Yesterday was Fool’s Gold Records annual Day Off in NYC. I have photographed most of them and they are always a good time but usually they are in my neighborhood. This year the all day party was on a helipad on 34th Street which was a really cool idea. I was running late so I took a $20 Uber there and when I got there it had been moved to fucking Queens. I started walking up to the N train but I finally gave up and got another $20 cab. I got to Studio Square NYC two hours later than I had planned but I quickly got to work.

When I got there Meyhem Lauren was in the middle of his set. Probably my greatest skill in life is moving quickly through packed crowds so I got to the front by the time he finished his set and got a few shots. My homie and Fool’s Gold founder Nick Catchdubs DJd between sets and I took a minute to wonder around checking out the place and saying whats up to everyone.

Next up was Leaf who kinda killed it and brought a bunch of babes out with her which is never a terrible move. Leaf can rap, sing and is a total babe which makes the fact that I shot her Sweet 16 party kinda uncomfortable. Seriously though she was great.

After that A-Trak did his thing and invited out a ton of special guests including MadeintTYO, K$ace and my buddy Telli from Fame School who hosted the whole event. Towards the end of A-Trak’s set the crowd started chanting for Lil Yachty and started basically moshing between sets.

Unfortunately the crowd got a little bit too nuts and Studio Square got a little too packed and the barrier between the crowd and the photo pit started getting pushed forward. The bouncers jumped in and none of the photographers were squashed to death but they kicked us all out of the photo pit. Pretty much took the entire Lil Yachty set for them to reenforce the barricade and we only had this little tiny area to shoot from.

During Lil Yachty’s set I tried to get a few good shots and then get out of the way so the photographers who aren’t quite as good as pushing motherfuckers out of the way could get their shots. Unfortunately my shots weren’t actually that good and I sort of missed out on getting any good Yachty shots. That’s some amateur bullshit right there. Still, I got some pretty decent wide shots when I climbed up on a table and shot from the VIP area.

After Lil Yachty I found a spot in between two speakers and on top of a bass cabinet or something. Basically I shot the last two artists while being shoved into this tiny space that was constantly rumbling and I felt like I was going to shit myself from the bass. It was a pretty good time. I actually got my best shots from there despite the 45 minutes or so of that minor misery.

Juelz Santana from the Diplomats came out next and fucking killed it. I feel like someone from Dipset is at every other Day Off and I am never mad about that. Cam’ron fucked shit up two years ago and Juelz kept that tradition going. Real fun set.

Migos headlined and unfortunately they only got a couple songs in before the cops shut everything down. I don’t know exactly what happened but they probably ran late cause of all the bullshit with the barricades. They got into the crowd and kept playing but eventually they got shut down permanently.

Once again Fool’s Gold Day Off (NYC edition) was a blast despite the $60 Uber bill and collapsed photo pit. I shot a ton of photos so you should go look at em already. Enjoy your Sunday or something.

Click here to see all the photos from 2016 NYC Fool’s Gold Day Off at Studio Square NYC.

Every year there’s a couple artists that play the Gathering of the Juggalos that you just can’t believe are playing. I have seen everyone from George Clinton to Bobby Brown to three different members of WuTang. This year I was pretty excited to see Bone Thugs N Harmony, Slick Rick and Gwar.

Bone Thugs aren’t really one of my favorite groups or anything but I thought it would be cool to see and it was. Photographically it was pretty impossible to get a decent group shot but not mad I got to see them. Gwar was also really hard to shoot but for a completely different reason. The inside of my hat is still pink from the blood of a decapitated puppet of Barack Obama. Slick Rick was just kinda boring to photograph because he mostly just stands there with mic in his face but honestly it was still fucking amazing. I am a pretty serious Slick Rick fan. Like I get pretty deep with him unfortunately I only got to see about four songs because of other work, but it was still next level for me.

Also great was Tech N9ne who plays every year and this year his some time collaborator Hopsin played too. I really dig both of them so that was fun. They are both really easy to photograph too because they put on a hell of a show and don’t spray any camera destroy substances at the crowd (weird, right?)

Aside from that there wasn’t much I wasnted to shoot. I the performance of Violent J’s Wizard of Oz themed musical “Wizard of the Hood” and that was super weird. I probably should have watched the whole thing but they only let me shoot two songs and I sort of bounced after that. I of course shot ICP but I had a really early fight to catch and I have seen them a bunch of times so I left after I got a few shots. I also shot Psychopathic Records artist Anybody Killa and “West Coast juggalos” Kottonmouth Kings. Oh and this rapper Rittz who I have seen before at the Gathering and is on Tech N9ne’s label.

