Yesterday started off all wrong.

I slept at my lady friends place and right before I went to bed I saw a mosquito and realized I had been bitten several times. I got out of bed and killed it and then I killed two others. I figured that was all of them but I was sadly mistaken. I woke up the next morning with 15 mosquito bites all over me including three on my face.

I only had two things on my calendar yesterday… My Kickstarter for the Dinner With Igor book was ending and I had to shoot Motely Crüe’s last show in NYC later that evening. It seemed like it would be a pretty good day. I was mistaken.

Before I went back to my place I decided to walk my friends dog so I took the puppy out and managed to lock myself out of the apartment. I also left my cell phone in her apartment so I had to find a pay phone. Amazingly there was one a block away but it took all my quarters. There were two cops watching me fail and actually let me use their phone to call my friend. It’s probably the first time in my life that a cop has helped me with anything, so thanks for that NYPD! I got her on the phone but she was in meetings all day so she didn’t know if she could get me her keys.

I went back to my place and got on my old, barely functional, computer (my MacBook was also locked in her apartment) and Facebook messaged her until we came up with a plan. In exactly 30 minutes one of her co-workers would be out front and hand me the keys.

Thankfully Car2Go Brooklyn suddenly exists and my Car2Go Austin account works with them so I was able to get in a tiny Smart Car parked just down the street and drive myself (and a small dog) to my friends job in Manhattan at 4pm and manage to get there right in time, grab the keys and turnaround and drive back to Brooklyn in rush hour traffic.

I did all of this with all my camera gear on my back because I knew I had to shoot Motley Crüe later, but since I had to go all over the place I decided to only take this cheap plastic long range lens that I might have used once in the last 15 years. It’s really light and I figured it would be okay. It wasn’t.

When I finally got to Madison Square Garden I started shooting portraits of Crüe fans and then made my way to the media entrance so I could shoot Alice Cooper. I was a huge Cooper fan as a kid and I was psyched to shoot him. Unfortunately they didn’t know who I was at the media entrance. I checked my email and the publicist told me to go to will call to get my pass which seemed odd but I went. I went through the line and security and I got to will call and they told me to go back to the media entrance. When I got there they still didn’t know who I was and wouldn’t let me talk to anyone so I emailed and called the publicist twice and then texted my editor at the Voice and the woman writing the story. No one could help.

I finally got an email from the publicist and she told me to meet her back at will call… so I went through the line, and security and found her and she still didn’t have my pass. We waited around for about 25 minutes before they told me to go back to the media entrance for a third time. By now I had missed Alice Cooper’s entire set but I was finally in for Motley Crüe.

They put us so far away from stage that I knew I was in trouble. There were people standing in front of me so when the band started playing I had to climb up on a security wall and shoot from there. The stage was too dark for my shitty lens so I was shooting with a slow shutter speed and my photos were coming out blurry. I started “spraying and praying” as they say and just hopped that with the pyrotechnics and stage lights I would get lucky. I finally just switched to my real lens and got some decent wide shots. After ONE song all the photographers were kicked out and I walked away with 200 photos of the band with maybe 5 decent shots. It was probably one of my worst performances as a professional photographer and the perfect ending to a shitty day. I actually told the Village Voice that they didn’t have to pay me for the images.

But as bad as they day was, my Kickstarter made over $5700 and pretty much made the day a positive overall. I can’t wait to print this book. It should be pretty awesome.

Now click here to see 22 portraits of Motley Crüe fans and 9 mediocre photos from Motley Crüe’s last NYC show at Madison Square Garden.

CMJ festival happened again and I shot the two Brooklyn Vegan day parties at Baby’s All Right. I want to get these up now even though it’s Sunday night because tomorrow I want to do the last post about my new book Kickstarter before it ends on Tuesday. There are a TON of photos and a ton of bands but I want to make it quick so let’s break this down.

I was shooting the parties for my favorite client Sailor Jerry (with the Iggy Pop party in Miami I worked for them on four straight days). They were doing another free tattoo and free booze event with free SJ drinks all day and a free tattoo raffle. Instead of doing a ton of small tattoos they did some big nicer tattoos but only did about a half dozen each day. Matt Marcus from Three Kings was doing them and he’s a boss.

