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Exodus recently played with Auroch, Titan’s Eve, Bonded by Blood, and Holy Grail at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver. It was truly an epic night of thrash metal, indeed.

Read a full article on ABORT Magazine featuring more of my images.

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I shot Smif N Wessun for Abort Magazine last month so I thought I’d share some photos from that night. Opening for them was Sketch Bros.

Read the article on ABORT Mag.

Last Thursday, Young Sleezy made the Tonic nightclub bounce in downtown Vancouver. His beats were well received by the crowd that eventually packed in to see the show. Tonic didn’t make much effort to make the performers feel at home though; it was pretty sad to see them asked to pay cover and show stamps, then fighting for a table amongst the crowd since we couldn’t get into a VIP area. When I was shooting I wasn’t allowed behind the performers at all to get crowd shots.

But the show was great! Check out Young Sleezy’s music.

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I visited the Bloedel Conservatory the other day to take some photos of the plants and birds there. There were rumours for a while that the conservatory was closing down, but it still seems to be running and busy. Inside, it sounds and feels like a rainforest. Birds talk to each other from above in the trees, but they are brave too and will walk around your feet and pose for your camera. One has even bitten my flash on a previous occasion. This time I shot all natural light because there was quite a bit coming through the glass of the dome that day. I did have to bump up the ISO a few times for macro shots.

Enjoy the gallery and visit the conservatory one day!

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A while ago, I shot some fashion at Ironworks Studios with a couple of classmates. The attic studio is great because it’s inexpensive to rent and there are many different textured walls to shoot against. There’s also a nice, big window for natural light shooting. One day I would like to rent their bigger spaces too.

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Vancouver “applecore” group, Callahan, rocked the Media Club last weekend with Farewell to Freeway, Fall in Archaea, and No Other Way. This show was the last in their across Canada tour. Also, it was the last show for both the temporary lead singer they were using and their long-time drummer, Paul Stokes.

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Lemming Dynasty is a group of four amazingly talented musicians who love smooth grooves, rockin’ riffs, and atmospheric harmonies. Front man, Bruno Dominelli, is a great singer and song writer who gets some help from his friends, brothers Joel, Tim, and Adam Parent, to add guitar, drums and bass to his vocals. The band describes their sound as grunge jazz, which in most cases is pretty accurate.

The Railway Club greeted Lemming Dynasty with excitement and I’m fairly certain there were more people there than the last time I saw them at the Bourbon a few months back. The Railway Club is also the size of the Bourbon’s hallway, so my estimate may be wrong; Nonetheless, the turnout was good and the show was awesome. It’s a real testament to a band that can keep playing flawlessly even when the guitarist has broken strings hanging from his guitar and the drummer’s microphone has fallen limp, aiming at the floor.

Lighting in the Railway Club has always been bad for photographers, but I think it’s the least of the club’s worries when it can hardly handle people simply being inside. It’s similar to me hosting a party in my closet. I don’t know why they insist on having tables at all in the front area as most people end up standing anyway, leaving the people who actually want to sit complaining that they can’t see. The room gets away with its flaws because of the charm of the whole setup as it does resemble the car of a passenger train with its narrow bar and warm lighting. There is even an electric train that runs in circles all night on a track overhead.

I took some video during the night as well, for two songs, which you can check out here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSnMd64XauI

I’m still getting used to shooting video on a DSLR. The hardest part, I find, is the focusing as you have to prefocus before you record and then manually focus from then on. Maybe it’s my eyes, but especially in the dim lighting of a bar, I find it difficult to see where perfect focus is a lot of the time. The video also starts to get shaky near the end because my arms got tired of holding my beast of a camera and lens. I also need to go to the gym this summer.

Also check out Joel, Tim, and Adam in their band, NinjaSpy!

I didn’t catch his full act, or name, but the performer in the photos and video below managed to persuade me to use my camera in a crazy balancing act. The act itself wasn’t so crazy, but I was for letting him touch my camera. I made sure to put the camera on video mode so that I would have proof if something were to go horribly wrong. Thankfully, it turned out he really knew how to balance things on his chin well, *phew*.

He insisted this was a good pose.

He insisted this was even better.

Here is a video from when my camera was attached to his monopod. The aperture was around f4 so the crowd did not appear in focus from that distance, but it’s kind of interesting. Kind of.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VWlMGe-FkA

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I visited my girlfriend’s family in Victoria on the Easter weekend. It was ridiculously windy when we left Vancouver and the ferries were rocking madly in the water. Our ferry, delayed an hour because of the rough waters, was the last to ship out before they decided to cancel all other sailings. I’m glad I wasn’t on the boat that had a window smashed by a wave. The ship did rock wildly though. Barf bags were scattered around the vessel as people stumbled around drunkenly trying to find their feet.

In Victoria, we met up with some friends and had a great time. The gallery above (click the photo) features members of the indie-electro band, Virgin Space Cadets, so check them out! One of the members, Marc Junker, also runs kick-ass Strip Comics.

So, yeah, enjoy some snapshots from my weekend.

Blowfly sings the A-Z's of vaginas. Click Photo for Full Gallery!

On Wednesday night, Blowfly added a thick layer of filth to every inch of the Biltmore Cabaret, spewing his x-rated lyrics over well known beats. With no teeth and long, yellow finger nails, he looks like a crack addict one might find in Vancouver’s own Downtown East Side. Still, he’s been around for a long time and people seemed to enjoy the crude words he sang. Often he would pick someone out of the crowd (me at one point) and make vulgar sexual comments or even touch their hands or hair. I’ll be honest, it creeped me out; However, it didn’t stop smiles from forming on the faces of the people who did show up to see Blowfly. Girls got up on stage and danced, grinding on each other, while others just laughed at the ridiculousness of the whole act.

Opening for Blowfly were locals Stoop Family with some hip hop beats. I don’t know how to review hiphop, honestly. I’m not even sure how to spell it. Is it one word or two? Hyphenated? Anyway, they were entertaining and I have to give them credit (or props) for successfully putting on their first show as a group. Go check them out.

Also helping start the night was one man and his iPod going by the name Nihilist Party. He danced around with a mic in his hand and sang some poetry over his iPod beats. I almost didn’t photograph him at all because I thought it was someone who got bored waiting for the show to start and just took initiative by plugging his mp3 player in.

Enjoy the photos in the gallery by clicking on the photograph above!