Kristyn

After that photo, do I even have to write the words "this was fun?"

I was hungover and tired as hell from Street Scene. What was I thinking, scheduling a photo shoot for 10AM the next day?

Worked out quite well though. Maybe I should just work on autopilot more often.

It helped that Kristyn was a total trooper. I warned her ahead of time that I might "ask her to get in the water." Honest, I wasn't thinking of giant waves crashing behind her...then. But when we saw them crashing, well, why the fuck not?

She also chased some seagulls, climbed around on rocks barefoot, and changed dresses twice. On the beach.

She might be my new hero.

More photos here.

Well hello there...

Hello to the 100+ people who found my site today via StumbleUpon.

I'm not really sure how/why that happened, but it's awesome. Hope you crazy kids stick around...

On a thoroughly unrelated note, I still can't get Okkervil River's "Black" out of my head. And I'm completely okay with this. At some point I may need to teach myself that kick-ass keyboard line.

366 Days, 366 Photos: 09/20/2008

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This might be my favorite photo from all of Street Scene. Just love how the blue light behind him gave off that perfectly placed glow.

366 Days, 366 Photos: 09/19/2008

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Taken with the SD1000. I'm really surprised at how well it turned out.

Review: Street Scene Day 2, 09/20/2008

More Photos: Street Scene Day 2

I think the second day of Street Scene was actually better than the first day. Surprising, because the lineup looked to be more robust for the previous day.

When we got there around 4:30PM (drove down this time, and parked 5 blocks away), the grounds were pretty much dead, so we made use of the beer garden while waiting for Spiritualized to start.

And Oh. My. God. Spiritualized was the set of the festival for me. I was looking forward to seeing them, as I only caught 3 songs during Coachella and those songs were fraught with sound issues. No sound issues this day. Everything was perfect.

Loud, but perfect. The wall of sound came rolling out of the speakers, and on their second song ("Shine a Light") I almost started crying. In the damn photo pit. While shooting.

I don't usually get into bands that sing so openly about religion, but with Spiritualized, I feel less, I don't know, confronted by it. Either that, or the music is so gorgeous that maybe it makes me feel what religion is supposed to make me feel.

Whatever it is, their set shook me to the core. And I wasn't the only one. During "Soul on Fire" there were groups of people with arms slung around each other, swaying back and forth. Can't say I blame them.

I watched their whole set and then headed over to wait for the Cold War Kids. I really liked their first album, but for some reason, the new material isn't grabbing me as much.

And wow. Worst monitor placement ever. All along the stage, with barely a break to shoot in between. Fortunately, the band moves around a lot, so I was able to get some decent shots off.

Then it was time for Tokyo Police Club. They're always incredibly energetic, but I think their sound does better in a more intimate setting.

I was more impressed with them when I saw them at the Beauty Bar awhile ago, but they were still a lot of fun. And the crowd that was packed in to see them seemed to be enjoying it.

Up next was Ghostland Observatory. Rosey had talked up the band a lot, and I knew they had a great light show, so I rented a 17-55mm f2.8 IS lens mostly for their set.

And I was glad. The IS really came in handy, since it was hard to resist dancing around to their set. And because lasers are awesome, and to truly capture their awesomeness, you need a longer exposure.

And oh yeah, fog makes it ridiculously hard to autofocus. So I ended up just switching to full manual controls (focus as well) and taking A LOT of photos.

After three songs, we got kicked out of the pit into a ridiculously dense crowd. I lost track of P and ended up just following Rosey to the back of the crowd, because I don't do so well with random people touching me. I grabbed some food from the ill-placed hotdog stand on the corner and listened to the rest of their set. It was really good, but yeah, I'm just not so much into the ravey shit.

We sat and listened to X for a little while after this, just chilling and having a good time. Then I wandered over to the Fulana stage to wait for the National's set.

They were amazing as always. There was some unfortuante noise bleed-over from Does It Offend You, Yeah, but they powered through it, playing mostly songs off of Boxer and Alligator. I really wish they'd put "Geese of Beverly Road" back into their setlist, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be that night.

After sounding great on "Secret Meeting," "Fake Empire," "Abel," oh who am I kidding, on ALL the songs they played, Matt managed to do something to his voice. He powered through "Apartment Story," which is fast becoming my new favorite live song - I love belting out the lyrics "So worry not/All things are well/We have our looks/and perfume on," although I always wish the chorus went on a little longer.

