11/12/02 SADE
after seeing SADE in copenhagen past may there was one artist less on my "must-see-list".
that show totally blew my mind... the perfect arrangement between sound and visuals.. not too much and not too little.
incredibe good musicians and most of them have been with her for her entire career.
her setlist doen´t change that much so for the vienna show we already knew what to expect.. sort of.
cause i did not expect to meet her before the show :-) again i had the pleasure of shooting a "meet& greet" ;-)
however it was way different than the "alice cooper" one.. very strict rules this time.. lined up in the corridor before her
dressing room, people entered in pairs.. short small talk , 2 pictures and out.. at least that was the idea of her personal assistant ;-)
SADE herself seemed to be much more relaxed, she chatted with the winners, took her time for the pictures and had no stress at all.
conny, a viennese photographer and former doorman of the legendary "U4" club talk with her about the time when she played at the "U4".
i belive that was in 1983 or so.. she remembered and talked about that night later during the show.
shooting the show... well it was no surprise that we had to shoot from far far away.
since there is hardly any control over creativity i would normally pass those shows where u have to do that.
in the case of SADE i couldn´t resist:-)
other than that, i went to the "smashing pumpkins" show last night. worst stagelight ever..i know they tried to copy a caldeidoscope
but it was a pain to watch...total destraction.. and the sound.. way tooooo looouuud.
lets hope for the better at tonights "monster magnet" show.. my old time heroes return (for the 7th time in 2 year ???)
ohhh.. and nothing better than haveing a girl that cares about my health.. thanks for the smokes hun ;-)
11/11/25 LENNY KRAVITZ
here are some lenny kravitz shots from last week !
was a good show but unfortunately he never changes stelist on this tour :-(
he signed some of my photographs... unfortunately black on black.. even i provided him with a white pen, which i never got back.
somewhere in the universe must be a huge collection of all my white pens :-)
ok, bit busy right now and all excited to meet the great SADE tonight !!!
be safe "!
11/11/11 ALICE COOPER
no more, mr. nice guy... once you have met alice cooper, you will know that is not the case.
even at the age of 63 mr. coopers stageperformance is one of the best to shoot and see
and in person one of the most calm and friendliest artists i have met.
he actually acts and moves.. way more than most of the young rock n' rollers out there.
i was asked to shoot a "meet&greet" after the show and without expecting something unnatural to happen, i agreed.
pretty soon to find out it was not the best thing to do at all ;-)
i entered the room and was introduced to around 50 fans, waiting for their idol to show up.
while a normal "meet&greet" counts around 10 persons, and you do ..lets say maybe take 10 pictures.
so there i stood, surrounded and helpless, lost in the situation, forced to smile my way through the next 40 minutes :-)
lucky me i was not alone. i dont think alice expected that many people either, neither did his tourmanger ;-)
but the best was yet to come.. people started to hand me their businesscards in order to send them their image with alice.
yeah right, i am going to remember all of you !!!
with a friendly smile i denied and made someone else (someone responsible for this situation) to the email-work ;-)
might sound harsh but all in all it was fun and i got a cute picture with alice, my girl and myself for the family-album.
still smiling i will be at the "bush" show tonight !
11/11/02 THE RED BULLETIN
after a busy month of october, finally back working on some images from the past shows.
but before that, its my pleasure to post the "dave grohl" interview with some of my images
from the current issue of the "RED BULLETIN" magazin.
get a sneak of the issue here and let your trusted newspaper-dealer hook you up with it !!
11/09/28 even more amanda
diggin the archives a bit... more shots from amanda palmer
enjoy
11/09/12 amanda fucking palmer
20 months past since she last performed at the arena in vienna, that time all by herself, this time with band.
back in january 2010 we did a few portraits right before the show. i also shot the entire show and the outcome just blew my mind.
in order to present my special one for her birthday i had a book made.. just one copy ;-)
we showed it to amanda and
she seemed to really like it.
also neil gaiman ( her husband) had only good words to say). guess i captured her true natural look.
not just the rock 'n' roll side of her.
i will give u a sneak of those images in a few days and who knows maybe, with a slight change, there will be more copies available in the future.
this time it wasn´t easy to shoot at all. the stage was packed with microphones that didn´t allow a decent view.
at one point amanda gathered "superkate" among with many other "backstage-dancers" around her to do a little workout and then she disappeared in the crowd.
later on they had some dancing action going on as well. great dancing by my sweet one but extremly poor performance by the sour one (u know who u are ;-)
unfortunately fever knocked me out by the end of the night :-(
ok some of you improve your dancing-moves and i continue workin on some more images!!
