Live by the...LA Guns

The truth is they are a brand new Guns...or at least the Trees say so...

It is not your 80's Guns...it isn't even your 90's Guns...It's not Guns and Roses...and it's NOT Phil Lewis' Guns...(thank god, no offense)...

The truth, while perhaps in the Trees...is that this iteration of the LA Guns, is a band, of founding member Tracii Guns, with a fresh lead singer, Marty Casey. The most striking thing about this band, is the chemistry that Tracii and Marty have.

Marty, is a talented front guy, that while getting exposure on 2005's Rock Star, has seemingly not yet broken beyond the regional success with his childhood band. But not for lack of charisma or presence. And I know there is plenty out there he has done that I have not been privy to...

I have no idea, if this turn with LAG will push him beyond, but it certainly gives us all a chance to see him spread his wings. He is raw talent, electric, charismatic, and a washboard of ripped abs(seriously, does he crunch them in his sleep?!?!?)

All together the entire band was very interesting...younger(save Tracii) than I had expected...more charismatic as a whole...I honestly expected a bunch of tired songs, performed by old guys, and just not music nor a band that I could get behind. I was hugely SURPRISED! In a good way. Marty leads the whole band, in breathing freshness into material...On top of that, they don't shy away from covering Marty's teevee debuted love in the sky, the truth is there too, song: Trees...I loved their take on it. And they covered one of my favorite Rolling Stones tunes, You Can't Always Get What You Want...LOVED it!

Oh, and Tracii reminds me a little of Keith Richards, lol...that is weird. Not correlating talent or no...but the look and style...Tracii, on his own merits, is a great guitar player...Aside from Marty, he totally steals or at least co-stars the show. And of course, he got to be in that "magical" guitar god light...

In all, thank you to my friends who encouraged me to go. Thank you to Marty, for being as great as I know you are...Thank you Tracii, Jeremy, Big Al, and Chad. Your band is something special. I wish you the very best.

And now, here is a bit of what I saw...

For full set: on flickr

Slideshow: on slide.com

http://lagunslive.com/
http://www.martycasey.com

xoxo
~Elisa

Stars Down is Minty Fresh...

In the last stand of their residency at The Mint I saw the band play July 29th...



I have seen Lukas play 2x previously acoustic...this was my first time seeing him accompanied by the new band...

I was convinced I liked him calm, thoughtful, and focused on his music, and voice. I was never a fan of the drunken frankenstein bit, that frankly was a turn off for me from his Rockstar: Supernova performances on the TV.

But, alas, that may have been just distant memory, because he was both melodic and fun to watch amongst his new bandmates in Stars Down. This band incarnation, is interesting, and you can see they are starting to get that organic band thing going.

I wish them much success. We(my friends and I) got to hang out with the Bass player, German Briseno, after, and hear what it is like being in this band, other bands, and what it is like to choose this life, a musician's life...

I am a big supporter of the creative path in life...I myself struggle with having made the 'safe' decision to work in the business world over pursuing more creative endeavors. And I love music, as a consumer... I respect that the folks that struggle, oft times for years, chasing their dreams, may make it, or may just get by. The pursuit of what is art, and I believe music is art...is a long hard road. Sure there are "rockstars"...but mostly, there are folks that toil day to day, from band to band, dark bar to dark bar, playing their music for whomever will listen...Because they believe. Anywho, I just want to say to German, Lukas, Jon, keep doing what you are doing. Follow your bliss. Dream the dream.

And with that...I sipped my Diet Coke this evening, and snapped a few images from my lovely table right in front...

xoxo
~Elisa

Full set of images on Flickr!
www.starsdowninc.com
www.myspace.com/starsdownmusic
RockBandLounge.com :: Event thread ~ Stars Down at the Mint, July 29th

Foo-kin orgy...

Seriously...I have sweat soaked through my clothes coming out of this show...and I am not sure any of it's mine! ick!!!! lmao...

With time passing, perhaps, I will just remember it as an orgy w/the Foo's...lol, if only! Up front I was...I can only dream the dream...but the Foo Fighters were fabulous.........and...

Dave Grohl was so hot...I don' t know how to describe it..it's not his fashion sense...perhaps it is the plain guy speak...when he says he is going to play some more good shit for us,lol...or perhaps when we , the masses voiced our preference for FIVE encore songs versus his stories...he thusly tell us "Fuck you!" ...with love, of course...

