Almost 1 year after he last graced us with his charm, Voltaire returned the Club Mardi Gras in Scottsdale last Saturday (the 13th). This time, he was not accompanied by the Skeletal Orchestra, but that certainly did not take away from his performance! It was a splendid night… that man is damn talented, damn funny, and damn friendly!
I was able to capture 11 HD videos – that’s all of the songs he sang! It’s a first for me, capturing every song. My new cam and my standing location at the venue helped with that, since I didn’t have to hold up the cam and tire my arms. I did unfortunately cut off the beginning of “Death Death (Devil Devil Evil Evil Song)”, and a big portion of “The USS Make Shit Up”, but otherwise everything’s great. It’s wonderful he allowed me to record all of these without retribution, and that he even put his face (and butt) into my cam a couple times! I wanted to share his talent with the world, so please support Voltaire by buying his albums, his awesome merch, and going to his shows when he’s in town!
I setup a YouTube playlist (WHY DIDN’T I TRY THIS SOONER?!?!), so check it out below, or check out my YouTube channel! (I recommend viewing these at 720p fullscreen, if your computer can handle it!)
I also got some fine photos of some handsculpted dolls by a bohemian artist named Aleta, a very nice new photo with me & Voltaire, some beautiful shots of him performing, and some pictures of some lovely ladies that attended and their gorgeous attire. CLICK HERE to view my Flickr set of the photos as you wish (and w/ the option of full-size view), or simply view the slideshow below…
Mmm… I’m loving the new ways I’m sharing my media these days! So much easier and higher quality! Now if I could just afford to buy Adobe Lightroom
… I’m not at the point of earning compensation for photography, I do it out of my own pocket and passion. Hmmm…. If anyone wants to show their support…
;p (I don’t mean to be a greedy beggar, just looking for support as an artist. This is also in no way soliciting the photos/videos from the show, that is against the rules (and the law I believe) so they are NOT FOR SALE! Also, please comment on the blog if you are interested in hiring me to do any media for you! I’m not a complete pro yet, but I do very high quality stuff and have a LOT of experience!)
Today was a very interesting day, it was so bright, with a temperature that was not too hot, nor too cold, and nice light wind. There was a light rain here or there. On my way to my class at Mayo clinic, I saw the brightest rainbow I’d ever seen, going into the mountains when the angle allowed for it. I was listening to the alternative rock station, however it attacked my head at one point and I switched to the classical station.
Class was actually quite interesting today, far more than I expected, because we discussed body image. I thought I would be very quiet and get it done today, but that changed when the instructor asked about ideals of body today. That made me quite vocal and active in participation immediately! You know I had rants to contribute! We discussed that subject, along with the subject of self-esteem.
After class, I continued to listen to classical on the entire drive home. It was strange, the music played in sync with the drive. There was a soundtrack to the rain, the traffic, the beautiful sunset.
I’m not the nature-y type, and often I’d prefer to rock out, but there was just something different today… It was something that seemed deeper than I could comprehend, I knew it was meditative somehow and I knew enough for me to recognize life was special today. I could not stop my mind… I could not stop thinking of many things I wanted to do… Make digital paintings and sell them at Evermore Nevermore, photograph friends, do stomach crunches, watch Fantasia, put my hair up, email a friend, wash my face, play my sax at home, on the street, in a band, work on my dad’s website and merch, etc… I still don’t know what was/is going on, but I am home now and I am comfy and relaxed. As much as I dislike my husband’s new work schedule, I admit it feels very nice to relax in solitude. I’ve done a few of the things I thought about… I popped Fantasia in before I got on the laptop!
The man on Fantasia said something very interesting. (I’d like to interject to add the fact that I NEVER paid ANY attention to what that guy said when I was younger! It was alllllllll about the pegasus, unicorns, centaurs, pretty fish, faeries, troubled dinosaurs, etc… and of course I was terrified of Satan at the end! I digress…) He said that musicians/artists often misunderstand their own creations, and than Tchaikovsky didn’t like The Nutcracker. That’s really the funny thing about the biggest artists in history, I think a lot of them really have no idea just how much they effected the world or just how big they would get. Maybe some of them were smart/intuitive enough to foresee that, but certainly some had no clue. I know that I read Edgar Alan Poe had a very hard, starving-artist kind of life and didn’t have a proper funeral. As an artist, I would really like to effect the world for the better. I just hope that, if so, I can see that effect before the end.
