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’.  

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. 

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.