Here’s a slideshow of the weekend in chronological order.
EMA, Battles, Thurston Moore, Mary Lattimore, Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Guided By Voices, OFF!, No Age, Destroyer, DJ Shadow, Shabazz Palaces, Kylesa, Yuck, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, Deerhunter, TV On The Radio
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame 7.6.11
Ahh summer! Outdoor concerts at the Rock Hall, under mother nature’s brightest star. I absolutely love every single challenge that comes with shooting in the darkest live-music venues, but making photos in daylight is a really nice treat. Thank you to the Rock Hall for putting on these shows, and thank you to the band for being so beautifully photographable.
Every time I visit the Rock Hall, I pass the Cleveland Fire Fighters Memorial and think: I should do a picture of that someday. So I arrived extra-early and crossed it off the list.
If you’re familiar with the scenes I work with, you’ve seen the guys of Clovers in a lot of different bands. Before Greg Boyd moved from San Francisco, he’d been the drummer for Girls. He played with Pat Carney (Black Keys) in Drummer and currently makes beats for Tadpoles: a band of Happy Dog staffers (where singer/guitarist Jonah Oryszak tends bar). Antoine Henderson’s band bios frequently cite him as Cleveland’s bassist (a nickname given by Matt Chasney, who was the drummer in my Lottery League 2010 draft band). There’s some big news coming from these guys, so keep an eye out for future posts about Future Days.
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
Wayne Kramer, Tom Morello, Tim McIlrath
The Justice Tour
Grog Shop (Cleveland Heights) 9.6.11
When one of rock history’s all-time greatest guitarists calls and asks if you’d like to interview him, you pretty much just say yes, show up, and let the man talk.
Wayne Kramer, the dynamic patriotic MC5 man who’d painted the U.S. stars and stripes on his Stratocaster during the Vietnam era “in spite of what the country was doing at the time” found himself in federal prison on drug charges in 1975, when an undercover cop attempted to buy coke from him. Kramer was incarcerated with jazz trumpeter Red Rodney, who’d played with the Charlie Parker quintet. Rodney taught Kramer music theory/writing/arranging, and the two played together in a jailhouse band.
In 1978, The Clash referenced Kramer’s experience in the first verse of their song Jail Guitar Doors: Let me tell you ’bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine/A little more every day/Holding for a friend ’til the band do well/Then the DEA locked him away.*
Wayne Kramer’s guitar
In 2007, Billy Bragg used the song title as the name for his UK-based Jail Guitar Doors program. Two years later, Kramer helped launch the U.S. chapter. Jail Guitar Doors donates guitars and amps to jails, allowing inmates the chance to use music in their own rehabilitation efforts; it also seeks prison reform for nonviolent offenders, including efforts to help prisoners “Stay Free” when they’re released.
Tim McIlrath, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer at soundcheck
Tom Morello
Tim McIlrath
Tom Morello
[*Incidentally, verse two references Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, and verse three references The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards.]
New Bomb Turks | HotChaCha
Beachland Ballroom 6.11.11
Frontman Eric Davidson started the set with this request to the board:
Yeah, could I get more snare and more vocals in my monitor?
And, for this guy right here, can we get… less… tattoos? [pointing to the guy who would later bomb the stage and dive off it (see photo below)] Less… tattoos…. Would. that. be. possible?
I almost didn’t shoot this show.
I was feelin kinda spent.
Photo-making and I are used to 18-hour days, but I’d recently conquered a three-day festival, a dance party, a few hundred hours of editing… There’s an album-cover shoot on deck, and Pitchfork is just a few weeks away.
Seemed like a good time for a day off or two.
Right?
Yeah right. I mean, come on, this is the New Bomb Turks we’re talking about.
It’s hometown rock history.
I brought the damn camera cuz I knew I had no real intention of resisting.
I received a burst of energy in the form of a cheeseburger and a Yankee-made Bombay & Tonic, and remembered where I was: The old stomping grounds. For one of those shows that’s more like a rock-scene college reunion. Among friends, with people who let you do whatever the hell you need to do. Freedom.