Before launching into "Mr. November" Matt told us that it would be their last song of the evening, ending their set 10-15 minutes early. Bummer. But when I heard his voice crack on the line "I wish I believed in fate/I wish I didn't sleep so late," it couldn't be denied that his voice needed a rest. It did add an extra poignancy to the lyrics though.

And at that point, we were out to meet up with D and some other folks for his birthday. And for the record, THIS is how you roll to Street Scene:

(P took this photo with my cell phone. I love that shirt.)

Oh, and when we were leaving, we saw this weird-ass Cinderella lit-up carriage. Downtown is STRANGE.

Review: Street Scene Day 1, 09/19/2008

More Photos: Street Scene Day 1

The first day of Street Scene was HOT. I took off from work early and chilled at home for a bit before catching the trolley downtown. I later realized that in driving distance, the festival is closer to me than the nearest trolley stop. Hooray for San Diego public transportation.

Anyway, after randomly running into two grad student friends on the trolley, I made it downtown and into the venue in time to catch all of The Muslims' set. It was on fire as usual, and every time I see them they look more and more confident on stage.

Since it was early, it was easy to get to the front of the stage to take photos with my point and shoot camera, but I was having serious envy of the folks in the photo pit. I was hoping to just be able to enjoy the festival this time around (as Coachella and Street Scene were more about running around, trying to shoot as many bands as possible), but I missed the adrenaline rush of being in the pit for the first three songs.

Reports were coming in that the Zarabanda stage was absolutely packed to the gills for MGMT, and since I've seen them two or three times already, I decided to head over to Hot Chip's set. I missed them at Coachella because they were playing in a smaller tent and it was too packed to even get into the photo pit. I ran into Daye and some of his friends, and we hung out and danced a bit and really enjoyed their set. There was no way I was getting close enough to take photos from the crowd, so I didn't even really try.

Afterwards, we wandered back to the Casbah stage to catch a little bit of the Foals. Ran into Rosey, who informed me how to get a photo pass, so I spent most of their set taking care of that, as well as getting food. But what I did hear I liked, just as I had when I saw them a few months back at Brick by Brick.

Next up was the New Pornographers. Minus Dan Bejar and Neko Case. I shot the first three songs, and was really struggling with the Canon SD1000. I was trying to keep the ISO to 400 or 800, but the light was dying fast, and it was pretty much impossible to shoot anyone but AC Newman. Not to mention that the lag in the shutter opening was a pain in the ass that I'm not accustomed to.

For some reason, I wasn't really feeling the New Pornographers that night. So I headed over to wait for TV on the Radio's set. While doing so, Chickrawker Lyn texted me and told me to come get her camera. And thank god I did, because it was way better than the SD1000. I don't think I could have managed any decent photos of TVOTR or Spoon with my camera.

I would have to say that TVOTR's set was the best out of all the acts on Friday night. They absolutely nail their live show. And that's coming from someone who really hasn't been able to get into their recorded music. But yeah, when they played "Wolf like Me," everyone in the crowd went wild, including me. Much dancier than I would have imagined their set to be.

It was a quick jaunt over to the main stage afterwards to catch Spoon. Always a mainstay at San Diego festivals (or so it seems), Britt Daniel and crew never fail to put on a great show. Maybe it helps that I was getting a 20 minute massage at the time - walking on pavement all day is never fun - but regardless, the songs are always tight and now they have the added bonus of a horn section.

It's easy to see why they always draw a large crowd whenever they play San Diego. Although I'm still waiting on Britt to make good on his promise from last year's Street Scene - he claimed he was going to come back one day and play the Casbah.

It was weird to follow up Spoon with Justice. The former is right up my alley of musical taste. The latter? Not so much. This was my third time seeing them (and the first time that I wasn't charged with getting decent shots of them). Many people claimed their set as the highlight of the festival. But I dunno, to me, I don't really see the benefit of hearing this type of music live. Maybe some E would have helped. But to me, it was just too much of a ravey weird Matrix scene, so I bailed.

Caught a song or two of Vampire Weekend before being reminded that I find them pretty boring. And so, apparently, is Beck. Or maybe I was just tired and grumpy. Either way, we left about halfway through Beck's set (oh hey Beck, can I have the copyright on my Outside Lands photo back? Thanks.) and I went home and passed the fuck out.

