IBTABA Nº 49 — The Chameleons Vox

I never ask. you know, when you walk into a record store and ask “what are you playing?” and then proceed to buy that record. (Just as it plays out in High Fidelity [link].) well, ok, there was this one time, when I walked into Tower Records (Mountain View) and the CD for Script of…

IBTABA Nº 48 — Rank/Xerox

Rank/Xerox is one of the groups with David West in it. by sheer coincidence, a year prior to this concert or so, he worked at a corner shop from where I lived in San Francisco, and he noted that I was the only one to come in with band t-shirts, and this got us to…

IBTABA Nº 47 — Cult of Youth

opening for Rank/Xerox Nº48. more information at this The Vinyl District. as with the previous post, a challenge as the low-light test with a newly released Micro 4/3rds sensor camera (the Olympus EP-1).

IBTABA Nº 46 — Airfix Kits

ah! a new toy to try out. the Olympus EP-1 was released, and like all Mirrorless cameras since, it is great to put an adapter, and try out some lenses. at the time, the sensor was not great in low-light, but for some reason I wanted to try it— the results were very noisy, with…

IBTABA Nº 45 — Bill Callahan ( Smog )

In Nº 42, I mentioned that there was a “Set List Incident”, which was an innocent grab… which came to a plot twist at this gig. the gig, as the one in Nº 42, was excellent, and seeing it at a smaller club was great. the Set Lists are not that interesting, though there is…

IBTABA Nº 44 — Lumerians ( Luis Vasquez )

another “blind gig”, in that I had not heard any music from them before the gig. it was great. it was also not intentional to be on the right side by Luis Vasquez, who then went on to be (or already concurrently) the founding/main member of Soft Moon.

IBTABA Nº 42 — Bill Callahan ( Smog )

another memorable Bill Callahan gig… whereby the album and the concert are complementary, though not quite as large a gap as the previous tour concerts with Jim White. this time, a more minimal band,consisting of Neal Morgan and Matt Kinsey and quite impressive in their performance of Apocalypse and the flavor it gave to his…

IBTABA Nº 41 — Crystal Stilts

(an alternate photo with Brad Hargett is posted to Instagram, doing the but the microphone is in focus thing… thus to be used later on a Essay post. )finally, a proper gig with Crystal Stilts. that first time was at a cafeteria, and this one was a proper club, with the fantastic second album being…

IBTABA Nº 40 — Sad Lovers and Giants ( Garçe Allard )

this was an epic gig. full stop, but I should really expand. first, musically, among my favorite bands, and I was finally able to catch them: so lucky to fly from San Francisco to Berlin. it was just fantastic, as any long time expectation (20+ years in the making). photographically, it was also the culmination,…

IBTABA Nº 39 — Spectrum ( Peter Kember / Sonic Boom )

an alternate— portrait style— will be posted to Instagram, but to make an appeal later under a Essay: Elements of Style post. a much anticipated show, and at a surprisingly small venue, but that afforded a great spot for photographing— noting that I pick a spot and stay put with no “I am a photographer,…

IBTABA Nº 38 — Low ( Alan Sparhawk )

my first concert for the “slowcore” genre— in which I did not get past Low and Bedhead (thereafter as The New Year) to sample the genre— and it was great. in a weird way, this concert felt more “Americana” in feel than with “Americana” styled groups. due to the side angle, it can be seen that…