Saturday, May 31. 2008
Stanley Clarke of Return To Forever - more photos...
photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
I did a double header last Friday in downtown Austin, getting approved to shoot the first song of progressive jazz legend Return To Forever's reunion tour over at The Paramount Theatre, then covering Austin's notorious rap-rock, hip-hop act The Dirty Wormz at Austin's equally legendary Antone's.
The cool air conditioning smacked me in the face when I arrived at Austin's Paramount Theatre, drying the sweat that had beaded on my forehead quickly. I hooked up with Gary Miller shooting for the Chronicle, and in turn we ran into Raoul Hernandez, music editor at the Chronicle, as we waited for the show to start in the foyer. The Paramount is Austin's classic old theatre, with side balconies and all, and a gorgeous place to shoot. Usually it runs classic movies and world premiers by Austin's burgeoning film community, but every once in a while they stage a few concerts as well, but always top shelf talent. It was so unlike the other venues I have worked, I felt like I was desecrating a church as I tried to move about without obstructing the audience's view.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Return To Forever at The Paramount; Dirty Wormz at Antone's"
Thursday, May 29. 2008
Cheryl Crow at the Molson Ampitheatre
photos by Clint Gilders - staff photographer |
Cheryl Crow at the Molson Ampitheatre
Cheryl Crow at the Molson Ampitheatre
photos by Clint Gilders - staff photographer |
by clint gilders - clubkingsnake staff
The Molson Ampitheatre. Toronto, Ontario.
May 26, 2008
It's a couple of days on and I'm still buzzing from this show. There was no way, even after the hour and a half drive home on the night-of, to just go to bed. I needed to look at my photos and relive this show.
I was cold and rain was threatening as I sat outside the media gate listening to what little of KT Tunstall's opening set filtered out to us photographers. Yeah, I had a couple of review tickets and my +1 was inside already but my big bag 'o camera gear meant no entry until after I shot Sheryl.
A little after 8 we're escorted to our position in front of the stage, and soon there she is in all her glory. Solo acoustic for the first song with a black curtain shrouding the rest of the stage. "God Bless This Mess" the lead track from her most recent Detours opened the show.
Then the curtain dropped and joined by her band Crow dove into over an hour and a half of her recent work, back catalog, and genuinely appreciative, and forthright between song banter. The set moved through "A Change Will Do you Good", "Leaving Las Vegas", "Can't Cry Anymore", and the new "Now That You're Gone". It was during "Favorite Mistake" that the audience began to rise to it's feet. Before Sheryl's (so hers that you don't even think of it as a cover) rendition of Cat Steven's "The First Cut Is The Deepest" she quipped that she had a nasty cold. I couldn't tell.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Sheryl Crow at the Molson Ampitheatre"
Saturday, May 17. 2008
Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo (more photos...)
photo by Clint Gilders - staff photographer |
by andrea gilders - clubkingsnake contributor
May 6th, 2008
Showplace Performance Centre. Peterborough, Ontario
Seeing Blue Rodeo was, for me, the culmination of nearly 20 years of anticipation.
Honestly, the performance lived up to my expectations and to my delight even exceeded them.
Showplace is a fabulous venue, big enough to have great clear loud sound without overwhelming the audience but also, with only 17 rows of floor seating, giving everyone a sense of being an intimate distance from the stage.
Beginning the night with a very stripped down stage set Blue Rodeo opened with a fabulous acoustic versions of “Five days in May� (from their absolutely classic CD Five days in July), I was overwhelmed almost immediately by the fabulous timbres of the voices of the two singers, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. For anyone unfamiliar with Blue Rodeo, well simply I say look them up and give them a listen. A really long listen (they have recorded 11 albums) I simply don’t have the space here to do justice to explaining careers as long and solid as theirs.
