Andrew St. Clair

A couple of months ago, Michael Azerrad asked if he could use one of my pictures of Delicate Steve on his blog. It was impossible to say no to the guy… well, because he’s Michael Azerrad. Michael is the author of Our Band Could Be Your Life, a chronicle of some of the most important bands of the indie scene in the 80’s, like Minor Threat, Sonic Youth & Fugazi. The book is an essential read for musicians and music fans alike. And then there’s the Nirvana biography, Come As You Are, which is considered by many to be the definitive story of Nirvana.

So Michael curated a show to celebrate the 10th anniversary of OBCBYL. The premise of the concert is that 14 of Michael Azerrad’s favorite bands (in the now) were to perform songs from the 13 bands that were featured in his book.

But what do the bands in the book have in common with the bands on the stage? Both have made music their way. Without corporations and middle managers telling them what they can and can’t do. During the show, Michael told the audience the following:

“Those bands needed to make music and no one was going to do it for them. There were no major labels were going to sign Minutemen and Black Flag. And so they had to do everything themselves.

They’re making music exactly the way they want, with no compromise in the way that they want. And that’s something that the 80’s bands worked so hard, you know, blood sweat and tears shed, to set up an infrastructure so the bands tonight can do their thing.”

As far as my shooting the show, some would protest that you shouldn’t use a flash at a club show, and generally I would agree… but guess what, nearly every picture in Azerrad’s book was taken with a flash in the 80’s. And that’s the esthetic I was going for to capture the concert. I was particularly inspired by this photo by Charles Peterson taken of Mudhoney that’s featured in the book, as well as this one taken by Peter Ellenby. An old school slow shutter taken with a flash. The only difference is that I wasn’t shooting in or planning on converting anything to black & white (but as you can see, I changed my mind).

Now, I’m not going to talk about every band and their performance, but I will say that it was a pretty magical night. 14 bands covering the 13 bands the book focused on. Highlights for me included members of Dirty Projectors covering Black Flag, Ted Leo singing Minor Threat to music playing on a reel to reel, Grooms doing a pretty cool version of Hüsker Dü, Titus Andronicus covering the Replacements, tUnEyArDs covering Sonic Youth, Wye Oak performing Dinosaur Jr., & Dan Deacon doing The Butthole Surfers.

But the biggest surprise, and ultimately the best performance of the night was Annie Clark, (AKA St. Vincent) doing Big Black. Ms. Clark, dressed in black with silver shoes, and her trademark curly hair uncharacteristically tied back into a bun, looked totally bad-ass performing what is generally considered to be the precursor to industrial rock. During ‘Bad Penny’ there was something a little perverse watching her proclaim “I think I fucked your girlfriend once. Maybe twice.”

If you’ve ever heard Ms. Clark’s music, you’ll know that she has the chops to shred. But during ‘Kerosene’, she took it to a whole new level as she violently scraped her guitar neck up against the mic stand. This made for some great shots, too. Credit needs to be given to her bandmates for the night, Nat Baldwin, Brian McOmber, & Shahzad Ismaily who did a great job complementing Ms. Clark’s energy. I’ve never heard more applause for the end of a club set than I did that night. Among a night of great performances, she stole the show and made it look easy.

Speaking with Amy Klein after the show I think we both agreed that Annie ‘won’ the night. Never has Charlie Sheen’s ‘winning’ catchphrase been more appropriate in any of my conversations. I don’t throw around the term legendary too much, but these 2 songs alone were worth the $30 price of admission. One of my all-time favorite live performances, hands down.

After the show, I hung out with a bunch of the performers at Home Sweet Home and watched everyone get sweaty on the dance floor, including Michael. It was a magical night that I didn’t want to end. And I have the feeling that I wasn’t alone in thinking that. Check out some select pictures on TheMorningAfterPills.com (coming soon) and a set of St. Vincent on my Flickr. Special thanks to Michael Azerrad and Jake Friedman for securing me a ticket to the show. It’s a night I’ll never forget and I’m very grateful.