Aside from that I didn’t really see any other music. None of my clients really wanted any band photos even though I was shooting for both Noisey and Rolling Stone. That being said after I shot Gwar I pitched Noisey on it and they actually published my show review. It’s always weird when people let me write shit, but I appreciate it.

Read my Gwar show review in Noisey here.

So yeah, um, go look at band photos if you want. The Gwar ones are at least somewhat interesting and maybe you will care about them. Honestly if it were up to me I would never have to take or look at a photo of a band ever again, but that’s just me.

Click here to see all my live music photos from the 2016 Gathering Of The Juggalos.

I have returned from the Gathering of the Juggalos and although I slept for an unreasonable amount of time I still feel physically destroyed after not sleeping or eating real food for four straight days. If you don’t know by now the Gathering is the weirdest music festival on the planet thrown each year by the Insane Clown Posse. This year, and the last two years it has been in a town called Thornville, Ohio just outside of Columbus. Like most festivals the Gathering features a lot of sex, drugs and music, but the Gathering is unique in that it also includes wrestling and bareknuckle boxing and strippers and no real security or pretension of safety. Oh, did I mention everyone is dressed like clowns?

This is my 7th straight Gathering of the Juggalos and I will probably keep going back because it’s impossible to take a bad photo there (although I try my best) and people keep paying me. I have covered the Gathering for probably two dozen media outlets and it seems like someone always wants me to shoot something or write something and I’m not mad about it even if my brand has become juggalo adjacent.

I am (thankfully) going on a mini vacation tomorrow so I have broken the hundreds of images I have for you guys down into 5 total posts with six total galleries. The plan is to get two up today, two up tomorrow and then one final massive update on Thursday featuring over 400 images in one post. I gotta get these up quick so we can all move on with our lives and I can enjoy a few days of my vacation.

This gallery serves as an intro to the festival coverage as well as a place to put all my best images so if I need to come back later to find a photo it will probably be in this gallery. That makes sense right? Didn’t want to shoot my metaphoric load right away, but it’s too late and it’s happening…

These are my favorite images from the 2016 Gathering of the Juggalos and you should click here to look at them.

I spent my birthday at Pier 84 photographing the Sailor Jerry Fleet Week party. It was the culmination of a week of Sailor Jerry Fleet Week events honoring sailors (Navy, Marines & Coast Guard). They gave out free drinks, hair cuts and tattoos and then threw this huge free party with a live performance from Cage the Elephant.

I didn’t make the other events but I saw Cage The Elephant at Lollapalooza in 2011 and they blew me away so I figured this would be a pretty good way to get paid to have fun on my birthday. I have shot thousands of bands over the last 20 years and Cage The Elephant are one of those bands that really sticks out. I went out and bought one of their albums after seeing their live show

Aside from the Cage show there was a lot going on. For some reason there were a couple Playboy Playmates hanging out and arm wrestling sailors. No one seemed to mind them cheating for some reason.

Ink Master judge Oliver Peck was giving sailors free Sailor Jerry tattoos all day. I have photographed a lot of Sailor Jerry tattoo events and it was awesome seeing the right people getting the classic tattoos for their original meanings. Last time I saw Oliver he was tattooing my knee so it was nice to see him without wanting to pass out.

They were giving out on site silk screened shirts and my friend Myles was sewing Sailor Jerry patches on the shirts or whatever you wanted. And did I mention the free drinks? There were a lot of free drinks.

Shortly before Cage went on, the Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus drove a custom Sailor Jerry Harley Davidson on stage and gave a toast to the troops and the proceeded to take hundreds of selfies with sailors and other fans. It was pretty impressive to see him spend over an hour taking photos with people and signing autographs.

Finally Cage went on and after shooting their first few songs I decided I had taken enough photos to just enjoy the rest of the set. I had a couple of drinks and they got right on top of me because I hadn’t eaten or slept because I am terrible at life. So I ended up staying late talking to US Navy guys about the nature of war and service. Pretty intense way to start Memorial Day.

