November 2020 – Box of Fallen Leaves

IBTABA Nº 31 — A Place To Bury Strangers

this was a great concert performance— perhaps the best show I saw of APTBS. there were a few peripherals things of note: 1. strobe lights! I had not photographed concerts with strobe lights before, and had to figure out a way on the spot on how to handle it (using burst shots); 2. I spotted…

IBTABA Nº 30 — And Also The Trees

yes, it was “a thing” to do acoustic versions of a catalogue— perhaps it is still a thing— but I submit that And Also The Trees did it better than anyone. these were not merely loved songs done with acoustic instrumentation, but a full-blown re-work of the songs to fit the different instrumentation. (from this…

IBTABA Nº 29 — winfred E. eye

two groups would welcome me as a “regular”— and winfred E. eye was one of them. I would go to see them as often as I could, and it was a fantastic learning experience because they would play clubs, such as El Rio, and challenge me as to how to approach concert photography. in particular,…

IBTABA Nº 28 — Crystal Stilts

a memorable gig, in that I latched big-time onto their first mini-LP, and couldn’t wait to see them live. I sorely miss that the band is no-more, or so it seems, and it was the most endearing band to come out of Brooklyn during the 2000s— and there are a lot of bands like The…

IBTABA — the series (info)

the blog, with its concept of one photo and one paragraph, is now focused on the selection of one photo per gig, and one per camera used, that was photographed: from the very first one in 2005, through 2019. in addition to the photographs, and as part of the personal reasons to pursue such a…

IBTABA Nº 27 — These Are Powers

an opening band for A Place to Bury Strangers, which I remember as being cool with a varying set of personalities. touring for the eclectic sounding album All About Future.

IBTABA Nº 26 — A Place to Bury Strangers ( Jonathan “Jono MoFo” Smith )

this is not the photo to take at a A Place To Bury Strangers gig. one sets up the camera at 0.5 or less seconds for shutter speed, and shake it a bit. but then again, there are loads of these types of photos, which really convey the energy of their concerts— and this must…

IBTABA Nº 25 — winfred E. eye ( Aaron Calvert )

more of the « but the microphone is in focus », and more to come as the approach evolved. winfred E. eye is an aberration in choice of concerts: I am not much into Americana music style ( just add Bill Callahan and Lambchop ), and they were ( are? ) local to San Francisco…

IBTABA Nº 24 — Tortoise

Tortoise is a bit of a challenge in that there is three fantastic drummers, and capturing their respective energies and intensities in a performance photograph is something I tried, but didn’t succeed. thus, an abstraction— we will see about the next gig.

IBTABA Nº 23 — Bill Callahan ( smog )

yet another Bill Callahan gig… but fear not, there is only two more (2011). I will say that his selection of musicians on tour deeply affects the performance impression. most radically, it was when Jim White was drumming during the album and tour. I only managed to (luckily!) catch him twice outside of the San…

IBTABA Nº 22 — Jamie Stewart

a solo gig at the wonderful Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. while minimal, relative to Xiu Xiu, with instrumentation, a great gig as always in watching Jamie Stewart‘s intensity in the quiet. from the time: 2009’s Women As Lovers

IBTABA Nº #241543903 — David Horvitz

not an opening act, though at the time a collaborator with Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. the collaboration resulted in a book Xiu Xiu : The Polaroid Project (2007) and was present at this concert for a solo Jamie Stewart performance. somehow, we got to talking before the show, and somehow, I took this photo….