Archive for November 2007
Photographed The Drones and Perth band Snowman a couple of weeks ago at The Zoo. First time seen The Drones since they played at The Columbian with Darling Downs last September (I think). Photos here. Good to see they’ve picked up a lot more fans since then. Fantastic gig, especially Dan Luscombe’s guitar playing, which was sublime. Not been to The Zoo for a while and they’ve got rid of the spotlights they had at the front of the stage, so the lighting was a lot worse than it has been recently. The spots weren’t great as as soon as anyone on stage took a step back they plunged into darkness, but whilst they were at the front it was ok.
Didn’t really get anything I really liked of The Drones. Think I prefer some of the photos I got of Snowman.
One of the difficulties with photographing for print is that you know they’re only going to use a photo of the lead singer, so it can make you focus on them to the detriment of the rest of the band, and make you lazy once you feel you have something of the singer. The Zoo doesn’t have a pit so unless you want to wait front middle against the stage for at least 30 minutes between bands it’s easier to go to the side. This usually gives you clear shots of at least half the band usually, but then you need to run around to the other side and try and squeeze in right at the side if you want to try and get photos of the remainder of the band. Not easy when it’s a busy night, and it’s much easier to grab a drink or three, relax and enjoy the band…
A few photos below and a few more on flickr.
The Drones
Snowman
One of life’s great joys is getting to photograph The Mess Hall every now and then. And forget about Jed; its all about Cec and his photogenic drumming skills. So it was pretty disappointing to end up with nothing much of the gig – a combination of darkness, being on the wrong side of the stage, not being at the front and too much punching-the-air-in-1980s-stadium-rock-awesomeness…
So to make up for that here’s some I prepared earlier…
From Falls 2005.
And from The Rev back in September 2005. Yay for film…..
The ones of Jed weren’t much better though… Next time, next time…
Brisbane band Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade were one of the support bands and depsite the noise I like this one:
Hope that one day will get to photograph sixfthick (a) with good lighting; (b) with a photo pit. Hope that one day will get to photograph Scul Hazzards with (a) some lighting…I did wuss out of standing against the stage (unlike last album launch….) but probably ended up in up the worst of the mosh and moved further back. Seems like ages since I last saw Sixfthick. Last time they launched an album I had seen them a lot before the launch so it was great to hear all the new stuff completely fresh for the first time. Also loving the new Gentle Ben songs and looking forward to a new album in the not too distant future. Got some nice photos during his set.
Some photos from the night here and more on flickr.
Sixfthick
Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side
Scul Hazzards
Butcher Birds
Some more stuff to file under ‘meh’. The lighting was probably slightly better than the Patrick Wolf gig but far from good so a lot of sub-1/50 shutter going on. One of these days I will get some decent photos of Scul Hazzards…fingers crossed for this Friday at The Zoo….
More on flickr.
Die!Die!Die!
Scul Hazzards
Feathers
Worst set of photos I’ve taken in ages. Was really dark and was too far back in the crowd. The only time he had any light on him was when he was sat at his keyboard on the other side of the stage from where I was, which meant I had to try photograph across the crowd between people’s heads and mobile phones held aloft. A shame as the best gig been to in such a long while. Totally captivating and the songs are fantastic. It reminded me of being in Newcastle back in the day and seeing so many bands play when they were first starting out, just before they went huge and never played anywhere as small ever again.
If you don’t know him you really should check him out here. Although there are some better/more songs on some of the fansites such as here and here.
Hopefully when he comes back with his grand piano and string section he’ll also bring some lights with him…Â and play somewhere with a photo pit…
Gave up photographing The Fumes after about a song ‘cos the the lighting was so bad. Was having a drink, was stood by the mixing desk and a random guy started chatting to me about the usual, i.e. who I was photographing for etc. Then it went a bit surreal….
Random Guy: So why aren’t you down the front taking photos.
Me: The lightings rubbish, it’s too dark etc.
Random Guy: I can do the lights? You want me to do them?
And even after he jumped up and started playing around with the lighting desk I was still thinking that it was just some random drunk guy having a laugh. But he knew what he was doing and so the lighting went from zero to decent. So fair play to him. Bumped into him later and said thanks as he was heading backstage, so he obviously was either with the bands or worked at The Zoo. The lighting wasn’t as good for The Vasco Era but becuase he had turned on the lights for The Fumes the sound guy at least turned some of them on.
Some photos below and more on flickr.
The Vasco Era
The Fumes
Couple Saturday nights ago went to Scholckfest at The Globe. Schlockfest bills itself as ‘Brisbane’s Best B-Grade Short Film Festival’ and the films I saw didn’t disappoint with tales of killer cans of Spam and giant chickens. As well as the films there was also caberet and music to end the night. The main reason for going was to see Darling Downs (Died Pretty’s Ron Peno and The Scientists’/Beasts of Bourbon’s Kim Salmon) and try to get some good photos of them. Saw them support The Drones last year but it was at The Columbian so it was mostly in the dark and the photos were pretty meh.
Also on the bill were Brisbane bands The Mercy Dolls and the John Steel Singers. First time seen Mercy Dolls in ages (possibly at The Globe with Butcher Birds…) and they were on good form and were more dressy/showy than the other time, which made for some good photos. Had somehow managed not to see John Steel Singers before tonight but can see why they’re so highly rated.
Some photos below and more on flickr.
Shlockfest
The John Steel Singers
The Mercy Dolls
Darling Downs
Bill Callahan / smog / (smog) or whatever he’s calling himself this week played at The Troubadour a couple weeks ago. Normally I avoid photographing at The Troubadour due to its darkness but sometimes you just have to make the most of a bad situation to see/photographt the bands you really want to. Plus, there seems to have been a down turn in the lighting around the venues in Brisbane so suddenly The Troubadour doesn’t seem as bad as normal.
Was loitering near the front of the stage before he came on but as soon as he did was heckled to sit down on the floor with the rest of the audience. So all the photos were done sat down, not being able to move. And after 70 minutes or so sat down on a hard floor it was really painful.
Some photos here and more on flickr.
The day after The Drones it was off to The Met for Regurgitator’s album launch gig. Always expect the worst for Sunday night gigs but was already a fairly big queue down the street when I turned up. First time that been to The Met – nice venue, probably similar to the floor size of The Zoo but with balconies on either side. Meant that you could photograph the bands from up high, looking down on them. No pit, but that’s not much of a surprise in Brisbane.
Regurgitator were, as ever, on top form. Fourth time that I’ve seen them after the Angel Street party on the last election night, at Valley Fiesta in 2006 and at Pig City earlier this year, and they’ve never disappointed. Easily one of the best bands in Australia, with a fantastic set of songs.
The lighting was all over the place; lots of backlighting, lots of red and blue, green lasers, lighting that were very ‘dotty’ on everyone, plus the smoke machine was in overdrive at certain points. All good stuff from a gig going point of view but not great for photographing. So, at the gig it just didn’t feel like I was getting anything that was any good and photographing from a very bouncy crowd didn’t help. But when got back and had a look at the photos was pleasantly surprised. Got some stuff that I quite liked.
New Pants and I Heart Hiroshima supported.
A few photos below and a lot more on flickr.
Regurgitator
New Pants
I Heart Hiroshima
