I'm sure you've noticed the increase of concert coverage on the blog lately. It's great and I'm very excited to be shooting as much as I am. It is, however, a lot of extra work and I've noticed that I've fallen behind in the amount of my posts. In an attempt to catch back up and hopefully keep up, I'm really going to cut back in my commentary on the shows I'm seeing.
That being said, I do want to talk about my first experience at The Space. Tiny! I am constantly amazed at how small the Connecticut venues are, yet the caliber of entertainment is blowing me away. It's wonderful to be able to see so many talented artists in such a small place. Granted, these prove to be that much more difficult to capture. Most nights, I'm maxing out my camera's ISO speeds and having to spend a lot of time in post production to bring the color back to something I don't cringe at.
TTNG, formerly known as This Town Needs Guns, was beyond exciting for me to photograph even in a less than ideal lighting situation. I hustled straight from the day job to make this show, which forced me to set up on the far right side of the stage. Other than trying to shoot around a microphone stand, it wasn't a bad spot. TTNG had a great energy to them. They are a math rock band, which means their time signatures jump all over the place. The skill level of the individual band members was ridiculous. I definitely feel like you'll be hearing more from this band in the next couple of years.
Henry Tremain
Tim Collis
Chris Collis
These two shots really show you just how tight The Space is. The audience is right up against the stage and can often times lean right in blocking your view. If you aren't right up against the stage, you can't see a thing.
There's nothing worse as a photographer than finding out you've picked the worst position possible for a band. When guitarist and lead vocalist of Tera Melos, Nick Reinhart, set up his suitcase and pedals, I let out an audible groan. I jokingly asked him if he really had to have that blocking my shots and he promised me he wouldn't leave it up the entire night. To further complicate my life, there was another photographer that positioned himself directly in front of Reinhart. He shot with a wide angle lens the entire night, so he was actually leaning with his camera onto the stage. This pretty much blocked my angles on the rest of the band. This was definitely a learning experience for me on keeping my cool and working around others.
I've never seen that many pedals for one musician in my entire life.
Nick Reinhart
Nathan Latona
John Clardy
With enough persistence, I eventually got a clear view of Nathan, but I was definitely muttering under my breath for several minutes. I have no problem with other photographers needing to get their shots, but I get upset when they block me from getting mine. My issue was that he knew that I was there and when he wasn't shooting, he extended his camera in front of him which cut off my view.
After a couple of songs, I had no other option than to trek around the crowd and make my way to the other side of the stage. There were piles of equipment from the opening acts and the band members themselves, but I took my time and made sure to carefully weave my way through the barricades.
I returned to my original spot to enjoy the rest of the show, not expecting to take any more pictures. Reinhart looked around for me, I'd actually moved slightly farther back on the side of the stage. When he located me, he smiled and closed the suitcase, then he broke into a 23 minute instrumental jam. It was such a nice gesture, I pulled my camera back out and shot a few more frames. Thanks, Nick!
As I stated, the final song was REALLY long. Personally, I find it hard to stay engaged for that long, even when it's an artist I love. I absolutely hate the Eels live performance of Not Ready Yet, which plods along at over 18 minutes. Tera Melos are wizards of sounds, but at times, it reminded me of
button mashing.
As always, I'll end with shoes.
