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Oh yeah. Avoiding getting hit or kicked or socked in the head. And having the time of my life!

One of my favorite bands, Converge, played a small all ages venue in Anaheim the other night. We got there early because I knew exactly where I wanted to be–next to the stage, but off to the side, behind a half-wall that would protect me from the mosh pit going on in front of the stage.

When Nathaniel, Dillon and I pulled into the parking lot, the singer, Jacob, was outside the venue talking to someone. We all freaked out. There he is! What do we say? I don’t know what to say! We have to talk to him! But of course by the time we walked over to where he’d been he’d gone inside, out of sight.

We waited in line–actually we cut ahead of some people who were there before us without realizing it. But it’s not like we were going to steal their spots inside, or anything. Here are pics of Nathaniel and Dillon I took with my cell phone while we waited:

Here is part of a text I sent to Daniel while waiting, also:

“BTW the trend in hardcore attire regarding cut off jeans is a little horrifying.”

I was expecting the opening bands to be lame, but I actually enjoyed all of them. I’m not sure of the first band’s name, I think they were called Nail. They were pretty good. Black Breath were good, too (in spite of their name). Gaza I think I’d heard of but not heard. They had some great slow doomy moments. Their singer is like, 7 feet tall. (Actually he’s 6’7″.) And super skinny. And doesn’t look very happy. I enjoyed them.

Coalesce were a pleasant surprise (in spite of their name). The guitarist, who just happened to be right in front of me, was a complete spaz, which is always great in a live show. I’d definitely see them again just to see him do what he does. Here’s video I took with my cell phone:

The sound came out as just gibberish so I replaced it with a song youtube provides. Mute it if it bothers you. What you want to watch for happens at :50.

I took three film cameras, including a pinhole I’ve been playing around with, which I made out of an old Holga. I was curious what would happen with a pinhole at a show so I set it on the stage and took a couple minute exposure. This was during one of the opening bands. The show was way too insane to attempt a pinhole shot during Converge. I knew I’d get nothing but the stage (with a couple minutes exposure time, anything moving becomes invisible, or just ghostlike fog), but was hoping I’d get the drummer somewhat. What I got was lots of ghosty blurs:

What I find strange is the way the lights on the right are all melting down the frame.

This is from a (non-pinhole, regular) Holga with a flash, opening band Coalesce:

I used Kodak Tri-X 320 film that a Flickr contact sent me a long time ago. It’s 220 film rather than 120, so I had to tape up the frame number window and just count how many times I turned the crank to advance the film. (I went one and a half turns for each frame which was more than enough room–got 18 pics out of it.)

What I did NOT do is count how many pictures I was taking. I went a little richter on opening band, Coalesce, because the guitarist was just such an awesome spazzy guy, I had to keep snapping him. So I ran out of film for Converge and only got a handful of shots of them with the Holga, dang it.

I did get this double exposure of Converge though:

And this is probably the best Fisheye shot I got of them (the other camera I brought):

I was worried people might try to stage dive onto where I was during Converge, so I got some kid who was behind a wall with no view at all to switch places with me. Then I just stuck my camera around the wall, blind, for most of the Converge shots. Of course by then the film had run out and I didn’t know it!

I took a lot of cell phone video. Mainly cuz I could hold it up over people’s heads and watch what was happening on my cell. I’m so short it’s hard for me to see anything if I’m not right against the stage.

Nathaniel took it easy, didn’t really go into the pit, because just before they came on he got hit in the crotch. Some short guy was doing the stupid hardcore whirlybird thing and Nathaniel’s pretty tall. Ouch.

Dillon got kicked in the eye (of course). He also got to sing into the mic a couple times and did at least one stage dive.Converge shows are VIOLENT–one kid crowd surfing got punched in the face–by the singer! haha. I saw it all right in front of me. The kid looked shocked. He came and stood by me later, I asked him after the show if the singer had punched him, he just said “Yeah! He punched me!” –Wasn’t bothered by it I don’t think. He was bleeding a little from it. I’ve seen video of the singer socking people before but never saw it happen live.

The singer sits on the stage right after they’re done and shakes people’s hands. All the hardcore kids were hugging him, it was cute. Actually, he was hugging them, I think. I waited till they’d mostly cleared out and then said “Jacob! You have to come back soon!” (They don’t play LA often enough.) He said, “Thanks, we will” and shook my hand. He was drenched in sweat–literally, during the show it was flying off of him. I turned to Nathaniel on our way out and said, “I’m never washing this hand again!”

Cell phone pics of the boys after the show:

You can’t tell but Dillon had big red circles around his eyes. As soon as I saw him I said “What happened!” He said, “I got kicked in the head.” He looked like he’d been socked in both eyes.

Setlist-wise, I don’t really remember what they played. I know they *didn’t* play Plagues or You Fail Me. Jacob said they were making a point this tour to do some songs they’ve never done live before, and then they played one: Orphans.

Here’s some video of Converge, again with the audio swapped out:

Just found some pics someone else took at the show on Flickr. I saw this guy taking pictures all night, and he got some great stuff. Here’s a pic with Dillon in it:

Dillon’s on the lower left.

You can see my hand holding my cell phone here, I’m behind the wall:

He got a bunch during opening bands with me in the background because I was directly across the stage from him. Here are a few.

Holding my camera in my hands:

Winding the film:

Waiting for Coalesce to come on (the guitarist sat right in front of me while they soundchecked–I was actually taking a pinhole shot right here–camera blends into my jacket–but it didn’t really come out):

During Gaza–you can see me between the dude’s legs, haha:

There was another photog there with stage access who was using a beautiful fisheye lens. I’m probably in a couple of his shots. But I haven’t found them online yet.