I finally left and met up with some friends for dinner and ended up sobering up a lot as soon as I got food in me and then started to get drunk again and ended up at some punk show and on a roof in the rain and talking hockey with some fucking Penguins fan at a metal bar and then went home and ordered $40 of delivery food before passing out while watching Game of Thrones. Did anything important happen?

Oh right, photos, sorry… let’s do this.

Click here to see all the photos from the Sailor Jerry Fleet Week party at Pier 84.

Last night the Insane Clown Posse played New York. Given that my favorite people to photograph are juggalos I of course had to go. This is maybe the third time ICP has played NYC in the last decade and I think I have been to all the shows, but this time they played Webster Hall where I have spent countless hours of my life.

They played their third album, the Riddle Box, front to back on the middle floor of Webster aka the Marlin Room. It is kinda a weird space for a band that spends most of their set throwing two liters of soda at the crowd. The ceilings are low and the room is wider than it is long so unless you were right by the side bars you couldn’t really avoid getting hit with a bottle. I took one to the head and I actually have a cut from the lip of the bottle.

One of my best friends was in town because we were ICP fans in the mid 90’s before juggalos were a thing. That’s how I got into shooting juggalos in the first place. I had a pretty good background in ICP before I started documenting this wonderful madness. He hasn’t listened to ICP in the last 15 years but thought it would be fun to come up from DC for the show.

So I shot photos before the show and after the show but during their set we just ran around getting covered in soda and moshing with juggalos and whatever one does at a concert when they aren’t shooting photos. I don’t even remember how that works. It was actually a lot of fun.

I should also note that there were a ton of under cover hipsters in juggalo costumes there which I guess is probably Camille Dodero and my fault for breaking the internet with our original Village Voice cover story that lead to the massive amount of media at the Gathering of the Juggalos every year. See if you can spot the juggalo tourists!

Now click here to see my photos from the Insane Clown Posse show at Webster Hall!

Last night after Spike Lee’s Prince block party I headed down to the Lower East Side to see if I could find some people celebrating Prince.

My friends Ky and Jeremy were DJing Jarome’s and spinning Prince all night so I stopped in there first. Apparently I got there too early because it was a bit slow. I heard it got crazy a few hours later.

I decided to just walk around lower Manhattan. I heard their was a Prince tribute at the Prince Street Subway station so I figured if I just started walking that way I might run into something. I figure I would just walk down Prince Street as far as I could and hopefully find something to photograph.

I saw some mylar balloons hanging on a traffic light and when I looked carefully I realized they spelled Prince. They were all jumbled together so I didn’t even take out my camera. I just took a photo for my Snapchat. But as I walked down the street I came to another street light covered in balloons but this time it was a work in process.

I pulled out my camera and started shooting the small group of people trying to throw these weighted balloons up onto the street light. It took some doing and as they continued a slightly bigger crowd gathered. Someone had a boom box and started blasting Prince. I started talking to the artists who were creating this helium memorial and they told me they were headed to the New Museum next. They handed me an I balloon and we headed to the next stop.

When we got to the New Museum they spelled out Prince in front of the museum in balloons and then spread glitter everywhere. More people gathered as as they worked. They started spraying Prince stencils everywhere with chalk paint. By the time they were finished the New Museum had become a dance party.

I took a group photo and then everyone split up and I continued on to the Prince Street Subway where I found a couple tributes to Prince. By that time it was 2 or 3 am and I figured it was time to call it a night.

It’s a tragedy that Prince died but it was a really inspiring night and to see so many people come together is kinda wonderful. So instead of mourning Prince let’s all party like it’s 1999.

Click here to see the Prince tributes on Prince Street.

Ps. These photos are mildly NSFW cause someone pulled out their dick in the background of the group portraits because of course they did.

So another musical legend died yesterday and the world lost it’s mind again. Prince is a little bit different though. Not since maybe Michael Jackson have we lost a musician that is so universal. I mean I am a bigger Motorhead fan than I am a Prince fan and I know a billion people who were devastated by the death of David Bowie but a love for Prince seems to unite everyone.

I went down to Spike Lee’s 40 Acres building in Brooklyn last night and there were thousands of people of every age and ethnicity all dancing in the street to Prince. It was a really magical moment.

