In one of the Ace Ventura movies there is a scene where a pet store catches on fire. Naturally, Ace goes running in to save all the animals and is doing a great job until he comes to the snakes. He stops gives them a semi-loathing look and says something to the effect of all animals are created equal and somebody loves them. That was pretty much my response to the punk/metal scene and the Mean Reds show on Halloween, accept I let ’em burn and half assed the shoot. Any way after being a bit of a brat I gave myself the task of doing a good job of photographing a punk/metal show. I recently met a guy who said he could hook me up at the House of Blues and off I went down to Anaheim to shoot the Adicts and it was AWESOME.
One of the opening acts, The Unloved, was three of the most intimidating sub 5’6″ girls I have ever seen in my life. They had more attitude than a third grade Beverly Hills classroom that just had recess canceled. One of the guitarists made me think of an Olsen twin gone bad. (Back in the day Olsen twins, when they were on full house, before they actually did go bad). I could not tell one song from another all night but they had a great stage presence. Watch out, they are going as far as they want to.
The next band was Bang Sugar Bang. They had the same good energy but were less novel. By the time they got to the stage people were getting antsy for the Adicts, which really cut the crowd response down.
So after a few people had to get pulled out of the pit and the chants for the Adicts started, the “Clock Work Orange” music cued up and, this time I understood. The band was dressed in white outfits with top hats like the characters from the Stanley Kubrick movie. The front man had face paint that made him look like an evil clown. The Adicts just know how to put on a good show. There was confetti, bubbles beach balls and women getting pulled onto stage. By the end of the night I was wishing I didn’t have my camera so I could dive into the mosh-pit. A guy who was shooting video for the Adicts said that you get pit love. Somebody knocks a photographer over and the next person make sure you get back up without breaking your gear. That makes me want to eat my words about every negative thing I have said about punk and the punk scene. Pretty much every person I spoke to was awesome and all about having there picture taken. I just had to realize that the middle finger thing is just like all the stupid hand gestures you see hip hop heads doing in pictures that may or may not mean something. So props to the people and scene. It was a great time and worth the drive.
