The Gracious Few - San Francisco, CA

Remember the 90's alternative bands Live or Candlebox? I certainly do. In fact, the band Live was my absolute favorite for almost a decade. And yes, they were very much still around until officially dis-banding in late 2009 (their last record was 2006). Candlebox, on the other hand, reformed after a few years off and had their most recent record in 2008.

Why am I telling you all this? Because three of the four members of Live formed a new band, and enlisted Kevin Martin (the singer of Candlebox) to front the new group. He also brought with him Sean Hennesy, who has been with Candlebox since 2006. The new collaboration was later dubbed The Gracious Few.

Their debut record hit in Fall of 2010, and was produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads (who had also produced for Live in the past).

Tuesday night the band made it to San Francisco on its last leg of the tour, and performed at The Independent with Jerry Harrison as a special guest on a few songs. Not only was I asked to shoot that night, but we also landed a pre-show interview for theFIVE10.com. Needless to say, this was one of the most important projects I've worked on (for me personally) and they certainly did not disappoint.

Here's a couple of shots from the interview backstage:

 

Kevin Martin and Pat Dahlheimer

Sean Hennesy

Chad Gracey and Kevin Martin

Catch the interview soon on theFIVE10.com. It's quite entertaining, and oddly informative.

The show was just straight energetic rock and roll. The band was exceptional (to be expected I suppose... they're all seasoned players) and Kevin's vocals were spot-on, despite his being "under the weather".

One of the highlights of the evening was a guest appearance by legendary musician and producer Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads and Modern Lovers fame). Jerry jumped on stage with The Gracious Few to jam along for two Modern Lovers tracks.

Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads performs with The Gracious Few.

The Gracious Few is comprised of: Kevin Martin, Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey, Sean Hennesy, and Patrick Dahlheimer.

Margaret Cho - San Francisco

Margaret Cho recently graced us with an interview on theFIVE10.com, and gave us tickets, meet & greet passes, and a photos pass for her show at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco. So I hopped in the car with our host JC and headed into SF. Needless to say, the show was hilarious. I think we were two of the only straight guys in the audience.

Clay & Margaret Cho

Weezer - Memories Tour (San Francisco, CA)

My birthday was Sunday (yay), the 28th. So as a present to myself, I bought tickets to see Weezer on the 29th and 30th at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco. I already had photo passes for both nights, but I wanted to stay and enjoy the whole thing (rather than the 3 songs that press is allowed).

Monday night was show #1, The Blue Album. This was my first attempt at shooting from the back of a room (normally I'm up front in the pit), so it's also my first attempt with a 200mm lens. The benefit from being in the back, however, was the nice little high-five that Rivers slapped me as he ran toward us and up to the balcony.

Here's a few photos from night #1 (The Blue Album):

Night #2 was the Pinkerton night. The energy was crazy again, and although Rivers didn't run around quite as much, he sure gave us something to shoot. Rather than a high-five this time, he ran straight up to my lens and sang into it for a bit. Unfortunately I couldn't use a flash.

Photos from night #2 (Pinkerton):

Kat Von D

Tonight I took a little ride into San Francisco with JC from theFIVE10 Radio to catch Ms. Kat Von D at Booksmith (in the Haight). She's been on a small tour promoting her newest book "Tattoo Chronicles", and graciously scheduled time to meet and talk with us. Tune in to theFIVE10.com soon to hear the interview, and meanwhile enjoy my photos below.

Kat Von D

Kat Von D

Jean Quan - Oakland's Grassroots New Mayor

East Bay Express (a weekly newspaper out of Oakland) sent me to a small restaurant to cover the victory party of mayor-elect Jean Quan.

In case you hadn't heard, Quan was the underdog, but had overwhelming volunteer support and beat out former California state senate powerhouse Don Perata by 2%. This makes Quan Oakland's first female mayor, and the first Asian-American female mayor for a major U.S. city.

Below is a shot of her and her husband addressing the audience.

