinking and eating and the bands are super eclectic, while LTL featured mostly rock bands with a real nostalgia kick. I was photographing for Sailor Jerry during the day, but then I was shooting for Creem Magazine at night so this weekend I shot a ton of bands. I didn’t shoot a few of the headliners because of either restrictions (Either they wanted me to shoot from the soundboard or had contracts I didn’t want to sign) or because they played while I was still shooting for Sailor Jerry. 

I did get to shoot a few bands during the day, like childhood favorite Rancid, L7 and my friends The Bronx. I got to shoot less than a song from Megadeth because I had to run back to the SJ booth, but it was still cool to see one of my favorite bands when I was in the 5th grade. Other daylight acts I got to shoot were the Viagra Boys who I kinda love now and Run The Jewels cause how could I not? I think my favorite headliner was Weezer cause pretty much every girl I dated before the year 2003 was obsessed with them and so I pretty much know every word to their first two albums. I loved Green Day when Dookie came out but a year later I was way too punk rock for those “sell outs”. As an adult that seems super silly, but they were great live. Usually when I see a punk band that is older than I am it’s really disappointing but Green Day felt like a Broadway show or something than an aging punk act. Headliners that I have never listened to but photographed anyway included Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens of the Stone Age and Tool. Queens of the Stone Age had us photograph them from a distance and I don’t like shooting with a long lens so those photos aren’t great, and same with the Tool photos because I got kicked out of the photo pit almost immediately because I forgot to pick up specific pass I needed after I was approved to shoot them. Whoops. Oh, and I shot Pantera too which was fun. Okay, I think that’s everyone. 

Aside from bands, there are tons of crowd shots in the gallery. I may have doubled up a few from my SJ Trip recap post, but I tried my best. Whatever the case we have nearly 200 photos for you guys to click through. Fans of my juggalo photos should enjoy these since there’s a pretty good crossover audience. I actually saw a bunch of juggalos while I was there but only photographed a few of em. Two of the girls towards the end of the gallery I actually interviewed for my Daily Beast article on Gen Z juggalos. Wild. Anyway, go check out these photos and come back soon because I have two updates coming soonish.

Click here to see all my photos from the 2023 Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, KY.

Ps. Go pre-order my new zine!

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to two music festivals in back to back weekends in the exact same place. Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life were put on by the same company at the Highland Festival Grounds in Lexington, Kentucky. They had two very different lineups but we will get to LTL on Monday, for now we are going to talk about Bourbon & Beyond.

I was working for Sailor Jerry photographing their tattoo activations so I didn’t see much of the music, but there were a few artists I was excited to see. I got to see Blondie and Duran Duran which was really cool. I am not exactly a Killers or Bruno Mars fan but they both put on great shows, and Spoon and the Black Keys are always enjoyable. Unfortunately I missed seeing Buddy Guy and Wayne Newton but they would have been awesome to see. I didn’t photograph any of the music because I was working for SJ and didn’t apply for a press pass, but I did for LTL so I should have some decent band shots for you next week. 

The bands were so eclectic and the crowd was as well. I don’t think I have ever been to a festival with such a differing variety of artists and headliners where you had Brandi Carlile playing after Train with a bluegrass band in between. The festival was themed around drinking more than anything, which is pretty obvious with Bourbon in the name, but there were a ton of booths from different alcohol brands, like my crew over at Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. There was also an element of food and there were a lot of celebrity chefs there including my friend Chris Santos. The SJ booth was on the opposite side of the festival from the food demonstrations so I didn’t catch mutch of that, but there were a ton of Top Chef alums there who I wish I got to photograph cause it’s literally my favorite TV show of all time. 

So I don’t have a huge gallery for you as far as music festivals go, because I was focused on my SJ stuff, but it’s still 100 photos for you to click through. I think there’s some fun stuff in there just because of the wide variety of people who attended. As I mentioned I will be back Monday with the Louder Than Life photos, and I feel like you guys are going to enjoy those. 

Now click here to see all my crowd shots from 2023 Bourbon & Beyond in Lexington, KY.