The stage set was simply a black curtain, a single snare drum, two acoustic guitars, pedal steel, bass, keyboard and off to the far right, a lamppost.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Blue Rodeo at Showplace Performance Centre"
Sunday, May 11. 2008
Kaleo Wassman of Pepper - more photos...
photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Pepper
Hometown: Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
http://www.pepperlive.com
Pepper Concert Photos
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Stubb's Bar-B-Q (Austin, Texas)
Also: Red Eye Empire , Iration, Supervillains
It looks like Austin might see a bit more of Pepper in the future, according to Yesod Williams, drummer for the dub/punk trio Pepper. Yesod's grandmother has re-located to right here in the river city, and to prove his point he brought her up onstage after the third song of their set to say hello, among other things, to the audience.
I was introduced last year, long distance, to Yesod and the band Pepper by my buddy Skillet, front man for the band Wanted Dead. I hooked up with them for their sold out gig at Antone's, and much as I like Antone's I was dieing to get the band under the lights at Stubb's. Antone's is a tough shoot when it's sold out and I wasn't happy with the pictures I took. Stubb's has a big stage, nice light kit and a big photo pit to work out of. I knew that no matter how much running and jumping they did, nor how crowded it was, I would be able to take a few good shots. Pepper has a very energetic stage act, are usually a fun band to see live and as a bonus they always attract the babest of babes. It must be those tan muscular surfer bodies.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Pepper at Stubb's Bar B Q, Austin, Texas"
Friday, May 9. 2008
Dimmu Borgir at Stubb's
photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
by Nokturnel Tom
club kingsnake staff
Dimmu Borgir
Hometown: Oslo, Norway
http://www.dimmu-borgir.com/
Dimmu Borgir Concert Photos
Monday, April 21st, 2007
Stubb's Bar-B-Q (Austin, Texas)
Also: Keep of Kalessin, Behemoth
Ah, it seems like yesterday that these three bands were "new." Here I am standing in a sea of hundreds of people on a Monday night. Now understand, Austin is not bad for national acts as far as metal is concerned, but it's not often the famous Stubbs BBQ hosts a night of black metal.
This tour would have been considered underground ten years ago; now it has come full circle. These bands are veterans and this is considered mainstream by most. It's safe to say these are bands that may have lost their original fans and gained ten times as many new ones.
This is not my idea of "true black metal," nope, not at all -- though I will give respect to Dimmu for keeping the theme evil. Dimmu has always been pretty much the same, although the sound of the records gets better with every release and they have really perfected their style of metal.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Dimmu Borgir at Stubb's BarBQ, Austin, Texas"
Thursday, May 8. 2008
Rush at The Frank Erwin Center - more photos...
photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer |
by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Rush
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario.
http://www.rush.com
Rush Concert Photos
Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
When I was in 8th grade I bought 7 albums, my first major music purchase. It set me back about $50 which back then was about 5 tanks of gas in the family station wagon. For a long time they were my only records. I remember most of them, Kiss Rock And Roll Over, Pink Floyd's Animals, The Eagle's Hotel California, Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same were a few of them, but my favorite of the bunch was Rush's 2112. Of all the albums it took me on a wild journey. Neal Peart's drums on "Passage to Bangkok" blew me away, and the whole masterful 2112 opus combined hard rock and progressive rock in a way never done before.
Shortly after I saw Rush play down in San Antonio on their Farewell to Kings tour and it was almost a religious experience. I had all 5 of Rush's first albums before I even heard them on the radio here in Austin. I even owned them all on 8-Track tape. Clint, our Toronto based writer always gives me crap over my Rush fixation but back in the day, in the 70's before even AOR stations were playing Rush, they had a huge fan base in Texas, emanating out from San Antonio. KISS-FM, San Antonio's hard rock FM station, and more specifically Joe Anthony, had a pipeline to great metal and rock talent and was responsible for introducing bands like Rush, Moxy, Legs Diamond, April Wine, Judas Priest, Budgie, and AC/DC, to Texas. Without Joe's influence on the scene down in San Antonio, I doubt that metal would have thrived as a genre like it did, and I don't think that Rush would have grown as big as they did without the audience they established here in the 70's.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Rush, Frank Erwin Center, Austin Texas"
Wednesday, May 7. 2008
by clint gilders - clubkingsnake staff
The Arrow Hall. Toronto, Ontario.
