Frank Turner playing live in Saigon Vietnam by music photographer Lee Starnes

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Frank Turner, 7uppercuts & Papa Lam

December 02, 2024 in music

Another chapter in the Chronicles and what a chapter it was. The fine folks at Loud Minority and Noise Saigon put together an absolute banger of a show. Frank Turner boarded a plane in London, got off of the plane, and played a show a few hours later… If you didn’t know this, you’d have been well impressed by his performance and the energy in the room. Knowing this, it’s ever more impressive… What an absolute professional road dog.

Denpasar, Bali's Kenya plays in Saigon at a hardcore punk show.

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Overpower

October 18, 2024 in music

Another chapter in the Chronicles. A blend of local staples and couple of bands from Indonesia, this show felt like a party. Something’s changed in the scene here over the last couple of years and it really does feel like a proper hardcore scene these days. Kids be wild and mosh like it was their job. As I’m in no position to be participating in that shenanigans, I chose to keep to snappin’ photos. The line up consisted of Saigon’s Under Pressure, Kinh, Elbowdrop, Empathize, Cut Lon, Denpasar’s Kenya and Fraud coming out of Surabaya. I didn’t catch everyone, you know school night and all.. but the bands I saw all brought the heat. Rather than going through every band, just click on their links and go give them a listen. Now for the visual proof.

Saigon Punk Chronicles: The Metal Edition

July 22, 2024 in music

Not really a hardcore or punk show per se, but this show still had a lot of overlap in the crowd. The bill consisted of Orca from the Philippines, Diarsia off their brand new release, Method, Obsess, and the Korean shred machine Oathean. I grabbed the Fuji x100v and an old speedlight and rolled the dice. These shows give me a chance to experiment with different set ups - multiple cameras, light set ups, techniques…No pressure if I shit the bed and they turn out awful, but at least I learned something. That said, I don’t think I’ve run into any insurmountable challenges, and different tools yield different results. I tried to shoot a bit more abstract images to bridge over from the usual dragged shutter and speedlight combo and I think they turned out interesting. Tried a bit of multiple exposure shenanigans. Essentially played around and threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. Maybe a bit artsy even… what is going on?!

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Aftershock

July 15, 2024 in music

This past Sunday I headed out to a show and to see some old friends I hadn’t caught up with in a while. The bill consisted of HSA, Song Am, Katto Katto, District 105, Cut Lon, and Luan Quan Collective. A mixed bag of genres and I wasn’t familiar with all the bands, but I knew there’d be some thrashy goodness with Cut Lon and of course the homies in D105. I didn’t get images of everyone, but I decided to shoot this a bit differently than what I’ve been shooting this project and brought my studio lights in much like I did back in the day in the States. It’s going to take some tweaking, but here we are and it’s nice to get a different look. I’m not going to divide the images up into bands this time around but rather an overall vibe of the show.

Annalynn's vocalist jumps into the crowd at RockFest Vietnam photographed by Vietnam Photographer Lee Starnes. A part of Saigon Punk Chronicles

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Rock Fest

July 10, 2024 in music

Although this wasn’t your classic DIY punk or hardcore show, it was certainly interesting to see hardcore bands play on a big stage with over the top production and I had to go out to support the homies in District 105 and check out a few other bands. A mixed bag of genres, Rockfest showcased both local and some international bands and its really good to see these types of events coming to Saigon more. Tons of bands played, and I took a boatload of images, but I’m going to limit it here to the bands that fall into the punk scene or at least close enough to the DIY scene to fit within this personal project. So, that being said, the images below are from Saigon’s District 105, and 18.18, The Flob and Thailand’s Annalynn and Defying Decay. I tried to shoot this a bit differently as the over the top production provided with about a bajillion different coloured lights which I find a bit visually noisy and takes away from the raw emotion of punk. Maybe I’m just an old head and love the way old black and white photos of live music look like…whatever. Anyways, to the images!

Saigon Punk Chronicles

July 01, 2024 in music

It’s been far too long since I’ve been to a show and I feel like I’ve been neglecting my long term personal project, Saigon Punk Chronicles, so when I saw there was a show this past Saturday, I jumped at it. With work and travel, it’s been a whirlwind since… January. Going to shows keeps me in check, keeps me young at heart, and every time I go, the words of 7 Seconds get stuck in my head “I’m gonna stay young until I die!” Even with work and the everyday responsibilities, the legacy of punk and the scene still shapes who I am every day of my life. DIY, the merry band of misfits, forgetting the outside world and escaping into a community made by us, for us. It’s forever weaved into my DNA.

I didn’t catch the whole show, but I did catch Tariot, Bao, Low Fat, and Cut Lon. I’ve seen Tariot and Cut Lon before but didn’t know what to expect from the others. They both killed it and Low Fat, in particular was soooooo fun. They’re a Japanese outfit out of Bangkok and their energy was wild. Raw, loud and fast… just the way it should be.

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Enter the Year of the Dragon

January 11, 2024 in music

Another year end party and this one was a banger. I didn’t catch all the bands, school night ya know, but it was one of the funnest shows I’ve been to in ages. By the time Desolated went on, kids were hanging from the rafters and the stage was invisible under the sing along pile ons. Fucking amazing. When I first moved to Saigon, shows felt very different than they do now in the best possible way. It feels like a proper hardcore scene

Saigon Punk Chronicles: Year End Party with Slaughter to Prevail.

January 13, 2020 in music

This year’s pre-Tet show lined up Russian heavy hitters Slaughter to Prevail and a whole host of regional support with Saigon’s Knife Sticking Head, Pick Supplier, District 105, and Infecated and Cambodia’s Doch Chkae all bringing the lunar year to a close with a bang.