Out! With Josh Sisk

Sunday, Dan Deacon and his Ensemble rolled back into the area (along with Future Islands and Teeth Mountain). It was awesome to see so many friends playing on the big stage at the 9:30 Club. It was especially great to see Denny Bowen (of Double Dagger, Smart Growth fame, and part of the Ensemble) up there, as I have known Denny for years, and used to have his high school bands playing in the basement of my old house, the Dirtfarm. Such a good show, so great to see Dan’s songs performed with instrumentation, and to see him work his showmanship magic on such a huge crowd, and a “professional” space.

Future Islands and Teeth Mountain were really good as well, I was especially taken by Teeth Mountain, their set really benefited from the big sound that is possible at a venue like the 9:30.

More Dan Deacon Ensemble photos here!

View the whole set here. The show was fun, though I miss the days that Mastodon and Kylesa hung out in my house with my old roommate Sonny and played sold out shows at the Velvet Lounge vs sold out shows at the 9:30 Club. Still, times change and both bands are still very talented… I’ll never like Mastodon’s new sound as much as their earlier work, but it suits them and has obviously won them alot of fans, so more power to them.

My friend Chase Lisbon, noted erotic photographer (for nerve.com and his own site, supercult.com) had his first ever gallery show last weekend in Philly. It was pretty great, over a hundred of his amazing photos were on display and more than 500 people came! Check out my photos from the show and afterparty here.

Third time I have seen Frodus this season, and they are still really awesome. Sick Weapons were really good as well… a Baltimore band to watch. Click here for the rest of the photos…

This year’s MICA-sponsored experimental fashion show was a lot of fun… luchadors, strongmen, swashbuckling pirate fights, and a lot of cool clothes… in a new gallery venue right next to the Wind-Up Space. Click here for some more photos…

I have been shooting SO MUCH. Not enough time to even look at all the photos, much less post them, I apologize. This is the first of a few “catch up posts” I will be posting, just tryin’ to throw up a small segment of what I have been working on…

 
Fan Death Records founders, Baltimore promoter & DJ Jay Rags

 
Scary River promo shots, DJ Death Set (Johnny Siera) @ Sorted!

 
the Mishaps, the Gunslingers (both at the Talking Head)

 
Hollywood @ the Talking Head, Rusko w/ Rod Azlan @ Hour Haus

 
Michael, the Beach.

A text recap may or not be coming soon but here is the photo recap…

diplo & kid cudi @ mad decent blowout

des ark

thunderheist

the golden filter

lady sovereign

Last night I went and saw Swedish performer Lykke Li at the “Historic 6th & I Synagogue” in DC. Great show. Live, she adds alot more drumming and dynamic sound versus the album… mostly at the hands of her backing group, a group of Swedish men who my friend declared as being the most handsome backing band in the world. The venue was seated-only, which at first I was put off by, but it was really cool. A totally different atmosphere than a rock club.

See the whole Lykke Li set here

Art collective Wham City has been regularly having shows at it’s space Zodiac (formerly a resteraunt, right next to the Club Charles)… last week I stopped in to check out Dan Deacon performing some newer material and the new piece by Jimmy Joe Roche. Also performing was Adventure, (who has a split LP out now with Dan), but I didn’t get any photos during his set.

Jimmy Joe Roche (co-creator of last years’ Ultimate Reality performance piece/DVD and wicked Magic: the Gathering player)’s piece was CRAZY and deserves a special mention : he had loops of millisecond samples from metal songs, and video loops of various satanic imagery, all hooked up to a laptop… and a EKG, attached to his forehead. The EKG recorded electrical activity in his brain, and would make changes to both the audio and video images as his mood changed. Since he was thrashing in place and basically freaking out, you can imagine there was ALOT of activity! It was pretty awesome and really appealled to the dormant headbanger lobe of my brain.

full set here!

Look out for the upcoming XLR8R feature on Dan Deacon, with photos by yours truly, for his appearance on Andrew WK’s new talk show, and for his new record BROMST.

Last weekend Publicist (Sebastian from Trans AM’s solo project) played at the Talking Head (along with the Taxlo DJs) for Simon Phoenix’s birthday. I have seen publicist several times in the past, but I think this was probably one of the better ones…

Click here for the full Publicist/Taxlo set, and click here for the above picture way larger!