This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

Peaches + Monster Zoku Onsomb + MKO @ Max Watt’s, 06.05.2015

Having flu means a couple days of work. It also means missing out on the interview, Q&A and book launch with Peaches at Avid Reader the day before the show. I tried my hardest to get there by spending the entire day in bed and getting up at the very last minute I needed to get up by in order to make it but it was clear that physically I just wasn’t up to going to it. Having been so excited to have gotten a ticket (Avid Reader is tiny), I was really looking forward to it and so disappointed that I just wasn’t in a state to make it.

The following day it’s still touch and go as to whether I’m going to be in a fit state to go to the show but by early evening, I’m feeling a lot better than the day before. At least I’m feeling much better until I end up having to park miles away from the venue and the walk to Max Watt’s completely drains the little energy I have and leaves me completely exhausted and feeling terrible again.

Since the last time I was here, the venue has changed name from The Hi-Fi to Max Watt’s House of Music. The story behind the name change/takeover always seemed a bit dodgy to me but either way, it’s a terrible name, with the added bonus of a terrible logo and it just reminds me of that episode of The Simpsons, when Moe converts the bar to a family restaurant called Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag. I’m not sure if Max Watt’s does Million Dollar Birthday Fries.

It doesn’t help matters that there’s no photo pit tonight and I make an early decision that unlike I usually do, I’m not going to claim a spot at the front against the stage. In my physical state I just don’t feel up to being crushed against the stage as the venue fills and for the surge forwards when the headliner starts. Instead I decide on a spot at the top of the first set of steps back from the stage and being dead centre it feels like an obvious choice given the performance nature of the show that I’m expecting to see. It’s only just before the Peaches starts that I realise that if anyone decides to stick their camera phone in the air then maybe this won’t be the best place to stand and being a show in the 2010s, of course everyone is going to have their phones above their heads.

Thankfully, there’s no three song rule for photographing Peaches (or at least no one told me). Only getting three songs of Peaches would be the worst. She’s such a fantastic performer and every song offers something different to photograph. The photos turn out pretty well. The only annoyance in the photo when Gentle Ben makes a guest performance and sets fire to the shaving foam he’s sprayed across his chest. I get the shot but of course it coincides with someone sticking their phone up in the air, right in the middle if the frame. It takes a slightly awkward crop to save the image but Ben has been using it for his Facebook avatar for almost a year now so I’m guessing he likes it at least.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2016 at 8:00 am. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2015, Brisbane, Max Watt's, MKO, Monster Zoku Onsomb, Peaches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.