Headed back to NYC today after four days hanging with insane clowns and then a quick trip to Indianapolis. Assuming I don’t miss my flight I will be in NYC just in time to get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. On Thursday I go on a mini vacation so I am going to try to get as many Gathering of the Juggalos galleries up as possible before I leave.

We start with the beginning: Ho99o9. If you have been following my site I shot the punk/rap band Ho99o9 at SXSW and then again at their record release party in LA. When I found out they were playing the Gathering I knew I had to see them again but I took it a step farther and pitched the idea of following them to Noisey. What I thought was going to be a paragraph with a photo essay turned out to be a proper article about the trip with just a handful of photos for illustration.

So instead of me blogging anymore, just read my Noisey article about Ho99o9!

And then if you want to see more photos click here to see a full gallery Ho99o9at the Gathering of the Juggalos!

Normally when leaving town for two weeks I would throw mini updates on the DBB Road Trip blog and not update the main page but my motel’s internet sucks and other than Ho99o9’s release party I didn’t shoot a ton of photos the first few days I was here. So I decided I would just throw up a little update on life and a music video that people I like a lot made. Seems reasonable…

So far in LA I have photographed Ava Dalush who you guys just met, an old favorite Ivy Diamond and the insanely babetastic Chanel Preston. I also shot a babe that was roommates with my friend Juanito Blanco named Jade Nile. I took some weird 35mm shots of her and her boyfriend which might see the light of day eventually. They are all having a party on Wednesday so hopefully I can get some more weirdness. I also got to see Kimberly Kane (and her dog!) who I hadn’t seen in over a year. I think the only photo I took of her was at a diner but perhaps we will shoot something before I leave town.

Now on to this music video. My friend Teddy Blanks directed his first music video. He is a graphic designer who has designed all my books and zines and he did the design work for the band Tanlines new album Highlights. During the design phase they had a conversation about how Teddy’s friend and actor Alex Karpovsky looks a lot like one of the guys from Tanlines. A few months later Alex and Teddy were directing a video for the song Palace starring Alex and Natasha Lyonne with cameos from Leo Fitzpatrick and that dude from High Maintenance. On my first night in LA Teddy showed me the video and it finally came out yesterday. It’s pretty rad.

Also my brother, who is a tremendous editor, cut the video so it is extra amazing. But then again he’s letting me sleep on his couch this weekend so I guess I would have to say that. Seriously, go watch this video because anything that Teddy and my brother do together has got to be awesome. Plus Alex and Teddy hired me to shoot the poster for Alex’s movie Red Flag which Teddy designed and art directed. So everyone rules.

Okay, I need to go photograph some babes now and enjoy LA for the week I have left. Talk to you guys soon. Check my Tumblr for daily updates.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorAAsQUfvo[/youtube]

I saw Ho99o9 last night and it was awesome. Now let me make this shit about me real quick.

I don’t really like photographing bands. I did almost nothing else for the first decade of my photo life and I just got sick of it. Most bands are easy to shoot and with the “three songs; no flash” rules that most medium sized and up clubs have everyone’s photos look exactly the same. Added to that is the fact that everyone is a photographer now since digital photography is easy and cheap so you have the same photo taken by twenty people every single night. Who gives a shit?

So when a band like Ho99o9 comes along I get excited. Here’s a band that is both fun to photograph, fun to listen to and is also relevant so people actually want to take 11 seconds out of their lives to look at the photos. I fucking love Ho99o9 and shooting them is challenging and really god damn fun.

When I found out their record release party was the day after I landed in LA I was fucking stoked. So last night I went to the Mystery Box, pushed my way to the front and started taking photos in the middle of the pit. Unfortunately I am not the only photographer psyched to shoot Ho99o9 and there were as many photographers at the front of the stage as their were people. I took about 10 shots, 8 of which were blocked by lenses and flashes and iPhones and I gave up and just jumped in the pit to have fun. Of course I still had my camera on me and I went down pretty quick.

I ended up subluxating my shoulder because I was trying to help this guy not get trampled while also being on the ground and also holding my camera in the air so it didn’t break. It felt like my arm had been ripped off and I thought I was done for the night. Fortunately after a few minutes I could lift my camera again and I said fuck it and went back in. I didn’t want my night to consist of a handful of mediocre photos. So I went back in.

By this time most of the photographers had cleared out of the front and were either gone or on the stage. At one point Eaddy was on the ground on the stage singing and the photographers surrounded him and started taking photos inches from him. This shit drives me nuts, especially with the video guys who just hold their camera’s right in front of the bands face ruining the show for everyone.