Here’s the line up from both days.

Highlights from Friday included King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Single Mothers who both killed it. I dug most of the bands that played on Friday actually. It was a pretty serious show.

On Saturday I was glad to get to see Fat White Family again and Bo Ningen were really intense. I was really into Girlpool when they started but they got a little slow for me after that. I would love to see a full set of their uptempo stuff. Residual Kid were pretty fun. They were a bunch of skate boarding teenagers playing grunge which I didn’t hate at all. Beverly were pretty rad too and I feel like there are a lot of really good female fronted rock bands that exist right now which rules.

So go look at all the photos and then donate to my Kickstarter before it’s too late! Less than 48 hours to go!

Click here to see all the photos from the 2014 Brooklyn Vegan CMJ day parties at Baby’s All Right.

Sometimes this job is really great. On Wednesday I flew down to Miami to photograph the release party for the Iggy Pop/ Sailor Jerry collaboration “The Flash Collection”. The Flash Collection started last year when Sailor Jerry worked together with the Clash’s Paul Simonon to create a very limited leather jacket, two t-shirts and a bandana. This year they teamed up with Iggy Pop to bring you a denim vest and a belt limited to 50 pieces each! The vests are signed on the inside by Iggy Pop and come with a bunch of patches that are based on old Sailor Jerry tattoos.

The party took place at the Garrett in Miami and I was one of the only two photographers allowed to photograph Iggy in the vip upstairs. The party featured free rum, free BBQ and everyone who came walked out with a grab bag of swag. They also had two women sewing on patches all night. I was working too hard to get my vest patched but I grabbed one for the road. Miami natives the Jacuzzi Boys were the main attraction and they played a fantastic set after Iggy introduced them. I have seen them a few times during SXSW but it was great to see them play in front of their home crowd. I took a bunch of photos, met a bunch of babes and hung out with near Iggy Pop all night. It was a pretty great experience.

After that a bunch of the journalists covering the launch were invited by Sailor Jerry to a small after party at the Broken Shaker cocktail bar. The bar designed some sort of insane Sailor Jerry drink that had beef jerky in it. Now that is intense. There also were a bunch of kittens running around which is not a terrible way to end an awesome night. The only bad part was after the party I walked to David’s Cafe to get a Cuban sandwich and found out they closed months ago and no one told me. Tragic.

Now click here to look at all the photos from Iggy Pop and Sailor Jerry’s The Flash Collection release party in Miami!

Once again I photographed another zombie crawl. I keep telling myself that I am going to stop taking photos of zombies, yet I keep going to these things. I mean how many photos of zombies can you possibly take? But they again they are always fun to look at…

NYC Zombie Crawl does two crawls a year, on in Brooklyn during the summer and one in Manhattan around Halloween. This year the Manhattan version happened around the NY Comic Con. It was a bit rainy and Comic Con stuff was still going on so when I got to Twins Pub the crawl seemed under attended but as the zombies walked up 8th avenue new zombies kept joining the hoard.

The zombies headed to Times Scare for some zombie burlesque from the Peek-A-Boo Review but right outside the bar NYC Zombie Crawl leader Doug Sakmann got detained by police after he climbed a sign post directly above a police check point. Fortunately he only got a ticket and the crawl was just mildly delayed.

After the burlesque a ton of zombies had joined up and they headed through Times Square and over to Bowlmor Lanes for the after party. A bunch of bands played and Disgraceland Hook Squad & Family Sideshow did horrible things that you might not want to look at if you are squeamish. The sound sucked at the venue which was a bummer because I was pretty excited for Murder One and Girls Girls Girls who are Motorhead and Motley Crue tribute bands. I am a pretty huge Motorhead fan and Motley Crue was probably my favorite band when I was 11. Luckily I have seen Motorhead a half dozen times and I think I am shooting Motley Crue’s last NYC show later this month.

