So last night I got to photograph Iron Maiden’s The Final Frontier tour date at Madison Square Garden for the Village Voice. In the late 80’s when my friends were listening to Maiden I was mostly listening to Run DMC and Young MC. Then by like 1991 I was mostly listening to goofier metal bands like Warrant and Poison and of course Motely Crue.  I never got around to listening to Maiden.  Still, I was pretty excited to shoot it because I knew the shots would be cool, I would get to use my telephoto lens that I almost never use and most importantly I would get to be on the floor at Madison Square Garden.

I have never actually seen a concert there, but I have been to two or three Caps vs. Rangers games and it’s obviously a legendary place.  Once I was down there infront of the stage with these crazy metal heads behind me and this legendary metal band running around in front of me it was a pretty cool experience.  I have shot thousands of bands on some big stages but this was the first time shooting an arena rock show.

Oh yeah, and Iron Maiden fucking ruled. Seriously they were amazing. Their lead singer Bruce Dickinson ran around stage like a maniac and he kept just leaping off of things. My editor at the Voice Camille Dodero talked a lot about it in her article. You should read it. He did this jump about four or five times in the three songs I was allowed to shoot. I kept missing it so I spent almost the entire last song following him and finally at the very last second of the third song I caught him mid air. It was an amazing shot and an amazing show.

After the three songs were over I was escorted to a great seat but I hadn’t slept in 3 days so I only watched another thirty minutes before taking off. I went home and took a handfull of sleeping pills and passed out for 12 hours.

Oh, and one other thing. Before the show I was photographing the Iron Maiden fans coming into MSG and Terry Richardson was out front doing the same thing. I don’t admit it often, but Richardson really is one of my favorite photographers and clearly an influence in my 35mm work.  I bought my first Yashica T4 many years ago after seeing it in one of his photos. I have seen him around a bunch I talked to him for the first time and he seemed extremely nice and much less villainous that he is made out to be. We took photos of each other and then I went around to the other side of MSG so I could let him do his thing.

Anyway, you should click here to see all the pictures of Iron Maiden and their fans at Madison Square Garden.

And we are back…

Electronic Daisy Carnival only got crazier on Day 2. I took 600 pictures of half naked drug crazed maniacs dancing their asses off and rubbing each other.  Will.I.Am was a dick to me and Lil John started screaming at people to stop jumping fences.  It was all pretty out of control. I think I had more fun on Saturday even though I was more exhausted. I printed up makeshift business cards at Kinkos and they were a hit.  Dana Dearmond and I just wrote a bunch of dumb things with my website address on them on a sheet of paper and I cut them up so their were 14 different cards. Plus the guy at Kinkos was an old school rave kid and hooked me up with a big discount.

Highlights for me included seeing my old friend Zoe, flirting with girls both 10 years older and younger than me, and losing my phone.  Oh wait, that last part fucking sucked.  Right before MSTRKRFT went on my phone just wasn’t in my pocket anymore.  I am 99% sure I lost it during Duck Sauce’s set and I thought I was going to lose my mind.  Luckily I just lost $250 when I had to buy a new damn phone. If you happened to find my phone, let me know. I can still return the new one… I found some kids ID and mailed it back to him so I got some Karma points to cash in.

Anyway ignore my ranting and just click here to see over 600 crazy pictures from Saturday at Electric Dance Carnival 2010.

PS. This gallery is mildy NSFW. See if you can spot the nudity. Its like Where’s Waldo but with nipples.

In what is now becoming a reoccurring feature on this site we are going to take a look a three new music videos made by friends of mine.  We open with Trouble & Bass’ own Drop The Lime’s new video Sex Sax.  It is clearly the most professional of the three, it’s shot all over my hood in South Williamsburg,  and it kinda happens to be hilarious.  It might not be quite as hilarious as “Voodoozela” the first video from the Cobra Krames & Dactel collab, The New York Dutch Masters. The song is an ode to the 2010 World Cup ruining Vuvuzela. Lastly one of my best friends, Michael Kristoph sent me the first video he has ever edited, which is a make shift video of his band Shells playing live in a dive bar in Texas. The song is called Tulsa and while pretty far away from the DTL and NYDM songs above it will have you jamming the fuck out to their roots rock.  Enjoy these videos….

Drop the Lime — Sex Sax from Trouble & Bass on Vimeo.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yps83ocCX8w&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yEQuluHm7U[/youtube]

I am on a plane on the way back from LA and I was going through the stuff that I was supposed to do while I was on the left coast, when I realized I never put up the pictures from Ninjasonik’s art show.  I have no idea why.  I delayed them a bit because I pitched them to Complex mag but they ran the pictures from Ellen Stagg’s art show instead.  I waited about a week and then I planned to put them up but clearly I just completely flaked on it.  So here are some photos from nearly a month ago.

Ninjasonik sent out a ton of copies of their “Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant” single to a ton of their artist friends and asked them to each design a cover and then they held a big art show at the Front Street Galleries in Dumbo.  Tons of people came out, artwork was sold and Todd Seelie had a birthday party.  Todd is one of a few nightlife photographers I really think is a lot better than me.  He also got me my first job at the Village Voice so I pretty much owe being a full time professional photographer to him. So I was glad I could be there for his birthday. And check out his site already…

Anyway, the art show was really rad and you should just click this link right here to see all the pictures from it. That would be the reasonable thing to do.

