Friends, family, and fans of his work pay tribute to former “Creative
Loafing” photographer Chris Radok at Tremont Music Hall's Radok Fest III Saturday. The concert features
Hated: The G.G. Allin Tribute and the reunions of Semi-Pro and Pigf*****, as well
as Saurosiman Alchemy. It also marks the premier of photos taken by Radok during
Tremont’s early years, which will continue to grace the club’s walls.
Radok was murdered during a break-in at his home in January 2011.
His killer was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.
Tremont was the first club I hung out at in Charlotte and
Radok’s photos are a trip down memory lane. I didn’t know him, but I saw him
hundreds of times clicking away at the front of the stage. Thanks to Radok some
of the best concerts I ever saw are captured in black and white long before
any of us were snapping blurry nuggets on our cell phones. He was even there
the night I watched 7 Year Bitch with 10 people in the big room (ouch!).
Looking at his photos, which are already on display and include
shots of the Tremont staff, I found myself thinking: “Oh I have a photo just
like that.” I realized that I’d clipped Radok’s photos of Dicky Barrett from
Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Frank Black, and Ani Difranco from the pages of “Creative
Loafing” back then and placed them in my concert scrapbooks with my tickets, stickers
and flyers.
Tremont’s manager Lisa Barr, Antiseen’s Jeff Clayton (who
also plays in Hated), and Lori Bilger of The Chris Radok Photography
Preservation Brain Trust scoured through what I imagine were thousands of
negatives for the project to narrow it down to the best of his photos taken at
Tremont. Barr found it interesting that these are some of the same photos that
I cut from the paper long ago.
I told Barr they should sell prints.
You can contribute Saturday at Tremont. The show begins at 9
p.m. Admission is $10. You can visit Radok’s memorial page on Facebook here.
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