FRIDAY

Hard Working Class Heroes 2007 kicked off last night and music heads were out in force for another extravaganza of the Up’n'Coming. Established as my favourite thing on the unsigned calendar, HWCH is a chance to fill your sh’boots with a boost of the year’s best bands. Plus it’s so hardcore: last year I photo’d cocaine nosebleeds and was strangled by a bleary blonde in a leopardskin gilet!
O, an indie event, by the people for the people. 2006 boasted venues like the Hub and Spirit which furthered grimy, garageband appeal of new music Which wasn’t replicated at POD this weekend. Every event seems to suffer a bashing once it’s been established but I’m not about to do that here. Although POD’s a swanky hangout, the proximity of each gig was a massive plus, making it easy to manage schedule-clash. There seemed to be more people hanging outside Crawdaddy than at the gigs, alas, ’tis the scene…Myself and HP journo Kilian Murphy legged it around from Eric Echkhart (whose set was polished. Consummate professional) at the Odeon to my beloathed Crawdaddy (light rig is usually crap, no change there: I couldn’t get a single good shot of Super Extra Bonus Party or Scandinavian precursors El Ray.) SEPR were brilliant, Crawd was pounding. I want to dedicate a night to getting super extra bonus drunk very soon. The best lights were Hassle Merchants at Working Man’s Club, which doesn’t even have a stage. HM’s notorious brand of self-promotion (which good as got them arrested last Saturday, for breaching the peace by setting up an impromptu gig in Temple Bar square) paid off as they played to a really good crowd.
Then we finished off with the Jimmy Cake in Tripod. How kooky are they?

Hassle Merchants and The Jimmy Cake

SATURDAY

My utmost fears tonight centre around the lights. I may have to sacrifice a rooster to avoid another dry ice/red gel scenario like last night. I love the very concept of HWCH, I so want to see old friends, hear new sounds, get caught up in the spankin’ good mood of a great lig and the menu’s full of treats. Expect the best Noise Control pics you’ve ever seen, expect the unnattainable: an exposed shot of TwinKranes.
Booze should be avoided but it’s a Budweiser bar so I’m not missing out. Plus, I found half a bottle of vodka in the secret compartment of my cam bag which must’ve been left over from EP. Hooray!?

Ooh, my right pinky’s smarting from an errant spliff and the no booze idea went down the pan pretty much as soon as I got there (after a ride in the most patronising taxi ever. “Ooh, ye’re a phootographer, are ye reeally? Little oul’ you? Reeaally?”)

God, the POD! Sorry to be predictable but honestly, what awful lights! 1600 ISO, f2.8 and 125sec all the way…just to expose and focus correctly. Anything more is just luck. There’ll have to be a lot of black and white for pics in the venues. I’m just working on the worst shots now, that way my faith is renewed when I get to the good ones. Tupelo Honeys and DRN are looking good…I’d suffocate holding my breath for Aleko.

SUNDAY

Do you hear the fading rumble of HWCH packed up in a taxi and sent home to bed til next year?
Tonight was undoubtably the best night for photos because I decided that flash would be a necessity and HP would have to like it or lump it. Wise decision on my part…

I’ll cut to the chase: Jape and Halves were topping! Halves are so intricate and intense. Jape’s something else entirely. Why can’t pop sound this good? Photos pronto in the morning. It’s 03:22 and a police helicopter is hovering outside my window. I better check we’re not harbouring a car thief.

Monday’s whipping past and I’ve a criminal workload. My Mac is being all buzzy and giving me electro-shock therapy, which means I can’t use photoshop and have to batch them on this poohy PC. The two newer montages were made in MS Paint with a bag of Waffles.

The final review of the weekend will cover :

Hassle Merchants
SuperExtraBonusParty
The Jimmy Cake
Fight Like Apes
Noise Control
Halves
Channel One
Tupelo Honeys
Dry County
Grand Pocket Orchestra

Check out HotPress on Thursday for the full low-down=D

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Photography, Music, HWCH, General Camaraderie, Festivals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.