its my great great pleasure to show this image of mr. billy f. gibbons of ZZ TOP.
we have met a few weeks ago while they played some european dates.and have been introduced to each other after the show in graz.
so there he was.. looong beard and totally friendly he sat down and made all kinds of faces which i didn´t expect him to do.
i expectd some really serious looks and was surprised in a positive way that it was so easy to work with him.
you know sometimes you meet artists who have been around for some years but are not really down to earth anymore.. in billy´s case it was totally the opposite.
extremely friendly and he was very patient, signed all kinds of things people brought backstage and took photographs with everyone.
great to experience when things can be normal too!
so here is what billy had to say about the image below...
" Your fine work is some of the most stunning imagery to be seen in quite a while...! The images selected which we captured in Graz are superb."
so big thanks to everybody involved..and of course to mrs. K. for setting it up and riding my hungover ass to graz ;-)
alright everybody.. enjoy.. and keep on rockin.. you know where ;-) !!

10/12/05 madm

a few days late but here are some images from "melissa auf der maur". it was a real pleasure seeing her again..so much power to her music.. amazing.
she also screened her movie "ooom" before the actual live show. very interesting movie and the soundtrack...incredible.
this piece of art catches from the beginning and drags you deeper and deeper into it. very absorbing and frightening. if you have a chance go and see her
while she is still touring in europe.
went to see the "kings of leon" show last night. after seeing them a few years before in berlin i dind´t expect too much of a great show.
and didn´t get dissapointed...don´t get me wrong.. i really like their songs.. but their live shows are just boring.
ok maybe the fact that shooting at the show really sucked sort of killed the whole thing anyway. its just no fun being lined up in the pit,
with no place to move and a big fat security guy walking right in front of you so you don´t get to close to the stage.
and lets not forget a band that doesn´t move that much.... booooring
anyhow..enjoy rockin melissa...see you in outter space tonight at the "monster magnet" show.. going to be killer !!!!

10/11/27 KZ Auschwitz - Birkenau, Poland

as most of you should know, during "world war II" the german nazi regime had built many concentration camps
in order to murder millions of people, most of them jewish.
in "auschwitz-birkenau" (poland), which is about 400 km north-east from vienna, they had built the biggest camp of them all.
1,5 million people have been tortured and killed, before on the 27th of january 1945 the 322 divison conquered and rescued the remaining prisoners.
i am aware that today we are flooded with victim numbers of all kind of cruelties that happen around the world everyday.
there is hardly any room to imagine what those numbers really mean. as soon as you try to think about it, news are over and some stupid gameshow or whatever is on.
behind every number is a story, a family, friends, relatives.. a human life. and all the sudden someone deceided that you can not have that life anymore.
of course for no reason at all. the nazis told the jewish to take their most important things because they will go away for 4 days and put them in a train,
well actually stuffed them into those waggons, because one of them carried around 100 people for many days, without food and so on.
without any idea what was going on, they arrived a few days later in "auschwitz" on the "ramp"...nazis selected the ones able to work from the others.
for most of them that was the last time to ever hear or see their kids and family.
so the weak ones, not able to bring any profit to the germans immediately went to the gaschamber.. of course still not knowing what was going to happen next.
they brought them into a room and told them that for hygenic reason the have to take a shower..so they got undressed and were pushed into a big room.
that room was big enough to carry between 900 and 1200 people !!!! doors were closed and nazis dropped "cyclon b" from the ceiling and waited until everyone
was dead. in the next room they broke out the golden teeth of the dead and started to burn their bodies right away.
the remainig people were kept as prisoners under the worst conditions imaginable, used for hard work and all kind of sick "medical" experiments mainly performed by "dr. mengele" in block 10 of the "stammlager".
the camp was split into 2 parts. one was called the "stammlager" and the other was "birkenau". the "stammlager" also had a gaschamber which was used fo experimental porpuses and you can also see the sadly famous "death-wall" there. the "death-wall" was the wall were, after a short senseless hearing people have been shot.
our guide told us the story of a female child, that was about to be executed and saw how another prisoner was shot. she had asked the germans if that hurts?
the officer told her that it might but that there was another way to do what they are about to do and so he started to beat that little child to death using his gun.
another thing that germans tried to archive was the sterillity of women. but they didn´t want to weaken them because they still had to be able to work.
so they used some kind of acid that cautrised and conglutinationed the uterus.
the cruelties that happened in "auschwitz" are uncountable and even with images & words there is no way to understand what was going through the minds of
those people who caused so much harm.
when you flip through the images, please also read the caption, so you will know what the image shows.
and if you find some time, please go an visit this horrible place of history which must not be forgotten!!!

10/11/19 joe cocker & violetta parisini

where to start ? maybe 25 years ago when joe cocker played in austria, or let me say he should have played.
well he didn´t but his management took the cash for the show anyway. so what happened next, police had to arrest joe cocker
for possible fraud.
you can imagine that those pictures made in the newspapers and now the police published a book with all kind of stories about their cases.
so the police officer who once arrested him asked to meet mr. cocker again and of course without handcuffs this time.
that happened after the show and i think that was pretty funny.. joe signed a few of the books and was very friendly.
was a real pleasure to meet him...but before that he did play a show..
he is a great performer.. i mean lets get this straight he made the airguitar popular back in 1969 when he played at woodstock.
i got goosbumps when he performed "with a little help from my friends" and it is so great
watching a 66 year old human still performing and touring the world..gosh i like that
i´d also like to mention his opening act that night. "violetta parisini" a local performer had the honor and i have to say
that was most likely the best sound i have ever heard from a major signed austrian act.
and by the way, nice placement.. almost hard to not get her name in the picture..oh and for the second song..
stand up and dont move away from the sign ;-).. no honestly.. i liked her and hopefully they won´t drop her before the sales begin.
fine weekend everybody !!

10/11/13 new model army

wow.. a month has past.. seems like a few days.
anyhow i have been busy with work and attending a few show, unfortunately havent found the time to finish some images.
maybe tomorrow, right ?
just got back from night two of the "new model army" 30th anniversary shows and it has been a blast.
incredible setlists and i finally got to hear "better than them" in an all accoustic-justin-alone version. amazing.
back in 1994 when i returned from a florida-trip i brought a tony hawk "birdhouse" video tape with me. of course a skateboard video and
in one scene i discovered this powerful sound.. watched until the credits came to find out that this song was called "get me out" written and performed
by a band called "new model army". never heard of them before but instantly got hooked to their tunes.
it so happened that they played in salzburg at the rockhouse a few years later, around the time when the austrian government was built by the black and blue party.
some artists had their gigs canceled because of that... not NMA and so i went there with my mom and had a great great time.
many shows have past until i met the band last year in november at almost the exact same date. we did some portraits.
i have a clear memory of that day since i was so confused and hurt at that time, that it was hard to focus on what i love so much.
but.. a year has past, things have changed (not really but we pretend they have) and justin and i met again today.
enjoyed a very fast conversation skipping through quite some subjects and showed him some images of a crazy british fan,
soon to find out that the image of the guy spreading his arms shows the dedicated die-hard fan "jules" .
light was kind a difficult to work with and yes, i am aware that there are more members to NMA
but the ones not shown here just stood in complete darkness :-(
there are a few more anniversary shows.. probably all sold out but go and check for yourself and while you are there,
order the bands anniversary book and find my portraits in there ;-)
get us out of this trap, will you ?
xoxoxo

