My friend and bad ass tattoo artist Friday Jones is in a new tattoo reality show on the Oxygen Network called Tattoos After Dark. I know what you are thinking, the last the thing the world needs is another tattoo reality show and why on earth is the Oxygen Network even doing tattoo shows… BUT I went to the watch party for the first two episodes and I gotta say the show is pretty hilarious. The show is about two shops in LA that stay open and attract really drunk crazy people who want really horrible tattoos. (Their ideas are horrible, the tattoos are excellent.) There are several tattoo shows about cover ups and the people getting them tell stories about how the ended up with these really bad tattoos, well Tattoos After Dark documents those mistake stories in real time!

Friday threw her party at the Dr. Who themed bar Way Station in Brooklyn. She had one of her favorite bands Geena & Dragster perform followed by comedian Mara Marek. Geena & Dragster were pretty rock and roll and Mara mostly did crowd work making fun of tattoos and couples in the audience. After that we watched the two episodes live and then Friday and fellow Tattoos After Dark star Joe “Jersey” Meinweiser did a Q&A. Jersey also showed everyone his dick tattoo but I decided not to post the picture out of respect for everyone.

I didn’t take a ton of photos because most of the party involved everyone watching TV and I was suffering from extraordinary tooth pain which ended in having to get a root canal yesterday, but it’s probably for the best since Friday got in a fight with some insane drunk girl on New Years Eve and got a black eye from the crazy bitch’s purse! Although in retrospect I should have taken more photos of Geena’s daughter who was a babe and was dressed like a sexy Beetlejuice. I probably shouldn’t be writing this post on this many pain killers.

Anyway, look at these pictures and then check out Tattoos After Dark on Oxygen on Wednesdays at 11pm!

Click here for all the photos from Friday Jones’ Tattoos After Dark watch party!

I had this idea that on New Years Eve I was going to hit a bunch of parties and take photos at all of them and come up with a NYE bar crawl type gallery. I don’t drink very often but NYE has historically been a day when I do a lot of shots of rum and see how much worse my photography gets by the end of the night. Usually it’s a pretty good time.

I started drinking well before I left my house and headed down to the Flat. It’s only a couple blocks from my house and I did a shot with a few of the employees. It was before 10pm so pretty much no one was there other than staff although a few people were starting to trickle in. I decided I should probably get into the city because I needed to get all the way over to 10th ave and 27th for the Spank Rock party at Hotel Americano. I drank some more out of my flask on the train and by the time I got to Hotel Americano I was like 8 drinks in and pretty tipsy.

I walked in the front door and walked into what seemed like a really packed restaurant. I sort of pushed my way to the back and there was a big line for the elevator that I was on the wrong side of. I ended up just sort of pushing my way on and kinda got the idea that I was in the wrong place. Everyone was very well dressed and  it was all gay dudes. I shoot a lot of gay parties but usually everyone is not wearing tuxedos. I was wearing a hoodie and a denim vest. When I got to the roof top it was clear I was not at the right place but I wondered around anyway. Eventually I googled the party I was supposed to be at and it was taking place at El Privado, a private club in the basement.

Turns out the party was an extremely expensive black tie event with an open bar and an intimate Scissor Sisters performance that I had somehow drunkenly snuck into dressed like a homeless biker. When I told the hostess at El Privado what happened she was incredibly confused how I got up there without a ticket. I think it’s a good lesson, if you dress like shit at a really fancy place, people just assume you are there for a reason.

Anyway, when I got to El Privado I was pretty drunk and I didn’t know anyone except for my girl Roxy Cottontail who was DJing at the time. I pulled out my camera and talked to some cute normal girls who seemed to like the fact that I was dressed like a scumbag. I finally ran into Jasmine Solano and sat down with her crew and then my girl Paloma showed up and then I ran into Spank Rock and Amanda Blank and I was feeling a lot better about my decision to have made it out to the west side. I have partied with all those kids many times but never north of 14th street.