Danse De Sade, Gash and The Deafening played as well. Danse De Sade were super creepy and featured a half naked lady which I appreciate. She got my card and we talked about taking photos at some point and I wouldn’t hate that. Gash were pretty punk rock which I enjoy and their front lady was badass. The Deafening also feature a badass front woman, Lena Hall, who won a Tony Award for her roll in Hedwig & The Angry Inch on Broadway. She was awesome and sang on the bar, made out with audience members and poured beer all over everything which is pretty much exactly what I do when I front a band except that she can sign her ass off as well.

That’s enough rambling. Go look at the massive gallery of photos. There are about 300 of them and they are reasonably NSFW.

Click here to see all the photos from the 2014 NYC Zombie Crawl.

It’s amazing to see Fool’s Gold Records blow up over the last few years. I’ve know Nick Catchdubs for many years and A-Trak has hired me before and both those dudes are really nice guys and it’s so cool to see their label grow. They have come a long way since their first anniversary party and I am sure they are gonna keep killing it in the years to come.

This year they are throwing five “Fool’s Gold Day Off” parties across the country (and Canadia!) and the first one happened yesterday. French Montana and Araabmuzik headlined and unfortunately I missed them because I decided it would be a good idea to not eat food and drink only Red Bull and coffee all day. Midway through Danny Brown’s set I started shaking and thought I was gonna pass out. Whoops.

That being said, I did shoot a ton of stuff. When I got there B.I.C. were just finishing and Black Dave was up next and he brought out Smoke DZA. Shortly after World’s Fair went on and I fucking love those guys. I actually first saw them at the LAST Day Off and they fucking killed it. I got to see em again at the Mishka 10 Year Anniversary party and once again they fucked shit up. Plus one of the dudes is a fan of my photography so they get extra points for that. They are entertaining as fuck and shot their entire set so there are a TON of photos of them in this gallery.

After they played A-Trak DJ’d and brought out Cam’Ron as a surprise and then Just Blaze surprised him by coming out during Cam’s mini set. It was actually pretty great. Those guys hated each other for years and finally came back together to work on Dipshits with A-Trak and they looked so happy to see each other on stage and it was honestly a really great moment. Damon Dash came during his set as well. I’m not a huge Dipset fan by any means but it one of the best sets I’ve seen since SXSW probably. A-Trak also brought out Remy Ma and she did her verse from MOP’s Ante Up which was amazing. Makonnen was next and A$AP Nast ended the set.

Next up with Danny Brown who I have photographed a ton of times including one of his first NYC shows and his infamous Gathering of the Juggalos performance. I love that dude and I actually listened to Old right before I left my house for the Day Off. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t try harder to direct a video for him when Catchdubs pitched me the idea. I’ve never actually directed a video so I said yes but never really followed up.

During his set I started feeling really sick so I went back stage for a minute to chill out. Shit didn’t get any better so I decided I should probably leave. As I was walking out The Lox went on so I shot a few photos of them and ran into Brenmar on the way out so at least I got a shot of him. I completely missed Araabmusik (although I’ve seen him before) and French Montanta (him too) but I heard French Montana brought out Travi$ Scott so I missed that shit as well.

Yeah, this is getting really long so maybe I shouldn’t have taken that extra espresso shot but there are a lot of nice shots so go look at them. And again, congrats to everyone at Fool’s Gold. Hopefully I will catch the last Day Off in December in Miami. I’ll be out there…

Now click here to see all the pictures from the NYC Fool’s Gold Day Off at 50 Kent!

Aside from the insanity the Gathering of the Juggalos is at its heart a music festival. In 2012 it was probably one of the best music festivals in the country. Last year they took a step back and stuck mostly with bands that primarily juggalos were into (I am sure their case against the FBI had to do with some of the missing star power) but this year they had some pretty serious headliners.

Cypress Hill and Yelawolf made their first Gathering appearances and Hopsin returned a much bigger star since the last time he played for the juggalos. Da Mafia 6ix returned after a Three Six Mafia appearance in 2012. Tech N9ne played again and even Shock G aka Humpty of Digital Underground played a late night set (which I missed sadly because I had to file by 8am). On the rock side they had Cannibal Corpse and Biohazard which both went over great with juggalos and created some fun mosh pits to photograph.

