The Joy Formidable @ St. Stephen's

Well, in an effort to play catch up (I've shot quite a few shows lately), here is next installment.

     The Joy Formidable, for those that don't know, is a 3 piece from Wales that has a tendency to  destroy the audience. An absolute powerhouse of a band that leaves it on the stage. I first saw them opening for Social Distortion, on the Foo Fighters last tour. My friend Gordon tipped me off about them, telling me "make sure you get there in time to see the opening act". Ok, well, he was spot on. I've never seen an opening act and an arena show (Verizon center -worst concert venue I ever been to) just kill it.
    So I got wind that they were playing an alt venue tour this past fall, and that DC *might* be a stop.
    Might became reality, and I was in. Ticket and photo pass secured, I went in, pretty psyched. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't photograph larger bands very often, and usually under pretty heavy restrictions. My only restriction this time was by their tour manager who asked me to "not get on the stage". Ok.
    A few things worth mentioning here: This was a benefit show for St. Stephen's church, which is pretty cool of the band. St. Stephen's is known to many a harDCore kid as a cool DIY venue to host shows. What many don't know, is that St. Stephen's is also the home of Positive Force DC , Words Beats & Life, We Are Family and many other non profit organizations that help out the less fortunate. This is all on top of their own community work. They have often forgone needs at the church to help others. This has started to catch up with them, and they need capital to help rehab their building, and make some needed improvements. This show was a step in that effort. Now, I'm not really a church kinda guy, but this is a group that has helped a lot of people, and been a willing home to the local music scene (harDCore and otherwise) for a long time. I appreciate what they do, and I want to see it keep going.
     Also, the lighting for the show was not really very good. Taking photos tough. The light was REALLY bright on the bass player and drummer, but the guitarist/vocalist/frontwoman was left almost in the dark. I would have killed for a spotlight. Ah well.
     On the plus side, the usually mediocre sound at St. Stephen's was very good. Whoever their sound guy was figured out that room like no one else ever has.
      Anyway, here are my pics. Lighting issues be damned.

pete The List......

The Gaslight Anthem @ 9:30

So, having photographed bands for a long time, I have made a lot of friendships over the years. These friendships are hugely important to me. Not just for the occasional perks. But perks help. Like when I wanted to photograph this show. See the 9:30 club is a great venue to see a band, and the lighting is great. However, because they book some larger acts, they have much stricter rules when it comes to photographing the band. No pass, no photos. It's a pain, but I get it. They have to keep their acts happy, and larger acts have more restriction on them, usually imposed by their labels.
I have been down this road before: you can only be in this location, no flash, first three songs only, then you're out. SOP for larger bands. Often why I don't bother trying to photograph larger bands.
Well, Gaslight Anthem is now on Mercury Records, so big label rules now apply. That said, I have been a fan since "The '59 Sound" came out, so I was pretty excited at the chance to photograph them. When a friend of mine made that possible, I jumped at it. Plus, I get to see them live, which is really the point.
They did not disappoint.
Here are my images. I was hustling for 3 songs. Then sat back and enjoyed the show.

Hope you like them.

pete The List......

Hey all- Well, since the old list does not serve much purpose anymore (all those venues now have slick websites), I have decided to do a re-boot of this page. All Ages 2.0. Since the harDCore scene was the genesis of my music photography, and all ages shows were the key ingredient to that, I decided to stick with the name and just drop the "list" part. It will be more of a general music info, mostly about DC, but not exclusively. I will also use this as a venue you to link my photos from shows I attend, usually with a short summary of the show itself. Hopefully, you'll find it interesting enough to come back from time to time. It can be a bit of a happy place for fellow music nuts out there. Maybe relive a show we were both at, or catch up on one you missed. If you're ever interested in my "day job", you can fine that here. Anyway, I'm gonna post the first photo related entry soon. Like maybe later tonight. pete The List......

