AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I was flicking through a local music rag last week and came across a short interview with Frankie Gionfriddo, one of the singers from Barbarion.

What's this? a band that dresses up like Barbarians?

hmmm.

yes.

I had not been to the Tote before - it was in the headlines last year because it was going to have to shut down due to some dumb law that came in, but was saved by marching through the streets of Melbourne and being all sad, and seems alive and well and a great venue that was well worth saving.

and dodgy.

I stood there, all alone - no friends (Andrew Duggan) were brave enough to come see this show - my beard made a friend, but I was alone.

It was the video launch of "My Rock" their new music video. That was a treat in itself. I loved the gig, I still am not sure if I actually loved it musically or if I loved photographing it - either way, it was a great thing to go and see - something a little different from the hipster pop rock electronica zig zag melly octopus that seems to be everywhere at the moment.

whole flickr set here

Barbarian (c) Michael Christian 2011

Barbarian (c) Michael Christian 2011

Barbarian (c) Michael Christian 2011

Barbarian (c) Michael Christian 2011

farty teenager and a rainy tram

I had not photographed at the East Brunswick Club since I shot Band of Skulls here last year, that was a great gig... would this be one too?

I got there stupidly early as usual, but that gave me enough time to walk back towards the city about 4 tram stops to find somewhere that would serve my coffee before the gig. I fucked around some more and still got in early, but I had a spot up the front so all was not lost.

Gold Fields were on first, and, I am going out on a limb here, but they were possibly the better act of the night (but each to their own, ya know? Holidays were the ones who sold the venue out) they were slinky, a little bit funky, a tad rocky - better than most the supports I have seen - check 'em out!

Between acts I was treated to smelly farts coming from the zitty 18yo beside me, not worth checking that out.

The Holidays came on, I was shooting, so was not really concentrating that much on the music only to think a few songs in that this is getting better as we go along on this Holiday of sorts. I decided to call it quits about 15mins early in favor of getting a ride home and not having to face the trams and trains at midnight in the rain... I stood back a bit on the way out and noticed that the sound was A LOT better as in they sounded really sweet.

Just as I noticed that Sydney girl band girls were different from Melbourne girl band girls, Sydney hipster bands are different from Melbourne hipster bands!

Photos!

See more here

or here!

WOW

La Lucha!

For a taste of something different, I thought I'd have a crack at photographing some Mexican-style burlesque wrestling... I came across this particular event from following a friend of a friends comment on the facebook - it had all the elements of something fun to photograph: girls, tattooed girls, tattooed girls wearing costumes and to top it off, tattooed girls wearing costumes wrestling.

I had wanted to photograph burlesque for a little while and although this wasn't really burlesque it was a start... it was loads of fun too, the venue Red Bennies is a great place to check out, it looks like they have a lot of this type of thing so I'll be going back. They were very nice in giving me a comp pass too especially when they didn't know me - and also putting my girlfriend on the discount list.

photos!

see the whole set here