As far as juggalo bands go, I skipped Dark Lotus, The Psychopathic Rydas, ABK and Blaze because I have photographed them all several times and no one cares about them outside of juggalos and I figured my time was better spent elsewhere. I did however shoot Twiztid and of course ICP. I also shot Big Hoodoo for some reason as well as none Psychopathic Records artists Kottonmouth Kings, Wolfpac & Whitney Peyton. Oh, and I also shot Jellyroll cause that dude is hilarious.

Okay, I think that about covers it. And here is the link to all my GOTJ coverage over the last 5 years if you want to look back.

Now click here to see all the musical acts from the 2014 Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, OH!

The Village Voice is my oldest client and I got to shoot their 4Knots Festival for them on Saturday. I used to shoot their Siren Festival in Coney Island and I shot the first ever 4Knots Fest but I have been out of town for the last couple of them. Glad I got to get back to the fest this year.

I headed down to the South Street Seaport a bit late and then I got kinda lost. It’s sort of amazing that I have lived in NYC for nearly a decade AND I have a phone with maps on it and I could still get lost. But I did anyway. So that’s a thing. I finally got down there in time to catch Nude Beach on the second stage. I thought they were really good which says a lot considering how “over it” I tend to be about everything.

I headed over to the main stage for Those Darlins and Mac Demarco and then spent some time on the giant pirate ship looking VIP area hanging out with important Instagram influencer Marnie The Dog. I also got to meet Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and then headed down to shoot the legendary Dinosaur Jr. Then I bonded with some Voice staffers and ate a steak. Over all a pretty good day.

Now click here to see all my Village Voice 4Knots Festival pictures from the South Street Seaport. 

As I work through organizing my massive photo library I keep stumbling on gems from the past. Building a portfolio website has become a massive undertaking but it’s going to be fantastic to eventually have my work organized. During the process I keep finding amazing events and crazy moments in my life that are worth resharing. Some of my Throwback Thursday posts on Instagram have done very well and since I am shooting less and less nightlife I feel like it’s worth taking a look back at some of the better nightlife moments from the past. So this might become a new feature of the site… perhaps even on Thursdays…

Today it’s Monday and if the internet can come up with dumb things like Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday I don’t see why I can’t call today Moveback Monday. I realize that’s insanely stupid but I am highly caffeinated and found some amazing photos from exactly four years ago. Well, okay, the images aren’t actually that amazing from a photography standpoint but it was a pretty incredible event and one that can never happen again.

Four years ago I shot a benefit for the Anthology Film Archives celebrating their 40th anniversary. The Virgins opened for Sonic Youth and Lou Reed an Hiro Ballroom. The Virgins and Sonic Youth have split up and of course Lou Reed has died. Philip Seymour Hoffman introduced Lou Reed and he has sadly passed as well. Amazingly the 91 year old avant garde film legend Jonas Mekas is still alive. Badass filmmaker and writer Keneth Anger also is still living and played the theremin to end the evening. Moby DJ’d and Julian Schnabel spoke as well. Ben Foster hosted the evening and I got to take a photo of Nan Goldin which V Magazine ran. All and all it was a pretty epic night.

So take a look back at this amazing night four years ago. Click here to see all the photos from the Anthology Film Archives benefit from May 19th, 2010.

I photographed Miley Cyrus’ concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday and fortunately I edited all the images right after the concert because late that night I managed to spill a pint glass of water onto my computer. The worst part is that I didn’t realize what had happened until I picked up my computer and water came pouring out of it. I took my computer to Apple and they can fix it for about $1300 but they won’t restore the data so I went over to Tekserve and they will hopefully get my data back for a relatively reasonable $300. The problem is that it’s going to take a week and by the time I can give the computer back to Apple I will be leaving for LA for 10 days so basically I am not going to have a functional computer until the 26th of this month. Fortunately my old MacBook sort of functions and I can use it to update my website and answer emails… I just can’t do much else.

