Since I'm lazy, I usually stick up the entire set of photos from my camera, and don't crop them or weed out the crappy ones. Deal with it.
Also, these graphics are compressed for the web, so if you have a good reason for wanting to print these out you should e-mail me and I might send you an uncompressed copy via e-mail.
On with the gallery:
The Big Bang festival in Santa Cruz features 3 or 4 bands each night for 10 or so days. I didn't get to all the shows, but I probably went to more than you did. The following is a slideshow of the shows I did make it to. Bands in this slideshow are Atomic Bomb Audition, Dead Ghost, Depth Charge Revolt, El Sonido, Happy Meal, Residual Echoes, Spitzer, The Dying Californian, The Formaldebrides, The Gales, The Sealants, The Terrible, and Vancougar. On with the show!
If you don't wanna see the slideshow and would rather just click on filenames, the see this directory listing.
The Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz has started having bands play. Let's hope it continues. They've got a good size room, a decent sound system (for the audience -- the stage sound sucks) and they pay the bands 100% of the door. Anyway, enjoy some pix of The Sealants and Thugboat.
The Sealants played first and we were plagued by broken strings and out of tune guitars for the first half of the set. Oh well, shit happens. View some blurry shots here. Next up were The Huxtables. These guys have been around SC for a long time, but this was my first chance at seeing them. Fun pop-punk, nice guys, but, ummmm... they're kinda geeky (in a good way). See their photos.
I'm in a rush right now, so I'm not going to do my usual lame review -- all you get is photos. I didn't get photos of Onion-Flavored Rings because they played in the store area and it was too crowded to get good shots. And I didn't get shots of Abi Yo Yo's because I got stuck in traffic on the way from Santa Cruz and got to Gilman late, though I did catch a couple of songs. Anyway, the photos are on seperate pages, so look at Gift of Goats, Bent Outta Shape, All You Can Eat, and Eskapo. Enjoy!
This was The Sealants second show, and it went pretty well. First up were Good Neighbor Policy. Their photos are here. Next up was the band I'm bassist for, The Sealants. I have a few photos of us here. And finally were The Singularity. Unfortunately, my girlfriend bailed with my camera, so I didn't get any photos of these guys.
I was in Boise on vacation and got a chance to see the debut of JC Overdrive. These guys are from the Septic Death / Moss / Haggis / Gordie Howe Trio Unit family tree of Boise punk. As GrindmasterFlash put it over on the Angry Potato Punk Page, "...made me think of a mix of early 80s hardcore punk and early 80s rock and roll...bad brains meets cheap trick or minor threat with a slight gins and roses vocal influence...the higher half-sung vocal thing.", though I don't know that I agree with the GnR statement. Anyway, Check out the pix!
I went to this show primarily to see Jewdriver, but every band that I saw rocked pretty damn hard. I missed seeing Panty Raid and RockNRoll Adventure Kids because I was hob nobbin with people at the brewery across the street. I took a ton of photos, so each band has their own gallery. First, check out the power that is Jewdriver and pay attention to the bacon and the flying bagels. The Sharp Knife photos came out okay, but not as good as I'd wished. I'm especially happy with some of the Fleshies pix, because I was in the pit snapping photos and I think I got some good ones. Anyway, check 'em out.
This was a free show as part of Nissan's Z-car tour. Only announced about 24 hours ahead of time, I found out about it a little early from Sam Atakra (http://www.atakra.com) and so I headed up for the show. They were pretty damn good. No complaints about their playing -- they were tight and mostly played early stuff, such as Gates of Steel, Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, Mongoloid, etc. Anyway, I'm posting these pictures the same day as they played, so I haven't gotten around to cropping them. So, Check them out, already!
Well, I didn't get any photos of Pressure Point cuz I was too far in the back. The pictures of Transplants came out weird because Tim had an Armstrong Drive street sign over his amp that collected all of the light from my flash and reflected it back at me. I had to mess with the contrast to even make some of these photos viewable, and that's what that shiny white thing is in the photos. Note guest appearances in the pix of Brody from Distillers, Davey from AFI, and Lars Fredrickson. I got four, count 'em, FOUR photos of the Distillers before my batteries gave out on my camera. Damn. Anyway, view the photos.
Finally a chance to see the legendary Rezillos. After some difficulties with the sound, they got everything working and the band rocked the crowd. A bunch of stupid skinheads showed up, but I suppose that's expected. The Sermon were all about garage rock and breaking tables. Stitches were way snotty, and were all about breaking mic stands. And, of course, The Rezillos kicked it up new wave style with most of their old hits and a few new tunes.
This was quite the show. The Rocket Queens are a GunsNRoses tribute band. Life's Halt plays fast and furious hardcore, but what is up with the neck bandanas? Rosemary's Billygoat plays evil metal and has a stage show that is quite incendiary. Adversives are from Boise and, even though they deny it, have become quite the emo band. And, whew... Barry Man-O-War were the gods of death metal and schmaltz. It was a fun evening. Probably my favorite part was listening to Mikey (ex-Your Mother) interview the Adversives (ostensibly for MRR) and do more talking than the band.
It took 5 years, but photos of Schlong and PTL are now up!!!
I'll have more details about the show later, as well as pictures of P.T.L. and Schlong, but right now, go check out the spectacle that is Your Mother.
It just occured to me that I have too many Your Mother photos on DieHippieDie. It's not that they are the only band I go see, but they are one of the only ones that was visually interesting enough to take photos of. I'll miss you guys (sniff sniff).
Your Mother put on an excellent show, with all of them wearing lovely blue Air Supply t-shirts. These guys have to be one of the most entertaining bands to watch. They have a stage presence that is missing from most live shows I see. Craigums got rid of his dreads since the last time I saw him (and, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen him without them), and then he accused ME of being a hippie! It is what inside that counts, buddy, and I ain't got nuthin' but pure hate. Anyway, check out the photos. Oh, and when your done, go visit their website.
Atom and His Package was next. Atom puts on a fun show, and the crowd was digging it. Shortly after the set started, he got a call on his cell phone, which was a friend of his playing a practical joke on him from the back of the club. Now, I have nothing at all against cell phones, but I have two questions. Who the hell takes their phone on stage with them? And, who would answer a phone call in the middle of a set? Well, Atom, I guess. I certainly can't think of anyone else. In the photos, there's a picture of him taking a call. Okay, so take a peek at Atom. Sorry, no pictures of the Package. Also, go visit his website and read his tour diary.
Yaphet Kotto finished the night off. They had a new member and only played five songs. That was probably good, as they spent a lot of time tuning between songs, so the set was long anyway. The photos aren't the best, but I present them here for your viewing enjoyment.