Spank Rock and Amanda killed it, I drank some champagne which made me realize I was really drunk because I actually enjoyed the taste of it and finally left shortly after they played. I walked 15 blocks and 2 avenues down to the 8th ave L train and made my way back to Brooklyn. The walk had sobered me up so I pulled out my flask. I had calculated that when I finished my flask I would have had right around 9 shots plus the champagne. Turns out I only had a couple drops left. No wonder I got lost at Hotel Americano.

The next spot I hit was my friend Val’s house party but it seemed like all the entertainment was done for the night. I couldn’t find her any where and didn’t recognize anyone but the space was very cool and there was a bar with a very short line and I was annoyed that I was approaching a vague soberness. I asked the bartender “Is there a situation in which I could receive two shots of rum in exchange for money.” She poured me two doubles of rum into separate plastic cups and asked me for $6 for them. “That is an extremely reasonable price” I replied since when I get drunk I try to sound as much of an aristocratic gentleman as possible. I have no idea how much money I actually gave her but by the time I had chugged one of the cups I knew I had made a mistake.

I tried to give the other cup to a girl who I can’t exactly say what she looked like, but she said she shouldn’t take booze from strangers and called me a pussy for not drinking it. I agreed on both of her points and chugged the rum and talked to her for 15 minutes about how she wanted to be a Suicide Girl and I tried to explain to her that I am pretty much a professional pornographer but I am pretty sure I just sounded like an insane asshole. Eventually I found Val and she was dressed like a cat or something. At this point I could barely stand so I decided to walk to Whorehouse.

Whorehouse is that party that a ton of my friends throw once in a while where they all team up and throw a crazy illegal party and they used to always get broken up by the cops but the last few have gone off without a hitch so I decided to check out the party. It was about a mile a way and it was 20 degrees out or something and I was wearing only a hoodie and I was really, really drunk so I decided it would be a perfect idea to walk there. So I stumbled through Bushwick alone for probably over an hour. I realize it doesn’t take an hour to walk a mile but it does when you can’t see your phone well enough to read Google Maps.

When I finally got to the party there was nothing there. I texted three of the promoters to find out it had been shut down by the cops several hours earlier. I had been walking for hours and I only vaguely had an idea of where I was and my phone had just died. I stumbled around for a few dozen minutes more and somehow stumbled on the Jefferson L stop. No idea how I found it but I did and I eventually made it back to my neck of the woods.

I went by the Flat again around 5am and there was a line out the door and I didn’t know the bouncer. I texted my friend and manger OJ but he yelled at me from a cab as he was passing the club. He invited me to go to Westway with him but there was no fucking way I was going back in the city again so I stumbled home and most likely passed out before the sun came up.

As someone who works in nightlife nothing is more annoying to me than amateur drinkers. These are the people who only go out on Friday and Saturday’s and holidays and get really drunk and puke and pass out and annoy the shit out of me and I try and convince their friends not to take care of them so they learn their lesson. I pretty much was that person last night and I am not super proud of it, but in my defense I did make it home, did not puke and was by myself the whole time so even more reason to abandon your friends when they pass out in a night club bathroom.

Now that this incredibly pointless story is over, I have some pictures! I didn’t take a single picture after 1am but I did get some nice shots of the Spank Rock / Amanda Blank show at El Privado. Shout out to my girl Roxy for inviting me out. Glad I had some fun on New Years! Let’s have a lot more fun in 2014!

Click here to see all of the photos from the Spank Rock/ Amanda Blank NYE party at El Privado at Hotel Americano.

Oliver Peck is back in town filming the newest season of his tattoo competition reality show Ink Master and he decided to throw another party. Last time he was in town he threw a “Wig Party” which involved karaoke, a drag Ramones tribute band and a ton of Sailor Jerry rum. This time it was exactly the same except the Ramonahs were the only people in wigs.

