with much regret i inform that this site will be going on an indefinite hiatus. this was never intended as an avenue to display my knowledge in either music or photography. its all purely recreational. thanks for spreading the word around because i remember telling only 4 guys when it all started a year ago. and it'd be super cool if you'd care to leave a comment or something. just so that i know a little more about my worldwide audience, soccernet-style. unless those 100+ daily hits all came from some sentinal bot shit programmed by fotopages. have a nice day

logging into fotopages for the first time in months last night i was dumbstrucked to find out people are still hitting this site despite the obvious lack of updates. i thought this is just one of those flavour of the week kinda crap like friendster or myspace but hey, 300 dorks a week cant be wrong. truth is there were only a handful of shows worth attending this past couple of months. plus im broke and ive sold my digital camera. anyway ive finally scrapped enough loose change to developed the films from the lsf/pgmg show back in november. yeah ive gone old school. this had to be the most anticipated double bill since the liars/yyyeahs or the legendary mogwai/trail of dead show a couple of years back. now i dont want to go into details of how awesome this show was but i just have to say tim harrington is the most kick ass fat dude ever. the fact that he could pull off those onstage antics while fronting one of indie rock's most revered outfits is still beyond me. i could have snapped more pictures of him doing all sorts of crazy ass stuff had i brought more films that night. the bane of analog photography. check these guys out the next time they're playing in your town. or catch a plane if you must. and keep hitting this site cuz im going to see isis at the end of the week. am i stoked or what?

there should be more decent bands like the von bondies. cause you know if you miss em the first time you dont have to wait long for a second serving. i do have to stress the word 'decent' here cause i dont think anyone gives a rats ass for all those meaningless mallpunk bands that keep coming back to these shores at a shocking rate these days. now who needs to see yellow card twice in the space of one year? anyhoo, back to von bondies. you'd prolly know these guys as the band whose frontman got decked by jack white not so long ago. but im obliged to report that they certainly arent pulling any punches in the rocking department. the energy level was high throughout the whole 60 min set with the band rarely gearing down into any mid tempo numbers. that stollsteimer dude is no slouch either, strutting his way across the stage to the approval of screaming chicks (and disturbingly a few dudes as well). a special mention goes to marcie and new bassist yasmin who provided some excellent vocal interplay to complement stollsteimer's spitfire delivery most notably on the fantastic tell me what you see. a good old fast & loud show. certainly got my money's worth, plus some good kicking to the head as well.

ah the spectrum. hunting ground for the too cool for school crowd. where oxford st gay chic meets 80s retro cool is always the order of the day. which seems like the perfect venue for art punkers ikara colt's promo tour. while their primal stoogesesque dynamics might scream detroit, the band was formed in london by four art school students, naturally. but i think one dude left the fold and now they've got a chick handling bass duties giving them a more von bondies vibe. frontman paul kept interaction with the audience to a minimum, breezing through the 40-odd minute set while swigging VBs between songs. the other three seemed more animated by comparison especially the bassist, striking rock poses every once in a while. no rudd or bishop's son on the setlist either which was a bit of a drag. highlight of the night? the doner kebab with extra humous i had on the way back.

yeah i go to metal shows once in a while. its all ages tonight so i wasnt bludgeoned to death like the last time. havent heard chimaira before so i cant really give my two cents except that they did quite a good job pumping up the kiddies for the headlining in flames. in all honesty i thought the swedes' set was more on the crappy side with most songs coming from their last 2 cds which i dont really care for. i dont know maybe its a conscious decision to cater for tonight's younger audience but ill sure be damned if they play anything off jester race tomorrow. that minor quibble aside, they did put on an awesome show. the guitars were crisp the double kicks were punchy but the vocal mix couldve been better. i was really hoping to get out of this show feeling all nostalgic and shit cuz these guys used to be one of my favourite bands back in the days but sadly that didnt happened. but hey at least my neck hurts

these guys played here on the heels of their debut a couple of years back. not intending to find a different venue, spiral stairs and his mates are back at the annandale to support their new slab. after a couple of songs stairs announced his band as "preston school from seattle wa". so now we know where the title 'monsoon' came from. but trading off the sunny californian climate for the rainsoaked northwest did little to influence stairs' music. the setlist was a fair mix of their two albums but one could be forgiven for assuming they all spawned off the same recording session. while punters were generally quite reserved, someone did request "zurich is stained!!" much to stairs' amusement. the band came back for an encore with falling away which was a definite standout. nothing flash or groundbreaking on display tonight. im just here to see the dude who helped to invent lo-fi

while queueing up outside the club i struck up a conversation with this pommy bloke wearing a pompey jersey looking for a spare ticket. surprised with the $40 admission fee, he told me a libertines show at the brixton academy back home would cost you 70 quid. he also mentioned their estranged frontman and resident junkie pete doherty had been left out of the aussie tour. the geezer turned out to be right. while lesser bands might have scrapped the whole tour off or broken up, the tines in true rock n roll spirit soldiered on with replacement anthony rossomando, a friend of the band. it was quite a bummer cause for me pete has always been the joe strummer to carl barat's mick jones. nevertheless anthony turned out to be more than an able replacement as the tines ripped through a set of their classic tunes with a bunch of newies thrown in. the front row area that was filled with screaming girls at the start of the show was now taken over by the lager swigging, footy jersey clad 'barmy army', shouting in cockney accent only vinnie jones could understand. appropriately enough carl chosed to close with i get along to cap off a rather triumphant albeit tumultuous outing. highlights include what a waster & time for heroes

for a band whose debut had just seen the light of day the turnout tonight is mighty impressive. add the phrase "sigur ros with a sparkling pop sensibility" and the fact that its a one off show to the equation and what you get is a near capacity crowd at the 'dale. the band started proceedings with a 15 seconds projection of random military-themed visuals before launching into a blistering black amnesia. the sound mixing was particularly excellent you could hear each bit of organs and violins, not to mention the effect-laden spaced out guitar lines churned out by ant theaker who kinda reminds me of johnny greenwood with his custom tele and the requisite floppy hair. one of the more memorable shows in recent times. these guys should be as big as coldplay. or at least bigger than keane

ok so its not really the 5 without fred sonic and rob tyner. tagging along for the ride are mark arm evan dando and of course radio birdman legend deniz tek who's fittingly armed with that infamous white epiphone passed down to him by the sonic himself. watching 50 year old dudes in leather jackets moshing with the younger punks was truly a sight to behold. highlight of the show? well brothers and sisters, how could it possibly be anything other than wayne kramer yelping those immortal words - "kick out the jams motherfuckers!". im all teared up

the first of two sold out shows at the metro. the crowd ranged from hip scenesters to footy moms and everything in between. having just bought the furnaces' new slab the other day i wasnt quite familiar with their new songs. but that didnt stop me from paying attention cause the singer eleanor is super cute. shes like a hotter version of selma blair. she could be singing phone numbers off the yellow pages for all i care. hey that rhymes. the franz boys finally took to the stage and were met by hysterical reception normally reserved for justin timberlake. it was hard to take a good shot with all the sweaty hot chicks bouncing all over the place but hey i cant complain. setlist was the whole album plus van tango shopping for blood and another b side. highlight of the night was definitely the german chanting chorus on darts of pleasure. superfantastisch indeed