the DGDC Photo Blog: It's Just Like Music - Playing a Show at The Pinch!

I recently started playing with a band and last Friday was my first show with them. I think it's pretty safe to say that we killed it (which was made more impressive by the fact that I didn't totally believe I knew how most of the songs ended) and I can't wait to keep playing with them. I also had a chance to grab some photos of the opening acts, so check out some words about the band and photos from the night after the break.

Sea Knuckle at The Pinch

A couple months ago, me and the lady were making our way back to our apartment when I stumbled upon this flyer:

Notice the bit about being compared to Velvet Underground? I was signing the lyrics to Sweet Jane right before I saw the flyer! Ze Gods! This is a sign! Ezra Mae is a project conceptualized by two guitarists Sandy and Stephanie, and its sound can be loosely described as psychedelic acid blues rock. I describe it as the cool meandering guitar riffs that play in a Quentin Tarantino movie after the main character kills someone. Badass stuff and I was immediately onboard.

They have gone through some lineup changes and the current cast is rounded out by Travis on bass and me on drums. There really is nothing better than playing music again a couple times a week and my latest musical dry spell was way too long. And to think, I was just about to sell my beloved drum kit before seeing the Ezra Mae flyer.

Rehearsals Rehearsals!

Ezra Mae hosts a show at local venue The Pinch on the first Friday of every month. The Pinch is a relatively new live music venue in NW DC that really seems to do it right, showcasing a lot of local acts and really trying to build a good spot for the scene and its practitioners. Our show on September 5th featured three openers; Slow Fever, Sea Knuckle and Social Station and each added their own mix and sound to the evening. Speaking of mix, the Pinch employee that was slated for soundboard duties had to be repurposed in the kitchen, so we had to scramble a bit. Luckily, the lead singer and apparent mastermind of Social Station jumped into the captains chair and handled sound throughout the night.

Below are some photos of the three opening acts, plus a photo of Travis. I wanted to get a cool one of the crowd/stage from behind the drum set but the film bunched up in the cassette so I only ended up with this:

Outtake

Oh well, next time. The other frames from the two rolls I shot are also tinted with a brown stain and I'm not sure what went wrong in my development process but I need to figure it out pretty quick. I plan to shoot a long of TriX today and want these frames to come out nice and clean. This effect worked as a happy accident for the live music photos (the light streaks throughout most of the below frames) but is not my full time desired look. I did stash a triggered LumoPro LP180 on stage right and lit the performers, something I am starting to do more and more whenever I can.

Slow Fever: