Srivatsan Chari’s Photoblog

The Dubai Original Music Festival 2008.

I went.

Wasn’t as good as last year (a year and 10 days ago).

You’ll notice…

Stuck around for 3 bands, well, 4, if you count Mehdi the flamenco guitarist (quite good)

1. Sunking
2. Nikotin *Cough* Horrendous *Cough*
3. Mehdi
4. Moonshine 

After which I went for the “Annihilation Gig”… Good show, that.

Sunking and Moonshine were awesome as usual.
Nikotin were pretty bad… The singer had to read his lyrics while performing, and he never made eye-contact with the audience (ok, there were probably 20 people, but thats still an audience). They were pretty uncoordinated and amateurish. Also, you do not tell everyone that you’re performing a GnR song and start playing Enter Sandman…

What’s surprising is how they get to open for International acts like TATU or Evanescence (allegedly)
Well, that’s Dubai for ya…  (Ref:  Do Buy! - Gandhi’s Cookbook (In The Cesspool Of  Culture))

Anywho,
I just checked my wordpress stats, and seems people have been searching for the DOMF on google.

So, even though my photographs are worse than mediocre, I’m gonna post.

All photographs taken with a Nikon D50 / Sigma 30mm f/1.4 since I broke my Sigma 30mm…  (I fell off a skate ramp, don’t ask…)

Well anyway, photos:

—

Sunking:

—

Mehdi:

—

Moonshine:

—

Also, stay tuned… I’ve got some Xtol BW Developer now, I shall be posting a bunch of BW work soon! (As long as I find a half-decent neg-scanner in Dubai)

So, I spent the evening with a local Black Metal band called ‘HellzHammr’

They’re still underground, looking for a cave/basement to record their first EP.

HellzHammr, are a 4 piece band consisting of

makaVile, Doom, Lord Shogoth and Lord Faggot…

–

Doom, Lord Faggot and Lord Shogoth grimace atop their ramp of doom.

Lord Faggot grimaces as he disapproves of the noise being played at the background

Vile looks into the camera as he mentally prepares himself before going onstage

Vile finds nothing funny as Prince of Darkness smiles behind him.

Vile sings one of his originals, “i’m bringing K V L T back”

The other band members were far too grim and tr00 to be photographed while playing.

Doom gesticulates in his robe as he enters the venue.

Lord Shogoth extrapolates on the worthlessness of the local scene as he approaches the venue.

Following in their tradition, they refuse to be photographed in groups greater than 3

Vile gesticulates as the band prepare to leave, and Lord Shogoth refuses to be photographed.

————–

allright, so they aren’t a real black metal band…

ok, not even a band…

They just dressed up that way for the sake of trolling and winning.

They Trolled, and they Winned.

At a local gig: 2nd Dorell Skate Jam
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/egoistic/2ndTrollSkateParkGig

Also, Remember, Anything and Everything related to the UAE local scene = http://shouscene.com

—

Keep it Brutal and Sick.

Allright, I just realized that I didn’t post pictures from Korn…

Psh, what a fool i am…

Also you guys aren’t lolcats;
So, plz dont be in my blog, steelin my pixz!

So, firstly, photographs from the Korn set -

Notice the oxygen cylinder in the photo below:

—-

So that was that for Day1 (Metal Day); Now, onto Day2 (Rock Day)…

Rock day was just plain boring, till the time Velvet Revolver took the stage…
Velvet Revolver put on a really good show, they’re PROPAH entertainers. They’ve got amazing presence and energy on stage, and good crowd interaction too…

They were probably the ONLY band who ‘posed’ for the photographers during their set.

Having Scott Weiland and Slash look directly INTO my lens and smile = <3

Too bad CSM wouldn’t let anyone other than their own photographers shoot Muse…  That really blew…   Muse put on a brilliant show too, ’twas a tad long for my taste, but man, was I impressed with their skillz.

Small incidents:
I have a 30mm lens, and I knew i needed some more length or needed to get closer to be able to get photographic pwnage during VR’s set. I tried borrowing a lens, but that didn’t work out…  So, what did i do?
I used the spent pyro shells from Juliana Down’s set, built a pyramid outta those and that made all the difference… 
Also, when Scott jumped on the speakers right up front, and did his thang, all the photographers with the 30000000mm lenses had to scurry back to avoid zooming into his pimples, while I with the 30mm /1.4 could rush right next to him and shoot =)
I lol’d,
BWA HA HA HA…

ahem…
allright, Pics, starting from VR. (Marky Ramone to come up later)

Bokeh = Mistake ART

—

Pics from the other bands to come up soon…

stay tuned :D