I wish I could say I was regular at Satyricon, it would make me sound much cooler than I really am. But the truth is by 1989 when I moved to Portland my punk rock days were mostly behind me. I had trashed my ears years earlier at places like the Triangle Theater in Rochester, CBGB in NYC, Continental Club in Austin and the Hot Klub in Dallas, as well as numerous other such venues.
But I did see a few shows at Satyricon in the early 90’s, no one of note and none I truly remember with the exception of Austin country/folk/roots songwriter Darden Smith, who was so completely out of his element at Satyricon that the baffled crowd of club regulars found themselves entranced by his evocative accoustic storytelling.
Even so I was saddened to learn the club was closing for good. Another piece of authenticity lost in a Portland that is fast selling it’s soul to hipster artifice. The place was legendary in the Northwest music scene hosting anyone who was anyone at one time or another. According to legend Kurt met Courtney there, Foo Fighters played their first show there. It was a classic punk dive, all black with tattered chairs, cheap beer and lots of attitude. A real shithole, with the emphasis on real. It was all about the music, not much else mattered.
Willamette Week just published a good piece with some video clips, (I like the Jackals clip) you can read here.
The following pictures were from a 1994 travel assignment for the New York Times. Crash Worship was the head liner that night but I bailed out of there before all that craziness got started after getting into a scuffle with one their drummers. I think the band on stage as I was shooting was called Plastic Horn Devils, or something.

For Inc. Magazine. Below are a couple of outtakes.

Sunday April 25 The New York Times Magazine published an assignment I recently shot for their Q&A page, a portrait of Craig Robinson, head coach of men’s basketball at Oregon State University and perhaps more famous as the brother to First Lady, Michele Obama.

This is the most recent of many of these shoots I’ve done for the Magazine’s long running feature and I always enjoy them. For one the people are always fascinating, intelligent and sometimes controversial, which makes for an interesting sitting.

But I also enjoy the simplicity of isolating a subject on white. Of course this is the technique that Avedon made famous. He said “It isolates people from their environment. They become in a sense . . .symbolic of themselves.” For most of my work incorporating the subject’s environment or location is often as important as the subject themselves, but when shooting on white it becomes totally about the sitter.

I also like the challenge of creating a studio on location and I’ve done these shoots in parking lots, basements, hallways, hotel rooms and more weird places than I can remember.

Here’s a few more samples of my past New York Times Magazine, Q&A shoots.

Architect Brad Cloepfil

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire

(Former) Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin

Author Chuck Palahniuk

Fun story about books burritos and a son’s love.