Live At the Whisky
In 1977, Blondie and the Ramones toured L.A. for the first time, and I went to see both bands perform at the Whisky a Go-Go on Sunset Boulevard. I took a bunch of contrasty, grainy photos with a Nikon SLR loaded with Kodak Tri-X pushed to 1600 ASA, then developed the film in my friend Pete's darkroom. I decided to move them off my old website and into a new gallery today, so if you haven't seen them before, here they are for your edification. You'll note that a couple of shots are from Blondie's show the following year, when their original bassist, Gary Valentine, had been replaced by Frank Enfante.
[Link: Live at the Whisky a Go-Go]
Comments
Noice! I wish I'd taken my SLR and a fast roll of Tri-X out on more dates.
Posted by: M.Ace | June 4, 2006 6:41 PM
I started pushing Tri-X after I found that it was much easier to take photographs in clubs if you didn't have a flash, because the bouncers and the bands didn't notice that I was taking pictures.
Plus, I thought the stark black and white graininess of the resulting negatives made them more "punk" somehow. It used to drive my photography teacher nuts though.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 4, 2006 8:20 PM
Flash shots stink anyway... drab, flat, boring lighting. Existing light rules.
Good ol' Tri-X. You can smack it and abuse it, and it doesn't care. Instant film noir. I'm glad to see they're still making it. I never did get to try their Tri-X successor that came along in later years: T-Max. Did you? That goes all the way up to 3200. Sheesh.
Digital photography is very handy, but a small B&W darkroom would be so much cooler.
Posted by: M.Ace | June 5, 2006 3:52 PM
I haven't used my SLR since I went backpacking in Colorado in '97.
When digital cameras got affordable, there just didn't seem to be any point in giving my film to some 1-hour photo cretins when I could manipulate the images myself in Photoshop and print them at home.
But I do miss working in the darkroom sometimes.
3200 ASA!? At that speed I should be able to take pictures in the basement with the lights out...
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 5, 2006 4:27 PM
Zowie! Those are cool! Thanks!
Posted by: Dean | June 5, 2006 5:40 PM
Glad ya like 'em, Dean.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 5, 2006 6:20 PM
Yeah, if you have your own darkroom, film is very cool. If you have a professional-level processing service nearby, that's almost as cool. But if you're stuck with the typical mass market operation of today, it's just degrading. And that's why I'm digital now, too.
Posted by: M.Ace | June 5, 2006 7:01 PM
When I moved into this house 13 years ago, I had every intention of turning part of the basement into a darkroom, but like a lot of my grandiose plans, it got lost somewhere.
At least I finally got the tiki bar built!
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 5, 2006 8:18 PM