DFW music scene found footage

One of my favorite pursuits, albeit one I don't speak about very often, is to search for "found footage" of local events and happenings from days past. These can be on VHS, Hi8, miniDV, 8mm, or 16mm film - in short, on any format I can view and possibly archive. It's rare that I actually find anything, but once in a great while I do stumble upon something interesting. I've decided to start uploading some of these to the YouTube channel as I come across them, and today I'm pleased to announce the first two of said uploads.

Front 242 at Tommy's Deep Ellum, May 1989

I went to the Mark Ridlen estate sale this weekend, and came back with several pieces of Dallas music scene memorabilia and media. I have to admit I felt just a little bit uncomfortable going through the former possessions of someone I'd been in correspondence with for my "Ghosts of DFW music history" blog series, but there was the possibility of coming across something I could use to help illustrate upcoming posts in that series. As a former punk rocker, DJ of renown, and long time member of and supporter of the DFW music scene, Ridlen's collection of DJ equipment and physical music media was thorough and insanely wide ranging. I could easily have come away with quite a bit more than I ended up buying. Alas, budgetary considerations are what they are, and collectors had already come through and looted the collection of most (if not all) of the most valuable items. Nevertheless, I did pick up some things of interest which should fit in quite well with my blog series and personal collections. Notable among these was a 1989 camcorder recording of Belgian EBM outfit Front 242, which captured a May 1989 performance at the old Tommy's Deep Ellum (later Deep Ellum Live). The video quality is what one would expect for period equipment as operated inside a dark club, but the audio is from the soundboard and sounds far superior to standard camcorder audio. The full video includes an audio-only pastiche at the beginning, bringing the total run time to just under 12 1/2 minutes. I've cut this out for the upload.

Ridglea Theater Metal Fest, April 2004

Several months ago, while perusing VHS tapes in one of my regularly frequented antique malls, I came upon a nondescript tape with the words "Ridglea Metal Fest 4-10-04" written on the side in pencil. I attended several Ridglea shows during my concert photography days, particularly during the first few years, and I even took some video of my own using a Hi8 camera. The footage on this particular tape is of Dallas-based metal band Deviant, as seen during their festival slot on April 10, 2004. The show footage runs about thirty-one minutes and was obviously shot handheld, while the remainder of the tape is given over to split-screen black and white security cam footage. The security cam portion has naturally been omitted from the upload.

I have other "found footage" type items in my collection, among them two 8mm film reels from the 1960s which purport to depict Dealey Plaza and Six Flags. I will eventually screen these and have them digitized - unfortunately, while I do have an 8mm projector, I'm not able to digitize motion picture film myself. Thus, it's going to be quite a while before I can get around to them. In the meantime, enjoy these two VHS video artifacts.