So before I get to these Miley Cyrus photos I wanted to mention that I put a 20% off sale on everything in my Etsy store. Tons of signed Polaroids and even a few copies of my Route 66 book! I also put up one of my favorite photos of Charlotte Stokely for significantly less than I would normally sell it. All proceeds will obviously go directly to paying to get my computer working again or to pay for my funeral after I die of internet withdrawal. You can also sign up for my app if you want to help out in a small way that also let’s you see extra boobs and stuff. Okay, enough fundraising, let’s get on to some weird photos of pop stars.

The Village Voice asked me to shoot Miley Cyrus for them because I think they think it’s hilarious to have me shoot shit like this. In six years of working for them they have given me maybe 5 total assignments (the rest I assign myself) and those have included shooting One Direction and Britney Spears. They just like fucking with me. They think it’s funny to send a borderline pornographer to shoot a teen pop star, but fortunately I was in good company because I ran into fellow creepy photographers Kirill Was Here, Nick Gazin and saw Terry Richardson inside. Part of the gig was to shoot fans outside and shooting over sexed children did make me extremely uncomfortable but what are you gonna do?

The show started with openers Icona Pop who do that song I Love It which is about crashing a car into a bridge and not caring because you are a 90’s chick or something. I remember seeing a 7 year old girl in a bodega singing that song loudly while her mom was buying cigarettes and thinking how fucked the next generation is going to be. I spent most of Icona Pop’s set thinking about how this is probably how my grand parents felt about Elvis and about how fucking old I am.

Sky Ferreira went on next and I have enjoyed her set both times I have seen her and it was nice to have someone somewhat reserved in between Icona Pop and Miley Cyrus. (I mean that’s reserved in comparison… this is the woman who made this video.) Unfortunately she stayed at the very back of the stage in the dark corners for most of her set so I couldn’t get very many good photos from where they stuck the photographers. I’ve photographed her before in the small room of Public Assembly so I think I got my shots. Pretty cool to see her play in front of a billion teen girls after seeing her there.

So now that I have gone out of my way to seem old and somehow bothered by the sexualization of teen girls (despite my career being based on naked women) I want to mention that I am a Miley Cyrus fan. I mean not of her music because before yesterday I had only heard that Wrecking Ball song, but as a human. This is a girl who spent her entire childhood as a Disney Channel start and decided she needed to get the fuck away from that stuff and become her own woman. She’s clearly a talented singer and has spent the last couple years pissing people off by over sexualizing herself and being a “bad” role model for young women. Personally, I think that female pop music needs bad ass women who carry on the tradition of the Go Gos and Joan Jett and Madonna letting girls know that they are in control of their sexuality and shouldn’t be slut shamed by a male dominated music industry that has been singing about sex and marginalizing women for years.

Okay, I feel like I haven’t had enough coffee to clearly express myself right now and I have used the word sexual way too many times in this article. My point is that I don’t hate Miley Cyrus and I do think there is something artistically valid what she is doing in regards to subverting her Hannah Montana image.

Whatever the case her show was fucking awesome. I only was able to photograph the first three songs and then they kicked all the photographers out but I would have stayed and watched the whole thing if they let me. She is a fantastic front woman and put on a fucking super weird show that comments on sex, race, pop culture and her own celebrity in the first 10 minutes and features her sliding down her on tongue, dancing with furries, slapping a large black woman’s ass and essentially masturbating on top of a low rider. Also, the music is not bad.

In conclusion, I am pro Miley Cyrus, pro Sky Ferreira and I feel like Icona Pop might be the worst thing to happen to humanity since crack cocaine. These photos were shot from pretty far away but I think there are some nice shots anyway, especially of Miley Cyrus. I just wish I got a chance to see her whole set and take photos of her without a ton of people holding up cell phones in between me in the stage.

Click here to see all the photos from the Bangerz tour at the Barclays Center featuring Miley Cyrus, Sky Ferreira and Icona Pop.