Today would have been the 40th birthday of my brother from another mother Ross Harman. I met Ross when I was in college when a friend of mine told me I should check out this two man synthy dance band called the Gaskets. Even though I was only 23 I had been working in music since for nearly a decade starting when I was 14 with a punk zine, then running a punk record label a year later, booking shows and of course photographing bands. At the time it probably didn’t make a lot of sense for me to manage a kinda goofy dance band, but they just absolutely blew me away and I kept bugging them until they let me help out and over the seven years between meeting the Gaskets and Ross’ death I became as close to those guys as you could possibly imagine. They were my family and Ross’ death was absolutely life shattering. 

Teddy Blanks was the other member of the Gaskets and is still a great friend of mine. He’s a graphic designer now, who has done all of my books and zines, and oh, also the font for the god damn Barbie movie and a million other incredible things. But as busy as he is he’s spent years working on a project dedicated to the solo music of his musical partner who went by Ballpoint Pens. When Ross died Teddy was given Ross’ old laptop. It was actually Teddy’s old computer that Ross had been using so they could work on music together when Teddy moved to NYC. When Teddy booted up the computer he found tons of Ross’ music on it, from finished songs to rough bits and pieces, all recorded on a laptop mic in a bedroom with ballpoint pens for the drums (hence the name Ballpoint Pens). 

At Ross’ memorial service we played some of this stuff and everyone was blown away. Ross had put a few songs out on his MySpace page, but no one had really heard how much great stuff he had recorded. Most of the people at the service were in bands themselves and I had this idea that maybe we could get some of them to professionally record his music as a tribute album. Luckily people actually followed up and not only did we get enough music for a double length record but we were able to raise enough money to release the tribute album, as well as two more Ballpoint Pens records. It was such and amazing project and I know it meant a lot to the many, many people who loved Ross.

Over the last decade Teddy has been messing around here and there with the music. He used some of the tracks to release posthumous songs with Ross and started trying to clean up some of the old tracks. He had the GarageBand files for a lot of these songs and began to remix them. Over the last few years Teddy has been taking this project more seriously and has spent his own money having these songs professionally mixed and mastered. He’s stated organizing and remixing files, building new songs and using new AI tools to help isolate tracks so he, and other musicians, could re-record some of the instrumentations.  It’s been such a cool experience to get emails from Teddy with brand new Ballpoint Pens songs I had no idea existed and cleaned up versions of songs I have loved for years.

Today, for Ross’ 40th birthday Teddy has released the Ballpoint Pens archive and the first six tracks of the new Ballpoint Pens collection, Mazes. Each week a new song will be added which will give us weekly chances to share Ross’ music with the world. When the archive is finished it will have multiple albums, notes on every song, as well as the remixes, originals and covers for them all. The project is such an incredible way to honour our friend and I can’t wait to see it grow as Teddy continues to work on it.  I just really hope we can get some eyes on it who will be learning about Ross for the first time. It would mean so much to me if you checked out this music and shared it if you enjoyed it. 

Please check out the Ballpoints Pens archive and the first six songs of the new Ballpoint Pens collection,  Mazes.

For years my favorite client was Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. We did so many events together and in the early 2010s it felt like I was going to some music festival or tattoo convention for them every other weekend. Times and budgets changed and that stuff slowed down but I was still working with them semi regularly until the pandemic canceled events and then I had my back injury and couldn’t really do any big events. A few months ago I reached back out to them and let them know my back was doing better and was down to work again and it wasn’t long before they reached out with the idea of me going to the infamous Sturgis Bike Week. That’s been on my bucket list for a long time so of course I said yes. 

Sturgis is both a city in South Dakota and a shorthand for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which is now in its 83rd year. It is synonymous for absolute chaos as hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the area for ten days of scenic rides and total mayhem. Sailor Jerry was sponsoring the events at the Buffalo Chip campground who has been hosting thousands of bikers every year since 1981. They offer a place to camp, several bars, a swimming hole and live music every night. I got to spend three days in an RV right behind the amphitheater, mostly taking photos of Sailor Jerry related stuff, but I got to roam a bit too and I got some pretty fun pictures in the process. 