11/09/07 jimmy webb
survived hurricane "irene" in NYC and am back in good old vienna.
2 of the 3 dave matthews band shows got canceld because of the hurricane but other than that i had an amazing time overseas.
it felt so good to be with my friends and my most favourite chef yoni.. thanks for making me gain some weight ;-)
spent some quality time with vicky and rick at the "morrison hotel gallery", heard lots of stories and rick showed me images
of their legendary parties they host.
little later i walked into a store and recognized a guy i had just seen on some of the party images.
i introduced myself to the very charasmatic mr. jimmy webb and asked if we can do a little photoshoot.
unfortunately he was tired and just got back from vegas, where he hung out with his buddy iggy pop.
however he agreed to do some photos the following week and when i got there he was busy again with booking a flight to see iggy again ;-)
so no doubt they are close friends.
finally at my third attempt, we had a little session and he told me about his life.
jimmy left home when he was 16 (that was in 1975) and moved to NYC with nothing more than a suitcase.
he worked all kinds of jobs and became a heroin addict at one point. he even sold his own clothes on the street.
when he became sober it took him 6 months to learn how to walk and talk again.
he is still sober and works at "trash & vaudeville", a punk-rock-goth store in NY.
jimmy is a extremly friendly and warm-hearted man and honestly, i very much appreciate that we met and look forward seeing him again next year.
so after feeling sick for a fw hours i will keep myself busy with editing some of the images from lasts nights meeting with amanda fucking palmer.
watch out for some of those ! ohh and dont forget to follow me on twitter ;-)
11/08/22 foo fighters
this past saturday the impressive "foo fighters" headlined the last day of the annual "frequency festival".
three exhausting days had come to an end and i was excited to finally see them again.
approximately 5 years have past since i last enjoyed this pleasure.
gwould have loved to hear "february stars" or "skin & bones" but they didn´t play them, instead i got the goosbumps when
dave spoke a few words about the "pukkelpop-festival" where heavy storm destroyed stages and killed people.
he then continued with a solo accoustic version of "wheels" and got a great backup from the crowd.
i sang, danced and carried the pretty one on the shoulders... a perfect rock n roll show, couldn´t ask for more.
tired me takes a two day break and will then head back to NY to see the "dave matthews band" next weekend.
this i going to be the highlight for me ;-)
11/08/09 danzig
after a busy last week i am trying to catch up with all the images on my harddrive and there is a lot of them ;-)
the dark man performed at the "nova rock festival" and for me it was the best act this year.
however tonight is going to be a bright one !!! put on my dancing shoes and am about to leave to see
"prince" in budapest. looking forward to some decent funk tunes ;-)
sooo, dont fake the funk or ya nose will grow !!!!
11/08/01 volbeat
boring sunday in vienna. lausy weather, which at least is good for the excuse to not leave home ;-)
looked through some images from the past months. did those "volbeat" portraits at the "nova rock" festival.
cant say too much about the guys since this was really was a "not time to talk" shoot. we did them right before they went
onstage to headline that night, so they all were pretty focused already.
however i appreciate that they let me do this at such short notice and maybe there will be more time when they come back to vienna this winter.
enough work for today, getting back into cosy tea-movie-mood and will watch "killing bono" now. pretty funny so far ;-)
11/07/25 erykah badu
the annual jazzfest in wiesen took place this past weekend.
besides the upcoming "dave matthews band" shows in NY this was my musical-summer-highlight, seeing erykah badu again :-)
great voice and personality and lots of fun hearing how she comes up with all kinds of changes to her songs.
i remember,when i first saw her in philadelphia many years ago, there was a couple who tried to sneek out during the encore,
you know so they can avoid the traffic jam after the show.
erykah saw that, stopped the song and told them to sit down again since she has not finished her show yet.
i thougth that was pretty funny and of course they sat down and probably got stuck in traffic afterwards ;-)
i stayed until the end of the show on saturday and left wiesen with a big smile. thanks, ms. badu!!
11/07/03 jennifer rostock
as i mentioned in my last entry, some "jennifer rostock" images are about to come.
they played the "kasematten" venue in graz a bit more than a week ago.
never saw them live before and gotta say, i like their stage behaviour a lot. lots of movements and
therefore it´s fun shooting them.
my apologise to joe for not haveing a proper shot of him. wasn´t that easy to get to his keyboard. promise to catch up with that
next time we see each other.
rainy sunday today in vienna. listening to "live" and watching their videos. good stuff !!!
