We got back from the east coast a couple nights ago after 20 hours of travel time. I'll have the highlights up in a few days. I've got a rock show tomorrow and a jazz show on Sunday to go to, so it's looking like a really busy weekend!

The night before I left, I went to the Casbah to see Hostile Combover, primarily. I didn't really care if I'd be sleepy for work the next day, they always put on a good show.

But first, Demasiado played to a rapidly filling room.



The singer's very energetic on stage, almost -ahem- too much.



One of his rare calm moments.









Ummm, for the kids? wtf?

Maybe it's because it's been over a week since this show, but I don't have much of an impression of the music they played. I must have liked it enough to shoot them or I wouldn't have pulled my camera out, like for the openers of the night.

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Hostile Combover ALWAYS brings it.  The next time you have a chance, go see these guys!



They are all about intensity. Ben Johnson plays his drums from a low-riding seat just so he has to work that much harder to pound them mercilessly. 


I'm almost scared to go see him as a vocalist in his other band. He probably rips the heads off the people in the front row.






The fierceness even comes through on their lo-fi recordings. Their twin vocal assault is scream-o-rific. They've got a new album coming out soon and they played mostly newer stuff, with no songs off their last album so I couldn't sing along.  Boo... I want my Coitus Infirmus next time!

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I saw Earthless the first time from the back of a packed show at the Ken Club a couple years ago. It was just as packed here, so I wasn't able to get any shots of all three of them- I couldn't move from where I was standing. I think they played the same opening song though.



And by that, I mean it was at least half an hour long.



Everybody knows Earthless, so I don't feel like I have to say what they're all about, but briefly, the bassist is just a utility player, the real action is the creative drummer and one of just a few guitarists who can keep up with him in the imagination department. I'd enjoy these guys a lot more if there was some actual songwriting, but I know it's not what they're going for. 



Given the nature of the music, I thought some zoom blur would be appropriate. This is music for smokin' a doobie in the back of a Camaro.

The next song they played was some Led Zeppelin song which i don't know the name of (never been a huge fan of 70's rock, except for King Crimson). After a couple minutes, it led to a long drum solo. So long, that the other two guys left to go smoke a cigarette. Mario is an incredible drummer, and he can sustain interest by reinventing the groove over and over again. In the hands of a lesser drummer, this would be painfully boring, but he can keep it fresh. So here is what a 10 minute drum solo looks like:













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One thing I try to do is give a taste of what it was like being in the front row at the shows I shoot. I think it's time to talk a bit about how I do that. With Hostile Combover, I didn't go overboard with the post processing because their music is so single-minded in its intent- to exact revenge on an unnamed  instigator.The cliche of chainsaw guitars works, but even more so, they're chainsaw drums. So I left the white balance mostly as-is with just some high contrast black and whites for balance.

With an instrumental band like Earthless, there's less of a personal connectionsince there's no vocals to relate to. I felt as though a more neutral white balance and less emphasis on faces made sense, so that's how I approached shooting them.

I think I'll have to do a "What I Do- part two" post soon.