Arrgslam: Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of paint

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19, mateys), this month’s Artslam became Arrgslam, and all the artwork (and some of the audience) was pirate-themed. Not being a huge fan of all things nautical (I fell asleep during Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest — and by that I mean I fell asleep just reading the title), I was sort of at a loss as to what to paint, and concocted a last-minute revenge scene of a wench getting the drop on her pirate captor. You know — feminist art. Or something.

I know that’s not too terribly exciting, but what is exciting is the new lens I was experimenting with all night. I got a Canon EF50mm and got carried away testing it out on the bands that played Arrgslam — I need the practice for when I shoot ACL in less than a week! (Be sure to check out festival blogging/Twittering at the Curblog.)

OK, enough talk. Piratey photos after the jump. If you were there, they’ll bring back fond memories. If you weren’t, then you missed out on a fun event … and should make up for it by going to the Dia de los Muertos Artslam on November 1!

Rob “Deadbeat Hero” Perez, Arrgslam captain (and don’t worry, that’s just a decorative eye-patch).

Arrgslam mermaids, by Deadbeat Hero.

Angelle Benitez, Arrgslam artist

Angelle works on a portrait of Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Fletch puts some finishing details on his painting — he also painted an awesome deck that I regrettably didn’t get a picture of.

Shaggy gets down and dirty with his art piece.

DJ JJ Lopez pumped some soul into the evening in between bands.

Drunken Monkey Promotions and Deadbeat Hero in the house! 

The calm before the storm: Patrick Schowe, drummer for Fuck City USA.

The storm:

 The trio plays fast, loud, and on the club floor. Schowe plays a 26-inch bass drum (for non-drummers, the average bass drum is 22 inches). This band damaged my inner ears (in other words, it was really good).

Members of Austin’s The Noise Revival Orchestra Experience (TNROE, for the sake of brevity) pose with Keith Richards outside Limelight (just kidding, that’s TNROE’s drummer).

There’s at least 13 people in TNROE, and I could never find a spot where I could shoot them all at once. My new lens doesn’t zoom, but it produces amazing clear images (like the one above) in low-light situations with no flash.

TNROE sounded pretty good live — like if Arcade Fire decided to not be so gloomy and joined a Victorian circus troupe. Definitely check them out — they’ve got videos on their MySpace page (it looks like they’re coming back to Limelight for an EP release in December).

Closing the night was Radscarssss — DJs Daecos Omoxi and The Kid (Michael Goodwin). 

Random photos from the night:

And finally, my finished piece, below. Three separate people each told me that they thought the murderous wench was Björk. And you can’t argue with those odds. So Björk it is!

This was my second Artslam!, and I had a blast again, as did the other artists and bands involved. Support local artists at the next Dia de los Muertos Artslam on November 1! It looks like that’s gonna be a big one. Thanks to Rob and everybody for putting on this great event! Yarr.