Stars (with Geographer) - The Fillmore (11/10/2010)

Last night I met up with JC of theFIVE10 Radio at the Fillmore in San Francisco, to interview drummer Patrick McGee of the Canadian band Stars, and shoot their set afterwords. I was really impressed (well, I suppose I should be, considering they opened for Coldplay on the Viva la Vida tour). It was also my first time shooting with my pal Jen of Calibree Photography, which made it even cooler. The only downside? No pit! We had to fight and squeeze our way up front.

JC interviewing Patrick of Stars

Amy Millan of Stars

Torquil Campbell of Stars

Thomas Pridgen - Beyond Mars Volta

Big day for music and photos yesterday.

I managed to hang out with members of New Montgomery, Tracing Figures, Pine & Battery, Jealousy Curve, The Memorials, and Mars Volta all in one day. My friend and former drummer had his CD release show with Tracing Figures last night in San Francisco (photos to come), but I gotta say the biggest opportunity was taking a quick trip to an Oakland studio to do some promo work for ex-Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen and his current band, The Memorials.

Their upcoming record is a mix of hard rock with grungy riffs and female soul-style vocals, and is being independently produced with distribution from Universal Records.

The Memorials

The Memorials music can be found here, and the other bands I've mentioned can be heard at the links below.

Jealousy Curve

Pine & Battery

Tracing Figures

New Montgomery

Mars Volta

Snuggies.

Today I headed into Oakland to shoot a profile on Jesse Meeker and Eliot Curtis of Rec Center Studios for the East Bay Express newspaper. The production duo won the paper's Snuggie Music Video Contest, and were being interviewed for an article.

Happy Body Slow Brain - San Francisco (10-24-2010)

After a month or so stint on the east coast supporting Gavin Castleton, former Taking Back Sunday members Matt Fazzi and Isaac Bolivar brought their new project, Happy Body Slow Brain, home to the San Francisco Bay Area to play their CD Release show at The Rickshaw Stop.

Supported by Bird By Bird (fronted by John Devoto of The Matches), as well as Please Do Not Fight and The Girlfriend Season, HBSB pumped out a monstrous set from their debut record "Dreams of Water".

Of course, I was in attendance, and shot a few photos:

Interpol - Oakland, CA (10/18/2010)

I journeyed into Oakland to the Fox Theater last night to meet my buddy JC from TheFIVE10 Radio. He was to interview the Brooklyn band, White Rabbits, for his show. My job was to shoot for them, as well as their headliners, NYC-based Interpol. 


White Rabbits had a solid, catchy set. I felt they could have used more variety, however. But seeing that they've only released one record, that may be asking a bit much.

Interpol was astounding. A big wall of sound and lights that had you staring at the stage, fully immersed.

The Forest Through the Trees

The other day I took another trip (yet again) through the tunnel to shoot a short, but beautiful, wedding ceremony in the forests of the University of California - Berkeley. The setting was a small wooden theater among the redwoods... something that you might have seen in Return of the Jedi. It was a quaint gathering, and a lot of fun.

Wedding at the Rotunda Building! Oakland, CA.

On the 18th, I had the distinct pleasure of traveling (with my "Lion" assistant) to the Rotunda Building in downtown Oakland, CA to shoot for Sarah & Derrick's wedding.

The room was beautiful, spacious, classy, and packed with good people and good music. The bride insisted that I finish a 6th glass of wine as sort of a wedding "gift" to her, so needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the night. But it was loads of fun!

Beautiful bride in the Rotunda building, Oakland.

the Rotunda wedding ceremony, Oakland.

Newlyweds! Rotunda building, Oakland.

Happy Body Slow Brain - Dreams of Water

Today is September 21st, and marks the release of Happy Body Slow Brain's debut record, "Dreams of Water". These ex- Taking Back Sunday fellows have created an incredible disc, and I am certainly proud to have contributed (promo photos, video teasers, and a "making the record" documentary).

Head on over to www.happybodyslowbrain.com to purchase a copy, complete with all sorts of extras.

Congrats guys!