I have over 400 photos to share with you guys so I broke my three days into two halves. I didn’t shoot a ton on day one, so Part One is days one and two and then Part Two is the final day which was honestly my favorite, but mostly because I got to fly in a helicopter which is something I’ve never done before. More on that later… 

I booked my flight super last minute and so it would have been $2000 to fly in on Sunday  and the flight would leave at 6am which means I would have to wake up at 3am and since I usually go to bed around 2 that didn’t seem like an ideal situation. So I looked up flights the day before and they were significantly cheaper, but after getting a hotel and a far too expensive rental car, it was basically break even. But flying in a day early meant I would be well rested and I could check out Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood and some of that kinda stuff. I took the 6am Saturday flight and when I got to my layover they offered me $600 to stay. It was raining in SD and so my sightseeing options were limited so I accepted and spent six hours in the Minneapolis airport. I figured I could nap but I completely failed and by the time I got to my hotel I was absolutely broken. Still, the rain was breaking a little bit and I was only five minutes away from Mt. Rushmore so I went and spent $10 to look at some stone heads for about 5 minutes. Honestly it was far less impressive than the World’s Largest Wooden Bigfoot that happened to be across the street from my hotel. I went back to the hotel, walked around Keystone, SD for a few minutes, got some tacos, hit the pool and finally went to sleep well rested for Sturgis the next day.

The first day at Buffalo Chip was mostly getting settled. We got there a bit late because sadly there was an accident and the road getting in was backed up. Jason from Sailor Jerry picked me up and we did some grocery shopping and waited for the road to clear. Once we got there we had to get passes and deal with a few other things and then we got a tour of the place and checked out the Motorcycle As Art gallery. Buffalo Chip is huge and wasn’t really walkable but we had golf carts and mini bikes to use. Fortunately the stage and the Sailor Jerry sponsored bar was super close to our campsite so I mostly just walked everywhere. I spent an hour or two that day on my own. I walked past “Bikini Beach” where they were having an “air sex” competition which was pretty much like air guitar but for fucking. Apparently they had weird stuff like that all day there, which felt real Gathering of the Juggalos to me, but I was of course working for a corporate client so I just took a couple photos and moved on. That night the country singer Tommy Howell, formerly the actor C. Thomas Howell, performed and he was actually pretty good. I don’t really know why he changed his name though because he talked about how he was in the Outsiders between nearly every song. Finally the night ended with Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining. I mean the night didn’t actually end, there was a strip club afters thing and Bikini Beach and some of the bars were apparently popping, but I was off the clock so I went to bed. If I was covering this as a journalist I certainly would have stayed out a bit, but I had long days and I was happy to take it easy.

Day two we got to go out to Deadwood which I was psyched about because I didn’t get to go on Saturday. We brought with us four members of the International Bikini Team which is apparently a real thing. These girls basically served as promotional models for a bunch of different brands throughout the event so they would be working for Sailor Jerry one day and then Monster Energy the next or something like that. They also competed in a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night and also bartened and did a bikini bike wash. I just hope they got paid well because those girls were hustling. I would honestly watch a documentary about them. 

Anyway, in Deadwood I mostly just photographed them handing out Sailor Jerry swag to people. Not the most exciting thing but it was fun to watch everyone’s reaction to them. We did a mini photoshoot on the stage they had set up for the Legend’s Ride and then a bunch of people came up and took photos with them since we had accidentally set up a photo booth. After that we got lunch and then made our way back to Buffalo Chip. We had planned on stopping in Sturgis on the way back but we were all exhausted. After a quick nap it was back to photographing bands. Leilani Kilgore opened and then Lita Ford played. I had such a crush on Lita Ford when I was like 14 and honestly she’s still kinda a babe in her 60s. 

The night was headlined by Limp Bizkit. Seriously. While Fred Durst is super goofy and I never liked their music back in the day, I actually really enjoyed their set. The combination of nostalgia mixed with the reactions from the crowd made it a lot of fun. Plus my strongest Limp Bizkit memory is their Woodstock 99 performance so I was just waiting for bikers to just start setting shit on fire. It didn’t happen, probably because the average age of the crowd was 65, but we still had a good time. 

So yeah, that’s the end of Part One. I will be back soon with the final day of the trip. I should also mention that while I didn’t really shoot any super NSFW photos, there are a few that I felt were a little to risque for Flicker so I threw them up on Girls of DBB. That site has thousands of my nude photos from over the years and is totally worth the money, but don’t sign up for it just to see the few NSFW shots from Sturgis because it’s not much. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Now go look at some photos. And thanks again to Sailor Jerry for having me out!

Click here to see all my photos from day one and two of my 2023 Sturgis Buffalo Chip adventure.

