Gogol Bordello and Devotchka

Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa passed through Chicago Last night on their "Trans-Continental Hustle" Tour and I had the opportunity to participate in all the madness that is Gypsy Punk! DeVotchKa opened the show with a sound that's a little Eastern-European, a little rock, and a little punk, which makes it a lot of good. The exceptional vocals of Nick Urata filled the high domed ceilings of The Congress Theater while the band played an exceptionally tight set full of tuba, accordion, cello, violin and of course, the theremin. After a short break the nonsense continued as Gogol Bordello and his band of Gypsy Punks took the stage. Bordellos Energy was plentiful and infectious. It only took a few strums of his beat up old guitar to have the whole crowd jumping in unison, screaming every word along with him. It was my first time seeing Bordello, but I have listened to his music for a while and always wanted to photograph him. By the end of the show Bordello and his band looked emaciated, and exhausted. It was a treat to see such a passionate group of musicians give it their all and put on one hell of a show.

Gogol Bordello from Chris Monaghan on Vimeo.

What goin on....

Alright alright March ended strong and April has been a good month so far! Lots of music lots of fun! Tomorrow I will be shooting my good friend and incredibly talented Big Rob Blaine at the studio, then we will be moving on to Rosas Lounge on Armitage for some more environmental portraits. Rob is an amazingly talented Blues guitarist and I couldn't be more excited to be shooting some promo work for him. I have a few shows lined up as well, I will be shooting Gogol Bordelo and Devotchka next weekend for the Live Music Blog, hopefully Umphreys McGees first ever UmBowl, and Thievery Corporation. That's a lot of music for one weekend right? Well I'm looking forward to it. Hope all is well with the internet world.

Karim Tonsy

This weekend I got the chance to work with the very creative, very talented Karim Tonsy. Karim is the founder of the Karim Tonsy Egyptian Physical Dance Theater in Chicago. Karim is an international choreographer from Cairo, Egypt, and he has a new show coming up here in the city. We got together Saturday morning with a few ideas in mind which as we got shooting evolved into an amazing photo shoot. The shots of Karim in the window turned out great. They were very unprovoked and I think the photos show it. He was preforming a bit from his upcoming show, while incorporating elements from the studio. All I had to do was sit back enjoy the sunlight, the show, and snap some shots. You can see the rest of the photos here on flickr.

More Monae

Alright heres the last post about Janelle Monae for a bit, here's a video I took with my 5D at the show at Shubas the other night. Enjoy: I know I did

Janelle Monae from Chris Monaghan on Vimeo.