I owe Pixel Grip a few shows.
Not in any way they'd know about. But when I've watched a band grow from the Empty Bottle to the Salt Shed and missed a stretch of what happened in between, I carry that. Life gets in the way and I tell myself I'll catch the next one and then the next one becomes the one after that and suddenly years have passed and the band hasn't waited for me.
I first shot them at the Empty Bottle, tight room, favorite room, but standing there I kept thinking Rita needed more space. She has an attitude that a smaller venue can't fully hold. The Empty Bottle wasn't doing anything wrong, she just needed some extra elbow room. I put that out there and hoped I was right.
Pixel Grip are Rita Lukea, Jonathon Freund and Tyler Ommen, a Chicago trio that lives somewhere in the darkwave and synth underground.
I came to this music as a fan, Depeche Mode, Front 242, Ministry, Fini Tribe, the whole Wax Trax era, and Pixel Grip remind me exactly why it got me. The city built this sound and they are one of the few keeping it alive here right now.
The Salt Shed was right for this moment. Rita took the stage in a black bodysuit and moved through it like a panther, purposeful and unhurried, dark, deliberate and playful, throwing that intimidating gaze into the crowd with a smirk that had no interest in being read.
Theatrical I told myself, though standing there with my camera I wasn't entirely sure she couldn't take me apart on the spot.
Near the end she handed her setlist to a little girl perched on someone's shoulders at the front of the stage. I almost missed it, the room was dark and my camera was moving, but someone next to me tapped my shoulder and when I looked up there it was.
Some debts you're glad finally became due.
Thank you to the kind folks at the Salt Shed for the opportunity ⚡️