I have been one busy bitch! OK, yes… I am always busy. I have been with the usual work and mundane tasks of course, but also big personal photo/website projects, more doctor’s appointments than ever before, multiple shows, etc!
I saw AFI on January 30, Polysics on February 3, and The Attitude etc. on February 4. Though I have to say the 4th takes the cake for being one of the best nights of my life, each of those shows were absolutely INCREDIBLE! I’m not talking “incredible” in the sense that I say every show I go to is (hey, I just know how to pick great shows :p), I mean that these were truly outstanding!
Admittedly, the AFI show wasn’t outstanding so much for AFI’s performance itself (which was still fan-fucking-tastic but seemingly short), but for me it was moreso the company I had. Dom and I went with Chris and I met up with Ashleigh and her friend Andrea and we all had SO MUCH fun together! We spoke of nostalgic memories of the old local music scene, hung out and drank, and rocked the fuck out! Really, it’s one of those “you had to be there” kind of things… It was a magical night. I am not doing a blog about THAT show because: 1) We were in the front and on the far side, and I couldn’t bring my big beautiful camera, so my pictures are nothing special. 2) I accidentally took my vids in the tiniest quality on the camera, so it’s just not worth it. Here are some phenominal photos by my acquaintance Alonso, click here.
Then… THEN… Polysics was mind blowing! Earth shattering! I already knew this, but their energy is through the roof! It’s definitely a crazy Japanese influence, never have I seen another band with their energy. (Our ears were ringing for 3 days afterward, ouch!) I also got to meet them, unlike last time, and I got a photo with Fumi and Kayo! I’m especially a fan of Kayo, not to discredit Fumi and her amazing bass skills. I’m glad I got to meet her because I heard a rumor that she’s leaving the band and they’re going on hiatus. (SAY IT ISN’T SO!!!) The reason that I’m not doing a whole blog about THIS show is that they didn’t allow photos and videos (and it would have been to easy to get caught, haha). It’s a damn shame, because I would have gotten some quality shit and I really think it would have been good promo for the band (of course, that may not matter if they ARE going on hiatus), not to mention my photos would have been better than the ones I saw in coverage that was allowed and I would have been willing to share as long as I got attribution. At least I was featured on the Phoenix New Time’s website for tweeting about the Polysics show! (Though they didn’t include my other good ones about the show, grr.) Check it out here.
Lastly… the freaking The Attitude show was the best because it had so many of my great friends (including besties!) AND an epic line-up with high-energy performances!
Opiate For the Masses, with Elias Malin and Andy Gerold who are VERY special friends from their days in My Darling Murder
The Attitude, who have always been mutual friends with MDM and whose music video I was in
Special guests included Jay Gordon (Orgy), Chris Vrenna (Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails), Andy Gerold (Marilyn Manson), Elias Malin (Kill Hannah/Hollywood Undead), Elias Andra (Dead by Sunrise/Julien-K). I definitely wanted to meet Chris Vrenna, and I freaking NEVER thought I’d see Jay Gordon perform, let alone meet and take pics with him!
…And not JUST those things, but ALSO I got photos with all of my friends, the band memebers I wanted to meet, band friends I didn’t expect to see there, and I got beautiful shots of the performance and HD videos to preserve this once-in-a-lifetime show! FUCK YEAH!! Everything went perfectly that night!
And THAT is why I AM doing a blog about the last show. (Concert #258 for me!) However, due to the aforementioned busy life I’ve been leading… not to mention the fact that I’ve already posted everything elsewhere… this is different from my typical Photo/Video blogs from shows, it’s a miniblog. (Ha, though it ended up being kind of longer anyway huh?)
You have 2 options:
1) You can view the slideshow below if you’re really lazy, or
2) You can CLICK HERE to go to the Flickr set I posted with the pics, where you can view them larger and comment them! Go to my YouTube account, to view the full HD videos (+ 2 low quality) and comment on them! (I had the vids on Flickr, but then realized that they only allow 90 seconds of video, regardless of whether your account is a Pro one. LAME!)
Hm… at the rate things are going lately… I’m slightly tempted to blog my media this way from now on! It does depend on the quality though, as my Flickr is for a bit higher quality stuff.
I have a shit-ton of photos I need to add to the galleries on this website, as well as updates I need to make the the Hobbies and Ambitions relating to Dom and I dancing (which we’ve been doing since about September of last year).
Loading ...