But you love a stone

Oh Will Sheff, you are positively slaying me today:

And when that queen's daughter
came of age,
I think she'd be lovely
and stubborn and brave,
and suitors would journey
from kingdoms away
just to make themselves known.

And I think that I know the bitter dismay
of a lover who brought
fresh brouquets every day
when she turned him away
to remember some knave
who once gave
just one rose,
one day,
years ago.

~ "A Stone"

Yeah. Listened to Black Sheep Boy about 3 times already today...

San Diego's Joel P. West on Daytrotter

Daytrotter Sessions - Joel P. West

Rad. Still haven't managed to see him live. Shame on me.

And my imaginary stable of men grows by one more...

So. Last night's Okkervil River show was amazing. You know it's gonna be a great show when it starts out like this:

Bass player to audience: "I'm sorry folks, but Will Sheff can't be here tonight. He had to fly back to Washington to fix the financial crisis."

Laughter from the audience, not least in part because earlier, Sheff joined Zykos on stage for a Dylan cover.

Sheff walks on stage to a massive amount of cheering.

Sheff: "It's cool, I figured it all out. Just forgot to carry a one..."

Sigh. Yet another man I want to marry someday. Which resulted in this:

L: you're such an imaginary slut
me: only with men i truly respect

But seriously. I have more faith that Sheff could fix this crisis than McCain. Or Palin, for that matter.

Palin's interview with Katie Couric:

McCain flakes on Letterman for Couric, NOT to fix the "cratering" of the economy:

Show Review: Dr. Dog, Delta Spirit, Hacienda @ Casbah, 09/17/2008

Photos: Dr. Dog, Delta Spirit, Hacienda @ Casbah

Delta Spirit + Dr. Dog = sold-out Casbah show.

When I arrived there around 10PM, the crowd was still relatively light inside (not so much outside, where a gaggle of people were trying to scrounge any and all available tickets). Hacienda was on stage, and while I only got to hear two or three songs, I liked what I heard. Very fitting with the Delta Spirit/Dr. Dog vibe of the evening. Fun harmonies included.

I guess now's as good of a time as any to mention that I'm getting pretty bored taking photos at the Casbah. The lighting is always the same - it always results in that orangey-pink color that is impossible to correct with white balance. And it's dim as hell. But anyway.

The crowd starting packing in for Delta Spirit. Makes sense, since it was a hometown show and all. I ran into Jake, who's doing sound for them, and I've got to say, it was nice to see him back in the Casbah. Even if it was only for one night. And of course the sound was perfect.

These guys are just so much fun live. I love how they switch instruments around occasionally, and how they have the big marching band bass drum that they pound with a maraca on some songs. And "Trashcan?" That song stays in my head for DAYS after hearing it. Not to mention that they actually use a real, beat-to-hell trashcan lid as an instrument.

They played a great, if somewhat abbreviated, set. My only complaint? Where was "People, Turn Around?" So many of us were expecting it as the closer that it was a bit strange that they left it out entirely. Ah well. I guess that's what happens when a band is moving on to new material...

And then it was Dr. Dog's turn. I half expected a lot of folks to leave after Delta Spirit, and some did, but the vast majority stuck around. And good for them. Because as great as Dr. Dog's albums are, I forgot how much they absolutely ROCK live. Something you wouldn't really expect from their summery records, but something you can't deny when you're seeing it happen in front of you.

They have this sort of ramshackle vibe to their shows, which is strange considering how tight their sound is. You can tell that they're technically skilled by how much they manage to jump around on stage, but still always nail their parts. It's quite a sight to see. And I love how the main vocals are traded around on various songs.

The setlist naturally focused more on material off their new album, which seemed to be what most of the audience was more familiar with. Personally, I'm a lot more familiar with the songs off their previous album We All Belong, and was a little bummed that they didn't break into "Alaska." But the set closing trio of "The Ark" (in which they were joined onstage by members of Delta Spirit), "Die, Die, Die" and "The Rabbit, The Bat, and the Reindeer," made up for it. The last song especially, which ended with a rockin' instrumental jam.

They returned to the stage to play "My Old Ways" and a song presumably called "Fuck It." People were still yelling for "Alaska", but when they left the stage a second time and music started filtering over the speakers, it becamse obvious that it wasn't going to happen. Which, in the end, was fine - I had plenty of their catchy pop songs stuck in my head to last for more than a few days.