If you don’t know about Rocky Business by now I am pretty sure you will soon.  Rocky Business are Brooklyn locals and they played the show of their lives at the Village Voice/ Frank 151 SXSW showcase at Austin Music Hall. They played in between their boys Trouble Andrew and Marz Lovejoy and while both acts put on great shows Rocky Business brought down the house.  I am pretty sure that 95% of the couple thousand people watching their set had never even heard of Rocky Business but by the time RB finished their set 95% of those people will never forget them. They seriously fucking rocked the place.  We all ran backstage after and everyone was talking about how amazing their set was.  It was seriously epic.  Luckily I have some great photos from the show and their boy Tone was on the road with them video taping everything they did and he got some great footage of the show.

Check out Tone’s stuff and then click here to see all my photos from Rocky Business’ game changing set at the Village Voice/ Frank 151 SXSW Showcase at Austin Music Hall.

I think we should just skip straight ahead to the main event. As you read in my last update Wu-Tang were the headliners of the Village Voice Media/ Frank 151 SXSW showcase at the Austin Music Hall. I was a huge Wu-Tang fan for exacly one album but by the time Wu-Tang Forever finally came out four years after 36 Chambers I was listening to pretty much only punk rock and sort of let that shit slip. Other than a couple Ghostface albums I never really got back on board. Still I was pretty fucking excited to see the legendary Staten Island group.  Yeah they were missing RZA and Method and of course Ol’ Dirty (RIP), but it was still pretty fucking awesome to see them fuck up a stage. Plus they brought Erykah Badu out with them at one point and then she just sat behind the DJ booth drinking tea. They were having tons of issues with the sound and yelling at the sound guy and it was all pretty entertaining and I just hung out on the side of the stage sort of amazed by the whole thing. I am sure a few years ago I never thought I would be hanging out on stage with fucking Wu Tang. And seriously, Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.

Click here to see all the pictures of Wu-Tang Clan at the Village Voice Media/ Frank 151 SXSW Showcase at Austin Music Hall.

As I mentioned before the Village Voice and Frank 151 showcase at Austin Music Hall was one of the best shows at South By Southwest. With headliners Wu-Tang, Fishbone and Yelawolf with a stand out performance by Rocky Business and a surprise performance by Childish Gambino this was the show to beat of the festival.  I took 1100 photos at the event so I am going to be breaking this down into four posts and ten galleries. WuTang and Rocky Business are going to get their own posts and then all the rest of the photos are going to be broken up into two posts, this being the first.

This first post we are going to focus on the party photos and not so much the bands.  I shot a bunch of random crowd shots earlier in the night, but at some point I convinced the bouncers that it was a good idea that I had backstage access despite me not having any legitimate credentials.  So I broke that stuff down into two galleries, crowd shots and backstage photos.  The crowd shots are pretty self explanitory although I guess I should remind you that it was St. Patricks Day which might explain some of the drunks wearing green.  The back stage shots probably require some commentary.

Ultimately I probably should have had backstage credentials since I was working for the Village Voice at their showcase, but my editor told me I couldn’t get them.  Fortunately for me I am pretty good at getting past bouncers and after showing him my Village Voice SXSW badge and pointing up to the big Village Voice banner I was let back stage. I hung out mostly in Rocky Business dressing room and used my access to shoot the bands from on stage. But right before Childish Gambino played I left the back stage area and was told that since the headliners were going on they were kicking everyone out of the back stage area and I couldn’t get back in. Meanwhile I watched someone bribe a bouncer as he was telling me to fuck off.  I quickly ran up two flights and convinced another bouncer to let me onto the VIP side balcony and then I worked my way down to the back stage area.

By this time Childish Gambino AKA comedian Donald Glover was off stage and hanging out. I had met him a day or two earlier because my editor was working on a story on Donald/Childish for the Voice. I took a few photos of him, but while I was setting up he checked out a bunch of my photos on my iPad. He loved the shots and told me he might want to buy one of them. So when I saw him back stage we started talking and I broke out my iPad again. Donald was with his Community co-star Danny Pudi and the two of them just sat there checking out my photos for about 20 minutes.  While they were looking at the photos one of Wu-Tang’s entourage told them he was a big Community fan and brought the back to the Wu-Tang dressing room.  Donald still had my iPad so I went with them.  The whole thing was pretty surreal.  Later I got stuck in a small stairwell for about 10 minutes with Erykah Badu while security tried to lock shit down before Wu-Tang. On top of that Bam Margera was back stage and there was an insane amount of weed being smoked back there. It was a pretty good party back there.

So yeah, you should take a look at all these pictures.  Start by checking out the general crowd shots from the VV Media/Frank 151 SXSW showcase by clicking here. And then if you want to take a look at all the back stage happenings from the party you should probably click here.  And then come back soon for more pics from the event.