It’s all over, we made it to the last post. Will we have to wait another whole year for juggalo content? Only time will tell but this is a wrap for the 2023 Gathering of the Juggalos. All we got left is the music stuff, and it’s the largest gallery of them all. I got over 250 band photos to share with you guys, and some Riff Raff related drama to share and I will try and speak about every artist I photographed and maybe a few I didn’t. Let’s begin…

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t shoot much the first night I was there. I didn’t get in until horrorcore legends NATAS were playing but it was too late to shoot them. So we start on day two when I photographed Korihor and by photographed I mean I took like two photos of them from the crowd because I missed the beginning of their set photographing the wet t-shirt contest. I feel like you understand. After that the 90s rock/grunge band Sponge played. They are from Detroit like ICP so that makes sense I think. You would absolutely know their song Plowed if you heard it. Speaking of 90s bands, Arrested Development was up next. Their first album was the first CD I ever owned and I was psyched to see them. They were great and juggalos absolutely loved them. A mosh pit broke out during Everyday People which was incredible. 

After they ended Riff Raff went on and people seemed excited about it. I barely knew that dude made music, but juggalos were like singing along to his songs. Despite what would have been a mostly positive reception he seemed terrified of the juggalos. He didn’t leave the very back of the stage, mostly hiding behind the DJ booth. Obviously some juggalos threw some Faygo at him, because that’s what they do, but he reacted to it with abject horror. Once juggalos saw that they of course started throwing more shit at him. He brought out a bodyguard which was hilarious to everyone. He forced his boys to go out in front of him and knock stuff down. He then proceeded to perform backstage. Eventually he brought out a second security guard and one of his crew had an actual umbrella and was trying to protect him. At some point a can of Faygo missed him by a few feet and he got splashed and ran backstage to jeers and laughter. It was fucking embarrassing. I posted a video of it and he responded with some hilarious shit about how he had paid for his whole crew to get new hair cuts or something. He deleted the Tweet a few hours later but that didn’t stop my Twitter mentions from becoming a garbage dump. Oh well. 

The mainstage headliners were ICP doing a “Wicked Clowns From Outer Space” show which was based on a tour they did in 1999 which I might actually have gone to back in the day. I don’t really need to do a write up about the Insane Clown Posse again, but if you ever are in a situation where you could see ICP live, I highly recommend it. Even if you hate the music, they are incredible live. Like, one of the best live acts I have ever seen even in 2023. 

Part of being middle aged with a back injury and having photographed the Gathering 13 times is that I tend to go home early. I get there late, go home early, get enough photos and try not to kill myself. So I usually head back to the hotel after the headlining band. Occasionally I do stick around for a late night act or two, and on Thursday night RA The Rugged Man was playing. I enjoy his music, we have mutual friends and he always puts on a good show so I figured I would check out at least part of his set. He did his thing as usual but at some point the mics stopped working so he just grabbed a juggalo’s megaphone and jumped into the crowd. It was a sharp contrast to the Riff Raff set, which RA made clear when he said “I don’t care if you all hit me with a cinder block, I’m not leaving!” He also brought a ton of juggalos on stage, had two juggalette’s serving booze to the crowd and brought out a rapper named Reverie Love who absolutely killed it. I was about leave when my friend mentioned that D Loc of Kottonmouth Kings was playing next. His team had reached out to me about filming something for them, but they weren’t trying to pay me so that didn’t happen, but I figured I could at least shoot a few songs of their set. Finally around 1:30am I escaped the Gathering. 

Day three started off with Whitney Peyton. She’s played the Gathering a bunch and when I first saw her I didn’t really think much of it, but the last couple times she put on an incredible show, so I knew I had to check out her set and I made the right decision. She crowd walked, talked shit about Riff Raff, stole my hat at one point and performed a couple songs from the mosh pit. Towards the end of her set I Tweeted a video of her in the crowd to contrast the Riff Raff shit and when I looked up she was in a kiddie pool crowd surfing. It was great. My only complaint was that she decided that she wanted pink bubbles during her set and you couldn’t even tell they were pink but they covered my hat, vest and camera with little pink dots that I still can’t get out of the grip of my lens. 

