Tag Archive for "Don’t Look Back"
Back in the good old days of film cameras, one of the harder things to keep a check on, in addition to whether any of the photos you’d taken were actually any good, was how many photos you’d taken of each band member. Many a frustrating Sunday morning was spent developing films in the darkroom only to find that whereas you’d got a load of good shots of the guitarist/bassist/drummer you’d only actually managed to take 5 shots of the singer, in four of which they had their eyes shut and where the fifth photo wasn’t very good. This problem would seemingly have been consigned to history with the benefits of instant LCD review screens on the back of DLSRs.
But in reviewing tonight’s Dirty Three photos I find that the split of shots between the three members must be something like 65% Jim White, 30% Warren Ellis and 5 % Mick Turner. What feels even stranger is that part way through the second song (The Restless Waves) I change to the longer 70 – 200mm zooms to specifically get photos of Jim White as it feels like I haven’t been focusing on him at all with the wider 28 - 70 lens, using it to try to get wider shots of the whole band and for full length portratits of Warren Ellis.
One day I will finally get around to blogging about seeing the Dirty Three three times in a week at All Tomorrow’s Parties at Butlins Minehead, and in particular their impromtu, unrehearsed run through of Horse Stories on a tiny stage in front of about 100 people at ATP Inbetween Days, the four days between the two weekend festivals for people who wanted to hang around for the week. And when I do get around to blogging about that night I will tell you about my Jim White epiphany, seeing him play on a knee high stage and realising just what a phenomenal drummer he is, possibly the best drummer I’ve ever seen. Watching him play is utterly mesmerising, as he switches between sticks, brushes and beaters, adds tambourines to his kit mid-beat and then removes them again. At times it’s almost like there is no beat to speak of, it’s so loose but is is ultimately what makes the Dirty Three such an amazing live band.
More photos on Flickr.
The Don’t Look Back series of concerts finally made it across to Australia this month, although in typical and familiar fashion Brisbane got the rough end of the deal with only one concert – the double bill of Died Pretty playing ‘Doughboy Hollow’ and Ed Kuepper playing ‘Honey Steel’s Gold’ – missing out on the famed Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’ set that even Perth and Adelaide got to see, and also The Scientists playing ‘Blood Red River’. Â
Having now photographed Ed Kuepper three times (solo and acoustic at the Pauhaus Festival, with The Saints at Pig City and tonight), there are a number of things I have learnt:
1. He doesn’t like lights;
2. He plays 90% of the set with his eyes shut; and
3. He constantly rocks back and forth (whilst playing in the dark).
Was also the third time of photographing Ron Peno (both other times with him playing in the Darling Downs with Kim Salmon) and the main reason I wanted to photograph this gig. He may have fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down but there is still something extremely photogenic about him, and as a photographer he gives you a lot to work with.Â
However, it was a pretty disappointing lighting set up with strong backlighting and very little front lighting for the three songs I was allowed to photograph, so most of the photos weren’t that special. A couple of ok-ish shots where the backlighting and silhouetting work well and remind me of the work of probably my favourite music photographer, Herman Leonard.
More photos on flickr.