April 30, 2008
Jeff recently posted his Ten Bands I Have To Shoot Before I Die, and while mine is maybe a little more ever changing and ever growing I knew with the announcement of a Gigantour stop in Toronto I would be able to tick two bands off my list.
Fighting an ass-kicking cold that had been speading through my home, family, friends, and city I fortified my self with the potentially lethal combination of Contact-C and Amp energy drink and headed to the airplane hangar come concert venue known as the Arrow Hall to get my metal on.
First to take the stage were California's High on Fire. This power trio plays pretty straight forward metal that harkens back to Motorhead and Venom. They were a good warmup act, but didn't light me on fire.
Job For a Cowboy were a band I have wanted to see for a while. Yeah, they have one of the coolest band names in rock, but there's also something about their brand of Death Metal that raises it above the rest of the genre. Seeing them live simply confirmed my initial impressions. The musicianship is exceptional, and their stage presence is fantastic. I will go on record as not being a fan of Death Metal in general. Job For A Cowboy has won me over (to the dark side?) though and I'll be exploring this genre more deeply in the future. Maybe I'll find a few more gems like JFAC.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Gigantour 2008, Toronto, Ontario."
Tuesday, May 6. 2008
Al Jourgensen of Ministry - more photos...
photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer |
by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Ministry
Hometown: Chicago, Il.
http://www.ministrymusic.org
Ministry Concert Photos
Tuesday April 15th, 2008
La Zona Rosa (Austin, Texas)
Also: Meshuggah
I had a sense of dread when I showed up at La Zona Rosa for this gig. Don't know what or why. Maybe it was because they'd turned me down to shoot their last tour, maybe it was the predictions of other photographers that had shot them before, or maybe it was the evil smile of the red-headed roadie vixen as she looked at the ominous chain link fencing behind the opening band, and smirked at us photographers.
It could have also been the fact that their was an electricity in the air caused by something other than the adrenaline, or meth, running through their audience. Securities short hairs were up because the opening band was a no show and the venue was afraid that the late start might cause a riot. Actually the crowd was pretty oblivious to the no show, and I am sure the bartenders did their best to keep the crowd occupied. I don't think anyone even noticed.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Ministry at La Zona Rosa, Austin Texas"
Monday, May 5. 2008
Chris Conley of Saves The Day - more photos...
photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer |
by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Saves The Day
Hometown: Princeton, N.J.
http://www.savestheday.com
Saves The Day Concert Photos
Thursday April 10th, 2008
La Zona Rosa (Austin, Texas)
Also: Armor For Sleep, Set Your Goals, Metro Station, Lydia
I started my night at La Zona Rosa, but had to miss the middle band on the bill to scoot over and cover The Mars Volta around the corner. I almost didn't come back. The fact that I had to pry myself from the Volta's set is more a factor of how blown away I was, and not reflection on the quality of the bands at LZR.
In almost a repeat of the previous night La Zona Rosa had packed the venue with a multi-band touring bill, booked as the Bamboozle Road Show, with a slew of neat bands to check out.
Opening the set was the band Lydia out of Gilbert, Arizona, which has a richly layered sound. A dark, rainy day gray kind of music, not so cheerful or pop driven. Big sweeping epics of angst. These were probably my favorites of the night and it will be interesting to see how they mature out over time. Their debut album is out on the label HourZero and is called This December; It's One More and I'm Free. I think it's worth checking out based on their MySpace cuts and their live set.
Continue reading "Concert Review: Saves The Day at La Zona Rosa, Austin Texas"
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