The other night I went on a mini date with this girl at a burger place for milkshakes. She had to meet up with some friends and I was gonna meet some people at a pool party but we had a little to kill so we met up.  Let’s just say it did not go super well… So 20 minutes later I realized that my boys Cerebral Ballzy were playing about five blocks away.  I texted them and they were just setting up.  I booked out of the milkshakery and headed over to an all ages club called “The Smell” that lived up to its name. The club was filled with tons of 15 year old kids, Ballzy, Roofeo from The Death Set and Juiceboxxx who had just finished his set.  It was a pretty weird scene.  The kids moshed and tore shit up while Ballzy crushed them while taking breaks between songs for Honor to try to wake himself up and encourage the teens to commit crimes and get fucked up.  Good times were had. Makes me wish I was fifteen again going to punk shows in church basements in DC.

This makes the second time I have seen the Brooklyn based Ballzy but despite their geographical conviencence I have never seen them in NYC.  I saw them at Skull By Skull Now in Austin last March and now in Downtown LA of all places. Both times I took pretty shitty photos of them. I wonder what that’s all about? Maybe I will have to wait until I get to see them in the 718 to get some good shots of the boys.

In the mean time, click here to see the photos Cerebral Ballzy rock the fuck out of The Smell in LA.

PS. For extra credit, can you find my logo in their video? It shows up twice in the first 6 seconds…

PPS. Yes, you can use the word Milkshakery. It is my gift to you, my fans. Just make sure you credit me.

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.

I didn’t realize how bad these photos were until just now…

I have had a great time in LA on vacation and perhaps I am not working super hard when I do shoot and I probably wouldn’t have shot at all except that Franki and Trevor from IHeartComix let me set up my own list at this secret party at “Thesex”. I felt like I should get them some pictures.

Franki Chan gave me a flyer for this show the night before and told me Spank Rock and Amanda Blank would be there.  Franki and New Yorkers Star Eyes and Nick Hook were on the bill but no one else. It turned out Atrak and Switch DJ’d too.  The whole thing was crazy and hot and full of cute kids.  I met a few girls and hung out with my best friend who lives in LA. It was all awesome. I met some really rad girl who I was sure was named after a camera lens but she never hit me up.  I also took some pictures of other stuff.

I just realized this isn’t making a lot of sense. I am sort of half awake.  All I know is that Spank Rock killed it and I fall in love with Amanda Blank more and more every time I see her.  Also I wanted to shout out to all the NYers at the party like Jessie and Isabella and of course Nick and Starreyes. And one more NY shout out.  My old friend from NY Johnny Makeup from VIP was there and performed with Spank Rock. Awesome.

Anyway, I need to either go out or lay down, I can’t figure out which.

Just look at all the sub par photos from Thesex before the cops came and shut the whole thing down an hour after bars closed everywhere else in LA.

Hey. Did I mention that I am in LA?  Cause I am. I am going to try to update daily but I am pretty much on vacation so be patient with me…

So on what was essentially my first night in LA (I slept though my first night after being awake for nearly 40 hours…) I found out that my friend Justin Tranter from the NYC based band Semi Precious Weapons was having a birthday party.  It was at the side bar down stairs at the Viper Room and you needed a secret password to get in. Since everything closes so fucking early in LA I was only there for about an hour but it was great to see a bunch of New Yorkers in LA as I am getting warmed up for this adventure. You will recognize Jocelyn and Alex Magentic from my galleries if you are a DBB regular and Lady Starlight was in town as well as some of the other Precious Empire regulars. It was a good time, but somehow I didn’t see Justin’s whale shaped ice cream cake which I might have just made up right now.

After Justin’s party I snuck into the Rainbow Room for last call and then ended up in the Roosevelt Hotel until 7AM in a room paid for by Playboy hanging out with porn stars and magazine editors. Good times. I did the same thing last night and it got super weird which I will tell you guys all about tomorrow in what I hope to be a pretty epic update.

Until then, click here to see the pictures from Semi Precious Weapons’ Justin Trainter’s birthday party at the Viper Room.

I got to see Tiny Furniture again and it was still fantastic the second time.  My friend Lena Dunham’s second feature had its NY premiere on Friday at BAM Rose Cinemas and then they had a special outdoors screening as part of the Rooftop Films summer movie series. It was a very cool event where they had a huge inflatable screen set up in the parking lot across from BAM. It was really cool to watch a movie outside like that and the distractions of the city and the sometimes questionable sound were offset by the surprsingly great weather.  It rained during the day and the event was almost called off, but the rain let up a few hours before the screening and didn’t really start again until the credits were basically rolling.  The Q&A was pretty wet and just a few brave die hards with umbrellas stuck around for the free beer and after party, but the whole event was great none the less.

One thing I have yet to mention was the opening entertainment for the movie.  My good friend Teddy Blanks did the soundtrack and the title sequences to the film and he preformed a short set before the movie.  Video artist Christian Shultz creates videos for all of Teddy’s songs which were projected behind Teddy on the giant inflatable screen as he played.  One of the videos features a man dancing while a girl behind him masturbates on a bed.  I was wondering if Teddy was going to perform it at such a family friendly out door event… he did. They turned the video off within 20 seconds but let him keep playing.  I think it is a pretty great acomplishment to be censored by BAM.  To see more weird video art and madness from Teddy and Christian you should check out their insane website: Too Hot For The Internet.

One other thing of note, my parents came with my brother and me to the movie and while it was great to have them there it was very awkward to watch some parts of the movie with them.  If you have ever seen your mother laugh at a joke about a “cum omelette” you know what I mean. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of my parents in the gallery though because they abhor my website as any good parent should.

The gallery is pretty small because I expected to do most of my shooting afterwards but the rain put a stop to that, but you should click here to see the pictures of Teddy Blanks & Tiny Furniture at BAM anyway…

Tiny Furniture is out nation wide and on IFC On Demand in October.