This was an interesting one. The 2009 Pickathon Indie Roots Music Festival in Portland Oregon. Covering for The Deli SF online magazine which follows San Francisco based indie music bands all over the country. This weekend, I'd be covering the bands Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and Vetiver. Never been to an indie music festival and was in for quite a culture shock. Here's how it went down.
Shot with :
Nikon D80 / D2H
Tokina 12-24, Nikon 18-70, Sigma 100-300 f4
SB600, Tiffen CP filters
iso 3200 (yeah grainy photos)
iPhone life-saving-get-me-out-of-hick-town-or-we'll-get-shot GPS navigation
Banana Boat all day, sweat resistant sunblock
KFC fried chicken + A&W Rootbeer
Some killer clouds and sun stuff on the way there (well this picture was taken on the way back, but you know, start off with a cool sky/cloud picture)
Mount Shasta on the way up on Hwy 5. Beautiful Scenery driving up, tons of mountains, trees, cool lakes along the way. Apparently Llamas are in quite a high abundance in Oregon. Totally pwns Hwy 5 south towards LA.
So we find ourselves in Portland looking for food. Big ups to the yelp application on my iPhone which listed out a 4 star restaurant named BrunchBox. Let's go look for this place! We stumble on this block in the "financial" district which is basically a whole entire row of taco trucks, shacks, foot carts and stands. Everything from Mexican food, Thai food, Vietnamese, Vegetarian, you name it, they got it. Most of it was closed since it wasn't a business day. Lo and behold, BrunchBox is one of these carts. According to yelp, this place "could turn a vegetarian into a meat lover". Oh hell yes.
Here's BrunchBox's menu. Youcanhascheeseburger, OMG! Burger. Fuck yeah this place is awesome. $1 for a coke and roughly $3-$6 for a burger.
I went an ordered the Redonkadonk ($9 but hey who's counting?) This thing was insanity. Burger patty, sunnyside up egg, two slices of spam, 4 slices of bacon, a slice of ham and cheese stuffed between two Texas toast grilled cheese sammich "buns". Took me two cans of cokes to finish. Didn't feel right afterwards but man, kick ass sandwich.
Now for the concert. Traveled with two former SF State Students, Jane (middle) and Chris (right) met a cool photog from melophobe.com Ian (left). They'd be doing the interview, writing, some photos, etc. and I'd be running around getting festival coverage. Free beer and frozen fruit pops back stage. Yeeaah.
Little bit of an overview of Pickathon. It's an indie roots music festival covering everything from Bluegrass to downsouth Country twang, folk music, a little bit of alternative rock(?) and just a wide random assortment of grassroots music. I'm open to new music but it looked like a Woodstock concert to me. Located at the Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley Oregon, Pickathon featured one large main stage, 3 smaller stages and 2 barns with live bands. Non stop music from morning til night.
And yes, I was the only Asian male there.
Cool T-shirts for sale
No, can't really say I do.
Funny people backstage
Thao Nguyen, lead singer of "Thao with the Get Down Stay Down"
Sanders Trippe, guitars & vocals, Vetiver
Andy Cabic (left) vocal + guitars, Kevin Barker (right) guitars, Vetiver
Andy Cabic rocking out on stage
The crowd was going nuts!
When night fell, the stage and decor just lit up.
Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog on stage
Toby Leaman, Dr. Dog
Scott McMicken, Dr. Dog
Toby Leaman, Dr. Dog
Guess that'll wrap up the photos for this weekend. Big thanks to Andy and Pam McDavid for letting us stay the weekend in their gorgeous house. Check out their photos at : www.frontstreetphotos.com Shout out to Lucky the dog, who is just awesome. Jane and Chris for road tripping up. Big what's up to the meth head who shot up and passed out in the Starbucks bathroom. Check out compoundgallery.com, bought some cool clothes there. And Skinnidip yogurt (owned by Asians yeeeee) If you're ever in Portland and want some bomb yogurt, myspace.com/skinnidipiyogurt
Check back next time!