No assignment. No restrictions. No pressure.
Anything goes. The way it always has been.
HotChaCha, fresh off their latest tour and glad to be home, pulled out all the stops too.
Sure, you can stagedive and you can crowd surf, but when was the last time you saw somebody sing while standing on the palms of their audience’s outstretched hands?
#Respect.
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
Sloan (Toronto, Canada | Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, 5.25.11
The first stop on their XX [Double Cross] tour.
Sloan is one of the best pop bands ever.
Need proof? Their entire discography, spanning the past twenty years, can be heard on their website.
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
May 13-15, 2011
George Jones • Nick Tolford & Co. • Bomba Estereo • The Growlers • She Bears • The Black Swans • Jerry DeCicca • The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger • Mount Carmel • Yo La Tengo • Choogln’ • The Flaming Lips • Y La Bamba • Over The Rhine • Wanda Jackson • Neko Case
It was a rather rainy weekend. Nobody minded.
There’s something about a good rock show that makes strangers band together when the water falls. People just roll with it and get muddy together.
The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger was a gorgeously photographable rock photographer’s dream. No strangers to the camera, Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl have a presence that begs to be captured in still imagery. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips watched his friends from the wings with looks of pride and smiles of support. The Lips, who headlined later that night, and their entire crew are to be gratuitously thanked for providing such a fun-to-work-with stage design.
Have you ever seen the way Wayne Coyne appears to be the most satisfied guy in rock ‘n’ roll, smiling and waving like the world’s his best friend. Reminding you to love each other and take care of each other and say the stuff you should say while you can. It was a major goal of mine to photograph this band… To give a few thank-you notes to artists who’ve touched this shooter’s heart. To see how the photos would compare with countless other music photographers who’ve made images of the band. So, with plastic bags over my gear, I braved the most violent storm of the weekend and fought against the elements to document the first few minutes of the greatest show on earth. With every balloon and piece of confetti swirling in the wet wind, for a while there it looked like the whole party could get carried off to Oz.
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Camera Raw
Peter Murphy (with Livan)
Musica 4.8.11
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
Rock cannot live on concert shots alone.
Some of rock’s favorite photographs were taken offstage. Moments captured before the show, after the show, on the road, at home, hanging out, making records…
The Village Bicycle, one of the newest bands to emerge from The Davenport Collective, had me out to document a day in the studio where they were recording their debut album Moon Balloons. Full slideshow of images to come.
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
The Davenport Collective’s beloved storyteller/stencil artist/amazing human, Mr. Eric Alleman, will put his designs on anything you want: frameable papers, gear cases, kitchen cabinets, found objects, clothing… He’s reimagined iconic pop-culture works, and also creates original pieces — commissioned artwork and logos (including Megachurch, Spacer Ace, Cloud Nothings, Voxcaster…) To show off a few of his designs, we enlisted help from three of Davenport’s hottest rockers: Eric Schulte, Liz Kelly and Dave Molnar.
There was a lot of goofing around. We’d just begun setting up when Schulte launched blue-steel at the camera. It pretty much set the tone for how fun the next two hours would be.
Eric *blue steel* outtake
Eric Schulte (Voxcaster, The Village Bicycle, The Dreadful Yawns, Aluminum Anemone)
Eric & Lou Reed
Eric & William S. Burroughs
Eric & Evel Knievel
Eric & To Box With Man
Liz & Mike Ditka
Liz Kelly (The Village Bicycle, Black Puddle Noise, The Dreadful Yawns, Aluminum Anemone)
Liz & The Gas Mask
Liz & The Elephant Man
Dave & Prljavo kazalište
Dave Molnar (Volcano Fortress, The Dreadful Yawns, The Strangers,
Good Touch Bad Touch, The Artificial Sweeteners…)
Dave & Prljavo kazalište
Dave & Elvis Costello
Dave & Devo
Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8
manual exposures (approx f/4.5, 1/250sec) shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw
To book your session, license an image for editorial use, or buy a limited-edition print… email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651.
