On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, I attended the fourth annual Fresno Urban Sound Experience. This year’s FUSE Fest was expanded into a two-day affair at venues throughout downtown Fresno, courtesy the good folks at Creative Fresno. My wife Tracy went with me on the first night, and we managed to see six bands at three different venues. (Plus, we had a great dinner at Joe’s Steakhouse!) My friend Adam met up with me on the second night, and we caught three bands at two venues.
The FUSE Fest is a real smorgasbord of great local music. Of the nine acts I saw, I was exposed to a big range of diverse acts:
• Brother Luke & The Comrades (indie gospel/folk)
• Dale Stewart Band (electrified political folk)
• Marlson Bruegen (hobo folk, a la Bob Dylan and early Beck)
• Lance Canales & The Flood (“roots stomp”)
• Brian Kenney Fresno (guitar rock, with a little local novelty in the songwriting)
• The Fay Wrays (postpunk/face-obliterating rock)
• It’ll Grow Back (punk)
• Azazel (metal)
• Niilo Smeds Band (indie rock jams)
When attending a rock show, most people tend to concentrate on the singers and their faces. But at the first show I saw, something different caught my eye as I watched Brother Luke & The Comrades perform inside the ballroom at Club One Casino. I snapped a photo of lead singer Luke Freeman’s cuffed-jeans and feet awkwardly perched behind his mic stand, alongside a lone guitar pedal and a half-full beer bottle. That image inspired my shoot for the rest of FUSE Fest 2011.
The photos were made with my iPhone 3GS. They were then cropped and processed in the Instagram app, with filters added. My favorite filter, as you will notice, is the Lomography filter, which always warmly reminds me of my early days of film photography, when I first fell in love with making pictures.
Jefferson Beavers 
I enjoyed browsing your pictures.