I took a photo of them all and Tweeted it with some angry caption. I invited Hannibal Buress to the show last night and when he saw my photo he retweeted it to his 500k followers and I got to spend the next hour editing images while arguing with strangers on the internet.

I just wanted to go on this rant because photographers need to check themselves a bit. When shooting live bands or news or events or pretty much anything outside of the studio we have to make choices. Should we try and get the best shot possible or do we need to get out of the fucking way and let shit happen. I don’t think I took the best photos last night and I am sure if I got on the stage it would have been easier to shoot. If I spent the whole show holding my camera two feet above my head I might have got a few nice shots I wouldn’t have had normally. But a show isn’t about the photographers, it’s about the band and the fans. I just think we sometimes need to compromise between getting the shot and getting in people’s way. Sometimes you take the shot at all cost, but if you spend the whole show doing that you are gonna make it shitty for everyone else.

So last night I sublimated my shoulder, bent my knee the wrong way on the stage, got covered with beer and sweat and got fucking birthday cake all over my camera. On top of everything else I didn’t even take any photos I was exceptionally proud of, but you know what? I had fucking fun and I think if nothing else I captured the energy of what was a fucking awesome show.

Fuck it, I am glad Ho99o9 exist and I am glad people want to take their photo. I would rather 20 photographers shoot them than 99% of every other boring fucking band that stands around looking at their guitar pedals. So I am gonna end this rant and try and hang out with some babes cause I am in LA and mostly on vacation.

Now go download Ho99o9’s new EP Ho99o9s Of 1999. It’s free.

And then click here to see all the photos I took of Ho99o9 EP release party at the Mystery Box. (NSFW for Eaddy’s dick.)

A significant amount of my life has been spent in Beauty Bar. Just do a search on my site to see how often it comes up. It’s a lot. I have photographed events in Beauty Bars in Vegas, LA, Austin and the Brooklyn location. LA and Austin all had their time and are gone now but their are still Beauty Bars in San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and of course the original location on 14th Street in Manhattan.

Last night Beauty Bar celebrated twenty years since opening the doors of that first NYC location and I had to be there to party with so many familiar faces. Ironically the anniversary event was actually at Webster Hall with the after party at Beauty Bar but they made the middle floor of Webster look like Beauty Bar since Beauty Bar isn’t licensed to have live music… and there was a lot of live music.

The Prettiots opened the night and I was really excited to see them since I am doing a photo project with their front woman Kay. They were great which was a relief since I had only heard one of their songs before last night. I was a huge fan of Kay already but it’s pretty hard not to fall in love with her after watching them play.

Flor de Toloache played next and they were an all female mariachi band which was kinda rad. It also marks the second time in two weeks that I have seen a mariachi band. Up next were Daddy Long Legs who put on a hell of a show and were the most rockin’ band of the night. Still not psyched on the dudes with perms look coming back, but I will forgive them because they were great. The night ended with the band from the Hedwig & The Angry Inch Broadway musical playing a bunch of covers and they brought out my old pal and nightlife legend Michael T to a Bowie song. It was a pretty fun way to wrap things up.

In between bands there was a sword swallowing performance, two burlesque acts (hi Betttina May!), DJs and hosting insanity from Joey Arias. All in all a great night but the best part was seeing all the old friends and Beauty Bar family that I rarely see now that we all really old and the East Village has become overrun with douche bags.

Congrats Mike and Paul on 20 years as a NYC institution. Here’s to 20 more.

Click here to see all the photos from the Beauty Bar 20th Anniversary party at Webster Hall.

Ps. These photos are mildly NSFW thanks to the Burlesque and my friend’s boobs.

It’s pretty hard to try and get back to work after yesterday but life goes on for the rest of us and Wednesday I photographed a really fun and unique event, the type of party that Jess would have loved, and I really need to show you some pictures.

Once again my friends at BBQ Films put on a fucking amazing event. Ever since I went to their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles screening I have been working with them to help them in whatever way I can to keep creating these amazing film experiences. I got to work with them on the planning of their Back The Future event and I helped brainstorm their Weekend At Bernie’s party but this is the first film they have done since TMNT that I wasn’t at all involved) and that made the surprises that much better.

In 1995 Empire Records hit theaters. I saw it at the time and then never watched it again. I was a huge grunge fan in the years before Empire but when Kurt Cobain died I completely abandoned “Alternative” for punk rock. I remember liking Empire Records but I certainly didn’t have any love or nostalgia for it. When BBQ announced they were doing Empire I didn’t really get it.

