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| Ty Segall by Rose Lamela |
It's Part of the Rock Music Angst
Words and Pictures by Rose Lamela
I am a newbie to the Ty Segall train, and I only discovered his music about two years ago. I missed a series of shows he did last year and had him on the calendar way ahead of Friday nigh'’s show. I had to hear the music I have been devoted to listening to the past few years live. We were given a photo pass to a sold-out show, and it is times like these when I am super grateful to have put in the work. Like I said before, it never gets old when there is a photo pass waiting at the door for you.
I actually don't travel into the city as much as I would like to. The hassle to get in and out will truly test my patience, but every time I do, I realize how close I live to such an amazing city. I can't just admire the skyline from afar. I have to get my ass across the Hudson. I had never been to the Bowery Ballroom either. I got on the designated trains that my Google Maps insisted on and found my way through the chaos.
I got there early, but there were a few fans already waiting at the door. When I say fans, I mean people that saw Segall the night before and folks going on and on about all the times they saw him live. I got a little nervous when I heard some Segall die-hard talk about the amount of moshing and crowd surfing that went down the night before. I'm not against this form of physical expression to rock music, but it's a rough deal to get body slammed against the stage with your cameras by drunk fools that sometimes will also use you as a ladder to get on stage. I don't want to sound like an old lady, but I want to live to experience more shows and so do my cameras.
I placed myself in a sweet spot and hoped to at least be able to remain there to get some decent photos. DMBQ opened up, and I can't quite make out how I feel about their sound. It was not exactly what I usually rock out to, but it was interesting. They played a lot of instrumental noise that would come in heavy and then just get super trippy. The lead singer, Shinji Masuko, enjoyed spitting into the audience and letting his spit slowly drip out of his mouth which he did later for selfies. He tore up the stage while wearing some contraption on his face that made cool sounds. At one point, when he threw the drum set across the stage, I knew this night was going to get intense.
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| DMBQ |
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| DMBQ |
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| DMBQ |
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| DMBQ |
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| DMBQ |
After my ears sort of stopped ringing. A man approached everyone in the front. He said,
"You guys realize how loud it’s about to get up here in front right?"
Grateful for my cheap ear plugs that did no justice for the first act, I agreed to get my ears blown out for the next act. I hadn't heard much of Ty's latest release, First Taste, but Ty Segall is one of those artists where almost everything I listen to of his I really like. I actually think it's pretty cool to hear most of it for the first time live. He played a lot of tracks from First Taste, like "Taste" and "Radio," followed by random drum solos between him and the drummer of the Freedom Band. I held on for dear life as I got hit a few times and shoved into the stage. After watching a woman next to me being used as a ladder for crowd surfing purposes, I high-tailed it to the balcony.
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| Ty Segall |
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| Ty Segall |
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| Freedom Band |
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| Freedom Band |
The room was pumped with energy and noise. A part of me wanted to put the cameras down and crowd surf; but, with all the adulting that has taken place in the past few years, I ruled against it. I want to live to see more shows. Someone at one point crowd surfed onto the stage wearing a mask that Ty took and wore for a bit of his set. I think there was relevance to the mask, but I was not informed on what that might be. Even though some of my favorite tunes were not on the set list Friday, I thought the show was amazing. He ended up playing "Breakfast Eggs" and a cover of The Runaways' “Cherry Bomb." It was a great live show of noise and adrenaline. I would highly recommend seeing Ty Segall live.
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| Ty Segall & The Freedom Band |
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| Ty Segall & The Freedom Band |
The ringing in my ears remained with me on the trip home. I thought about the show a bit and reviewed some of the footage I captured. No regrets on the loud experience or close call of being kicked in the face by an angsty 20 year old. Sometimes it's all part of the experience.
Check out all the pics from the evening at Rosi's Flickr account.
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