I made sure to get to this show nice and early, since I knew it was going to be a packed house. Luckily, there were quite a few other early birds to chat with so time flew by until Hialeah took the stage.



Their set started a bit ominously since Mario's guitar dropped headstock-first to the ground  right before the first song. It put a huge crack in the back of the neck, but he soldiered on anyway. This might have been the cause for the crappy sound for the first few songs, until the sound guy got things under control.



I heard a few newer songs that should be coming out on a new CD within the year.



I gave Mike a print as a belated birthday present. It's from their show at the Radio Room, taken a couple months ago. I asked him to put it up somewhere, so hopefully it will be on display at Black Box at some point.



Those Chinese knock-offs never get the spelling right..



Justin asked me if there was anything he could do make the photos look better. I told him yes, don't move.



I can't give him any fashion advice though, he's always a colorful character.



They're a great band and great guys to boot. Go see them this Sunday at the Casbah!

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I've said before how an acoustic singer/songwriter is a snoozefest for me, but it's not the case when the musician is Rob Crow. He even said it was OK to talk over his music, but there were still plenty of people shushing the loud talkers.



I have just a couple Pinback albums so I wasn't familiar with most of the music, but Rob has a well-deserved reputation for writing songs that are instantly catchy. It would have been better if the guitar was turned up in the P.A., even Rob was complaining how he couldn't hear his playing.



He had a few false starts, but this was more of a low-key set of music than anything else, so it just made it seem a bit more intimate. What came next would be totally different.

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I don't know why Sleeping People hasn't played a show in San Diego in over a year, but it's been way too long. They are the finest instrumental post-rock band we have in this city, and if you missed this show, you missed a great one.



They put the drummer up front which is perfect since Brandon is the heart of the group. He doesn't need to see the other members to navigate the staggering number of twists and turns that they pack into every song. I guess they've still been practicing regularly this whole time.



This was one of the few shows where I considered just shooting a few songs and then putting the camera away and just rock out. But that feeling passed quickly.



Since it was packed, I was stuck in one spot the whole time so I couldn't get all the angles I wanted to, but at least I was up front.



I've seen Kenseth play numerous times in a couple bands, and he's always used the same silver P-Bass Deluxe. This time it was the same model, but a sunburst color. This is interesting to me since I play the same bass, only a blonde one with red tortoiseshell pickguard. Probably not interesting to anyone else though.



Joileah is the only stoic member of the group, concentrating on her fretwork the whole time. The other guys have plenty of enthusiasm to spare, though.



Rob Crow came up to sing on their one song with vocals, the ironically titled "People Staying Awake".







Go see them at the Casbah on June 4th. I'm sure it'll be another great line-up.



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There were quite a few other photographers and videographers at the show, so it's pretty well documented on the internet by now. You can see some great video done by the guys standing right next to me, who captured video of them playing my favorite song as the closer.

I met Cari Veach at the show too, who does good work of mostly hardcore acts on bigger stages. When I mentioned how I stick to local shows, she said how that's where you start out. I know this is how most photographers feel, like these local shows are just a stepping stone to bigger and more prestigous shooting gigs. But not for me.

I go to shows as a music lover first and foremost. This is why I shoot a lot of the same bands and why a hardcore punk band will show up in the next post after a jazz band, because that's what I choose to go and see. I would much rather shoot a good local band who might not get a lot of photogs coming to their shows than hustle for the chance to get a photo pass for some national act that I'm barely familiar with who I won't get to meet, and only get to shoot the first couple songs anyway. Even though a photo pit would have been nice for this show so I could move around while shooting, I'll take this over shooting a band I have no interest in seeing or hearing.

With that said, guess what I shot the next day. Yup, the Karl Strauss Beach to Brewery festival, standing in a photo pit with an all-access photo pass. But that's another post.