I get tired of my blog always being about me, me, me.

What are some small goals you have?

Nothing too weighty. I don’t believe in huge goals. Low expectations = never being disappointed.

OK, I’ll go first.

1. I want to spend a day exploring on the commuter train. I’ve taken it from Long Beach into downtown LA before, and then into Hollywood (where it’s actually a subway). I’d like to do that some more. Just take off and see where I end up.

2. I want to start playing the flute again. Haven’t played it since I was in high school, but I’m pretty sure I still remember the B-flat scale. And what more do I need? A flute? Oh yeah.

3. I want to look out the window and make jokes.

4. I want to see Converge in a small, all ages place. And then I want to walk up to them after the show and say, “Hey. You probably don’t remember, but I sent you a fan email once. My name is Susan. I’m a 39 year old Mormon housewife, and I’m your biggest fan.”*

* This one could actually happen. They’re playing a small all ages place soon, and my son got me and him both tickets.

What are your seven favorite words?

Mine:
- enthusiasm
- ektachrome
- converge
- indubitably
- blue
- dude
- seven

Reasons:

Enthusiasm: Because just say it!

Ektachrome: Not sure why I love it. It’s a type of slide film that I love, but I also just love the word. The way it’s spelled, the way it looks, the way it sounds.

Converge: Because of the way it sounds and what it means.

Indubitably: It makes me laugh. Just thinking it. Not sure I can pronounce it correctly.

Blue: What’s not to love?

Dude: Don’t like the way it sounds. The way it looks is funny. But dude, I use it all the time.

Seven: I love everything about it.

This weekend I took Nathaniel and Dillon to Hollywood and LA. We went to a photo store in Hollywood called Freestyle. I mainly wanted to see what kind of Polaroid film they had and how much it was. But I picked up a bunch of cool attachments, including a fisheye, for my Holga camera. Happy birthday to me!

Then the boys went off to browse Amoeba Records, while I took Flat Liberace to dance on his sidewalk star. Yes I got a picture, in spite of the many people all over the sidewalks on a Saturday afternoon in late May. Look for it to appear on the Flat Liberace blog soon.

Here are some other pictures I took in Hollywood. This is a vintage clothing store on Hollywood Blvd:

A mural on a building, forget exactly where (Hollywood’s not full of itself, or anything):

I met the boys back up at Amoeba and Dillon had found a Converge vinyl record, used, on colored vinyl. Great find. I picked up a David Sylvian double album really cheaply, myself. He’s the singer from Japan. The band, Japan, not the country.

Dillon and Nathaniel with their vinyl, outside Amoeba, and through the fisheye attachment on my Holga:

Then we swung by the Hollywood Forever cemetery. I figured we’d just drive through really quick and the boys could see Johnny Ramone’s grave. Of course I couldn’t resist getting a picture of Flat Liberace with Johnny Ramone. I’ve posted about this cemetery before—it’s got some really rich people buried there. The boys were as blown away as I was at some of the graves.

Then on the way home we decided to pull off near downtown where we always see these cool old bridges. We ended up parking at one end of the 4th Street bridge, where there was a bunch of graffiti on some buildings. The boys took off on their own, back over the bridge to get pictures of the largest graffiti tag in Los Angeles, which you can see from the bridge. It’s down in the river bed and it’s like, a half-mile long. It took something like 400 gallons of paint to do. The city says it will cost almost $4 million to remove it (because the toxic runoff has to be caught and removed from the riverbed), so it’s not going anywhere soon. Here’s a quick video view of it (we didn’t take this):

I wandered around on my own. Near where we parked:

A garage sale I stumbled upon (through the fisheye):

That was kind of surreal. The area I was in was deserted, by LA standards. Very industrial. I stumbled on this garage sale in the middle of nothing with all these people there. One drunk guy on a Harley wanted me to take a picture of his bike but I had just snapped my last frame.

They had a few boxes of vinyl, but the only record I was considering getting was a Stray Cats album—until I turned it over and saw there was dried blood smeared all over the back.

It was just weird.

A building right next to where the garage sale was:

I figured if I went up on the bridge I’d see the boys heading back from whatever direction they’d gone. I tried out some split-lens filters I got for the Holga while up there. This is looking straight down the road on the bridge:

The bridge has these benches built into each side, and this one a homeless person had taken up residence in. Their belongings were all piled on it:

I won’t mention the stairwell I came across that someone had used as a toilet. OK, so I did mention it. It was incredibly stinky, and that’s putting it mildly. More gross than I can say.

Found out after we got home that we were basically on the edge of Skid Row.

I loved it though and now want to go exploring all over downtown LA.

Apparently. I go to sleep to be woken up by my new neighbors. At 3 am. Who are rolling around and yelling and shouting and swearing and stomping and fighting and running and who knows what else.

Ahh, life in an apartment complex. So fun.

Don’t worry. It wasn’t a man and a woman. It was two men. During the 20 minutes they were fighting I kept wondering if one had a gun. Not the most restful night of sleep I’ve ever had.

Better, though, then previous neighbors—the boyfriend was a drug addict, and the girlfriend did not appreciate him doing drugs. That’s according to the conversation I overheard when they were outside my open bedroom window, in the parking lot, anyway. At 2am. Shouting at the top of their lungs.

I’m pretty sure the people who live above us just moved out. And I’m pretty sure they did all their packing and furniture-moving at 11pm. Do people do a lot of jumping jacks and running across their apartment when packing?

I kept thinking they were moving dead bodies around.

I’ve been spoiled lately. We had both units on either side of us empty for a long time. Now Mr. 3am Brawler has moved in next door. Did I mention his apartment is right next to our bedroom?

Maybe I should just start blaring Converge day and night and see how they like it.