More (Milwaukee) Friends I Miss

Stan Stryder & Christian Mistreater , Toledo OH 2002 © jwl

These are a couple more of the images I dug up for the recent re-release of The Mistreaters records.

The above photo is in the downtime of a MKE-NYC tour in Toledo OH. The man on the left is none other than Stan Stryder, my all time favorite co-pilot on the road. Together Stan and I have traveled over 10,000 miles together. It's been a long time, but I would love to go on a trip with him again soon.

On the right is Christian, drummer-supreme for the 'Treaters. I can't say enough good things about that boy. All around good-dude.

Below we have a fun shot from Sleazefest 2002 in NC.

Kevin & Little Rock, Sleazefest, Chapel Hill NC 2002 © jwl

How I came to be @ Sleazefest is kinda round about, but meaningful now. I was touring with and photographing NEW BRUTALISM and decided to head to Chapel Hill to see The Mistreaters rather than go to Atlanta. When I arrived there, I recognized Little Rock (right) sitting in his truck reading the paper. When I asked him if the Mistreaters were around yet, Little Rock (who had never met me) was very polite and decided to get out and hang with us.

Long story Short, we proceded to have one hell of a story filled evening of music, fried chicken and cage girls. In fact, we don't really remember what is happening in this photo, all we know is that Kevin Mistreater loves Little Rock.

Little Rock introduced me to Stan when we got back to Milwaukee and the two of them have been true blue best friends of mine ever since.

Old Work | Old Friends

Christian, Detroit, MI © jwl

I was asked by The Mistreaters to provide some images for their upcoming re-release of their records. Happily, I went through some old files and pulled out some live gems. I toured with the band across the country a couple of times and followed them around Milwaukee and elsewhere, so I have plenty of negative sheets with their name on them.

What I found to be the best part of this project was finding the off stage portraits that I had made along the way. This photo of Christian has always been one of my favorite shots, not to mention I remember the moment very well.

I have a lot of stories that include Christian's name and I won't soon forget the good times we had.

For the next few posts, I am going to bring out more of these tour portraits to share with everyone.