11/06/26 portugal. the man
friday afternoon, out of nowhere (not exactly true but whatever) i got invited to join the "jennifer rostock" show in graz.
packed the gear and of to styria. for some reason graz has been a last minute action the last couple times,
so i got there 10 minutes before jennifer´s showtime.
but not only jennifer played. also my friends from "portugal. the man". i met them a year ago when we did some portraits.
pretty difficult light plus zach bending around between darkness, light and fog made it very demanding to shoot.
in case you haven´t heard of them before, they are about to release a new record this july and i promise, its going to be as great as
all their other tunes.
haven´t forgotten about "jennifer rostock" but i am still working on the images, tonights "jeff beck" show "stole" some postproduction time ;-)
11/06/23 arcade fire
first "wiesen" show last night with "arcade fire"... the past years have left many memories at that venue.
but even when dark skies blur your vision, you never know what good it will do in the longrun.
was great seeing some old friends by accident... plus my first wedding invitation, where i was not asked to take pictures ;-)
but back to the show ... to shoot, a pain. way to many people and microphones onstage ;-)
to listen, well very monotone.. no doubt they came up with a unique sound but to me also a very repeating one by now.
and visual wise.. not much going on except "win butler´s" new style.. which is sort of creepy.
not really a fashion guru, well neither am i ;-)
my austrian fellas enjoy the national holiday, eat some soup and take care of your stomach.
to the rest of you... keep exploring !!!
11/06/19 the hives
"nova rock" festival is history and once i get approvel for certain images i will post them.
in the meantime i entered the stage with "the hives". the audience was kind of boring in the beginning,
the band really did a lot to wake them up and it worked, second half of the show was pure energy.
i had a good time shooting on stage and a big thank you to cindy, simone and of course all the boys.
well but not everything is good in life, just got the news that one of the greatest sax-players passed away yesterday.
"big man " clarence clemons, bruce springsteens side-kick for over forty years gave up his ghost.
makes me think of some wonderful shows where i saw him perform, the best was in milano 2008. remebering 70.000 people cheering and singing
along with the e-street band. thankful for that !
11/06/09
festival season has arrived and i am all ready for three days of madness at the "nova rock" festival.
my friends from "centao" will crash the "blue stage" on saturday.
one of my closest friends plays the bass for them
and recently i shot his wedding invitation pictures.
so some of my friends are getting married, others get babies...
...but in the end my fellows.. in the end its all about rock 'n' roll !!!.. or maybe there is more ??
will try to write a daily update from the festival, watch out for that.
up the irons !
11/05/31 gil scott-heron
some 15 years ago, my former girlfriend introduced me to gils music.
in 2009 i thought i would finally see him live. gil scott-heron was schedulded to play a festival here in vienna.
unfortunately the U.S. government wouldn´t let him leave the country. due his former drug abuse he had a red stamp in his
passport and whenever he wanted to leave the country he had to apply in court in order to do so.
a year later he was able to travel and played at the "jazzfest wiesen". i was lucky enough to see his performance and like to share
these images.
r.i.p.
11/05/25 MADM - Melissa auf der Maur
after rocking the "szene wien " last december, melissa returned to europe for a few dates and changed the instrumental set up a little ;-)
in other words...no drums this time. which obviously is a challange for a bass player.
instead of drums she was accomponied by guitar, synth and visuals aaaaand a little tiny canadian inside of her :-)
i expected the show to be far more quiet but honestly i didn´t miss the drums that much. it still rocked.
had a great night out, only shame, we couldn´t find a decent bar later on, the only one we found was occupied by the so called "high society"
it was fun watching all those yuppies with pink pullovers around the shoulders.
you know how it feels to be ashamed for others ;-) that was the case.
also funny to see some record-label chief sitting drunk on the pavement (only one thing missing.. a pink pullover)... tststs
so thanks melissa for letting me shoot a little behind the scenes and all the best for the three of you !!!
no names here but a big "i feel sorry" to one of my friends ;-)
11/05/22 copenhagen
took a trip up to copenhagen last week. tiny clean city with loooots of bicycles.. can´t tell you how much i like that.
wouldn´t be me if the place i go won´t offer a fine concert, right ? so friday we went to see the "beatsteaks" at a tiny club,
in "christiania". "christiania" is a formerly occupied part of the town where it was "legal" to sell, buy and use drugs.
the goverment shot that down a few months ago but the people who live there bought back their autonomy, for some 20 million euros !!
you are not allowed to take photographs inside those streets.. of course we did.. but unfortunately those images didn´t last very long.
i was forced to erase them :-(
after seeing the "roger waters . the wall" world tour opening in toronto i had to see it again. so we went there on saturday..
simply insane, the show was held in a giant soccerstadium and they had surround-sound for that venue..
well and finally for the first time in my life i got to see the fabulous SADE in concert.