Burning Airlines on a recent "Secret History"

DCist has their continuing series of "Secret History" articles where they take a look at seminal albums to come out of the DC Music scene. On and earlier post, I told you about the article they did on Fugazi's "In On the Kill Taker". This time the took on the post Jawbox project of Bill Barbot and J Robbins called Burning Airlines. The debut album "Mission: Control!" I think is one of the more unheralded albums to come out of DC. Take 2 parts Jawbox, 1 part less complication, add a dash of Pete Moffett and you get one heck of a band. I kinda wish this band had hung around a bit longer, it was not meant to be. Bill left to go full bore with his partners into their new (at the time) start up company Threespot. Plus, he was about to be a dad. The band produced a second album, "Identikit" with Mike Harbin taking Bill's place, that while good in it's own right, was not the same. To be clear, I enjoy both albums, but if I have to choose "Mission: Control!" is the winner.

If you would like to buy the CDs, they are available at Desoto Records, and on iTunes. (they don't need a link from me).

You can read the DCist article here.

till next time. The List......

Snapshot of Punk housing in Arlington

Hey Everyone-

I know that posts have been few and far between of late. My apologies. Between work and the holidays, time has been sparse.
Anyway, I saw this article in the City Paper on the end of an era in punk rock housing. I could summarize, but I'll let Aaron Leitko, who wrote the article, do it. He is a writer and I am not.

You can find the article here.

Also, the current issue of Alternative Press has the "Oral History of Jawbox". Find it on news stands. Or somewhere.

The articles, along with several other things I have been reading, and discussing with some folks has kinda of got my thinking about the DC music scene in a larger scope.

Read some thoughts after the jump.



There was a time when DC was an epicenter of punk music. The term harDCore has been credited with being invented here. The Straight edge philosophy (although not intentional) was formalized in DC. The list of bands that are credited as being among the most influential in the punk harDCore scene came from here (Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Void, Scream, Iron Cross, Government Issue, Fugazi, Rights of Spring, etc). The DIY mentality of "screw the major labels. we'll put out our own stuff" was inspired, and fostered among others, by Dischord and carried on with all the other labels (Teen Beat, DeSoto, Slowdime, Superbad etc).

So the point being, there is a lot to be proud of in our fair DC scene.

One of the oddities in the scene is the notion of the incestuous nature of the scene. One band broke up, and a new one was born out of most of the same members. Or two bands broke up, swapped members, and formed two new bands.

Also, the sense of isolation of the DC scene. There was a perception of elitism from the outside. A sense of fear that DC was a hopelessly violent scene. Most of this was wrong, but it was there.

Many of these perceptions are no longer held by anyone. But, to my surprise, there is still a disconnect with the music scene in a larger scale. I was having a conversation recently with a friend, who is in the indie music business (indie label owner, distributor) who confessed that he knew nothing about the DC music scene other than Fugazi was still on "indefinite hiatus". Talking to other in the music know, said much of the same. More recently, the news of Jawbox playing Jimmy Fallon moved the needle a bit, but not a ton. Really only among the folks who were fans of them 15 years ago.

That said, there are some interesting and great bands currently playing. I wish more people knew about them (Title Tracks, True Womanhood, Imperial China, etc.). There are also some bands that are still around after all these years (Clutch, Ted Leo). And even the occasional reunion show (Scream, Frodus). Fort Reno still happens every summer (Thanks to Amanda and crew). I think the scene is still vibrant, and relevant, but no one seems to know about it.

What do you think? Leave a comment. I want to know.

I am going to try and talk to a few folks in and out of the scene, and get there takes, and post them here. How soon or fast this will happen I can not say. I make no money from this, and have a mortgage to pay, and a family to feed. So, as time and schedules allow, I will see what I can do.
The List......

Vic Chestnutt - R.I.P.

I waited until I had a reliable source this time, but Vic Chestnutt has died at age 45.

I know that he was not exactly a local, but he had some local ties of late, performing with Guy Picciotto, among others quite often. He played at the Black Cat last October. Now, really bummed I missed the show.

You can read the New York Times article here.

Happy Trails Vic. Thanks for your music. The List......

Jawbox action y'all

Hey all-

Ok for all who missed it, here is the link to the songs that Jawbox performed on the Jimmy Fallon homepage.

And here is a link to the whole show. It is worth watching Jimmy gush on Jawbox a little while he is talking about who is on the show that night.

ok. i'm going to bed now.

pete The List......