10/10/16 toxic sludge flood in hungary

safe & sound at home ? consider yourself to be a lucky person. i just got back from "kolontár" (hungary), where a week ago the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an aluminum factory caused a massive red sludge flood.
beside the major power of such an flood, the surrounding villages will also have to deal with the very high toxication of the material itself.
a fews numbers:
- 1 million cubic metres toxic red sludge had been released to the damn break.
- the sludge contains heavy metals such as quicksilver, arsenic, chromate, cadmium and nickel
- half a million tons of quicksilver and 50 tons of arsenic found their way into nature
two of the nearby villages have been flooded and the population had to be evacuated. unfortunately by now 9 humans have lost their lifes.
the hungarian government had reopened those villages for its citizans yesterday.
they took measurments of the air and water and said that it is safe to go back, however never released the number of those tests.
they announced that there has been no poisoning to the drinking water but at the same time they suggest to only drink bootled water.
well... why not commit that it is not safe at all being there ?? because that is the case.
many of the homes have been destroyed and for me it is not imginable that anyone could ever live there again.
the ground is wasted and toxicated and it would take years to recover, if ever.
i went there on assignment for "greenpeace", they tried to inform the citizans that being there is not safe at all.
greenpeace also thought about handing out masks to the people, whoever they can not do that for legal reasons.
in case someone will suffer from any lunginfection (caused by the red sludge) they could sew greenpeace for handing out masks that "did not" protect.
no news but in our wonderful world you can get busted for helping. just insane.
most of the people walked around without any face coverage, believing that if you don´t see the dust, there is none.
but the actual fine-dust level is way over the top.
they are watering the ground so the sludge won´t dry and disolve into the air.
one of the images shows you a children bed, that picture was taken in the destroyed home of a family who had just lost their 3-year-old child because of the flood.
i was told, that they are not going to come back and will try to restart in some other town.
another homeowner let me walk into his home while they started to clean it up. i still can´t imagine how this is ever going to happen.
let´s hope for the best..

10/10/10 billy talent

back in august, when frequency festival went down in st. poelten, i had the pleasure of meeting the guys from "billy talent" again.
it had been a few years since we last met but it seemed like they havent changed at all, ok everybody changes but i mean
they are still down to earth, very friendly and talkative. i enjoyed my time with them .
big "thank you" to pierre who helped along in order to arrange this.
vienna is on the sunny side right now, working on a few projects and will attend the "grinderman" show tonight.
everybody... try to get some complexion ;-)

10/09/22 USA - CANADA ROADTRIP

almost a month has past since i took the plane to cross the great pound.
and right now i am sitting in the same one again, going back home, even though i am not sure were my home is these days.
i enjoyed myself so much, that i am actually thinking about moving to the states for a little while.
but lets ge back to the trip. first stop was seattle, wonderful weather, close to the water and pretty clean city.
however apparently the city of seattle has the highest suicide rate within the whole united states.
they blame it on the weather.. i was lucky.. just sunshine for me so i did´t have to kill myself ;-)
what really got me was the "music experience project" which was designed by "frank gehry".
i have always adored "gehrys "work. the combination of very hard materials used for extremly smooth curves and edges
gives his buildings a very unique character.
also the way the colors are arranged and that on some sides, the reflexting natur will be responsible for the buildings color.
the actual exhibiton inside is ok, but you can skip spending almost 20 bucks.
i headed to vancouver (canada) next and have posted some images of the eara were i lived before.
so just scroll down for that ;-)
besides "east hastings" vancouver is a very clean city too, very friendly people and lots of nature and water can be found.
a perfect place to relax and let your soul rest for a little while. unfortunately i wasn´t able to go over vancouver island

but if you have time you should.

made my way back to seattle, passed he incredible town of "issahqua", where i spent some quality time watching the sunset at lake sammamish.
drove to "wenatchee" the following day.. the town of wenatchee is one of the most boring i have ever seen.
it pretty much consits of one biiiiiig road with all kind of fast-food chains and other stores.
besides shopping and eating there is nothing you can do. ok not completely true.. a litte outside the main area
you are able to find the "ohme-garden" .. many years ago some people started building a neat landscpape on a litte hill.
spent severel hours there, walking around, reading, thinking, eating und enjoying the nice view over the mountains.
i considered "wenatchee" to be my basis camp from where i will head to the "dave matthews band" shows for the next three nights".
that was an hour driving. the DMB . BEN HRPER . ALBERTA CROSS shows have been incredible amazing, but i will talk about that later.
when i first saw the venue "the gorge" my jaws felt down. i mean i have been to many wonderful venues like the arena in verona,
hollywood bowl in la, san siro in milan, the giants stadium in NY or waldbuehne in berlin but there is nothing like "the gorge".
behind the stage you can see the canyon with the columbia river running in it.
and in front of the stage you will find a green ampitheatre area capable of carrying almost 30.000 people. of course the shows have been sold out.
so after three days o rock 'n' roll i drove straight to seattle, had a 3 hour nap in the back of my car, almost ran out of gas
but still made it in time for my 8 o´clock flight to philly. by that time i was already about to pass out.. even without medication..
but just for the comfort i took some and passed out before the take-off ;-)
late afternoon in philadelphia, for the first time in 7 years i had the pleasure of meeting my former girlfriend again..
thanks for picking me up darling.
uncessary to mention that it was great to be back in the area where i once lived for a while.
got to meet all my friends and had such a great time talking and hanging out. .. i even drove to the beach at one point.
sat there for some hours writting,thinking and missing. .. i used to go to this specific place all the time when i lived here.
so after a few days my pale thom flew into phily as well.. but a usual nothing goes the way it´s supposed to when he travels.
he missed his connection in paris.. of course he blames it on me, cause i asked to bring cigarettes.. but i think he just screwd it.
anyhow he missed the plane and got into philly 9 hours later via atlanta and of course his baggage got lost.
drove up to NYC the next day and attended the "nils lofgren" accoustic show at the "BB King Blues house"...another perfect concert!
spent a few days in NY, did a helicopter ride over manhatten . spectacular view and highly recommandable if you are there.
had a fun night out with lukas and his friends who we just met, bad hangover next day :-(
that hangover day was actually 9/11 and so we went to the ceremonies, but i posted about this earlier.
left NY for boston... nothing special there, besides the famous "cheers" pub..
so we only stayed a night and took a long roadtrip out to niagara falls the next morning.
after 8 hours of driving we met my friend thomas. we all checked at the same amazing hotel in the middle of nowhere ;-)
crossed the boarder to canada by feet and enjoyed watching the niagara falls from the other side..
very impressive.. and they even light them up with different colors at night.
so next morning , after waking up tp the tunes of jimi hendrix, we took a walk down to actually be as close as 2 meters from the falls..
wooooow, what a gigantic power of nature you can experiencing down there.
earlier this year i had the pleasure of feeling the power of sand while standing in the sahara and now its all about water.
it felt so great!!!! and that day had just started. we crossed the boarder again and drove up to toronto.
din ´t see much of the city.. but hanging out in the sports bar was good enough for us..
so we did that while waiting for the "roger waters - the wall" worldtour kick-off.
he hasnt performed the show within the last 29 years.. so this was a very special occassion.
the show blew our minds.. i even had to cry at certain points of the performance.. it was just so encouraging.
next morning we drove back to NY, saw the wonderful gottfried helnwein exhibition and wondered how much one of his paintings would cost ;-)
love to have one !!
maybe you remember it for my next birthday ;-)
headed back to philly for one more night with all our friends and now i am almost back in munich.
that whole trip was so neseccary and helped realizing why some things are the way they are and how to not get stuck within certain strucutres.
i hope you can enjoy some of the images i took on my 30.000km long trip.
not even home yet but all ready to hit the road again.
love & peace

10/09/13 NYC 9/11/2010

since the anual ceremonies were held last saturday, i will skip the actual images i wanted to post and will show some from 9/11 instead.
many ceremonies were held, unfortunately i missed some of them due a long night before, so i got there late.
of course i expected many people griefing about the loss of loved ones but the actual scenery was pretty mixed up with all kinds of groups.
there were protests against the mosque they wanna build not far away from "ground zero", there were people that advocated it.
some shouted for the truth by saying that 9/11 was an "inside job" and others told us that "jesus saves from hell" or that the quran is a lie.
at the firedepartment they held all kind of ceremonies for the lost fireworkers and in between all that the city had installed two gigantic
lights that shine all the way to outer space.
the atmosphere was really intense but according to the news there have been no arrests.
so here are some images from 9/11/2010
be safe everybody !!!

