drawing The Art of Dying | the Gojira project

Kyuss in Milan, March 23, 2011

I really love making lomo videos of concert experiences. I often go right in the middle of the pit with my camera wrapped around my wrist, not focused on anything in particular, just capturing the energy of the music kinesthetically (like this clip from Down at Gods of Metal 2009). 

So when I went to see Kyuss, cult stoner band from the early 90's, in Milan on March 23, 2011 with my American friend E., I went prepared.  

We were right up against the barrier at the front of the stage. My camera was just dangling off my wrist and I kept forgetting to turn it off, and ended up recording by mistake the light reflections on the barrier! 

 

 

This concert experience was quite exceptional for me, synesthetically, because the bass was just so strong. The photisms I saw while hearing and feeling the music were quite incredible: these tendrils wrapping themselves around my legs, and the vibrations looked like black splotches with lots of tiny, horizontal shimmering white lines.

I liked these video sequences because they really reminded me of the intensity of the sound and its physical effet. (I over-exposed the segments to accentuate the light effects.) 

 

These guys put on a great show to a sold-out house, by the way!

Down at Gods of Metal 2009

This past summer, we saw the band Down at the Gods of Metal festival in Monza, Italy. 

During the song Lifer, I filmed from the pit, close to the stage. Although the audio leaves quite a bit to desire, it's interesting to see how the visuals mesh with the song's movement and what was happening in the pit. +

At one point, I was able to catch my breath. During this lull in the storm, I tried to focus the camera on the several of the guys from Mastodon, who had come out on the side of the stage to watch Down perform.

This is what the recorded version of the song sounds like: