If you don’t know me, you probably don’t know that I’m in the long, drawn-out process of buying a house right now. While this process takes place, I’ve been staying with friends around the bay area. For the month of August my friend Yusef was kind enough to take me in. His house is an awesome combination of heavy-metal hangout and bachelor pad, situated conveniently in uptown Oakland.
One of the coolest parts of my month living with Yusef was getting to hear his band “Forsaker” practice in the kitchen a few times a week. How awesome is that?
The other band members would come over, set up the drums, and rock the house to the foundation. Aaron, the lead guitarist, would practice scales and sweeps for a good 30min before Tony, the drummer, would show up. Being an amateur guitar player myself, I really enjoyed listening to Aaron practice shredding.
I dig Yusef’s rings. He’s like the metal version of Jimi Hendrix.
Right???
A few days after this shoot I followed Forsaker to a small venue in Oakland called “The Hazmat.” I actually wanted to do an article about the venue and what goes on there, but the owner was really confused about what he wanted. First he said he was excited about a feature, then he said he didn’t want the location published, then he pretty much plotzed. What a moron…
Sometimes I think Yusef is part zombie. Between this facial expression, and his ability to make buttons until all hours of the morning before a show, I just don’t know.
The band was rocking pretty hard, but the crowd was comatose. They were standing so still I was able to catch this shot at 1/4 of a second with relative clarity! Jeez, kids… lay off the dope.
My conclusion? Forsaker deserves more. Hopefully in the near future we’ll see them playing some bigger venues, and hopefully some crowds with a cumulative pulse of more than 10bpm will show up. Sheesh!
-Geoff
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