Let’s take a quick break from SXSW for a minute to post pictures from an event I shot on Tuesday. I shot the DVD release party for Tristan Taormino’s new film Rough Sex 3: Adriannna’s Dangerous Mind at Fontana’s.  The movie was based on porn star Adrianna Nicole’s sexual fantasies. Oh, did I mention it’s a porn film? It stars Adrianna obviously but also her co stars Danny Wylde and Jiz Lee were at the party.  On top of that it was Adrianna’s birthday and there was a cake with an edible sex toy on top of it.

Also porn babe Aiden Starr was there and it was awesome to see her.  I once went to Disneyland with her and Dana DeArmond, Bobbi Starr and Madison Mitchell. I didn’t really know any of them but Madison at the time, but as you can see from the links above I have now shot all of them except Aiden. I hadn’t seen Aiden since that day but we talked a bunch at the party and I am hopefully going to get to shoot her next time she is in NYC or I am in LA.  Good times.

Anyway, let’s get on to the pictures. For a porn party the pictures are pretty tame but I still gotta put a NSFW warning on these. Dig ‘em.

Click here to see all the pictures from the release party for Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex 3: Adrianna’s Dangerous Mind at Fontana’s.

One of the weirder South By Southwest events I have attended was the Tricky Kid party at Randy Palmer’s South Austin Gym. My friend Roy AKA Tricky Kid was looking for places to throw his SXSW showcase and this guy Randy Palmer reached out to him. Randy had wanted to do shows at his boxing gym for a while and figured SXSW was the perfect opportunity to get things going and let his space be used for free. Roy told him he would do the event at his gym if the bands could play in the actual boxing ring and Randy said yes and the event was on.

I got there a bit late and I all but missed the first band (Here Holy Spain) but the second band The Blind Pets were pretty fucking awesome. They sounded a lot like Mudhoney. One of the guys in the band told me that he had never listened to Mudhoney before they started the band but ever since people started bringing up the similarities he has become a huge fan. I didn’t think they were too derivative or anything and they rocked a lot so it was fun to see. They also helped set up the show which turned out to be not such an awesome thing in the end but they were a great band.

When I heard that The Death Set were going to play a show in a boxing ring I couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking amazing it would be if the show had 300 people there instead of 60. A boxing ring seems like the ultimate venue for a band like the Death Set who brings all their fans on to stage with them.  Even with the small crowd I knew things were going to get out of control. They were using the back line of the Blind Pets and as soon as the Death Set brought fans on stage the Blind Pets started freaking out. They made all the fans stand on the outside of the ring.  That didn’t last long. By their third or fourth song everyone was moshing in the ring and the Blind Pets frontman was losing it. Evidently Randy Palmer was not happy that people were possibly tearing up the ring and told the Blind Pets guy to get everyone the fuck off stage.  This quickly escalated and they eventually pulled the plug on the Death Set.  They were allowed to play if they got everyone out of the ring but the Death Set said fuck it and that was the end of that.

The next band was a metal band called The House Harkonnen. I don’t really get the appeal of metal like that but they had a ton of people really excited to see them.  A ton of people who were really upset when the cops showed up and finally shut the whole show down.  New Yorkers Wildstreet and special guest Moistboyz didn’t get to play and everyone was pissed.  Luckily for me it gave me the chance to head down to see the DFA’79 show which turned out to be one of the craziest moments of my SXSW.

But yeah, the show was really cool, but unfortunately it could have been a lot better. I want to build a venue with a boxing ring in it really badly now. It seems like nothing but good stuff could come from that.  Anyway, there are some pretty cool pictures of the madness.

Click here to see Tricky Kid’s SXSW Brawl For All featuring The Death Set at Randy Palmer’s South Austin Gym.

Wednesday night was the only day during South By Southwest that I didn’t have any specific plans. I decided to watch a hockey game and then I was going to get some work done and catch up on some sleep. Luckily for me that didn’t happen.  Luckily for me I was wearing my Mishka Bad Brains shirt.  My friend Sam came over to my hotel to watch the end of the hockey game with me and he saw my shirt. He just casually asked me if I knew that the Bad Brains were playing at 11pm at Emo’s. Oh yeah, and some band named Off! was opening for them. The second the game ended I got my ass down to Emo’s to catch both bands and boy am I glad I did.

If you don’t know by now, Off! is the newest band from Keith Morris. Morris was a founding member of Black Flag and then he went on to front the Circle Jerks (who I shot at SXSW in 2009). The band also features former members of Redd Kross and Rocket From The Crypt. My favorite part of the band might be their least legendary member in Dimtri Coats from the band Burning Brides.  Coats guitar sounded so perfectly 1981.  The band could have been an early 80′s LA hardcore band except they seemed totally relevant and not one of these faux retro bands.  They fucking melted faces and instantly made me a huge Off! fan. What a fucking great band.