It was a hell of a good time at Arlene’s Grocery last night. I am not a big karaoke fan but Oliver and his Dallas based Good Luck Karaoke partner Josh Hammertimez are pretty hilarious and join people on stage for their karaoke jams. Oliver’s Ramonahs killed it again and his Ink Master co-hosts Dave Navarro and Chris Núñez showed up to support his deviant rock and roll performance.  Carl Hallowell works at Oliver’s Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas and was back doing Sailor Jerry flash tattoos all night. It was the most people from Dallas I have been around since I was at Elm Street’s music and tattoo festival.

I have a big ad gig this week and I brought my clients to the party and they had an amazing time. They are from Switzerland but it turns out one of their favorite bands is the Ramones. It was pretty awesome and we ended up casting model Leah Jung in the ad after meeting her there. Leah can sing her ass off and it was pretty impressive watching her and this hilarious dude Roman do “Baby It’s Cold Outside” together. I did some Minor Threat karaoke but I pretty much just embarrassed myself when I realized my mic was up way too high and I was just horrified by the sound of my own voice. Good times.

Seriously though, it was a great party and I am not sure how those dudes make me enjoy karaoke, but if you ever get a chance to see Good Luck Karaoke I highly recommend it.

Now click here to see all the pictures from Oliver Peck’s Sailor Jerry presented Good Luck Karaoke and Ramonahs throw down live at Arlene’s Grocery!

Last night I went to see a screening of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the party warehouse spot Villain. I had so much shit to do and I almost blew it off, but I had told the Village Voice I would photograph it for them and the event looked like it would be pretty fun. Thank god I went; It was probably best event I have been to in months.

TMNT was pretty much my favorite movie as a kid. It came out when I was 9 and it was the most excited I was about any movie ever. To this day I remember exactly where I was when I first saw the trailer. It made that much of an impact on me.

BBQ Films hosted the event and all they do is create amazing pop up movie events where they bring you inside the movie. Last night they turned Villain into the Foot Clan headquarters and pitched the events as a foot clan try out. If you haven’t seen the movie, the evil Shredder recruits his army by going after troubled New York youths and offers them a Pleasure Island style headquarters equipped with arcade machines, skate ramps and even free cigarettes! At Villain there were no cigarettes but there were video games, skateboarding, plus free pizza and beer! There was a video game room upstairs where you could play the Super Nintendo version of TMNT as well as the new video game. They also had free pop corn, breakdancing and you got a foot clan headband when you walked in. They even had the Turtles leader Splinter chained up in a corner just like in the movie! It was pretty epic.

Before the movie started BBQ Films tried to introduce the film but were rudely interrupted by motherfucking Shredder! He came out to the hoots and hollers of the wanna be Foot Clan audience members. Reenacting a scene from the movie, one audience member was granted an opportunity to join the Foot and of course she did so with great honor before the movie finally started.

Halfway through the film Turtle pal and hockey fan Casey Jones broke into Villain and rescued Splinter while the Foot Clan were distracted by the movie. Before they could escape Shredder showed up with his team of Foot Clan and confronted Casey Jones. There was only one way to settle this… a break dance battle! Several 80’s street toughs represented Casey Jones and Splinter and break battled the hip hop dancing foot clan. Boogaloo ensued and it was looking like the good guys were in trouble. Just then the actual Ninja Turtles broke in and saved the day. The tides were turned and Shredder limped off defeated. The movie would continue!

Just when you thought shit couldn’t get any more awesome, when the final credits to the film started and the classic anthem “T.U.R.T.L.E Power” hit, Golden Voice himself of Partners in Kryme showed up and started singing his hit over the credits. He was followed by the Turtles and Casey Jones and even Shredder joined in on the dance party. After performing the greatest movie theme song of the early 90’s (Yeah you heard me right Hammer!) , he played a BRAND NEW Turtles song called “Rock The Half Shell”. It was fucking incredible. I bet it must have been awesome for him to get to play that song along side a bunch of Mutant Ninja Turtles (who I am pretty sure are no longer teenagers) in front of a crowd full of TMNT fans dressed up as foot clan thugs.

