Steve Earle @ The Tivoli

 

Last week saw Steve Earle roll into town to play at The Tivoli, the last night of his Australian tour in support of his ‘Washington Square Serenade’ album.  For most of the set it was just him and his guitar.  However, later on in the set he was backed by a DJ, playing beats on a couple of turnstiles. Whilst it was hardly a Dylan-Judas type moment, it was startling how much the power of one man and a guitar can be diminished by something as innocuous as a simple drum track.  But like Dylan so much of the power is in the words, with the backing drum tracks causing the lyrics to be lost in mix to some extent, and the overall impression coming over as a lazy, gimmicky add-on; a musical no-man’s land between stripped-down guitar and vocals and a properly fleshed-out arrangement for a full band. 

Allison Moorer was the main support act, a pleasant enough voice, although her cover-heavy six song set didn’t provide much of real substance to mull over.  Based on her performance tonight, there are better female singer-songwriters in Brisbane, but being the seventh Mrs Steve Earle has its obvious advantages.

Krista Polvere opened the night, although again with only a really short set, this time only four songs, it was hard to form any real opinion. 

A few more photos on flickr.

Steve Earle

Allison Moorer

Krista Polvere

2 Responses to “Steve Earle @ The Tivoli”

  1. Sonje says:

    I’m curious as to what the stats are on the lens you used for this shoot and how far away you were from the performers? I’m trying to learn all the different types of photography and hope to continue taking photos of all kinds of people, places, things, and events. Any mentoring or suggestions you have would be great!

  2. Justin says:

    Hi Sonje

    All the photos were done using my Sigma f2.8 70-200 lens. There was no photo pit so we had to photograph from out to the side, maybe 15m away from the middle of the stage. This position was near the stairs up to the balcony so I took a few photos of Steve from the stairs just before the end of the third song, e.g. the first photo in this post. The lens works well at this distance, with the wider shots at 70mm and the close-ups are at 200mm (although I might have cropped a bit tighter when processing them). Hope that helps a bit.

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