On Valentine’s Night, the 1720 Warehouse in Downtown LA presented alt-rock indie punk bands Death Lens followed by Waves.

I was assigned to just shoot and report the show but at the end of the night, I kind of became part of the show. More on that in a bit.

When I got booked the night before I didn’t know what to expect. It was a venue I never heard of with acts I’d personally never come across before. Outside, the place looked like a closed auto shop or warehouse after hours. You can tell it was the venue when a line of people formed outside the building which was in an almost empty neighborhood at night.

Once I got in I didn’t see the usual pit barrier but instead a row of metal rails tied against the stage. I hit up the security guard to ask him for any tips or suggestions to shoot and he showed me I had all access. I was able to roam around the sides and back of the stage for the whole night. This was a very opportunistic moment as I’ve always wanted to build shots for my portfolio of the back of the stage towards the audience.

Death Lens was up first. It was a party on stage for the indie surf rock punk band. Friends and fans coming on and off stage with the always welcomed crowd surfing as one would expect at these shows. Lots of balloons floated around the venue throughout the night too. Both acts are extremely difficult to shoot in terms of lighting. Very low lighting was set up on stage so halfway through the Death Lens shoot I thought to myself not to overthink and not treat it like you are shooting at a major venue as if I were somewhere like The Wiltern or The Palladium. I needed to execute shots like what it was: a grungy indie punk show. Wavves concluded the night with a 45-minute set.

Like Death Lens, it was a party on stage for Wavves, and in the last song of the night the band got as many people as they could on stage. I knew at that moment I had to take the risk and jump in on stage with the rest of them so I could get some awesome shots and I think my best work of the night came out of that. I took some up close shots of drummer Ross Traver and of course, I forgot my earbuds on the night a drum set was in action 12 inches away from my head.

I also took some nice shots of lead singer Nathan Williams including one of him looking up at a balloon falling towards his face. A simple yet lucky and cool shot. I wanted to go beyond just the performance that night so snapped some Jim Marshall-like candid moments from both bands including a couple of members of Death Lens taking a selfie on stage and Nathan of Wavves taking a swig of what looked like a bottle of Jameson in between songs.

This night kicked my ass. As I’m writing this report two nights removed from the show I’m physically still feeling the effects. When I got out of the show my shoulders and back were sore, my shirt was completely drenched in sweat, my head was dazed and my ears felt like they were going to bleed. This was a real indie-punk show experience.

WAVVES

DEATH LENS