10/08/30 street of dreams - east hastings, vancouver

when i first got into vancouver i shortly recognized that the area my hotel is in, is not best.
saw many disorientated people wandering around. i told you about "noordin" the receptionist of my hotel,
he explained me what is going on on "east hastings". apperently the federal government shot down some social facilities.
they tried to move the people back to their hometowns of origin, but without any social help they all came back and settled around this street.
there are some churches and homeless shelter places run by private organisations that give out food and shelter and therefore
they at least get little help around this area.
within 6 blocks you find yourself surrounded by heavy drug addicts, mentaly disabled and homeless people.
there are several facilities that the federal goverment tries to shot down, one for example is the "INSITE".
the "INSITE" is a 3 floor builiding where addicts can get fresh needles and other supplies that they need for shooting their drugs.
but not only that, they also have a room there, where they are able to inject their drugs weil a nurse is watching them.
there is a detox room and a chill out zone. i spent several hours at the front desk, talking to the social workes and watching the scenery.
within an average of every 15 seconds people show up, in order to take supplies or to inject. besides the fact that someone watches them in case they do an overdose,
they also know that police is not allowed to go in there, so they are "safe" while doing drugs and of course
they are able to use fresh needles and avoid spreading deseases.
i extended my visit here to get more impressions, it is easy for people to judge but its not right.
we need to be able to understand that behind every face there is a story. most of the time a very sad one.
one of the guys had lost a child, that was run over by a steamroller while he was watching.
it is not difficult to understand that sometimes life can carry you away
and its not always possible to be strong enough to deal with certain circumstances,
espacially when there is no working background of friends that can be there for you.
for sure it is not easy walking this street but i can tell you that the majority of the people here are friendly at heart.
some travel guides suggest not to be in that area of the city.. skip that.. go there..maybe bring some food or clothes.. it will be much appreciated.
they won´t cause you any harm.. i mean i spent some time there walking with my camera and no one ever tried to be rude or what so ever.
not saying that i am not daunted, but to be honest there is no need to be.
well it is difficult to shoot here cause i don´t want it to look like as if i am trying to take advantage of their suffering.
it would take much more time to get their respect and i totally understand that.
oh.. i also like to mention that during the vancouver olympics the city built many detours around that area so no journalist or tourist will get offended by seeing suffering.
shame on you !!!! the city made millions with those damn olympics and could easily have done something helpful with that money.
but probably the money ended up where its really needed, right ?
anyhow some of the images hopefully give you some room for imagination what is going on here.
and as is said before.. if you visit vancouver, go and also visit "east hasting - the street of dreams" and do something good here.
be safe everybody

10/08/30 wayne, the icecream man

left seattle and made my way up north to vancouver. of course i got the extra treatment when crossing the border.
you know the "i-got-the-officer-patch-so-i-make-the-rules" kind of guy, just lovely how they try to overplay their insecureness ;-)
well after searching in every tiny corner of my car to find some drugs, he had to let me go and i continued driving through some wonderful landscapes.
easily found my way to the hotel and could tell that the neighbourhood is not the best. lots of irretated people on the street,
but i will blog about that later.
i got to know the amazing receptionist "noordin" who explained me every little detail i wanted to know.. he is by far the most friendly and helpful
receptionist i have ever met. he should actually run a tourist-guide-program or so. everytime i was down in the lobby he explained the city
to other guests. he always trys to find the cheapest solution for everybodys needs.
so i really wanna thank him for helping me along !!!
he also suggested to go to "stanley park" and so i did. drove there and walked through the woods while listening to the new david gray record.
very peacful, almost alone... i had a great time there. drove a little further and ended at a tourist spot... enjoyed the bridge view on a skywalk.
and then i heard this dumb little german girl talking to her parents, saying:" someone with such a face can only be a iceccream man"..
okaaayyy...to me that meant that there got to be some interesting person around somewhere.. took a look and found him...
wayne, the icecream man !!!
walked up and started a conversation, which was not that difficult since i have a basic knownledge of music ;-)
so i tell you a bit of wayne right now. he is 56 years of age and has been a vegetarian for 25 years.
he did lots of drugs when he was younger and in his 20ies and 30ies he worked as a stripper since he is a real good dancer.
wayne is not doing drugs anymore and he also hasn´t been drinking alcohol for the past 7 years.
he also works out and honestly doesn ´t look like 56... we chatted a bit about his tattoos and all the bands and different shows we have seen.
besides selling ice scoops he also makes jewlery...i tell you, that was such a fine talk we had... it´s funny the way it is, cos if that girl wouldn´t
have been so low minded, i wouldn´t have met wayne but on the otherside its such a shame that some people are like her.
arrrggg i could be mean now but wouldn´t do any good so i am just going to be thankful for meeting wayne.
if you should ever be around this area, go out to "stanley park" buy a ice scoop and tell him i said hello.. you will have a good time
wayne, i hope you are doing great !!! and watch out for some images i will send ;-)
and let´s not forget, KISS rock !!!

10/08/28 melissa auf der maur

as i have mentioned in my last entry, i did a few portraits of "melissa auf der maur" right before she left frequency festival.
well she says, she sort of looks like robert plant on this image, i disagree ;-) but figure out for yourself.
big thank you to "pierre" who actually introduced my work to her and also i would like to put a biiiig "thank you" out to all the people
involved in this years "frequency festival".. you all helped me a lot to get some nice headshots.. thanks
you can also find some of my live images on her website.
sending love from seattle and will post some images from the road later.

10/08/22 frequency festival

around 40 minutes west of vienna the annual "frequency" festival took place last weekend.
three sunny days + one night of "sunshine" made it a very fine place to be.
we rented a house nearby and it was just lovely to hang with the photo-bunny-gang
even though some of them can be real perverts!!
but that should be over once he is married in a few weeks ;-)
we had fun reading a "getting-started-as-a-rockphotographer" tutorial, especially if its written by someone who just started..
nice isn´t it ?
well it was not too bad but maybe you should wait a little while before you put your dick on the table ;-)
alright lets talk about the festival... my personal highlight.. "the gaslight anthem", "portugal the man" and "archive",
unfortunately gaslight didn´t have a good sound and a boring afternoon crowd but still.. i love their tracks.
haven´t seen "PTM" before and a "friend" of mine is sort of forced me to listen to them for more than a year now..
hope you are happy now.. i listened to them and will spend all my money to get their records.
day three headliner "die toten hosen" mentioned that this was their 50th show in austria..
somehow it feels like if they played them all within the last 2 years... tired hearing them..
especially when you don´t like their sound too much ;-)
weird thing though, i always end up in someones arms while the "hosen" are on..
we both don´t like them but maybe thats why we need the comfort.
besides shooting a few shows i also had my studio set up in the backstage area and did some portraits,
felt very comfortable talking with "serj tankian" about his working process and needless to say i was in good company while shooting "melissa auf der maur"!!

for now i leave you with some live shots of various artists
leaving for seattle tomorrow and if anyone of you will attend the "dave matthews band" shows at the gorge..
let me know and we will meet ;-)
ohhh and thanks to my hardcore stalker.. i fixed the cranberries bug !!!