After Whitney was Ritz who is another rapper I have seen at the Gathering a bunch and then Mac Sabbath who are a McDonald’s themed band that does like Black Sabbath parody songs about fast food. I don’t really know why they exist but I am really glad I got to photograph them. Also, as I mentioned before my friend’s boyfriend was working for them so I ended up hanging out with him after their set during the headliner Ouija Macc, but before that happened we had a set from Yelawolf who I have photographed a bunch of times. Every time I am at the Gathering I make sure to do a good job photographing Ouija Mac, not only is he the most popular non ICP act at the Gathering but he’s the absolutely nicest dude and he’s managed by friends of mine. I had to get a quick quote from him for my Daily Beast article and I ended up missing City Morgue’s set the next day because we were just talking about whatever and now we are talking about me going out on tour with him for a few dates this fall. So yeah, we fuck with Ouija. 

On the final day of the Gathering I didn’t shoot a ton of bands, as I mentioned I missed City Morgue who were the pre-ICP headliners. I did shoot Alien Ant Farm who apparently still exist. I also shot Krizz Kaliko who has been at the Gathering a bunch. He’s on TechN9ne’s record label Strange Music which is a label that juggalos to tattoo to themselves. Penultimately I photographed a short set from the Sugarhill Gang. I think they only have one original member and they only did three songs but it was still amazing. So glad I saw that. 

Finally ICP did their second space themed set. I threw on a poncho and another poncho for my camera and did what I could to get some decent shots. I have photographed ICP like 20 times and I am not sure I have ever taken a photo of them that I love. It’s just really hard to shoot a backlit band that throws sticky liquid at you the entire time, but we do what we can. After the three songs we were allowed to shoot I threw away the rain gear and shot some of the crowd and then decided it would be a good idea to photograph the “Faygo Armageddon”. During their last song they bring tons of people on stage to throw the rest of the remaining Faygo into the crowd. I’ve actually done it twice and it’s one of the most fun things I have ever done. Unfortunately I had thrown away my rain gear and I got soaked in the process. I ran into a juggalo at my hotel that night and he told me he saw me get destroyed and keep going back. Luckily they ended up being some of my favorite band shots of the Gathering so I guess it was worth it. Plus it started raining right after the set so I got a little less sticky (and a little more wet).

And that ends another Gathering of the Juggalos. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I am sure we will do it again next year, and hopefully by then I will be a little closer to my juggalo book…

Now click here to see all the photos from the musical acts of the 2023 Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, OH.

I starting taking photos in the mid 90s because when I was 15 I started a punk record label and I wanted to photograph the bands on that label. I pretty much photographed nothing but bands for a decade. It was all I wanted to shoot. But at some point it started feeling like work and I would shoot the same photos everyone else would have because everything was “three songs, no flash” photo pit bullshit. I just felt like 99% of music photography was so fucking boring and I just didn’t want to do it unless I was getting paid, but on Friday I went out and shot some bands just for the fun of it. 

I was actually curious the last time I shot a band just for fun and I had to scroll back 49 pages on this website until I found a Ho99o9 record release show I shot in LA in 2015 just for the pure enjoyment of it. More recently I shot an ICP show in Brooklyn in 2017 which I might have not been paid for but was for my larger juggalo book project that I swear I will finish one day. The interesting thing about those two shows is that if ICP and Ho9909 had a baby, that baby would probably be Nü Godd.

The other night my buddy Suitcase Joe sent me a text. “My friends band are playing NY in a few days and I’m giving you a heads up because you might want to shoot them. They’re a bunch of sex crazed anarchist punks who dress like clowns.” My curiosity was sparked and after he sent me a link to the IG accounts of Nü Godd & Fusion Babies I knew I was gonna have to do it. In my career I am best known for shooting punk bands, subcultures, insane clowns and sex workers and suddenly you are gonna combine all that shit and bring them to a venue that’s 15 minutes from my apartment? Fuck it. I’m in.

When I got to TV Eye Zacazama was just getting on stage. He was playing an Oscar the Grouch sample and wearing a trash bag over his head that was decorated with clown makeup. He was also wearing a high vis jacket that made it impossible to shoot flash which I appreciated but I also only shot a few photos of him and then sort of wandered around looking for clowns for photograph.  After that a clown named Tony Tulips came out and juggled and got naked and then Fusion Babies came on. They were very up my alley musically were a lot of fun to photograph. They shared a couple members with Nü Godd who played after, and were on tour together so it kinda all felt like one performance even though the band were very different. It was all chaotic punk influenced clown madness and it was absolutely a good time. Both bands were great to photograph, and the crowd was just as much fun to photograph as the bands. I think because they were touring together and had a ton of people with them that it really felt like the local punk shows I went to when I was in high school where there wasn’t a huge crowd but everyone knew all the songs because everyone was friends and played with each other over and over again. I really enjoyed it even if I was twenty years older than everyone there. Would 100% stage dived even with my fucked up back if there were a few more people there. Maybe I will get a chance to see them in LA one of these day when I am out hanging out with Suitcase Joe. 