After the show was over the dance party continued and I got to tell Golden Voice about how I lost the talent show in the third grade to two kids who rapped Turtle Power. He thought it was hilarious, but what I didn’t tell him was that we both actually lost to a fucking ballerina. Bullshit. They came in 2nd though and me and Michael Grunenberger had to settle for 3rd for our rendition of the McDonalds menu song.

In conclusion, that shit was awesome. The movie held up too. It looks bad ass. Makes you wish CGI wasn’t a thing. TMNT is so dark and creepy and the costumes are amazing. It’s still really funny (although probably in more of an ironic way than it was in 1990) and it was a really great way to watch a movie. This was really the most fun I have had at a party in ages. Shout out to BBQ Films and Flavorpill and everyone else who worked on this event. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Click here for some truly bodacious photos from the Foot Clan Tryout’s an Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles screening at Villain. Cowabunga dudes!

Ps. For bonus credit, watch the mumble core/ TMNT parody my little brother directed!

On Sunday I knew I was going to take it easy at Fun Fun Fun Fest. I hadn’t really slept in three days and the first band I was dying to see didn’t start until the late afternoon. A friend of a friend wanted to do a photo shoot with me so I photographed a girl in my friends kitchen, had tacos with his roommate and then slowly made my way down to the fest just in time to see the Cro-Mags.

I have photographed the Cro-Mags before and the legendary NY hardcore band is always impressive even during a day time festival show. I ran into their intense frontman John Joseph at the airport and said I had a blast at his performance. (They were one of the only bands I stuck it out for their whole set.) I was with Chris Weingarten from Spin and he just immediately started telling us amazing stories from the bad old days in NYC. He told us about getting stabbed defending the Beastie Boys and touring with Motorhead and a bunch of other amazing things in the 5-10 minutes we talked to him. Such an interesting, badass dude.

After Cro-Mags I made an attempt to shoot Deltron 3030 with a full orchestra but the photo pit was too full and by the time they let me in there I only got five shots or something before they kicked me out. This is why I hate music festivals. From there I hit the MGMT set and I got a few nice shots before these Absolut Vodka beach balls were thrown into the crowd as some sort of desperate promotional attempt and one of them landed on stage blocking my shot of the band. When one of the balls fell into the photo pit I grabbed it and tried to throw it at the beach ball that was in the way but I somehow missed and the ball floated right over my target and hit the frontman right in the face. It was pretty funny but I was also kinda embarrassed so I decided to sneak out of there and move on to the next act.

The next act was Texas legend Daniel Johnston. The mentally unstable folk singer is a personal favorite and I was getting to see him for the third time. This was actually my favorite of his performances and it was powerful to see him perform that close. He shakes with nervousness and performs with a vulnerability and sadness that you rarely see from a musician. I am a huge fan of him, his music and his art (I own one of his original drawings) and I just donated to a Kickstarter to make a half documentary/ half fictionalized film about his life. The first documentary about his life, The Devil and Daniel Johnston is one of the best music docs I have ever seen and it looks like this new film could be fantastic as well.

After Daniel I finally got to see the Locust although their set up and lighting made them incredibly hard to photograph. I’m not a huge fan of the band’s music but after one of their members made up some fake lovers quarrel and went on Jerry Springer with my friend Scott I have become a fan of the band as a concept. I was glad to get to see them.

