If you’ve attended a show at Hotel Vegas or Chess Club in recent memory, odds are you’ve crossed paths with David Fox. From his freewheeling live shots of grunge staples Die Spitz to an album insert for Being Dead’s 2023 debut When Horses Would Run, the photographer stands out as one of Austin’s most dedicated live music documentarians.
Fox is no newcomer to the scene, though – he’s kept his boots on the ground of Austin venues for nearly half a century. His long-overdue first-ever official photo showcase – along with a birthday celebration of Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison – takes over Tweedy’s on Friday night. Billed as a “rock and roll memorabilia extravaganza,” the collection documents Austin’s nascent punk and New Wave scenes from 1978 to 1988 as seen through the eyes of Fox.
“I had this collection of pictures [in my house] called the Music Box, and I’d started putting them on Instagram,” explains Fox, who posts under the handle @musicboxatx. “I’ve always wanted to do something with them, because I felt like it was a really cool body of work about a time that some people might be interested in besides me.”…