After Off! was the legendary Bad Brains.  As a punk kid growing up in DC the Bad Brains were pretty much gods. The pretty much created the DC hardcore scene that meant so much to me as a 15 year old. They eventually made the same move I did moving from DC to NYC and continued to fuck shit up along the way.  I never got a chance to see them, missing their epic performance at the Vice Halloween party a few years ago by about 15 minutes. I couldn’t have been more psyched to see them. When they got on stage they very calmly performed their songs, nothing like the Bad Brains of the late 70′s/ early 80′s but somehow they still blew everyone’s fucking mind.  People were crowd surfing and moshing to their slowest reggae dub songs.  It was fucking insane.  At the end of every song H.R. would simply bow to us and move on.  It was amazing to see.

Anyway, it was a fucking amazing show and made me so glad I decided to leave the hotel. These pictures are not the best because it is really hard to shoot photos in a mosh pit, but fuck it, I got the shots…

Click here to see all the pictures of Off! at SXSW.

Click here to see all the pictures of Bad Brains at SXSW!

Oh yeah, and keep up that PMA.

THe first band I saw at South By Southwest was Peelander Z at Beauty Bar. It was totally accidental. I was sort of bar hopping on the Tuesday night before SXSW Music started and some people I met went to Beauty Bar so I followed them over there.  There was some hip hop DJ in the front and when I made my way out to the back there was just chaos. I pushed my way through the crowd and I saw a sign that just said “STEAK” on it.  I knew immediately what I was about to witness.

Peelander Z is the most insane Japanese band around which says a lot considering how weird the Japanese are.  They also happen to be one of the most fun bands everywhere.  I have seen them a bunch of times, but not in the last 5 or 6 years.  They might be even better now.  When I walked in they were nearing the end of their set where they hand over their instruments to members of the audience, pass out noise makers, set up bowling pins and throw a giant lobster man at the bowling pins.  Somehow this makes sense in the context of the band as weird as that sounds. You clearly need to check them out if you get the chance.

Click here to see all the pictures of Peelander Z at Beauty Bar Austin during South By Southwest. And click here to donate money to the Red Cross’ Japan Tsunami relief efforts.

Last night the Village Voice threw their second party of SXSW. This time during music week and at the Austin Music Hall and they partnered with Frank 151 to do it. The Interactive party was fun but low key.  The music party fucking blew shit up. It might have been the best party I have been to in 8 years of coming to SXSW. I got there a bit late but in time to check out Brooklyn natives Trouble Andrew and Rocky Business.  Rocky Business played a set that is sure to blow those kids up.  They were just insanely good and the crowd lost it.  After them one of the most stunning girls I have ever seen named Mars Lovejoy did her thing and made half of Austin fall in love (well, at least me).  Texas native Trea The Truth brought a dozen guys on stage with him and fucked shit up for the nearly local crowd.  After that shit got really serious with performances by Yellawolf, Fishbone and the fucking Wu-Tang Clan. The night ended with a DJ set from Erykah Badu.

I managed to get back stage even though I didn’t have any legit credentials for that. I just kept showing people my Village Voice press pass and pointing to our banner and hoping they would let me in. It seemed to work. I shot from the stage and back stage and had an insane amount of fun.  I ran into Comunnity star Donald Glover who I had met the day before backstage. He and his co-star Danny Pudi spent about 15 minutes looking at my photos on my iPad until one of Wu-Tang’s entourage brought us over to Wu-Tang’s dressing room.  Bam Margera was also back there and at some point I got stuck in some room with Erykah Badu and her entourage. It was all pretty surreal.

I don’t have time to upload pictures and all that shit today and when I do upload pictures I am going to do a much more indepth write up of every thing. I shot 1100 photos at the party so I will be breaking it all down into a number of posts. But today I am going to leave you with just a link to the Village Voice slideshow that only features a small percentage of the pictures I shot.

Click here for the Village Voice slideshow.

Click here for the Village Voice blog post.

And click here to see the Miami New Times write up featuring my shots.

Monday night was the Village Voice Media Interactive Party at South By Southwest.  I haven’t had time to upload my pictures yet but I did edit them and send them off to the Village Voice.  That means you get to see them now!

The party was at a place called Paradise.  Tokimonsta DJ’d the whole thing and there were pretty sweet Village Voice branded squirt guns to play with.  The party was a tech party so it wasn’t exactly the most exciting party but it did have a lot of free booze and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. Plus I did get a friend of mine topless at the party so the gallery is NSFW.  Also the Village Voice Music party tomorrow should be a lot more exciting to look at because fucking Wu Tang and Fishbone are playing it. Legit.

Anyway, click here to look at my photos on the Village Voice and then later I will come back and put the rest of these photos on my site.

Update: Click here to see all the shots from the Village Voice Media Interactive party at Paradise on Driven By Boredom.