i still get the goosebumps when i think of it. wonderful stagedesign and incredible voice..
was nice to escape for a few days... back in vienna trying to find peace.
much love
11/04/16 peter frampton
whenever the name "peter frampton" comes up, i instantly have that john cusack line from "high fidelity" in my head.
you know, the one where he walks into the pub and "marie de salle" covers framptons "babe, i love your way"
and cusack, in his most depressive mood asks the guy at the door "is that peter "fuckin" frampton ?"
well it is.. 35 years later, frampton comes alive, again
11/03/28 zack wylde
je***.. time flies by...
former long time sidekick of ozzy osbourne, guitar legend "zack wylde" recently took the stage with his "black label society" back here in vienna.
never seen him before but you could tell that it makes no difference to him, if he plays a 30.000 arena with ozzy or a
tiny 1000 people venue in vienna, he still rocks his ass off.
like to see that some just enjoy what they are doing.
other than that, i went to shoot the peter frampton show and will post some images later this week and
until then i enjoy the cold weather here in vienna. grml.
11/03/03 Morrison Hotel Gallery - New York City
well here i am back in austria, after 2 months of craziness in NYC. the city that never sleeps and
i can say that is a 100% true. even i had a tough time sleeping with all the loud neighbours ;-)
anyhow it was a big experience, met great people, saw many places and shows and took millions of pictures.
it wasn´t always easy but worth every second and dollar i spent there and now it is my enormously great great pleasure
to announce that the "Morrison Hotel Gallery" is representing my work in NYC !!!!
go and check out the Morrisonhotelgallery.com website.
or click here to get directly to my works.
hope everybody enjoys their weekends
to yoni & ida .... i hope you´ll be fine.. think of you
11/02/05 linkin park - madison square garden
first time shooting at madison sqaure garden got me pretty excited, its just a historical venue.
can´t tell you too much about the show, cause we actually had to leave right after the first three songs and were not allowed to attend the performance.
which was fine with me, not a big linkin park fan anyway.
for those who are, they filmed the whole show to air later this month on FUSE.
was nice meeting some colleagues from over here. had some good chats and a fun time shooting the show.
enjoyed watching the crazy new york "friday night" people later at the MSG subway station.
ok, i know it is not the most beautiful place to have a drink but it was hillarious to observe the people.
alright gotta run for a saturday night here in NYC.
thanks to klaus and franz for setting up for the show.
stay tuned fellows ;-)
11/01/31 new york II
day #43 in the big apple or as i like to call it now, the noisy apple.
cause that´s what it is, it is noisy, crowded and not a place you would love to spend your lifetime.
i hear a lot of people saying how envious they are about me being here. i believe they often forget that a
short term stay is something totally different. its nice to explore the city, no doubt, but after a while its like
any other place within the western civilization and it makes you tired.
for the once that know mariahilfer street in vienna, just imaging walking there on a busy saturday, here its like that almost everywhere
a costant attempt of not hitting anyone while walking. i find it very strenious !
people are polite and helpful but on the same side they often don´t recognize their surroundings. they are loud and not smooth at all..
but thats how
americans are.
first thing to do when i am back in vienna, i close my apartment doors and will enjoy total silence ;-) looking forward to that.
however i don´t wanna give you the idea that everything is bad over here.. cause its not. just very different.
the thing i enjoy most are my long walks through central park, an absolutely amazing place to be.
we had lots of snow the other day, so i took another walk through the park, saw many excting people while riding their sledges.
last week i went to another prince show at madison square garden and of course it was great, as always. afterwards we went to the "brooklyn bowl"
where maceo parker
played some funky tunes. everybody expected prince to show up for an aftershow gig.
unfortunately he didn´t. but it was still worth every dollar we spent and i had a good time dancing.
oh and i ran into jeff coffin (sax player for dave matthews band), was nice seeing him again.
for this weekend i have some work scheduled, looking forward to that and in the evening i will enter the famous "blue note" jazzclub
for a killer show with cindy blackman,vernon reid, jack bruce and john medeski. this is going to be lots of fun.. can´t wait.
so in general things are going good and some issues could be better but you can´t always get what you want, right ?
about time to move on, enjoy the images.