This show was the second time in a week that I was out past 3am and man I kinda miss that shit. It’s nice being real domesticated but I need a little more weird middle of the night madness in my life so I can take photos of it. I don’t wanna be one of those old photographers whose work starts to suck (even if my band shots suck, I honestly need so much practice to get back into it). Happy to feel inspired right now and that my back is a little bit better… Oh and did I mention that the Gathering of the Juggalos is in less than two weeks? More clowns coming soon!

Now click here to see many more higher res photos photos of Nü Godd & Fusion Babies at TV Eye.

Back in 2008 I photographed Fool’s Gold Records 1st anniversary party at Webster Hall, 15 years later they asked me to come back to Webster for their 15th anniversary (no the math doesn’t add up, but don’t worry about it). As you probably notice, I don’t really shoot party photos anymore, and I haven’t been to Webster since it was sold but I couldn’t say no to this one. Ever since I started my throwback party photo Instagram account I’ve really wanted to get back to doing nightlife stuff again and this was the perfect chance.

Being at Webster again felt like a dream. I hadn’t been there since 2017 when I shot the “last” party there for Rolling Stone before it was sold. The building felt so familiar but different and that cognitive dissidence made it feel like I was tripping. The mix of seeing a ton of old friends while also partying with a bunch of kids who are wearing some of the same shit we wore back in the day really added to the head trip. I was also shooting with my old camera but with a slightly different set up and it took me a while to get into a groove but I think I got some decent shots in the end. I absolutely want to do it again. 

The party was on two floors, the top floor and then downstairs in what was previously The Studio, now a neon art installation from FAILE called Deluxx Fluxx which is an offshoot of a club in Detroit. Dwells was playing ending his set when I got there, followed by Treasure Fingers who I last saw at Webster back in 2009. Around midnight they opened the top floor and I went up to see Frost Children perform which was very fun. I saw Club Eat do their thing down in the basement before heading back upstairs to see Uffie which was awesome. She was such a big part of the culture back in the day and I never actually saw her perform, but I did actually meet her, once again at Webster Hall, back in early 2010 for an Ed Banger anniversary party. She came out with Doss and then brought on a drummer who was actually her lawyer and then Blu DeTiger came out and played bass for her. It was really fun.

Because of the Uffie show I think I missed the Hellp’s DJ set downstairs, but I did get down there for Naeem who is another person I have known for 15 years back when he was Spankrock. It was great to see him. After that I ran back upstairs to catch A-Trak headline. He’s the person who hired me for this and it’s so cool to see him and Fool’s Gold do their thing for all these years. He played a bunch of old indie sleaze stuff and I found myself dancing on stage to Justice while taking photos. Speaking of indie sleaze, a highlight of the night was meeting the mysterious person who runs the @indiesleaze Instagram account. She’s been so helpful with my @vintagedbb account and it was awesome to meet her in IRL and get to hang out with her a bit. I also got to hang with Uffie and a bit which was a good time. We even re-shot the photo I took of her ana a friend back in 2010 with her and another friend. Same Webster green room, 13 years apart. While I was doing that I managed to miss surprise DJ Laidback Luke, but fortunately I got shots of him with A-Trak and Uffie and then got a few shots of Bag Raiders before finally escaping around 4am. 

Sorry it took me a couple days to get this stuff up but these are the first party photos I have shot in ages and I didn’t want to dump them on Father’s Day where no one would see em. Huge thanks to A-Trak and Fool’s Gold for having me out. It’s so amazing what you and Nick have done over the last 16 15 years. And of course I gotta say something about one of the original FG founders, Dust LaRock. He was an absolutely brilliant artist, a great dude and it sucks so much that he couldn’t be there last night. We miss you Dust.

Click here to see all the photos from the 15th anniversary of Fool’s Gold Records at Webster Hall.

Ps. Go follow @VintageDBB.