ATP Festival, New Jersey

This is the exterior of the Convention Hall and Paramount Theater on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Lara is standing with her back to the camera just in front of the giant planter in the immediate foreground. That's right: here begins my experiment wherein all of today's photos have been taken with an iPhone camera.
It has been a gloomy weekend in Asbury Park.
Fortunately, all the shows are inside!
Here are some photos of Marc Ribot. He is a legendary guitarist based out of New York City who is perhaps most famous for his work on Tom Waits's legendary 1980s albums such as Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years, and Swordfishtrombones. Hear him play lead guitar on Tom Waits's Jockey Full of Bourbon
He was really great. I'm not a huge guitar guy, but watching Ribot play makes me understand what goes through the minds of all the guitar players I've known who have gone into a kind of daze whenever they listen to their favorite guitarists.
A shot of the Jersey shore from the second floor of the convention hall.
A shot of the Asbury Park boardwalk taken through dirty windows.
And here are some tasteful blocks and couches adorning the charmingly-dilapidated hallways of this building.

Down the corridor, you can just make out some merchandise tables. To my left are the doors to the Convention Hall, where a band with four drummers and someone screaming their head off were creating a deafening roar.
Another shot of the shore line. Wait...what's this?
A wedding?? Is the deafening roar causing me to hallucinate? What an odd day and situation for this!
No, it is in fact a wedding.
I hope they can't hear the drummers and screaming. That's not what you want at a wedding.

In the distance, on this building, you can see the artwork of Shepard Fairey, an artist whose work is also being showcased at this festival
And here we have Swans. This is the lap steel guitar player.

Don't let the band name (or presence of lap steel) fool you. Swans are an angry, loud, brutal band.
This is Michael Gira, lead singer.


Now in his fifties, Gira is capable of summoning levels of intensity that frankly blow my mind.

I don't know how many of you would be into this kind of music (and that includes my mother), but here is a link to the first song off of their most recent album: No Words/No Thoughts.
And here are some photos from festival curators and headliners Portishead.

I was not as close to this performance, and the lights were a good deal brighter, so photos of this set are limited. They are a great band, however, with both electronic and acoustic instruments and Beth Gibbons' beautiful and at times haunting vocals: The Rip.

I shall now go watch more music! Thanks for reading, and check back tomorrow!

-Blog Tech