11/01/23 korn / sevendust, hammerstein ballroom , NY
after surving the longest queue ever i entered the amazing "hammerstein ballroom" in NYC. one of the greatest inddor arenas i have seen so far.
it´s shaped like a half circle with three floors of balcony and that place waaaas packed with some serious rockers last friday.
i missed the first band and got there right before "sevendust" went onstage. had a good time shooting them and remembered the time when we did some portraits,
back at the "nova rock" festival in austria. their singer "jajon" just kept repeating his name to me.. i thought that was so funny.. as if i would ever forget such a charming person.
their set wasn´t that long and "disturbed" rocked the house afterwards..the crowd was pretty pleased and of course everybody sang along when they played "down with the sickness".
anyway, i couldn´t really enjoy their show..not really my sound at this moment and sort of repeating.
yes,there are no pictures of them.. the reason ?
they had such massive backlights that it was impossible to find any of them in a nice lit place. but i get the feeling that they will be back in europe soon ;-)
on this tour they switch the headlining spot every night.. it is either "disturbed" or "korn" who close and last friday it was "korns" turn.
lost count on how many times i have seen them but i never saw them performing in such an agressive way. the opened with "blind" and turned the "hammerstein" upside down.
marvellous to watch but for no money i would have liked to be inside the crowd ;-)
starting to feel old i guess..anyway they continued with "here to stay" and during "shoots and ladders" they put on a cover of metallica´s " one".
that wasn´t the only cover that night, later on everybody got to sing along to some " we will rock you" tunes ;-)
great show it was and big thanks to "fieldy" and "sebastien" for taking care of me !!
by the way, "korn" released a live dvd which was recorded at the "hammerstein ballroom" back in 2002. just in case you wanna see that place rockin ;-)
besides the show i met crazy "ken pierce", who covers all kinds of metal related events on his website but thinks his name or any other name is not important to know.
however it made him very happy that some girls in the front row knew who he was ;-)
so.. r u ready ???
11/01/21 CANON EDITOR´s Choice / Portrait
a few weeks ago, camera manufacture CANON called to send in pictures for the EDIOTR´s Choice (Portrait).
amongst thousands of entries the editor "marcel saba" pick my portrait of ZZ TOP´s Billy Gibbons to be one of the best.
watch "marcel saba" talk about his selection by clicking here!!
started this year with a great show by "gogol bordello" at the "terminal 5" here in NY.
very nice venue that in older days probably has been a factory, before it turned into a club.
the club was closed several times because of drugs and since 4 years it has been a concert venue.
lots of steel in there, with two floors of balcony and approximately able to fit as much as 3000 musicfreaks in there. great place.
the guys of "endless boogie" opened the night and i suggest that you get their records. they only played two songs,
but they kicked ass.. some heavy "endless" stone rock stuff.
"man man" continued after them.. hmmm... they were all dressed as sailors and i sort of liked their sound in the beginning but further on
it often turned into lots of noise.. so i am not buying that one ;-)
the crowd was all ready for "gogol" and when they hit the stage that place went nuts.
one of the barriers almost broke and that would
have caused a terrible accident including some smashed people.
fortunately security were able to fix that and then it was just lovely to see how everybody danced their asses off.
their setlist hasn´t changed a lot from when i saw them last time (believe that was in august 2010) but you could tell
that they really appreciated such an encouraging audience.
anyway, it wasn´t that easy to shoot, pit was packed with security and other people with cameras ;-)
however i had a great time and thanks to lindsay for having me ;-)
other than that, i have been walking the streets while listening to "van morrison - live at the grand opera house - belfast, 1983" (amazing record),
met nice people and worked on some stuff that will hopefully go down within the next weeks.
i´ll keep you posted.
11/01/01 say hello, wave goodbye
alright another number has changed, hopefully some things and issues as well.
i know, i complained a lot about all the fireworks in my last years blog, still think its unnecessary that everybody blows up a whole bunch of them.
however, after standing in central park last night, with a good can of heineken in a paperbag i enjoyed 17 minutes of colored sky.
almost 2 weeks have past since i moved to NYC for the next few months. wasn´t that easy in the beginning but after enjoying some very fine days here and down in philly,
where i visited old friends of mine, i think i have arrived a bit more.
very thankful for the friends i have here and back home and i truly miss them when i am not close.
however i believe it is necessary to travel, explore and learn about yourself and life in general. i honestly appreciate having those opportunities and all that freedom in my life!!!
i notice a change of personality and a calm side which tells me what to look for in the future.
i like that since, i have been walking around wondering where to go for a long time.
still like what i am doing but some balance would be nice from time to time, right? gettin there ;-)
so i have been walking around the streets of NYC, shooting whatever appeared in front of my lens.
hope you like some of the images.
as for the music, listening to the incredible "john legend & the roots" record right now (i can´t write left handed) and will be at the "gogol bordello" show at terminal 5 later.
be safe everybody and spread love !!!
to my special one, thanks for calling last night, having me at your party of two and for being with me in the great park.
xoxoxo