I get it now. For the 20th anniversary of the film BBQ turned the record store and venue, Rough Trade NYC, into Empire Records. It was a fully interactive space with scenes from the movie recreated all over the store. There was a booth where you could get your head shaved like Deb did in the movie. There were quarters glued to the floor like AJ did in the film. They had a button making booth and a photo booth that recreated the fictional Rex Manning video for Say No Mor Mon Amour. The whole BBQ staff cosplayed characters from the film with pretty impressive detail. It was an amazing feat.

The screening itself was pretty tame until my friend and BBQ team member Leah Taylor started passing out brownies in the middle of the film. If you recall there is a scene in which Ethan Embry’s character Mark eats hallucinogenic brownies while watching a Gwar video and gets sucked into the video and gets eaten by the World Maggot.  During that scene the movie started skipping and Gwar showed up!

Gwar (minus Dave Brockie RIP) came out to thunderous applause and one of the audience members (who had earlier won the “Mark Experience”) got to play Mark and was fed to the World Maggot live! If that weren’t enough suddenly the World Maggot started vomiting back up Mark and suddenly Ethan Embry was actually on stage! He got the crowd going crazy and then brought out Johnny Whitworth who played AJ in the movie. The two of them rocked out with Gwar and pulled two more raffle prizes for the “Warren Experience” and the “Gina Experience”. After the intermission the movie started playing but I had to miss the rest of it. I had work to do.

BBQ Films had asked me to make a sacrifice for the cause and after thinking it over for about thirty seconds I agreed. I would let Ethan Embry shave my head for a press photo op. They took me up to the head shaving station and Ethan began shaving my head for the benefit of about 20 members of the press and a handful of people who decided that watching me get my head shaved was a better idea than finishing the movie. It was a sensual experience for both of us and gave me a reason to use Periscope for the first time (I’m @drivenbyboredom on there). I also ended up on Vanity Fair’s Instagram which was mildly hilarious.

By the time my haircut was finished so was the movie but the party wasn’t over yet. The band ARMS, who had opened the party, did a set made up of the Empire Records soundtrack and everyone who had stuck around was loving it. The “Gina Experience” ended up being the opportunity to come on stage and sing Sugar High with the band. Meanwhile the “Warren Experience” was happening in the main room and involved getting to chase one of the BBQ Films team who had “shoplifted” around the store. I was expecting it but it was a great moment for people who had no idea what as going on until this scene from the movie was playing out in front of them.

The whole party was amazing and I actually went home and finished watching the 30 minutes of the movie I had missed. I didn’t give a shit about it at the time, but I now have a new love for Empire Records. Happy Rex Manning Day.

Damn the man, save the Empire and click here to see all my photos of Rex Manning Day at Rough Trade NYC.

The perfect conclusion to my SXSW photos is shots from the band Ho99o9 aka Horror. They were the very last thing I did at SXSW. I caught their late night show at the North Door as part of the We Are Family showcase. I only saw a couple bands all week, but the one set from Ho99o9 made up for it. They were fucking incredible.

I have known Eaddy from Ho99o9 for ages and he used to come see my old band Fucking Bullshit, but I hadn’t seen his band Ho99o9 yet even though I was at the LA Art Book Fair up until about 30 minutes before they played. I did want to see them, but I sort of hate bands and I didn’t know how  a punk band with no guitars was going to go over. Plus nothing is worse than seeing one of your friends bands and realizing they suck.

That was not a problem with Ho99o9. I had been hearing all this hype about them all week in Austin but I didn’t think I was going to get to see them. I was booked up and it just didn’t seem like it was going to work out. Fortunately the We Are Family showcase was less than a block from the Sailor Jerry Gallery and Saturday night was rainy and pretty relaxed everywhere so I knew I could slip out for a minute.

The show was even better than the hype. Ho99or put on one of the best shows I have seen in years. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had that much fun watching a band. Between the two vocalists, a sequencer and a drummer they put out so much fucking noise and put on a hell of a punk show without it feeling tired. Eaddy is one of the best front men I have ever seen and his partner in crime, Jean Lebrun, would be outstanding on his own.

When they launched into the Bad Brains anthem Attitude I forgot I had my camera in my hand and jumped into the mosh pit to sing a long. Fucking Bullshit used to cover it and I had just received an Attitude themed tattoo just hours earlier. I also ended up starting a circle pit at Eaddy’s request because the crowd seemed incredibly confused by the concept. Nothing some circular violence couldn’t fix.

