Andrew St. Clair

I think that the hottest ticket this week was the Fucked Up/JEFF The Brotherhood/Iceage show at 285 Kent. Fucked Up was not officially on the bill until after their appearance playing with Dinosaur Jr. at Terminal 5 had happened. However, this was the worst kept secret of the week, as JEFF has been touring with F’ed Up. Even the listing of ‘ke dcupfu’ on the Facebook event page was a thinly veiled attempt to hide this fact.

Iceage made their first appearance in the United States during the Northside Festival. I had 3 publications ask me if I had any pictures from their Public Assembly appearance. I didn’t. But since PA is dark as fuck, it’s better that my first attempt shooting the band was at a slightly better lit venue. At the very least, the white walls with spray paint make for a better backdrop.

As far as my gear: I used a 17-55mm kit lens (if it gets busted by a crowdsurfer, it’s cheaper to replace) at f/6.3 I was shooting at an ISO from 200 to 400. The Vivitar 285HV flash was set at 1/16 manual power (which means very fast recycling time). The flash can be bought for less than 100 bucks. Again, if it’s damaged in the fray, it’s $100 vs. the $319 an SB-600 costs to replace.

Iceage were pretty intense musically. But outside of their singer, the rest of the band are pretty mild-mannered and aren’t that animated (which means they look the same in each photo). It’s the singer that brings the visual flair to the band. At one point, he picked up a mic stand and started flinging it around. I backed up because it was inevitable that he was going to hit me. I can take a physical blow… but I was more about protecting my gear (I got hit in the chest, by the way). Somehow he got a nosebleed and cut the back of his left ear. The front of the crowd was getting pretty gnarly but it was going to get worse by the end of the night. Anyway, Iceage are playing Cake Shop and Project Secret Robot in August, so try and check them out. You might like their violent brand of pop punk.

The last time I shot JEFF The Brotherhood was at Death By Audio in April the crowd was pushing against the stage so hard that I got knocked right onto it. So, I jumped on, ran to the side and started shooting (you can see me in the first pic). Welp, the same thing happened to me again. And since the stage area is a bit bigger (with a gap to walk around the side and back of the stage) I was able to shoot from a few different angles than the other dozen photogs in the audience. JEFF has a relentless energy on stage (and in everything else they do, apparently), so I really felt bad for these guys because it was sweltering inside the venue and a very sweaty Jake Orrall was getting shocked from a poorly grounded mic. Looking at the pictures afterward, I’m surprised that Jake or Jamin… or the both of them… didn’t pass out.

When Fucked Up took the stage, the conditions inside were absolutely sauna-like and I was sweating like it was my job. My t-shirt was completely soaked. After a few songs, I was dying and took a breather outside with Gretchen Robinette (who was submitting shots to Rolling Stone). It was so cool and breezy outside, I almost stayed there until the end of the show, but I wanted to see and shoot more of Fucked Up so I went back inside for the last 15 minutes of their set. I was only slightly surprised that my lens was fogging up every few seconds from the humidity. I had a microfiber cloth on my person which got damp pretty quickly. So, you’ll see that some of my images (like the photo above) have a glowy-like quality to them. I’ve seen photographers at shows breathe on the lens to fog it up on purpose, but never saw the end result. Now I know.

By the end of the show, lead singer Damian Abraham was stripped down to his underwear, which made for some very raw photos. He also complained about the heat saying that the band would play two more songs before he had a heart attack. I really felt for all the performers having to endure the disgusting conditions, but in the end, they made it out alive and probably made some decent cash. In hindsight, I wish I had stayed in the pit longer. But on the whole, I got some decent photos out of it and it was a show that will not be soon forgotten. Check out the coverage on TheMorningAfterPills.com