Enter Joe Berns of Melodious Owl. At the tender age of 16, Joe along with his band mates Jon Kuder & Wes Statler are tearing up the music scene in Minneapolis playing some of our fair city's choicest musical venues.

I became acquainted with the band through my brother Evan who attended the Perpich Center for Arts Education with them. Evan and I showed up in support of the band at the très hip Voltage '05 Fashion Amplified show at First Avenue.

I promised the guys from the band that I would do my best to take some pictures for them sometime. The stars aligned and I was able to arrange for tickets through a friend of mine. Evan and I got their early, and we were able to weasel our way into the press section. Who needs a press pass when you look like a photographer? Owing a DSLR and having a, "hey, I belong here asshole!" attitude certainly can have its advantages!

The band looked fabulous that night. Unfortunately, I cannot remember who designed their outfits; but I would love to offer major kudos to them. They began their performance looking like little, thin Elton Johns in 18th century glam rock hipsters shirts and then they stripped mid-set and revealed these shear, modern looking black tops glowing with el-wire and blinking white, green and blue LED colars. I was highly impressed.

I took about 100 pictures of the band that night. Unfortunately for me the stage was quite dark to dually allow for their outfits to glow and to provide the fashion models walking the runway in front of them the spotlight. I ended up keeping maybe 5 or 6 shots. This was one of them I liked best.

I also took about 100 shots of the models that night. Tomorrow I will post of the shots that I like best. If there are any requests, I'll share more.

For the curious, below are some more links about Voltage Fashion Amplified. If you are able to go next year, do so! It's a good time!

• Voltage Fashion Amplified Website
• MØRDAC.org Pictures from Voltage 2005
• Review of the Event at HowWasTheShow.Com
• Awesome Blog Entry and Pictures from Chuck at Blogumentary
• Hundreds of Pictures from Steven R. Wolf
• Review from Local Artist Ana Voog
• An Excellent Review by Ross Raihala