This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

HEALTH + Stature::Statue @ The Step Inn, 25-02-10

I didn’t quite know what to expect from a HEALTH show.  I probably wasn’t expecting it to be the most scenester show I’ve probably been to in the time I’ve been in Brisbane, with the majority of the crowd looking like they’ve just walked out of the pages of Vice.  There’s a very scenester-looking photographer in the queue in front of me, a Canon 5D mk II slung over his shoulder, who is getting the guy on the door to phone up the promoter to try to get a +2 added against his name on the guest list.  He succeeds in getting a +1, leaving me thinking if any photographer has ever got a +2, when most struggle to even get a +1 and if any other photographers get the door to phone up the promoter to try to get additional names added against their name.

The +1 is a bit of a bug bear for most photographers.  Whereas the reviewers generally get a +1  to almost all shows, photographers don’t for the most part and at the bigger shows are escorted into the photo pit just before the start and out of the building after 3 songs.  In the name of fairness, publications probably should ensure that the photographer gets the reviewer’s +1 but this doesn’t ever seem to happen.

Back at the show, Stature::Statue play a really decent set.  Been a long time since I last saw them (probably/possibly at Ric’s a lifetime ago) and they surprise me by being a lot better than I remember; maybe the result of one of those random nights at Ric’s when the music is more something that’s happening in the background rather than being the main reason for being there.

HEALTH set up with minimal fuss.  And then they start and it really wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s really fast and furious, everything is at 100 mph and the combination of instruments and pedals is all held together by BJ Miller’s really hard, really superb drumming.  But almost as soon as it starts it’s over, all done and dusted after maybe 40 minutes.  And in the long-term that sentiment may prove to be the band’s epitaph.  They’re very much a band of the moment and it’s hard to see where they go next.  Listening to Get Colour, their second album, you can’t help but think that in five years time it’ll sound really dated.  Time will of course tell but it’s hard to tell whether their primary fan base will have moved on to the next big thing by the time they come around again.

A few more photos on Flickr.

HEALTH

Stature::Statue

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 10:49 pm. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Brisbane, HEALTH, Justin Edwards, Rave Magazine, Sony a700, Stature::Statue, Step Inn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.