last night we went to go see victimas del doctor cerebro at safari sam's in los angeles. it's on the other side of sunset boulevard that i never go down for a show. free parking and close to the freeway. inside is small but not bad either. if you wanted to just chill out and hang out at some tables you could do that on the first or second level but don't let that fool you into thinking the place is big. i'm bad with capacity estimations but i'd say 300 people. i called ahead of time and cameras are ok. their online menu says they have a couple vegan dishes but when we were there we didn't see it on the menu at our table and we weren't hungry anyway. but with all these factors, i may fall in love with this place.

i really wanted to be up front and take pictures. victimas shows are crazy so i'd have to be insane to take my nice camera with me. the way i see it, this is my one chance to take some nice photos so i might as well take my nice camera. also tonight is another chance to get my rare records signed. i thought i would be tired going to a show after work but amazingly i was fine. i guess sitting down for the first 2 opening acts helped. everyone else was too. i was beginning to think the crowd was dead and only their for their friends who are the opening acts. i wondered if anyone even knew the headliners!

the first band was called abcde because they couldn't think of a better name. i think that shows you the quality of the music as well: "F"! next was el manifesto which were a really good reggae dub kind of band. it started to get repetitious and in the anticipation of victimas, towards the end i just wanted their set to end. but i wouldn't mind catching them at another gig. the final opening band was sector libertad. i was confused by these guys. they didn't do any self promotion at all. they never said who they were or any upcoming shows. very odd, very unlike an opening band. for this band is when the crowd got out of their coma. for this band we all went to the front. for this band the crowd started to go a little crazy like they do for victimas but you could tell most were saving their energy.

the performance by victimas was everything you could want or ask or expect of them: intense! they blasted through the songs and didn't do an encore. they gave what they had and were done. for photography, it was a nightmare. i already knew it'd be nuts and it was. most of the time i spent protecting my gear from the band and the crowd. i knew there would be flying liquid so i brought a hand towel. i did have to use it a couple times in addition to my usual lens cleaning stuff. the lighting is low and action is fast. the shots i did manage to take are plagued with motion blur and light trails. i had to use flash. i didn't want to but i had to. the action was too intense that without it i would only have blurred shots. however, i must note that the best shots were without flash and in the dark. this is thanks to chipotle's costume which has lights on it. when he was standing in just the right way, i was able to take photos of him in the dark but lit up well enough by his costume.

there were a couple songs i didn't know. it turns out one of them must be their new single because they have a video for it. the other two, i don't know. abulon introduced one as "miedo" and the other was sung by ranas and he seemed to be saying something about 'rock n roll'. i have all their albums and though i might not be as familiar with the last one, i swear these two songs are not on their albums. as far as i know (and it's very little), the band really doesn't have b-sides, at least i've been hard pressed to find any singles besides 1 track promos. so perhaps these are glimpses of their next album. inbetween trying to save my camera and my own life, i was trying to write down the setlist! can you believe it? crazy me. i would quickly put down my camera and pick up my phone to type in a note. i didn't have much time. the crowd was only "still" for few seconds inbetween songs. i tried to memorize 3 songs in a row to quickly abbreviate them in my phone. it worked though. i put my camera strap around my neck and my water bottle in my camera bag with it closed up in case i was ever pushed hard or had to leave so that i had everything with me. my one mistake was loosening up the slack on my camera bag before victimas started. during the band prior i had plenty of room and lately due to the poor ergonomic environment at work my shoulder has been hurting. it's the same shoulder my bag hangs on diagonally so i loosened it up so it wouldn't hurt so much. during victimas's set, we were so squashed that the extra slack made the strap fall off my shoulder several times. if i was pushed hard enough, the strap could've fallen off my shoulder and caused the bag to fall down and trip me up. in all the madness, i did get a boot to the head but my only injury is a small bruise on my fingernail from when i dug my nails into a girl going over my head. i dug so hard my nails started to bend backwards. i should've used my thumbs--what was i thinking?!

after the show, we went back to the car to get the records. we waited by the open door and their van was parked right in front. fans were waiting but not crowded so i walked to the prime spot. i'm sorry but i have to get my records signed and this is my best chance. no one complained to me though. in fact, a staff member saw what i was carrying, was shocked, and said for sure they'd sign it. relief! i got staff backup. later, the guy pointed to me that the vocalist is starting to come out and said it's ok that i go on in. lucky! so i went right in and started ripping the plastic off the records (they're open records but the shrinkwrap is mostly in tact as protection) and busted out my marker for the singer. he spelled my name wrong on the first record, oh well. he seemed a bit drunk and was going to go into a long story about how this is an old and rare record. you know what dude, i know. i started to cut him off, sorry. i just wanted to make sure we had time for him to sign both records. i also had the first pictures i took with two of the members. both of them commented how old the photos must be because they look so young. not really, only 3-4 years ago. actually, i blogged that concert. we had some camera malfunctions (my fault) as i gave my camera to twiddle thumbs to take a picture of me with abulon. we had to do it 3 times (the first 2 were blurry) but it worked out because the 3rd one was definitely the best. then some more members came by, notably tuco was giving everyone kisses (super drunk) and i had chipotle sign my records (he too was stunned). when ranas came by he was in such a hurry that we had him quickly sign our pictures. he didn't have time for a picture. but outside some fans convinced him to take a picture so i told twiddle thumbs to stand behind them and i'd quickly get one in too. only, that group took forever for their photos. seriously, this guy is in a hurry and you're taking how many photos? like i can complain with my abulon incident. anyway, point is, i got my shot and she got hers. it felt like a short show but we are both happy!

here's some of the pictures i took:

the stage at the start of the show (blurry)

abulon

abulon and light trails

ranas and light trails

bam, abulon went down!

the new drummer

ranas rides the crowd

the guitarist

a guitar moment

bam, ranas went down!

me and abulon

chipotle playing 2 saxes

ranas and his tongue

ranas about to jump into the crowd

ranas and abulon rocking out

tuco

chipotle and a stage hand

ranas on the drums

setlist:
muñeca
armadillo
tamalera
miedo?
paquito
brujerias
rock n roll something? (ranas singing)
nahual
yo no puedo
el cadaver del amor
guayaba
ella se muere
ya tus amigos
celos
esquileto