The Punk Rock Concert Experience: Capturing the Chaos and Energy
Capturing the chaos and energy of the punk rock concert experience is not an easy task. Live recordings only captured the music, not the raw energy, chaotic atmosphere, or the relationship between the audience and bands. More than a performance or a reenactment of recorded music, the punk rock concert experience was its own entity. It was a visceral experience, an electrifying whirlwind of unchained melodies, and the chimes of freedom giving life to the universal soul of thousands of floating souls to form one.
Those who experienced the heyday of punk or wish they had or want to experience it can certainly turn on the music. To live it, it must be seen to experience. Michael Grecco was a young photographer finishing his college days in Boston and working as a freelance photographer and news stringer for the Associated Press (AP), a syndicated news service.
Fate causes that for which the soul can only wish. Michael Grecco was studying photography under a professor with expertise in black and white photography during the age of the living color of Kodak. Michael was drawn to the shadows and light that were the essence of black and white film like a moth to a flame. At the same time the news editors were taking notice of his photographs and one editor, then another assigned him to cover the emerging “New Wave of Music” of the New York and Boston underground scene.
Right Place, Right Time, Right Energy
The starkness of black and white film was a perfect match for the emerging new music scene tagged with the moniker “punk.” Michael Grecco, his camera, his love of black and white, and his ability to capture energy in the still of a photograph put Grecco in the right place at the right time.
Michael became a fixture of the Punk scene befriending the regulars at the clubs of the genres in New York and Boston. He was able to capture the energy, the rawness, the revolutionary lifestyle of stage shows, everyday life, and the chaos and charisma of the punk rock concert scene.
Lux Interior of The Cramps photographed by Michael Grecco
Michael Grecco has begun the process of curating his thousands of unrehearsed, original photographs of the chaos and energy of music that revolutionized the revolutionary music of rock ‘n roll. He has gathered a collection of photographs that stand as a testament to the spirit of punk rock in a glossy book, The Days of Punk. The photographs are stark black and white images capturing the chaos, energy, and raw screams of a generation revolting against the status quo of the demons that captured and homogenized rock.
The Raw Energy of Punk In Living Black and White
Punk was spitting in the eye of the corporatization of music that was once labeled the devil’s music, rock’ n roll didn’t die, it sold its soul to Madison Ave, Hollywood Blvd., and Piccadilly Circus. The raw energy of punk living in the reality of black and white screamed a DIY ethos from the souls of the disaffected who created a new culture of creativity.
Michael Grecco was THERE to capture it in living black and white photographs balanced between the world of a shadow kingdom of darkness and light. His artistically framed photos in The Days of Punk collection feature iconic images of punk legends. Page after page feature, The Ramones, The Clash, and Black Flag, among others. Grecco photos do more than capture the faces of these great punk bands, they dive into the punk experience including the heart and soul of live performances and concert experiences.
The Clash photographed by Michael Grecco
The Grecco lens captures the sweat, grit, and unfiltered emotions that define a punk show. Whether it’s a close-up of Joey Ramone screaming a song, or a wide shot of a chaotic mosh pit, the living black and white photography of Michael Grecco immortalizes the intensity of frozen iconic moments still emitting the electricity of their time.
Joey Ramone photographed by Michael Grecco
