Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link.
Rocks Off "met" Richard Griesser a couple of weeks ago, when we were looking for pictures of Houston music venues that had closed, and he went above and beyond the call of duty. When we posted a notice on Facebook, we figured we'd be lucky to get a handful of shots we could use. Griesser sent us dozens, from all sorts of long-defunct local venues -- Rockefeller's, the Rhythm Room, Mary Jane's, Fabulous Satellite Lounge, and more.
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But Griesser also sent just as many from places that are open to this day like Dan Electro's Guitar Bar and Last Concert Cafe, which will host an exhibition of his photos starting Thursday. After he did us such a huge favor, we couldn't help but induct Griesser into The Rocks Off 100.
Who? Griesser says he's been a "photo nut" since he was 11 or 12 and cutting yards to buy a Polaroid Swinger and some film. (Griesser didn't give us his age, but the Swinger was manufactured between 1965 and 1970.) When he got tired of mowing yards in the Texas heat, Griesser says he started shooting "things neighbors wanted or needed photographed."
A couple of years after that, he says his grandfather gave him a Zeiss Ikon from the 1930s, known to us younger folks as a sweet-ass camera. Around this time, "the late '60s Houston music scene was starting to become quite a happening," he recalls. "With many local music venues for teens only, it became for me a great place to photograph musicians, and I was hooked on it."
He says he spent many Sundays taking photos in Milby Park, and remembers not being the best student, so his dad offered to get him a better camera if he raised his grades. He did, and steadily began using better equipment.
Sadly, a water leak in the house he was renting ruined all his shots taken before 1974, but after that Griesser says he has about 250 Kodachrome negatives "looking like the day they were shot." Working at a Houston camera store and seeking to recapture the feeling he got at those old teen clubs, he eventually gravitated to Dan Electro's and Last Concert, drawn in by the feeling "where everyone knows your name."
Still, he admits, he'll always go somewhere new to hear a band a friend tells him to check out. Today, Griesser reckons he has more than 2,100 images of almost 60 different subjects.
"One of the things I learned was the closer I got to the musicians they would start to ham it up and put on a show for the camera," Griesser says. "It started to feel like when I was in the back and shooting a longer lens the musicians acted natural, and I felt that the images were better."
Why Do You Stay In Houston? "I have traveled to many other cities as an assistant and a photographer and would always try to check out the local music, but on weeknights it can be hard finding live music in most of the towns, unlike Houston," says Griesser. "Houston is my home, with all my friends and people that know me, giving me a base to photograph from. At most clubs, when I slide to the stage to take a photo the crowd makes a path for me so I can get the shot."