He promised they would play all night if they could, or until they got kicked out...we got almost 3 hours of constant music...both sides of the arena...pulsing all around...everyone got their fix...

I will say, I may be too OLD for the mosh pit! lol...oy!!!! I was almost freaked out when he said they would play for hours....I honestly didn't know if I could handle it....the writhing throbbing mass of 10k(probably a few of which were all crushing the floor) felt like it was pressed up against me with so much force...oft times, more than 10people were crushed on top of me practically...

And so many crowd surfers surfed them selves right out of the show....as they got spit out from the writhing crowd up front, that was their cue to exit...so weird the surfing....I clearly have not gone to enough of these types of shows...I had never seen it so prevalent...oy indeed!

As to photos, I had a camera packed in my purse that I could never get to...so I satisfied the brief urges via my iPhone...mostly though, I was half rapt by Grohl & Co...half holding on for dear life...





Foo-kin Orgy indeed! Thanks Dave! P.S. he wears grey underwear...lmao, yes I was that close! So, yes, thanks for the Orgy, Dave;)

xoxo
~Elisa

P.S. some more...cross posted on RBL with some fresh thoughts there: http://rockbandlounge.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=7399

Noise for the Needy ~ Festival 2008

Ok, I do not lie...as I mentioned previously, I am back to tell everything about the Noise for the Needy Festival shows I shot this past weekend!



I shot 2 shows: The Funhouse on Friday the 13th(spooky! lol) and King Cobra's early show on Saturday...super fun!

The lines ups for the shows were as follows:

The Funhouse ~
Omnia Mutantor
Oswald Effect - www.myspace.com/theoswaldeffect
Mos Generator www.myspace.com/mosgenerator
Sunday Night Blackout - www.myspace.com/sundaynightblackout

King Cobra ~ Featuring Fourthcity DJ's http://fourthcity.net/ - www.myspace.com/fourthcity
DJ Zapan www.myspace.com/zapan
DJ Same DNA www.myspace.com/djsamedna
DJ Absolute Madman www.myspace.com/absolutemadman
Specs One www.myspace.com/specsone
Delicious People www.myspace.com/deliciouspeeps

Both fun shows...the first at the Funhouse, a hardcore rock line up...the second, a kind of mellow chill hip hop bit with DJ spinners, etc...

As well, both shows were just a few in the line up of the Noise for the Needy ~ Festival 2008, www.noisefortheneedy.org. This year, the NFTN festival sponsored the charity: Urban Rest Stop ~ www.urbanreststop.org.

It felt great to contribute in some way...my way is to give images to them(NFTN) and the artists. I had a great time...it was great practice and I got to meet some great people. My good deed for the year(I kid...)...

I actually rented 2 lenses ~ a 24mm f1.4L(test drive), a 50mm f1.2L(dreaming), and used my own 100mm f2.0. I had a flash in my bag, but I am both not a huge fan of flash in show photography, and I honestly don't know how to properly use it in such a setting...so it was more a if I absolutely need it back up. I was pleased with the images I composed and captured with out...

Here are a smattering of my favorites from the two nights!

I love music...it is a beautiful thing!

Full sets of images on flickr www.flickr.com/photos/noisefortheneedy
>>Full set from the Funhouse<<
>>Full set from King Cobra<<

xoxo
~elisa

The camera loved Johnny Blackout

Hola! It's been a while...vacation was fabulous, and I have almost 5000 images to sift through!

But, more on that to come, promise...

This past weekend, I volunteered to shoot the Noise for the Needy Festival(www.noisefortheneedy.org) at 2 of their shows. More on that later, too:)

I had rented a couple lenses to push my kit to it's max since I knew lighting would be challenging at these gigs, and I wanted to test drive the 24mm 1.4L. So I shot primarily with that and the 50mm 1.2L and the 100mm 2.0 .

What came of these shows was some pretty good images I think...but the most striking for me on reviewing all the images from assorted bands, was the guitar player for Sunday Night Blackout ~ Johnny Blackout... He had all the rock star moves...some may even call them cliche...but it does not matter when it comes to images...Funny because he was also in the best light on stage...coincidence? I really had to push to get any images of the rest of the band. In frame it was magic when pointing it at Mr Johnny Blackout...take a look...............

Johnny's myspace :: www.myspace.com/rockaction1978

More from the show at: Noise for the Needy's Flickr

The whole experience was great...the organization is something I can get behind, and loved being able to contribute in some way...like I said, more on the whole bit soon!


~Elisa