Since I last posted about Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All some interesting things have happened. When I defended Odd Future’s “attack” on photographers at Voodoo Fest I didn’t realize the shit storm I was about to get caught up in. Odd Future’s publicist forwarded my article on to a bunch of people criticizing the band and I ended up being quoted in Rolling Stone, The LA Weekly and a bunch more. As soon as that happened every music photographer in the country seemed to come out of the woodwork to criticize not only me but my work as well. Attack after attack followed and some photographers actually threatened to kick my ass if I ended up working with them in the same photo pit. It was pretty amazing considering all I was doing was trying to clarify the fact that Odd Future never slapped anyone. They slapped cameras, which is fucked up, but they didn’t assault anyone’s actual person. I also went on to say that I enjoy that kinda violence in music. It was a personal preference and I was not wishing harm on anyone. My point was just that if you don’t like crazy rock and roll violence then you should stay away from dangerous bands. Problem solved.
On top of all of this I got accused of being this fame hungry egomaniac because I blogged about the incident and “bragged” about meeting the band and did an interview with Rolling Stone. I just want to make it clear that I didn’t do one interview with anyone and that any media I was featured in was purely quoting from my blog. As far as me being an egomaniac or bragging about meeting the band I hope that everyone who reads this blog understands that a big part of my work is telling the story through more than just photography. I write up every blog post with a story about the event or band I am covering and since this is a personal blog I think that is completely appropriate. I understand a lot of photographers just want their work to speak for themselves but this blog is as much a diary as anything and I am going to keep “bragging” about my adventures.
So let’s get to the bragging. The one good thing about all the bullshit that came out of that blog post was that Odd Future’s publicist sort of owed me a favor… or at least he appreciated the bullshit I put up with defending his band. At Fun Fun Fun Fest Odd Future had a strict no photographer policy but they granted me special permission to shoot from the pit. I was warned to stay to the side and stay out of the bands way for my own safety. For the first few songs I shared the pit with Brooklyn Vegan’s photographer but at some point he was asked to leave for some reason and it was just me shooting from the side of the photo pit.
The only member of Odd Future who knew who I was was Left Brain so I didn’t want to get shit from any of the other guys so I stayed the fuck out of their way. At one point Tyler The Creator got hit in the face with a beer can and in an instant jumped into the crowd looking for someone to fight. His entire band and several other members of their crew just jumped into the crowd with them looking for a fight. The whole thing turned into a mob scene and I was pretty sure that was the end of the night but instead five minutes later the band was back on stage like nothing ever happened. Tyler lost his hat in the ruckus and I found it and handed it to him and he high fived me and posed for a photo before he started playing. After the fight I was pulled out of the pit by security but one of Odd Future’s crew members grabbed me and told security I was cool. A few minutes later while he was in the middle of a song Hodgy Beats, the same guy who threw water in my face at the last show, came over and bent down to the photo pit and shook my hand. It was pretty clear at that point that the band knew who I was and I shot the rest of the show from center stage having a great time.
The set ended with the band challenging both the crowd and the bouncers. They asked their fans to rush the stage but then they reminded the crowd that the bouncers were going to kick their ass if they came over. All the bouncers got this amazing look in their eye and instead of stopping the show they just went to war. All the kids trying to get on stage and the bouncers having the time of their lives trying to stop them. I was in the middle of it trying to get out of the way and get shots at the same time. At one point Odd Future’s publicist climbed on top of the speakers and jumped into the crowd from about 10 feet in the air. You don’t normally see that from PR people. I ran over and pulled him back over the barrier with one arm while holding my camera with the other. It was just a lot of fun.
After the show a few members of Odd Future came up to me and thanked me for having their back with the whole Voodoo fest thing and that meant a lot to me. I don’t regret defending them at all but I think I would have been a little bit more careful about it if I knew the amount of shit I was going to get for it, so to at least know that the band appreciates it made the bullshit a little easier to deal with.
But anyway Odd Future are fucking great live. I probably won’t be going out and buying a bunch of their records but I would see this band any day and I hope I get to photograph them again soon. They are putting punk rock into hip hop like it should be. Hip hop and punk rock have been the two most important genres of music in my life and there are so many similarities from the energy to the DIY nature to the aggression and it’s great to see a band blur the lines between my two favorite forms of music. Plus they make for some awesome photos.
Click here to see all of my shots of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All At Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX.