From there it was finally time for the headliners. Slayer was probably the biggest draw at the festival but I shot them the last time I was at Fun Fun Fun so I was running a little late for their set. I knew the photo pit was going to be a disaster, especially after shooting M.I.A. on that stage. There is a huge speaker wall set up in front of the stage and so even if you can get in the photo pit you can’t move around because of this speaker wall. When I got into the pit I had no view of anything so I ended up crawling under the stage and popping out right next to the speaker wall. I still had almost no shot but it was better than before.  After I took a few shots I said fuck it and jumped on top of the speaker wall and to get out of other photographers shots I ended up wedging myself down into the gap between the wall and the stage. My legs were actually under the stage and I would pop out, get a few shots and then duck back under so other photographers wouldn’t get pissed. A few of them got pissed at me but I did what I could to get out of their way and a bunch of them were actually cracking up. One of the photographers told me it was a highlight of his fest and sent me this photo of me wedged down in there. The whole thing was pretty metal, but not quite as metal as the guy crowd surfing to Slayer in a wheel chair. Just sayin’.

Finally I decided to catch Jurassic 5’s set. I was a big fan of them in the late 90’s early 2000’s but I sort of stopped listening to them at some point. Not sure why but I just hadn’t listened to them in years. I was exhausted from three days of festivals, mosh pits and not sleeping so I figured I could just chill by the side of the stage and enjoy their set for a few songs and then get the hell out of there. I made it to their set before they even started so I got to photograph them and I was instantly blown away. Those guys are fucking amazing live. It’s so great to see hip hop where the artists are working together instead of each person taking a verse. They finish each other’s sentences and like they say “take four MCs and make ’em sound like one”. After I shot their first three songs I moved to the little media area and watched their whole set with a bunch of journalists who were dancing and singing along. They were really one of the best sets of the whole festival if not the very best. It was a perfect way to end a pretty epic weekend.

Click here to see all the photos from Sunday at Fun Fun Fun Fest 8 at Auditorium Shores in Austin, TX.

Saturday at Fun Fun Fun was even more packed with bands I wanted to see. I got there early so I could check out one of my favorite newer bands Bleached. I like them better every time I see them and I listen to their record all the time. Low fi female fronted rock and roll is oddly becoming one of my favorite types of music. After Bleached I got to see Brooklyn’s finest Flatbush Zombies. I once photographed them playing on a skate ramp and they always put on a hell of a show.

I took a quick break to catch some comedy. My old pal Jenny Slate told a bunch of jokes and then the JASH comedy tent turned into a hot box when the weed obsessed Doug Benson came on and proceeded to be hilarious. Either that or I had a serious contact high. Craig Robinson came out and did a pretty epic comedic musical performance with a full back up band.

After that I was walking over to the press tent for a second when I passed the Glass Candy performance. It was super weird and high energy so I stopped by for a few shots. After that it was on to check out Television. I know people love them but I just never got into them. Seeing them live didn’t really change my opinion but I only saw the first few songs before running across the festival to the Black Stage catch mother fucking Body Count!

Unfortunately when I got there Ice-T was already a song into Body Count’s brutal set. My punk band covers Cop Killer and I loved Body Count growing up so I was really bummed when they wouldn’t let me into the photo pit. I said “Fuck it” and jumped into the crowd and watched the show from the mosh pit. I got some okay shots but I missed a lot of others as I was dodging stage divers and trying not to get killed. I ended up smashing my Ray Bans in the process. Damn. It was worth it though and they were one of the highlights of the fest for me. They are coming out with a new album soon and the new shit they played sounded awesome.

After Body Count I got to knock another band off my must see bucket list. I came to this festival mostly to see two bands, Flag and Sparks. Flag’s set yesterday really lived up to the hype and I was so excited to see Sparks. They have been around since the early 70’s and have more than 20 albums and very few people know them in the US. It’s really strange because they are so brilliant. I got turned on to them about a decade ago and I consider myself a huge fan despite owning barely a quarter of their albums. Seeing them live was really awesome but they played so much stuff I didn’t know that I was a bit disappointed over all. But that’s on me. They still put on a hell of a performance to a pretty impressively large crowd.

After Sparks I walked over to M.I.A. to see the start of her set. I missed a chance to see what I believe was her first show in the US in Austin about 10 years ago and I sort of always regretted it so I wanted to at least try and take a couple photos of her. Unfortunately the photo pit was overfilled with photographers and I mostly got shots of her from the side or the back of her head. I was pretty disappointed but it was a good lesson in shooting that stage which served me well when I got to shoot Slayer there the next day. My M.I.A. photos were also lacking because I only saw about a song and a half of her set before I ran across the grounds to the Black Stage once again.

The Descendents were about to go on but I made it in time, unfortunately they still wouldn’t let me in the photo pit. I was pissed because I supposedly had a “headliner” photo pass but they still wouldn’t let me in so for the third time in two days I jumped into the mosh pit and took photos from the crowd.  I love the Descendents and I hadn’t seen them since 1998 so it was awesome to see them. I remember thinking how old they were back then and Milo was only two years older than I am now. God damn. They put on an awesome show but I didn’t take great shots. I was having way too much fun. At some point I told a guy in the crowd that if they played “Pervert” I was going to stage dive with my camera. My band covers Pervert so I know every word and two songs later they played it so I climbed on stage, tried to take a photo from stage and then jumped into the crowd, camera in hand. Unfortunately my settings got bumped when I climbed on the stage and I set it on self timer mode so my camera didn’t take a photo. I changed modes while crowd surfing and was getting ready to take some photos from the air when a guy stage dived right on top of me for some reason. I got dropped but my legs stayed in the air. Fortunately I have a life time of crowd surfing practice and I let myself fall but kept my camera up. I got trampled on the ground and fucked up my shoulder but managed to keep my camera safe. I did lose my flash diffuser but it could have been a lot worse.

I limped out of the pit to a bunch of high fives and slaps on the back. It was a lot of fun but I was done for. The fest was almost over so I slowly walked out of there with the sounds of the Decendents soothing my painful trip back to my friends couch. I was ready to call it quits but I had 1400 photos to edit and another whole day of the fest. Bring it on.

Click here to see all the photos from Saturday at Fun Fun Fun Fest 8 at Auditorium Shores in Austin, TX.

Normally I don’t shoot music festivals unless I am getting paid a lot of money. I shot nothing but bands for the first 8 years of my photo career and I sort of hate doing it now. With digital camera’s and the “three songs, no flash” photo pit rules every single photographer gets nearly the same shot of every band and every band gets photographed by a million people a year. So what’s the point? On top of that shooting festivals is even worse. But yet I headed to Austin over the weekend to shoot a music festival and I will be lucky if I break even.

Fun Fun Fun Fest has year after year the best line up of bands in the country. They bring in legendary artists in hip hop, punk, metal, pop and even comedy. They tend to have very diverse bands that all work so well together that you are running back and forth because so often there are multiple bands playing at the same time that you want to see. During the fest I knocked a couple bands of my life time bucket list and got to see FOUR bands that my punk cover band Fucking Bullshit covers. It was epic.

On top of that I love Austin and will take any chance to spend time there. I got to see a bunch of friends and I even photographed four naked girls there including one I ran into in the street and a stranger I was introduced to who had never posed nude before. Did I mention breakfast burritos and BBQ? I fucking love Austin.

Anyway, I got to a late start on Friday after photographing Quinn Cornchip again, but I got to see Little Boots, Kurt Vile, Big Freedia, Lupe Fiasco, Patton Oswalt and mother fucking Flag. Black Flag is probably the most important band to me in my life. They were my introduction to punk and their early material when they were fronted by Keith Morris was fucking life changing. Keith got the band back together with four Black Flag members but can’t call the band Black Flag because guitarist Greg Ginn owns the name. Ginn started his own band called Black Flag that only has two former members (although Ron Reyes was my favorite singer) and they just released a new album which is honestly better than expected. Still, I was way more excited about Flag than I was about Black Flag and they did not disappoint. Two songs into their set I jumped out of the photo pit and into the mosh pit and it was honestly one of the best experiences I have had at a concert in years.