10/08/12 alice cooper

puhh times flies by...its almost a month since the last update.
but even if it looks like it, it hasn´t been a lazy month ;-) i rebuilt my mainsite, included many more pictures and
made it easier to navigate.. check out some new images there.
i have also been working on a new installation and will hopefully be able to finish it soon. keep an eye out for that
besides that i attended a few shows, like "life of agony" or "kasabian". i have seen LOA many many years before and they really lost it.
it was not a good show at all this time.. wrong singing and horrible sound.
anyhow last night i shot at the alice cooper show. he is always great to shoot, nice light and of course some good acting ;-)
unfortunately he had to shorten the show a little bit since some of their equipment got damaged earlier that tour.
here are some images to enjoy.
so i assume i will see some of you at next weeks "frequency festival" and
after that it will be time for the "dave matthews band" over at "the gorge" near seattle. if anyone goes there, let me know ;-)
as for tonight, we are going to have a "falling-stars-photoshoot-picnic", whoever wants to join, we leave around midnight !!!
rock the night and don´t get hit !!!

10/07/19 forestglade/kitty

last weekend "forestglade" festival had its 15th anniversary and as always it was wonderful to be at this venue.
we enjoyed acts like the cranberries, new model army, everlast or faith no more.
mike patton jumped into the crowed and at the end of a very powerful set he climbed up the amps and
jumped into the drumkit while mike bordin was still drumming ;-)
extremely difficult to get good shots of the bands, since the photopit was very small and packed with people and therefore no place to move.
good thing i like to cuddle my friends ;-)
besides the festival i had an amazing and sad exprience last afternoon. drove around to do some research for a photoproject i am workin on.
stoppped on the street to take some pictures and heard a weird noise. looking around i found a six week old kitty crying.
excuse my language now.. but some fucked up asshole just dropped the little one there and left him.
i took him to the doctor and was told that they don´t leave their mommy at this age, so i was for sure that someone had abandoned him:-(
he is underfed but has a home now... my dear friends flo & claudia will take him after their holiday
and until then "lil mars" (skinny and breakable like "mick mars") will be cuddled at my place ;-)
alright everybody lets empty the zoo-store.
stoesschen

10/07/15 paolo nutini & the doors

another week has past, saw the stereophonics, paolo nutini, toto and the incredible incredible "prince".
unfortunately prince didn´t want his pictures to be taken, so we just enjoyed one of the best shows i have ever seen.
he honestly started the show with "purple rain" and almost played whatever i wanted to hear including "love rollercoaster" ;-)
what a funky night out with the photo-bunnys !!!
a few days before that it was time for the annual "lovely days" fesival. besides some members of "the doors" (never really liked them) "toto" played as well.
they only allowed to shoot from all the way back, which is ridiculous. to me it doesn´t make any sense to shoot from far away, so i passed on this one.
i takes away every possible creativity you would like to give to an image.
their show was great and simon philips made me smile. amazing drummer.
since the chronologic order is already messed up... before "lovelydays" i attended the "paolo nutini" gig at the open air arena.
have i ever mentioned that it is a fuckin pain to shoot there ;-)
alright photobunny is tired and will be at the "forestglade festival" 2morrow and the next day.
looking forward to see the gang again.
till then... we want the funk... we want the funk...

10/07/03 ben harper & pearl jam

on my way back home from berlin where i had the pleasure of seeing ben harper and pearl jam at the wuhlheide.
the venue itself is amazing, located in the middle of a park surrounded by trees you find a tent-stage with an amphitheatre
in front. capable to host an audience of 16.000 people and of course the show was sold out.
ben harper and the relentless7 opened with an incredible set including queen´s "under pressure" together with eddie vedder.
the show was very difficult to shoot, since he mostly played his slide guitar and of course seated.
in combination with a tall stage and monitor speakers in front, i was tough geatin a decent image of him.
while he was onstage i checked out some possible "rooms" to do a portrait with him,
but there was no room just some tiny white garden tents which were supposed to be their dressing rooms.
that was most likely the smallest space i ever had to set up my light.
first step: clear bens dressing room and hope he wont get pissed ;-) (he didn´t ;-)
we did a few shots right after he got off stage and i think that his suspicious look perfectly describes the person he his.
very open-minded, careful, understanding but also having a critical view on the worldwide intrigues that ruin this planet.
after a successfully series of photos i cleared his room and put back his stuff, met micha from "in extremo" and watched eddie vedder
writting pearl jams setlist for that night.
it was about time for them to go onstage and as i walked up front to shoot the first 3 songs, i found myself standing in the middle
of the guys from "R.E.M.".. mike with a full beard...
later that evening they performed "kick out the jams" together with pearl jam.
eddie and the band played a bit longer than one hour before they left the stage for the first time.
and as the sun went down they continued with their first encore. the setlist that night was unlikely any i have heard before
and during one of eddie´s announcements you could tell that he was overwhelmed by the audiences feedback..
he even started to cry but probably also because of memories. memories of that tragedy in denmark that has happened
exactly 10 years ago that day. 9 people have died at the roskilde festival, while pearl jam were performing.
eddie put on a speech about that night and asked for a minute of silence before they continued.
people put their lighters on and they played "just breath"... there was no way of not gettin goosbumps.
as usual they finished their set with "yellow ledbetter" and left everybody with a night to remember.
when i was walking around berlin the day after the show, a girl from chile remembered seeing me taking pictures
and so we had a little chat. she flew in extra for the show and did the same thing last year too...crazy!!!
but i can totally understand this since i am the same ;-)
many thanks to anna for not loosing the nervs and all the effort !!
my appreciation to ben for sharing some of his time. and my most honest and biggest "thank you" to lindsay for being such a great help all the time !!!
girl... we will rock at the gorge...you´ll see!!

10/06/28 billy 'fuckin' idol

last weekend the donauinsel festival took place in vienna.
mainly very ugly going there... way to many people...everybody drunk and peeing wherever they find a spot.
its all sponsored by the "red party" but thinking about it, we know its not them sponsoring the festival,
after all its our tax money they spend and probably way more than they would have to.
anyway, amongst many artists performing on those three days also billy idol headlined one of the stages.
we had so much fun watching him performe a great setlist of mainly songs we all know.
we also enjoyed the pleasure of observing " walking tits" backstage and finally got to meet the REBEL.
drunk friend of mine gave the speech of his lifetime:" billy, man you rock !!!"
the night ended at some overpriced hotelbar (11,50 for some vodka !!!!crazy!!!)
heading north now for pearl jam and ben harper and this is going to be awesome...
since i saw pearl jam at the same venue last year i know what to expect.
if you are there.. hope to see you ;-)
rock on everybody

10/06/24 sonisphere + some more from novarock

ever took a drive up to prague ? i fuckin sucks... hardly a highway and mainly driving through small villages.
it is a stop and go ride for over 4 hours.
however the reason for going there was the "sonisphere" festival and it was worth it.
the "big four" (metallica, slayer, megadeth and anthrax) were playing along with stone sour, alice in chains and many others.
it is nice to watch some bands twice a week, it gives you the opportunity to compare their performances and in the case of slayer
i have to say that they had much more fun in prague than at the novarock festival.
i cannot remember seeing any of those guys ever smile on stage, but they did ;-)
in the case of alice in chains, the novarock gig was far better and stone sour kicked much more ass in prague.
i love seeing metallica live but i prefer them playing an indoor show. somehow their energy was not transmitted
to the audience. at least i felt that way and besides that it is much more fun shooting them indoors ;-)
at the show in prague the wind came from the wrong side and blew the sound right back to the stage so i assume
thats way they turned up the volume as loud as they could and destroyed 2/3rd of the soundsystem ;-)
ohh.. guess who i spotted onstage? right.. the most famous rock n roll photographer alive.. ross halfin wearing shorts and freezin his ass off ;-)
drove home for willie nelson the following day and if your navigation system is fucked up too, the ride home can get real ugly ;-).. next time prague --> airplane.
had a great time at the willie nelson show and met mickey rapahel and paul english backstage. mickey has been on the road with willie for over 35
years playing the harmonica. they both let me do some portraits of them which came out real nice.
what else happened... ah yeah .. saw "rise against " at the arena on wednesday but as always it was a pain to shoot. i wish the outdoor stage wasn´t that high.
anyway tonight its time for some billy idol tunes and next stop after that will be berlin for pearl jam and ben harper.
looking forward to meet some of you there and until then...
keep on rockin in a free world ;-)

10/06/16 bela b

novarock 2010 is history...what remains are memories and images. one of them i am gonna show you right now.
a third of german act "die aerzte" is currently touring with his solo project. right i am talking about BELA B.
when i asked him if he would let me do a portrait of him it was already close to stage time.
he still agreed and on his way to the stage he stopped at my cabine and sat down for a few shots.
i think the actual shooting didn´t last longer than a minute and i am pretty happy with the result.
stay tuned for some more shots from the festival..

10/06/12 novarock

yesterday i started the festival season with my 6th edition of "nova rock".
had a great time seeing my friends of ska-p and i guess i have to go to spain soon ;-)
did some portraits wih stone sour and airbourne (very funny guys). later on "stone temple pilots" entered the main stage...
it was great seeing them..but the audience was ugly.
they yelled for "rammstein" in between every song of STPs set.. not nice at all.
i tried to do some portraits with rammstein as well. of course it didn´t happen,
not without any written contracts or what so ever..
hmm... i remember a time when they played in front of 500 people at the planet in vienna
and it wouldn´t be any problem at all shooting them.
things have slightly changed since then ;-)... around 15 trucks of stage equipment to put on an amazing show with
incredible fireworks. exrtemly professional production.. just impressive.
ohhh... and lets not forget about guitarhero "slash".. great to see him again after almost 18 years.. he still rocks ;-)
about to head back to the venue, looking forward to see joan jett ;-)
i love rock 'n' roll

10/06/07 them crooked vultures

with a tiny delay here are the photographs of "them crooked vultures" from last thursday.
some call them "the supergroup" others moan about a sound that noone would be interested in
if unknown members would play them.
i would say "go and see them live"..simply amazing night with heavy tunes and an incredible hard "working" dave grohl on the drums.
i shot dave before while playing with the "foo fighters" but catching him on the drums just nailed it for me.
> even the outdoor stage at the arena in vienna is a pain (very high and musicians are hard to photograph) i am very happy with the images.
had a great time that night and even spotted a grohl "double" in the audience ;-)
how many autographs did you have to sign ?
alright next stop is "nova rock festival" and then its time to hit the road again
going to prag for metallica and berlin for ben harper and pearl jam...maybe some billy idol inbetween.. you never know.
be good everybody !!!

10/05/31 gogol bordello

no better way to test my new "mark IV" than at a concert ;-)
and so i did last thursday at the "gogol bordello" show. they allowed me to shoot the whole show
which was of course pretty fine.
light was difficutl but as i said, new camera and i have to say that the
ISO performance above 3200 is still damn good.
the show itself was incredible.. so much power and the audience went nuts that night.
i love seeing them perform and you can easily tell that they love to act and play.
i had the pleasure of doing portraits with them last year and it was difficult to get eugene to sit still.
he is the same onstage...crazy !!!
i belive they are in germany right now. .if you get a chance, go and attend one of their shows. you won´t regret it.
tomorrow its time for some long lost memories.. "cypress hill" are in town and then on thursday "them crooked vultures"
meet me there ;-)
and to the girl from virgina... thanks soooo much ;-)
xo

10/05/21 kiss

last night kiss rocked in vienna "rock" city. always nice to shoot at their shows..
perfect light.. excellent performance.. great sound
i am short on words today so enjoy the images and always remember
"god gave rock n roll to you "
xo

10/05/20 award nominee

it has been a while, i know, but i have been real busy with assignment work and will return for some rock n roll tonight.
i wanna rock n roll all night and party every day...hell yeah.. KISS are in town.
well the reason for this post is the annual "apa and canon photoaward for austria",
i received a message yesterday telling me that my image of "leonard cohen" is nominated in the "art & culture" section.
this is actually my second nominee after 2007 with an image showing pete townshend of "the who".
anyhow it makes me happy even if i didn´t win, but as we know, "you can´t always get what you want"
hope you like the photograph.
take care everybody
xo

10/04/28 john butler trio

back in munich and again cops pulled me over. happens every time i go there
thought i´d left my passport and car license at home and so they wanted me to leave germany right away,
luckily the one cop found my passport in my pockets. so they turned my car around in order to find drugs.
the female cop asked me if i ever take narcotics. i told her that probably everybody does by drinking alcohol.
well she tried to teach me a lesson, telling me that liquor is not a narcotic. perfect there is a discussion coming up, but she didn´t want to debate about that.
i wonder how it is possible that when you drink too much, you get dizzy or pass out if alcohol is not a narcotic ??? silly cops.
since they didn´t find anything i could continue driving to munich to finally see the great "john butler trio".
got to the venue real early and was able to enjoy them doing the soundcheck. they played "revolution" (first track of their new record "april uprising")... got goosbumps.
sitting on the floor, mind wide open and having all those fantastic tunes around me.. just perfect.
met john, nicky and byron after they finished and we did a few portraits, they hooked me up with their latest release and to those who haven´t heard it yet, go and buy it.
"robert francis" opened the night... him and his band were just great and kept the crowd going.
the sold out venue was so ready for john and the boys.. the building was sweating.. and i am not kiddin.. with every song they played the floor
got more and more wet and water was dripping down the walls.
i was able to shoot the whole show but still it was very difficult because of the poor light and also cause i love their sounds so much that it is hard to stay focused ;-)
later in the set john was talking about a song with no lyrics because he could not fit all his emotions and how much things mean to him into words
and therefore the track "ocean" is instrumental.
i thought this was an incredible good explaination for this song... ever heard it ? go and check it out click here... so i was sitting in the photopit while he played his 12 string as if there was no tomorrow.
i felt so blessed !!
john told me that out of all germany dates, the munich one was the best and you could tell that was true.
we had a few drinks after the show and it was so nice to feel that they all care about each other so much.
totally down to earth, lovely friendly human beings. they all made me feel so welcome.
to everybody involved that evening.. thank you so much for such a great great time.
hope to see you all soon, rockin switzerland !!

10/04/22 landscapes and the emotional goodbyes

after two weeks of exploring the wonderful country of maroc, it´ s time to say goodbye, in many ways.
before i got here, my past months have been emotionally strenious and i thought i could rest my brain for a while.
instead it got fed up with tons of impressions, impressions of people who have nothing and still share the little they might have.
i met the amazingly friendly "sdik" who let me made tea in his home, i know he is not reading this but i am so thankful for meeting him.
spent time with photographer and worldtraveller juan and remember how everybody in his casa took such good care of me while i was sick.
thank you najad for the helping rice ;-)
i had been standing on the highest dune in the middle of a sandstorm, looking at the border to algier, which is closed because of many rebels in that area.
thought about my passed away grandmom while standing in the desert and hope our thoughts crossed.
we drove through the mountains where a kid tried to hit our car with a stone, we were not welcome up there.
stood at the ocean looking towards west, thinking about moving back to the states. and actually the chances are big doing that.
had a wonderful time with anna & peter from munich and i am blessed with my great travel companion harry.
he is so expirienced and i can not think of anyone else i would like to be on the road with.
the contrast in this country is incredible and for sure i will come back here at one point.
while standing at the ocean listening to some dave matthews tunes thoughts about loving, loosing and moving forward came across my mind.
close to tears when i think about how much of my personality had gone for the last months but also know that with everything we do, we learn.
it´s important to let go and also to be thankful for what we have and now the time has come to let loose and move on.
a big part of my heart has gone empty but for sure will fill up again.
and i think the places i have been to are good ones for leaving some of my feelings.
for now i hope you are all safe and can enjoy your lifes. many of us cannot and here i have seen that in a very strong way.
be honest to yourselfs !!!
much love

10/04/19 marrakesch

after the south we headed towards west passing over the "atlas" mountains, which was incredible and i will post some images later on.
got into "marrakesch in the evening, traffic was horrible. total chaos. everybody driving like a maniac.
kind a like a combination of N.Y. and asia.
started our next morning with visiting the markets here. saw some chicken dealers, never seen anything like that before..just terrible.
of course everybody wants to sell you something. it is a pain in the ass to photograph here. nobody wants photographers, that is actually nothing new
to us since the whole islamic world is not really a friend of photographers, but here it is even worse.
we visted the famous "jemnaa el fna" market, and i tell ya, it is nothing i can recommend.
many people with snakes, of course poisioning snakes but in that case the cobras actually seemed more dead than alive and their theeth have been pulled out anyway.
dumb tourist can get pictures with the snakes and also with monkeys. a shame to watch. the animals are treated like shit.
there are also some other "attractions" going on but their main pourposes consists of gathering people around so someone can steal out of there pockets.
we were observing a few of those thiefs, they got aware of us and therefore didn´t steal ;-)
again nobody wants us to take pictures. not even from behind... missed a few nice shots cause i didn´t want to argue with hundreds of muslims ;-)
so all in all a boring market and not worth spending much time there.
after day two in marrakesch i can not say anything different than i said before.. it is damn difficult to shoot people here.
started our day at a nice cafe and drove to the olive gardens later.
early afternoon we entered the old town from north and found ourselfs in the middle of a typical maroc market. there were no tourists at all.
that was great and we found the manufacturies, where all the tourist shops buy from. ended up having a guide next to us who wanted to show us leather manufacturies.
we didn´t really want to see that since the smell is horrible and tried to escape..
no chance.. he had taken us to the real dark corners of the town and luckily it wasn´t night time yet, otherwise we would have left without our cameras ;-)
spent the early evening at "jemnaa el fna" again but it was no different then yesterday.
so tomorrow we are going west to see the atlantic ocean and hopefully some nice old villages where they let us use our cameras ;-)
if not, it´s a famous spot for surfers and who knows, maybe i end up riding some waves ;-)
much love to all of you

10/04/14 marokko II

after 5 days with no more than 5 hours sleep everyday, we deceided to have a break and calm down a little.
we are close to the sahara and today there is a sandstorm, so it is impossible to go outside... best time to work on some images.
we left ouazazarte and headed towards "agdz". on our way we passed a broken car and gave one of the passengers a ride.
dropped him off at his home, where we expirienced a friendly welcome and were invited for tea and diner. unfortunately for diner was no time.
we met with juan in "zagora", he is also a photographer, he has been all over the world and has shot some amazing images.. really wonderful.
he also owns the guesthouses and i can highly recommend his places to everybody.
our guesthouse was in the middle of a palmerie, right next to an very old jewish village from the 17th century.
"hara" was the name of the village and we had a great time shooting there during the sunset.
after an amazing breakfast by the lake we drove towards the desert. we met juan on the way and drove off road to visit a village.
when i say village you have to know that there is no way to compare this with a village we used to know.
the villages here are more like one huge building with seperate rooms (appartments) and the "streets" are just dusty, dark and long cooridors.
i find it very hard to belive that someone can live under those circumstances, but they do.
we continued going south and saw our first sanddunes in the sunset. amazing...amazing...amazing
went to bed at 1 in the morning and got up at 5 in the morning to shoot the dunes while sunrise...just beautiful
hae breakfast on the terrace with a nice view over the dunes.
then was "hunting time" again and we visited several villages. i could write many pages about what happened next,but try to keep it short, since
it is hard to describe anyway.
i was walking around through the dark cooridors of a village called "el baleid", didn´t get lost but somehow ended in a living area and a man walked up to me.
he gave me a smile and we tried to talk... no chance, but he seemed to like me and showed me a place where the whole wall of a building had come down.
so he explained to me what had happened and pointed at the floor. all the sudden i realized, standing in the middle of a tiny cemetary,
where his whole family was buried. when the wall came down, they were all killed.
he invited me into his home. i got tea and bread and he showed me his whole building. he was very proud.
we entered his sleeping room.. there was nothing except a blanket on the floor.. nothing else... the floor, like the rest of the buildings was made out of brickearth.
he showed me the kitchen and again, there was nothing...absolutely nothing... no oven, no fridge or shelves or what so ever.
just a tiny brickearth bump with a whole on the dirty floor... that was actually the oven.
so after seeing this it was even harder to belive that in all those villages people live like this.
he showed me his liscense... 27 year old man is called "sdik".
i had to leave and meet with harry and juan but "sdik" accomponied me and invited all three of us for tea and bread.
juan said that it is a very very unusual thing that happened to me. normally people like "sdik" do not invited foreigners to their homes.
at this point i have to mention that "sdik" is hardcore islamist.. the ones with the long beard. "allah" means everything to him".
even when we thanked him for the invitation and the tea he said that we have to thank allah. i told him how beautiful his children are.. and he said that allah gave them to him.
honestly, in his mind allah is responsible for every tiny little thing in his life. his house.. allah... that we met.. allah.. all allah.
so i felt honored that i was invited and he even teached me how to pour the tea in a traditional way.
he also gave me his phone number before we had to leave... its hard to describe that meeting to you.. but it blew my mind.
at the same time i met "sdik" my friend harry had an unusal experience as well.. he was invited to a moschee to photograph someone reading the koran.
also very unsual.
we continued our travel to another village which is considered to be fundamentalistic. a few months before, they threatned one of the village residents with death, because he showed a foreigner the place where he lived.
normally islamic people are not cruel or what so ever.. like everywhere in the world, it´s just a few fanatics that make it hard for the rest.
anyway we drove there and walked around the cooridors.. saw many children and old women.
again one of the kids invited me to his room... a huge room with nothing in it.. well not true.. there was one tiny little tv, a blanket and a poster with two praying females.
hard to belive they use females for advertisment.. but "sex sells", so why should it be different in the islamic world ;-)
so we had no problem in that village and continued driving south to "m´hamid".
the road ends in "m´hamid" after there its only sand.. sand.. and even more sand..
welcome to the "sahara"!!!

10/04/10 marokko

a friendly warm welcome from marokko to everyone.
i got here yesterday, flew over germany and landed in agadir, where we picked up a car and drove to taroudannt.
the town of taroudannt is a very old one and not to many tourists are there. people are very friendly and talkativ.
our little photo warm-up round came out really good, we met people who make oil in a tradtitional way and later on
we got lots of carpet history. we were told about every single knot and its meaning ;-)
was fun, but we didn´t want to buy anything ;-)
around 5 o´clock in the morning we got a wake up call, which we didn´t asked for ;-).. the local muezzin was behind the loud voice.
muezzin are a common thing in the islamic world. they stand on the minarette and pray a
few times every day and they do that useing speakers, so everyone can hear.
tomorrow morning we will be able to enjoy the full sound since our room is right next to the speakers...hurray.
so earlier this afternoon we drove to ouarzazate... long drive and on our way we took a little off road path, without knowing what to expect.
we ended in a very very small village.. it was hard to believe that anyone lives there. met some kids and harry gave em some balloons.
ahh... let´s not forget about the goats in the trees... i am not kiddin... the goats climb up the tree to eat the fruits, shit them and then oil will be made out of that shit.
later on we saw an old gasstation on the road side.. soon to find out that this was left over requisite from hollywood.
they filmed "the hills have eyes" on that location.
this was already very close to ouazarzate and there was even more movie action going on.
very touristic town since they filmed parts of "star wars", "prince of persia" and many other movies here.
everybody wants to show you the way and of course wants to collect some money.
we will leave here tomorrow, going towards the southeast, where we plan to go into the desert of sahara for a few days... needless to say "i am excited"
everybody enjoy the pleasure of your own set wake-up time and be safe !!!

10/04/04 FBI

had a fine working easter weekend with the friendly freaks of FBI (far beyond innocence).
some of them i have been friends with for almost 18 years and back in the days i used to run their merchandise.
always nice to remember all the stories from then. i tell you, that was a real good time touring with those fellas.
things haven´t really changed besides some more ink under wurmi´s skin ;-)
but the sound is still aggressiv as hell. some of the images we shot at the "schlachthof" in wels,
which also brought up many memories.
when i first got in touch with the music-business i used to work as a stage hand.
back then, the scene was really big in wels and almost every interesting band played this venue.
remember seeing "dream theater" there and the arena was stuffed with so many people that even german magazin "rock hard"
were questioning the promoters craziness in their review.
well there would be a whole bunch of stories and i am sure we will get to them one day or the other ;-)
so, how does it feel to be surrounded by the beautiful people ? hard rockin easter to everybody !!!

10/03/24 paris

spent the weekend in paris, wandering around the city of love, watching people and enjoyed life.
but unfotunately not everybody is as fortunate and its not difficult to see how some of us have to struggle through the days.
some images will show poverty and photographing this is a very delicate thing to do.
i do not want anyone to think that i don´t respect other peoples life by picturing how they suffer.
i share them because in our world of entertainment and overstimulation we often take things for granted.
we don´t think about how it could also be and how important it is to be there for others.
nothing is granted !!
some may say, that its not necessary to show poverty in order to be reminded of it´s exsitence, but i often get the impression that it is important to show.
everybody, be safe !!

10/03/02 the dave matthews band potraits

photopit vienna, around two minutes before showtime i received a txt msg, asking me if i can bring my gear to munich the next day.
empty brain (that hardly ever happens) - big hug for the punk-girl that arranged it and a huge smile on my face.
next thing i remember, the band started the vienna show with "bartender".. ah right i should take some pictures.. stunned.
early wake up the following morning and off to munich and of course i got stuck in traffic.
the highway to munich is always a pain. anyhow, made it in time.
met carter and some members of the dmb crew and they gave me their backstage room to set up my light. i´d like to thank them sooo much for that
and also for being so gentle and welcoming to me.
started shooting with stefan and walked into dave on the floor, introduced myself and asked him if he would let me do a couple of shots as well.
it seemed like no problem and there he sat making funny faces. i got some "regular" shots as well but i think the one i picked says it all.
and that pretty much counts for the whole series, you can tell they are all in a good mood and shows the playful side of them.
had an interesting conversation with jeff about one of his photographer friends and actually jeff is into photography as well.
you can check out his works by clicking here
continued with tim who told me about his german "roots" and then got a real good smile from rashawn.
finished the portrait session with carter. we did some "for the ladys" and then he invited me to shoot right next to him onstage. but i mentioned that before ;-)
you will recognize that boyd is missing, unfortunately we ran out of time and he was already preparing for the show.
hopefully we can catch up at some point later.
of course munich was a blast for me and its a great pleasure of mine to share those portraits with you.
there were many people involved in order to arrange this. i honestly appreciate their effort and thank them all so much for their help and time.
a special thanks goes out to the chocolate-lovin-bass-playin-punk-rock-girl for all her help. big huuug to you.
be safe everybody, show up hungry and enjoy life !!!

10/02/28 carter beauford of the dave matthews band

so when i was in munich i also had the pleasure of meeting carter for the first time.
he honestly gave me a very warm welcome and was constantly smiling, made me feel very good
and it didn´t feel like it was our first meeting. still it was.
he already knew what i was doing and let me hear some great words about my work.
needless to say that an honest feeback about an artists work is something very meaningful.
he agreed to let me do some portraits of him and i showed him a picture of him drumming i shot earlier that week.
i sort of explained how difficult it is to see him behind all the cymbals and he looked at me and said:" he man you should come onstage and shot from there!"
i was already excited that they let me do my portraits but getting me onstage blew my mind.
he continued:" i want you to shoot right next to me"... ok, i can do that :-) i mean .. i definitely can do that :-)
and all the sudden there i was with a pass in my hand that allowed me to go onstage while the show was on.
you can imagine that shooting carter from a very short distance really gives you the opportunity to show the energy he puts on.
and there i was .. onstage with my lens all over the place.
i hope you like the images.
feel the beat

10/02/23 dave matthews band - vienna - munich

back in the year 2000 i was living in the united states and i remember one day driving with my girl to get some food.
the radio was on and i heard this incredible sound.. a very tight snare drum and it instantly got me.(that song was "ants marching")
i turned over to tracey and asked who that was and she was so surprised it didn´t know the "dave matthews band".
and when i returned to austria i brought their sounds with me and played them to everybody i met ;-)
so when they finally played vienna last week, it was a big get together of many of my friends and it just felt great.
i shot the first three songs and enjoyed the rest of the amazing show while being in great company.
we all have songs that we can combine with happenings in our lives, and when they played "so damn lucky" (one of my favourite tunes),
many emotions came back and i was fortunate to be with the person that has a lot to do with all those emotions.
thanks for staying that night (hug u) :*
traveled to munich the next day to see the last of my four shows, but i will blog about this later that week.
for now, enjoy some of the vienna and munich images and stay tuned, there is more to come ;-)
loosen up !!!

10/02/18 dave matthews band - berlin

"tempodrom" was he venue in berlin and i have to say, this was a gorgeous one. in former days it was a circus tent
and was actually placed somewhere in the center of the city. due political affairs they had to move and rebuild it.
ecording to one of the locals, there was some corrupt actions involved and some politics heads rolled afterwards;-).
the whole project was way to expensive and we all know how it works, someone stuffed their own pocket. it´s everywhere the same.
the capacity of the venue is 3500 and the show was sold out. photopit was very small and not much room to move.
however i had a tough time shooting since they started the evening by playing "proudest monkey", which is one of my favourites. continued with "satellite" and "funny the way it is"..
the band was once again in a great mood and played an amazing setlist. this was my 15th show and i have never seen anything like this before.
they jammed through songs like "dancing nancies" and a approx. 15-20 minute version of "#41" and kicked ass on " you might die trying".
for the encore it was time for "two step" and again they went totally nuts on this one.
then there was a short break until they came back out for another encore starting with "so damn lucky" and ending with a modified cover of
"sly stones - thank you (falettinme be mice elf agin).
took the noon flight back home and here i am excited about tonights show in vienna.
i don´t think the berlin show can be topped but you never know, right ?
a blast to hear would be "the dreaming tree" and "lousiana bayou".
see you all smiling at the best show you will attend in a long time, unless you come to munich with us on saturday ;-)
love

10/02/17 dave matthews band - hamburg

finally got over the "flying thing" and made it to hamburg yesterday.
since this was such a big deal for me, i thought, "why not treat yourself for being brave ;-)".
so i checked in at the "atlantic hotel".. you know the one, where "udo lindenberg" is a permanent resident.
had a nice walk on the frozen "alster" and some good lunch, it was sunny but damn cold at the same time,
i hung out at the hotel sauna later on, felt great.
there are some constructions going on at the hotel so we didn´t have any warm water at the room.
we insantly got an upgrade and moved several floors down, unfortunately that room was to close to the construction area,
so we moved again.. and this time we got the "junior suite".. damn nice.. really.. but anyway its what you expect when paying
hard earned euros.
i still question myself, if i should have asked for one of the endless "lindenberg" paintings instead for another room...hmm??
if you don´t stay at the hotel, but would like to have breakfast, it´s euro 30,-, for us its free
i enjoyed an amazing breakfast this morning and still can´t really move.
however the thing that got me here in the first place was the "dave matthews band" european tourkick off.
got to the venue early, to make sure my pass is ready and was told that photographers have to leave after the first 3 songs :-(
and that we can only shoot from the "front of house" (in other words: faaaaar away from the stage)
anyhow my contact from the band was once again a big help and hooked me up with a damn good seat.
it felt good to finally meet her again after months of emailing and i can´t thank her enough for all she is doing for me.
so everything was good and the show about to start and we were allowed to move closer to one side of the stage.
shooting was not that easy but the band was in a great great mood... it was their first show of the year and they kicked ass.
they started the evening with "don´t drink the water" and continued with many titles of their latest record.
close to the end of the regular set they pulled out "burning down the house", a "talking heads" cover,
and then they finished with "ants marching". for the encore it was time for "you&me" and a kick ass version of "tripping billies".
i did not expect them to play a second encore but they did and i have to say, that out of all the different "all along the watchtower versions i have heard so far,
this was the best!!!! i will travel to berlin now for another show and then back home tomorrow.
excited to see them in vienna on friday and hope to see you all there as well.

10/02/11 machine head

i believe it was in 1995 when i first saw "machine head" onstage.
i just dropped out of school and rock 'n' roll meant everything to me (still does) and so i was working as a stage hand at the time.
"machine head" opened for "slayer" that night and i remember having a damn easy working night,
cause the drum-tech of "slayer" picked me to help him and no one else was allowed to touch the drums.
he was a real nice guy and while everybody was thirsty as hell he filled me up with any kind of beverage i wanted ;-)
so 15 years later we are in vienna and "machine head" still rock.. actually a lot.
they got the crowd going, lots of circle-pit action involved and kind of a tough time shooting them.
espacially because you always have to watch your back as well, since you might get hit by some crowdsurfing kid.
thankfully there are some people, for example the most likely next president of the "vienna sportklub", who watches our backs ;-)
so everybody... open up that circle-pit, heads down and up the irons.

10/02/07 hindoslem

shot the promotion picture for "hindoslem" last week. we had a fun day in the studio including some "babyoil action".
always nice to watch some tough guys in front of the mirror while they kind of turn themselfs on while rubbing their body
and making their hair look good ;-)
no seriously it was a productive shooting and i am very pleased with the result.
see you all this week at the "machine head" and "mastodon" shows and then next week off for some dave matthews band shows in germany.
hopefully to meet some friends from previous tours.
stay safe everybody

10/02/02 amanda palmer

sunday afternoon at the "arena" in vienna... i had an appointment to shoot with amanda and i kinda showed up real early.
soon to find out this was no mistake, as i was able to enjoy her doing the soundcheck. brilliant.
she really got into it and i think she played way more than an hour. the only one thing that annoyed me.. some talking technicians ;-)
but i don´t wanna complain ;-)
amanda said we were going to do the shooting right before she goes onstage. stagetime was at 20:15..
she showed up at 20:17 and said that i have 2 minutes...perfect i thought, since its always good to work under pressure.
i did a few portraits, changed the setting and shot a few more... i was with my assitant, who actually introduced me to amandas art
and helped to arrange this shooting and in return i sneaked her in for a couple of shots. damn cute !
after that little intermission amanda stayed in the chair and started to play her ukulele.
believe it or not, she pulled out a version of "heintje´s - ich bau dir ein schloss".
i was still shooting and fan#1 (assistant in disguise) got a short private concert. in the end we shot for 7 minutes and the images came out great.
we walked amanda to the stage.. at least we thougt we would, but she started her show at the balcony in the middle of the crowd, and again with the cover of "heintje´s song".
so all in all a very enjoyable night with great music and perfect company.
drove home around 1:30 in the morning and received a call...
the voice on the other end telling me that she will drive amanda to the airport the next day.
i instantly knew what that meant.. rené, go and clean your fuckin' car... so next morning i spent 2 hours of cleaning which was good and necessary anyway.
(ever filled a 35 liter trashbag with just cans an bottles ?)
girls picked up the car, made it to the airport, dropped amanda off, got back home safe and i got a cool surprise.
a signed copy of the "who killed amanda palmer" record... that gesture blew my mind.
first thing this morning, i enjoyed the tunes on it... thanks for the gift.. you warmed my heart.
alright everybody here are some visual treats for ya all.. hope you like them and feel free to drop me a note ;-)
be safe

10/01/27 ohrbooten & 3 feet smaller

since most of the guys of "3 feet smaller" where kind of sleeping when we first did the portraits at last years "nova rock festival",
we had to do them again and this time they came out really good and underline the bands personality ;-)
they were touring with a bunch of other bands in late 2009, but unfortunately none of the others showed up for a little session, except the guys of "ohrbooten".
i appreciate them taking the time to let me do this.
see you all at "the locos" show tomorrow. be well everybody !!!

10/01/24 david gilmour painting by tom noll

tom noll did it again. after painting dave matthews and bb king using my photographs as his drafts,
he finished another work, showing "david gilmour".
i shot this image in 2006 and i have to say, that it still is one of my most favourite ones. i think it perfectly desbribes a pink floyd song performed live.
there is lots of room for interpretation and still it is very thight and focused.
i feel very honored and happy when i see what tom makes out of my photographs. keep up the excellent work you do. keep it up !!!
so if anyone is interested in buying some of tom´s art,
this link will take you to his website, or contact me and i hook you up with tom ;-)

10/01/01 images and thoughts

so it happened again.. the clock turned midnight and then the minutes started to move.
it might surprise you but i tell you all a secret, this wonderful miracle actually happens every single day.. damn right.. every day we can experience midnight !!
still don´t understand why most people get a kick out of one single timechange ??
austrians approx. spent 8 million euros on fireworks...you know how many good things could have been done with all the money, right ?
i mean it is ok to party but is it necessary to color the sky ?? so whoever wished someone all the best and love and so on...don´t just say it for today.. mean it... every day...
my honest thoughts and deep love for friends who have to go through some very difficult times right now.
remember, it´s amazing what a minute can do!!!
i leave you with random images from various live shows i have been to last month, and hopefully you are able to enjoy them.