www.ScottBlackburnphoto.com

One of my favorite Mc's blessed Halifax with his presence a few weeks ago. The guy known primarily for his Simon Says song, rocked The Paragon with tour mates Slaughter House (whom I didn't stick around to see)

Love this photo , it looks as though hes ready to punch me in the face.

I Went to the Thrush Hermit Reunion show last weekend to shoot the live gig for this weeks issue of The Coast.

Myles Deck and the fuzz opened up for them, they were AMAZING! Myles is gotta be one of the best front man in Hallifax. Super cool cat, he just soo animated, the band mates also rockin'

Just before the main event hits the stage, the sound guys go onto the stage and tear a piece of black cloth of a strucutre in the back of the stage. Once removed, the words "Rock and Roll" are on a huge neon sign, that gets lit up once the boys hit the stage. I've been a big fan of their "Clayton Park" album for quite while, and it's no secret that I'm a Plaskett fan.

Needless to say they did not, Disappoint.

The only thing I wasn't a fan of, was the price of the Thursh Hermit T-shirts, which were $25

For the third year running I've gone to what I might explain as a musical wonderland meets the best drunken shenanigans you've ever imagined.

This years NSMW was in Yarmouth and it was my first time experiencing it. It has a great small town feel to it. a few bars, a bunch of restaurants and a few thrift shops that made for some descent rummaging.

I can't quite recall what exactly happened because it's been two months since I went, but I do remember a few things.

- a stack of amps in the gloryhound room.
- late night/early morning swim on the last night.
- watching Andrew white murder a few guitar solos in a room full of peeps.
- Super group! late night stage!
- Dartmouth/Yarmouth, Dartmouth/Yarmouth, Dartmouth/Yarmouth, Dartmouth/Yarmouth, Rappi Pie!
- Crystal skull vodka
- Mern's
- caledonia room jam
- late late night room party in the Tom Fun Room
- Jagger machine in with SWT room
- stairwell smoke sessions
- A Jon Landry work out session reallly late at night or should I say early morn
- Where's my @#$%!@#% Camera?
- Matty saving the day!

While in Yarmouth I decided to do a little side project for the festivities and photograph people in Groucho Marx disguise, you know the ones with glasses, eyebrows, huge nose and stash, what started as a few people, slowly turned into a collection of 284 people within 212 photos. I got Plaskett, Matt Mays, Jimmy Flynn, Classified and pretty much every other person that was there.

Went to the Metro Center on assignment to photograph one of my favorite bands from the 90's, The Stone Temple Pilots otherwise known as STP. The three songs that I got to shoot were all awesome, they played Vasoline, Big Bang Baby and another one i didn't know. They let us stay for another song if we put our cameras away and they played Big Empty which I frikin' love. Light ing was great I'd say a 8 outta 10.

T-Pain hit up the Cunard Center a few months back.

The show was fantastically lit, and the opening acts were great too.

The most amazing part of the show was Mr.Pain, came out and I felt the bass rattling my lungs! it felt as though they were about to cave in. I've never felt that much bass.

I'm not really a fan of his music, but all in all, the first three songs that I saw from him were decent.

Ladies and Gentleman

The one and only Snoop D-O-Double-Gizzle performed live at the Halifax, Metro Center

Show was great til Daz, Sprayed a bottle of some fancy ghetto drink over the photogs. Don't worry none of our cameras got wrecked.

Wicked show.

I think I was more excited for this then I was for Kiss.

The band played a great set. and I got a shirt to remember the show by!

I agree 100% with this fan sign!

Akil came through Halifax a month or two ago.

The performance was great but I can't believe how many peeps weren't there...This guys is kinda sorta a legend in Hip Hop.

I also saw DJ NUMARK a couple years ago....

It would amazing to see the whole J5 crew though...

I had the pleasure of shooting Rock Legends KISS, a few weeks ago.

This is my favorite shot form the set, but there are many more in the set too, check'm out and lemme know what you think

Paul MacCartney ( THE BEATLES) was in Halifax, two weeks ago.

I had the pleasure of photographing the legend, one of only 6 photographers allowed to photograph Sir Paul on his only Canadian tour date.

The show was great and Paul played for an incredible 3 hours.

the only lt down to the show for me, being a photogrpaher is that I was only allowed to take photos from wat seemed like a mile away. I got some descent shots of him, but it was a lil' rediculous that all of the photographers had to stand sooo far away.

follow this link to see the photo used by The Coast
http://www.thecoast.ca/SceneAndHeard/archives/2009/07/15/live-gig-paul-mccartney

I photographed the grand opening of The Paragon, for The Coast
http://www.thecoast.ca/SceneAndHeard/archives/2009/04/03/opening-night-the-paragon
More photos can be seen on my flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_m_blackburn/sets/72157616735513272/

Steve Aoki was the "Pre" Grand opener for the Paragon, he played a wicked good set, i haven't shook my ass so much sicne the first time I heard "groove is in the heart"

Went to see The Constantines http://www.myspace.com/constantines and The Weakerthans http://www.myspace.com/theweakerthans a few months back.

wanna see more? go here!

Well folks ECMA's were a blur.

To view photos from the weekend go here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_m_blackburn/sets/72157614483585825/

and to view video on my Youtube Channel go here
http://www.youtube.com/scottyb902

Good times had on the rock for sure, we arrived on Thursday and didn't stop drinking till Monday when we left.

I got to go to a shit load of shows, and got to meet a lot for great peeps. I unfortunatley was too drunk to get up and photograph the town, becuase I was up till 8Am each morning.....
A few cool things I saw were, a bus shelter completely covered in snow.
- our window in our hotel room was our cooler for the weekend it was a like a freezer, because the snow was so high outside, we just opened the window and put beer in the snow!
- The ice sheets we were driving through on the ferry were stunning to look at.

My highlight for the weekend would have to be the New Brunswick stage at Whalen's Gate, I got to see Grand Theft Bus, Slate Pacific, Sleepless Nights, The Motorleague, and Share.

I got to see Het Rosetta four times and each time was better than the last, if you haven't heard of them.....You will soon

The award show was fantastic and was followed by an exceptional performance by PEI's Smothered in Hugs at the After Party.

The ride home was SHITE!!! The weather was awful and it was raining like i think I've ever seen before! Good job team Andrew Hunter & The Gatherers for getting me home alive!

Blackburn Out!

ECMA's in Corner Brook Newfoundland
http://www.ecma.ca/


I'll be leaving for Newfoundland in less than a week. I leave on Feb 25th and come home on March 3rd, I'll be traveling with friends of mine the band "Andrew Hunter and The Gatherers"who I just did a shoot for a few weeks ago.


Pretty stoked that I get to cover the festivities for The Coast.

I',m bringing with me; two amazing film cameras Yashica D Twin Reflex and an Olympus Trip Rangefinder. They will be my first two rolls of film shot.Should be a great time!I'll be posting a bit from Newfoundland. so stay tuned!