Wagmania

For those of you who have just joined us - over the last 8 or so months I have had the opportunity of photographing a Melbourne band called Wagons, not only live, but in the studio recording their 5th album and also providing the photography for this album. The band started a nation-wide tour on May 27 in Tasmania - I went along with them partly because I wanted to see Tasmania and have a long weekend, and partly to photograph the start of the tour which finishes in Melbourne at the Forum on July 16.

There was some pre-flight entertainment before I boarded to Launceston in the form of someone being denied boarding their plane as they were too late - anyone who knows Jetstar know that even if you think about being late, they will take your bags off the plane, set fire to them and say bad things about you on facebook*

First impressions of Tasmania? 'gee... it's. um. white?' I am from the South Island of New Zealand and that's also pretty white - this is neither a good thing or a bad thing, it's just an observation. And it was cold - real cold. The kind of cold that burnt your nose if you breathed in too hard. I managed to have a quick walk around while the band was resting - it's all very old and the buildings remind me of home. And they have Monkeys. Yep. Monkeys. With Herpes B. Which is pretty exciting if you ask me. I was shoo'd away by the groundskeeper so had to return in the morning to watch them pick ticks off each other's bum. The gig went well - it was a good warm-up for the tour and cool to hear a bunch of new songs. Quote of the night came from some lady who, when Henry said they were about to embark on a massive 20 date tour around Australia, yelled out "what about B.B. King?". Excellent.

The drive from 'Lonny' to Hobart is pretty straightforward - two and a half hours of smooth riding. People say Tasmania is a lot like New Zealand, not what I saw, it was more like Australia landscape with New Zealand temperatures - but I think off the beaten track is quite beautiful and New Zealandish. I will be going back very soon as there are a few other ways to go that take a lot longer and look a lot better.

Arrived in Hobart and after sound check we high-tailed it to MONA (see below post). Had some awesome dinner at the venue (I had lamb arms) and watched a great gig.

* statement is not true.

Photos!

See the whole set here

hey MONA

When I say MONA, how many of you think of this:

That was the Mona of the 80's.

There is no place for that in 2011.

The Mona of 2011 is all capitals: MONA. And is an art gallery on a small island (Hobart, Tasmania) just off a large island (Australia, New Zealand) at the bottom of the planet. Currently free to everyone but will soon be charging an AU$20 (that's about $5,000 USD) entry fee for non-Tasmanians.

It's an interesting place alright - it is the private collection of David Walsh so there should be no boo hoo'ing if the art doesn't appeal - it's like inviting someone in to look at your record collection.

It ranges from the very (very) old:

(I found it hard to get any info on these two online - if anyone can shed some light, that would be great)

To the new and freaky:

"on the road to heaven the highway to hell "

Stephen J Shanabrook 2008

Chocolate cast of a suicide bomber

If anyone has info, on this - please let me know.

Is it worth a look? yes! would I pay $20 to see it? yes - although part of the whole awesome experience is the free-ness of it all, but if you are on holiday you are probably in the spending mood anyway, so it wouldn't really matter.

See the whole set from Tasmania (including monkeys!) here

DATAROCK

Winter hit Melbourne over the last week like a Chris Brown to the face, which made motivation for leaving the warm house on Thursday night verrrrry low. But I went, cos I'm awesome.

Speaking of awesome - Datarock put on a fucking great show, I am not a fan of dance music but I was shown how it should be done. Live band playing dance music. Excellent. Take note all you deck dicks. These guys rocked the house and they didn't need to have a pair of headphones on, with head cocked to the side, left headphone off the ear.

This was another example of how it really comes down to the performers how the photos turn out.

See em all here.

Datarock (c) Michael Christian 2011

Datarock (c) Michael Christian 2011

Datarock (c) Michael Christian 2011

more Red Bennies....

I was asked to be a last minute fill-in photographer at Red Bennies in the weekend - taking performance and social shots. Never really taken social shots but was keen to give it a go.
There were three performers on the night, the event page for Red Bennies had changed before I could get their info so we'll call them: hoola girl, sheet man and dancing threesome. All of which were excellent, see pics below!

see 'em all here











































































oh yea, and a video!

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