As recently as last summer, I would groan and grouch and roll my eyes at shows in strange venues; the light is wonky, or the background is awful, or everyone is sitting down and I feel totally awkward standing on the side of the stage taking photos. Sometime in the last year that changed —…
bull city undercover
Bull City Undercover — three nights of locals doing cover sets by a single artist of their choosing — has its roots in the old scene at the old Kings, but I, for one, am thrilled that Tamplin brought it over to Motorco with him when he left Tir Na Nog; it was a funny,…
the magnolia collective @ the station, may 2011
One of my favorite things about MagCo’s ongoing Thursday residency at the Station, besides the facts that they’re fantastic, I’ve gotten to meet a bunch of amazing people hanging out there, and the always excellent challenge of shooting the same band over and over again, is their rotating cast of local opens — I haven’t…
acrylics — lives and treasure
I saw Acrylics open for the Morning Benders just over a year ago; if fellow tour partner and opener the Miniature Tigers were the Morning Benders’ rock and roll side, Acrylics’ performance and their lovely debut album, Lives and Treasure, are much more closely aligned to the electronic, hollowly delicate side of last year’s stellar…
college baseball: unc-asheville @ unc
Eleven. A lesson to all young pitchers: if a batter sends a particular pitch 425 feet out of the park, don’t throw it to him again in his second at-bat. It will, like the first pitch, go real far, real fast, right out of the stadium. Bryant Gaines was otherwise stellar, the bullpen was beastly,…
dax riggs @ local 506
There’s something deeply soothing to me about Dax Riggs’ complex, gothic garage rock; he’s a great musician and his voice sounds like oil slicks under a car, and I can absolutely zone out on the sound of his music, just completely blissed out on rock and roll. That’s how the show at the 506 was…
skylar gudasz & the ugly girls @ local 506
I am holding good to my goal to see more new-to-me local bands this year, and I love it when I can do that in my own backyard; Skylar Gydasz and the Ugly Girls (who are all, in fact, adorable dudes) threw a kickass CD release party at the 506 last Friday, and I hung…
college baseball: umd @ unc, game 2
Ten. Oh, 18 year olds playing baseball, you are the most ridiculous.
wintersleep @ kings barcade
Like every good Canadian band I go see, Pam turned me on to Nova Scotians Wintersleep earlier this year with their 2007 album Welcome to the Night Sky; y’all know me and you know that every attempt I every make to describe a band descends into incomprehensible comparisons to trees, but if somebody, in a…
college baseball: umd @ unc, game 1
Nine. Patrick Johnson, who Coach Fox once referred to as the kitchen sink, struck out a career-high 12 in seven scoreless innings last night; he was still touching the mid-90s at the end of his 129 pitch outing. It was masterful. Although to be fair, I would primarily classify the University of Maryland baseball team…
brand new kind of photography 