I put a small video clip of it on my Instagram and I had so many people contact me saying how much they wished they could be there. I am really glad I was able to be a part of it. (Also, weirdly enough, that video ended up on the Today Show (at the 1:12 mark))

The block party was supposed to end right at 10pm and at 10 some cops showed up ready to shut it down. Spike pleaded with them saying it was the last song and then everyone would go home. The cops gave him 10 more minutes and the crowd went nuts cheering. I even saw the cops singing along to Purple Rain. The whole thing was just really emotional and amazing.

After the block party I went home for a bit and then went to the Lower East Side looking for more Prince tributes but I have to go to the dentist so the rest of the photos from last night will have to wait until I get back.

Click here to see the photos from Spike Lee’s Prince block party at 40 Acres.

And that was easy. All my SXSW posts are done in one day. Aside from FloodFest I only shot two other events and one of them was a private dinner so we only need two updates. Magical.

After hitting the Levitation party last year I figured I would stop by Hotel Vegas again for the 2016 edition. I was only there for an hour or two but I got to see a bunch of bands since they had four stages. I got there just in time for Thee Oh Sees which is part of my SXSW ritual (I have probably seen them 20 times in 13 SXSWs) and I got to see Saint Pé which was cool and I shot this fun band Creepoid who got Sailor Jerry tattoos the very next day.

I also ran into the radical September Girls and ended up running into my friend Tess and my friend Erica and my friend Ronen. All of these people are great so the party was extra fun. But the best part of the party might have been that it was on St. Patrick’s Day and almost no one was dressed in green. Oh, did I mention that there were infinite cute babes at the party?

I have kinda a terrible back so I decided I should go drop off my camera gear and go back out to have some SXSW fun but instead I didn’t get off my sick air mattress until I needed to go eat pancakes in the middle of the night. Party forever.

And with that all my SXSW updates are over. Go look at this quick gallery and I am gonna go unpack.

Click here to see some photos from the 2016 Levitation SXSW Showcase at Hotel Vegas in Austin.

After a few days to recover getting up this year’s South By Southwest posts is going to be really easy. I didn’t shoot the film fest and unlike in past years I pretty much just suck to one event during music week. I got hired by two different clients to cover Flood Magazine’s FloodFest day parties at Cedar Street Courtyard. I was there starting at 11am so I had to be up every day by 8:30 or so. Normally I would just get no sleep all week but it was my 13th SXSW and for once I decided I would take it easy. I did shoot two other parties but one of em was a private thing so I only have one update after this one. Praise rock music Jebus.

So yeah, FloodFest day parties! 30 bands over four days! I could list them all or you could just look at this list over here. I was there for Sailor Jerry again who had Keith Underwood and Phillip LaRocca doing tattoos all week and Original Penguin the classic men’s wear line that was gifting bands and had one of those evil photo booth things set up that cost me jobs (just kidding).

Let’s just bang out some highlights.

Best band: I really loved Sir The Baptist. Gospel, hip hop and r&b mixed with a hell of a live show. Real worth checking out.

Most fun band to hang out with after: September Girls were these rad Irish babes who played on St. Patrick’s Day because of course. I ended up running into em later in the day too and they all got Sailor Jerry tattoos.

Worst/ Best tattoo: The winner of the best and the worst tattoo goes to the front man from the band American Bombshell who got SXSW 16 tattooed to his knuckles. Holy shit.

Best babes in Austin: I had Ela Darling and Carter Cruise come visit me. Always good to see my worlds smash into each other. Ela was in town for the Interactive part of SXSW and was giving talks on VR in the Adult industry. Carter was in town DJing and ended up getting a pretty sick SJ tattoo.

Other friends getting tattooed: The homies Ho99o9 came to get tattooed and get some free Penguin gear. It was awesome to see this savage punk band in button up shirts. Hollywood Holt also came by to get his hand tattooed. My friends Keaton and Tess came by and got little jammers too and while not that interesting as far as the write up goes it was nice to hang out with them.

Other bands I dug: The Heavy, Deap Vally, So Pitted, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down and although they were a little to chill for me Polica was a huge crowd favorite. Over all most of the bands were pretty good although there were a few exceptions that made me want to murder all of music but I will probably just go ahead and not mention their names.

Anyway, go look some photos and thanks to Sailor Jerry and Original Penguin and Flood Magazine for having me out. Also thanks to Phil for the absurd SJ tattoo! Now go look at way too many pictures!

Click here to see a TON of photos from the 2016 SXSW FloodFest at Cedar Street Courtyard in Austin.