On top of all that I got to meet BMX legend Mat Hoffman and eat free Twinkies (they are back and way worse than I remember). It was a pretty good Friday and I was wrecked by the end of Flag’s set but I was ready to do it all the next day and Saturday was jam packed with bands. I will have those photos tomorrow but in the mean time check out the pictures from Friday!

Click here to see all the photos from Fun Fun Fun Fest Friday at Auditorium Shores in Austin, TX!

Happy Halloween kids! I am currently on a plane from LA headed to NYC on no sleep and trying to update this site before I lose my mind.  I was in LA for two days with a day in Vegas in between. I shot a very fancy fundraising gala one night and headed to Vegas to shoot some strippers for Hustler the next day. This is my life.  This is also the first time I have had Internet in several days as the internet at my friends place in LA was down and the hotel in Vegas decided that I didn’t know my own last name and wouldn’t let me log into their internet. So now I am spending $20 to update my site on a plane with pictures that are nearly a week old. Still, they seem pretty relevant since today is Halloween so let’s do this…

Last Friday my buddy Kristoph was in town and aside from being one of my favorite people he is also an insane person and I needed to show him a good time. Earlier in the day my friend Jamie Peck hit me up about a “Space Witch” party that was going to be super weird and that I should come by. I just planned on hanging out with Mike but I decided to bring my camera in case it was as weird as promised. Fortunately it was. When I walked in my friend Callie was out of her head and working on some sort of black magic ritual and everyone was pretty down to participate in the pre-halloween weirdness. There was a naked guy chained to the wall and this band Dust was playing and the whole thing was super weird so I took some photos and now you get to look at them.

Click here to see all the photo from the “Space Witch” party at 35 Beadel St.

Sunday night my friends The Coathangers played Santos Party House and they are awesome and adorable and they had a little kid play a song with them and that was totally sweet. They even have a rad new split 7″ out that you can listen to. But my love for The Coathangers has been well documented. So this write up is going to feature one of the most awesome bands ever to exist on the planet earth… Guitar Wolf!

After The Coathangers were totally fucking awesome Guitar Wolf took the stage. Okay, that’s not exactly true… before they went on the played like 6 music videos in a row. You need to understand that Guitar Wolf are not like other bands… they are from Japan. As far as I can tell everything in Japan is completely insane and fantastic. Okay, wait. We need to back up for a second.

We need to talk about how in 2001 my friend got a bootleg of a movie called Wild Zero. This movie wasn’t out in the US yet and the subtitles were clearly done by someone who has very little understanding of the English language. It was about zombies and aliens and rock and roll and gun runners and transgendered love, lots of explosions and a Japanese rock and roll band named Guitar Wolf. It’s the weirdest most amazing movie I have ever seen. Seriously, it is my favorite move. The first time I saw it my friend was watching it and I watched from the middle and watched it over again. It didn’t make any sense but every minute of it was fucking amazing.  Years later it made it to the states and you can buy it everywhere so you should do that immediately. I even wrote about it in 2008 for this very site.

Anyway, when I found out Guitar Wolf were playing I of course had to go. So after they played a series of music videos they went on and rocked everyone’s face off. Their music is really loud rock and roll. It’s kinda Ramones influenced but way way harder and way way weirder. At some point the front man (Who is also named Guitar Wolf) thumb wrestled several members of the audience and then brought someone on stage to play the guitar while he crowd surfed. They did SEVERAL encores. The last of which was just Guitar Wolf by himself after most of the crowd had left thinking they were over after two encores. I would say that their set time was actually shorter than their three encores. The 2nd encore involved them building a giant human pyramid and playing on top of it. Fucking amazing.

I was so excited to see both of these band and they 100% did not disappoint. My hearing is still fucked up but I have “a wallet on my ass with a rock and roll license”.

Click here to see all the pictures of Guitar Wolf and the Coathangers at Santos Party House!