Photos Archives

I declare Day One of the Austin City Limits Festival a success:

Among the highlights:

- While riding the bus into town yesterday two guys got on dressed in jeans and heavy, dark colored long sleeve shirts. I'm thinking to myself "These Texans are hard core!" (It was roughly 93 degrees yesterday). Turns out those two guys weren't Texans. They were Kaiser Chiefs. Taking public transport downtown.

- Hopping off the bus and meeting up with Chromewaves, Gorilla vs. Bear, MOKB, and You Ain't No Picasso for some pre-festival grub. We went to some Mexican place for fajitas and flautas. Sitting across from us was Grizzly Bear. Sitting behind us was Spoon.

- After breakfast while we made a quick stop at the ATM, Mrs. MOKB took GvsB's Polaroid camera down to the other end of the block where Britt and Co. were talking with some friends. Mrs. MOKB chatted with Britt for a sec before snapping his pic, and at one point she pointed towards all of us (who were milling about on the other end of the block). We were all like "Oh Shit." So Mrs. MOKB comes back and says "Britt wants to come say hi." And he does. How does he greet us?
"What's up bloggers?"
Awesome. I never been more embarrassed in my life*. Britt was really cool though. Later, on the shuttle bus over to the festival Matt Picasso compared the whole experience to you telling a girl that the girl on the other side of the room is cute and then she goes over to that girl and relays that info. Maybe you had to be there.

- There was a huge fire at ACL. People got hurt. I got pictures (of the fire, not the hurt people - I hope they are OK).

- Best band of the day: Queens of the Stone Age. Hooollleeeee Fuck they were awesome. I want to go drink beers with Josh Homme.
Honorable mentions: M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem.

- Best band not playing ACL: Art Brut. So much awesome.

- Worst band of the day: Grizzly Bear. These guys are popular why? No hooks, no melodys. No need to waste yr time. Towards the end of the Art Brut set, one of the guys in Grizzly Bear came over to the Mohawk and his jaw was on the floor while watching Eddie and Co. do their thing. It was awesome.

More tomorrow. ACL photos on AOL on Monday.

The bags are packed and Mr. Pink is being very passive aggresive towards me, which means it's time to head off to Austin for ACL. Expect many shenanigans and photos in the ensuing days.

D.C. United was victorious over visiting Real Salt Lake last night, clinching United's spot in the MLS post-season. Woot!

I need a few days off to recover from last weekend. Old college friend Jon Miller got married on Saturday at a golf course in Pennsylvania and yours truly set the new course record for Gin & Tonics consumed in one evening. And apprently G&T's fuel and embolden me to become the world's drunkest wedding photographer. In between drinks, I was running around the dance floor popping my flash every three seconds. It was a lot of fun. Too much actually. Oh, and did I mention the wedding was Metallica themed? Yes, "Master of Puppets" was played during the night, along with the accompanying air guitar. Visual evidence tomorrow.

I had to get up fairly early on Sunday and fight my hangover so I could get back in time for the 3 p.m. kickoff at RFK as D.C. United took on the NE Revolution in a very important Eastern Conference showdown. The boys in black fell behind 2-1 early in the 2nd half but scored three unanswered goals to pull out a 4-2 win. And for the record, sitting on the pitch taking photos in 90+ degree weather when you haven't eaten all day is not at the top of my list of things to do when you're hungover.

This week is just as hectic. I'm off to Texas for the Austin City Limits Festival on Thursday. If you're heading down there, give me a shout.

The science of Gangsta Rap.

I love it when Agent Zero tells the Gary Payton story.

Blur is reportedly about to become Blur again.

Re: My Morning Jacket. Here they are doing Elton John's "Rocket Man."

Despite being pretty beat, I went to see The National and The Rosebuds last night at the 9:30 Club, hoping that the underwhelming show I saw in June was an aberration. Friend of information leafblower R.D. came down from NYC for the June show, but caught The National recently at South Street Seaport and said the show was so good his "trust in the decency of the common man had been restored." Yes please.

Unfortunately while playing a very good show last night, the band and venue still highlighted their collective weaknesses more than their strengths. Boxer, grainy, emotional and gorgeous on CD, lacks a bit in the pacing department live and I just couldn't get past this. Matt was also battling a bit of a cold, which didn't help things.

It almost seemed that the band was holding back last night. On the few occasions they put their guard down and let 'er rip ("Abel" and "Squalor Victoria" for instance) it was truly a thing of beauty that made you think "I am so glad I'm here rather than at home watching Andy Roddick lose to Roger Federer in straight sets." But any momentum would soon be lost when they would follow up with a slowie that brought the energy in the room down again. Alligator worked because "Mr. November's" yin evened out "Daughters of the Soho Riots" yang. And "Daughters" sounds all the better because of it. Boxer lacks the songs that punch you right in the gut (sorry for the horrible pun).

That said, they played "All The Wine" (YAY!) with a wonderful new arrangement and did the slow-then-fast tempo for "Apartment Story" that worked so well back in June. The highlight of the show was definitely the venue-wide singalong to all the words of "Fake Empire."

Similarly, try as I might, I simply cannot get into The Rosebuds. They've garnered all sorts of praise on blogs far and wide, but after seeing them twice, I just can't get into them.

The Washington Post Express is going to run a few of my photos today, which is why there's no photo gallery here. Head over to Flickr for more photos.

Midlake are at the Black Cat tonight, and although I do want to see them, I need a night off. If you go, tell me how it was.

AOL liked my Projekt Revolution photos so much the asked if they could use them in one of their posts. I said yes. Obvs.

Back at work today after two days of packing and unpacking. Lots more to come this weekend. Mr. Pink was freaked out a bit once he got into the new place, but as of last night he was back to his usual self - running around, begging to play fetch and climbing on everything he can. He eventually stopped to rest so I broke out the camera.

More over on Flickr.

If you want even more, here's the Mr. Pink archive on Flickr.