I needed to head back to the SJ Gallery before their set was over but Eaddy kept jumping off shit and I kept missing it. I waited and waited and waited with my camera fixed on Eaddy. He finally jumped off an amp and nearly hit the ceiling and finally I caught it. Once I got the shot I needed I got the fuck out of there, totally pumped about the band and the photos I shot. One of my shots of them ended up in Rolling Stone’s gallery of SXSW photos and I can’t wait to see these dudes again. Honestly I just want to tour with them even though I know it will end up in my camera getting destroyed.

Now go look at all the photos of Ho99o9 at SXSW and keep up that PMA.

Ps. In totally unrelated news there is a sale on Girls of Driven By Boredom today. 20% off using code “america”.

This is by far my biggest post of SXSW! Get ready for a LOT of photos.

Sailor Jerry flipped the scrip on South By Southwest this year by abandoning their yearly takeover of the Gypsy Lounge and decided to do stuff completely differently. Everyone has a million bands playing at SXSW every year but not everyone has priceless original Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins art work to show off.

Sailor Jerry took over an art gallery and over a four day period showed off original paintings, stencils and drawings from the most legendary tattoo artist of all time. I have been a fan of his art and have worked for the company that shares his name for years and I have never seen more than a handful original pieces and most of them were just stencils.  This collection had never been show in the US and it was amazing.

Aside from showing off the art during the day, in the evening Sailor Jerry turned the space into a private invite only lounge featuring free cocktails that changed every night. Instead of having a bunch of bands play, they had a bunch of bands DJ and it kept the thing way more mellow and a way to relax and get away from all the madness for a bit. The DJs included members of Thee Oh Sees, Spits, Ice Age, Lust For Youth plus Cheetah Chrome, Andy Animal, Al Lover and a bunch more.

You could tell the parties went really well because you could find editors of major music blogs hanging out drinking booze in the air conditioning instead of catching the new hip buzz band. Plus the homie Hannibal Buress came there straight from his Jimmy Kimmel appearance and came back the next day as soon as we opened. You know it’s a good time when the spot is bumping from the moment it opens until the weird after parties we had back at the Sailor Jerry house!

Anyway this gallery is MASSIVE and it features four nights of partying plus some day time shots of the gallery. It’s worth the click through. But the real question is how am I going to pick just 5-7 images to represent the whole week? I guess we are about to find out…

Click here to see all the photos from The Sailor Jerry Gallery at 2015 SXSW.

As my SXSW updates continue I bring you some photos from the only music week day party I photographed. During music week for the most part I only had stuff to do at night. When it ended up raining on Friday and Saturday I just decided eating and sleeping were a better use of my time than seeing another band. I had already been in Austin for a week and I was already pretty beat up. Fortunately Thursday was really nice out and I got a chance check out Hotel Vegas.

Hotel Vegas was doing the Levitation/ Austin Psych Fest day party and because my client Sailor Jerry was one of the sponsors and helped curate the bands I had a VIP pass and I got to walk right in seconds before Thee Oh See’s went on. I have probably seen Thee Oh See’s play 15 times and for some reason every single time has been in Austin. I pretty much equate them with SXSW so it would have been weird not to have seen them. Even with a new line up John Dwyer and company killed it as always.

While I was there I also shot my buddy Justin’s band (also with a new line up) Residuels (sic) and I saw the first song by the sitar playing Gourisankar. Plus I invited a ton of people to the Sailor Jerry Gallery party that night and met a girl named Isabel that I ended up photographing two days later. Good times!

Click here to see all the photos from the Levitation/ Austin Psych Fest party at Hotel Vegas.

On Tuesday Spank Rock released his new EP The Upside at Baby’s All Right. Spank Rock as always put on an awesome show and you can get The Upside right here. It’s amazing that Spank Rock isn’t one of the biggest names in music. He constantly puts out great music and has a great live show. Plus my dude Johnny Nelson is his hype man and Amanda Blank rules as well.

My old friend Contessa Suto aka Cunt Mafia opened the show with Lil Internet and put on the supremely weird and wild show she is becoming known for. She played half the set topless and had people moshing to her “trap metal” jams like Reign In Ratchet. Even if you hate Cunt Mafia’s music the show is very worth seeing.

Roxy Cottontail, Mike Q, Blue Jemz & Eli Escobar DJ’d the after party but unfortunately I got some pretty shitty news right after the show so I had to bounce early. I didn’t really feel like partying after that. But even with the shitty news it was a fun night and I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen in ages.

Now you guys should go look at these photos while I add some new photos to the Girls of DBB App.

Click here to see all the photos from the Spank Rock The Upside Album Release Party at Baby’s All Right.