- His computer’s off.
- Luke, you switched off your targeting computer. What’s wrong?
- Nothing. I’m all right

I recently made the point on the flickr concert photography forum that photographing concerts isn’t rocket science – most of what’s happening on stage – the lighting, where people stand, what they do - is completely out of your control and as long as you’ve got a basic understanding of how a camera works you’ll be fine.

However, according to the responses I’m wrong and it IS rocket science.

One of the replies made the point about how far off base I was in saying what I said and that I wouldn’t have said what I said if I was using manual settings and shooting Rancid on film. I’m not quite sure what their exact point was; although I’ve never seen Rancid I’m guessing it was about photographing an energetic punk band running all over the stage and getting well composed shots. Unless I’m missing something the fundamentals of photographing haven’t changed with the introduction of digital cameras and it still relies on the relationships between film speed, shutter speed and aperture. So there’s no real difference between photographing with manual settings on film or on digital other than the fact that you can’t instantly review the photos you’ve taken when using film.

So I’d thought I’d test myself out.

I decided that at my next gig I would set my camera to manual, turn off the playback on my LCD, stop myself from chimping and take a maximum of 72 shots (equivalent to 2 x 36 exposure films). I cheated somewhat as Rancid weren’t playing this weekend… but The Audreys were…

I had planned on using the 72 shots to take some of support act J. Walker from Machine Translations but as I got there late and he had already started playing and as everyone at the front was sat on the floor I decided not to. I probably should have reduced my quota down to 50 or 60 for The Audreys. In the end I found it quite hard to actually get through 72 shots of one band, even though I didn’t limit myself to only photographing the first three songs, but then managed to go over my quota in the encore… (For the encore the band played acoustically using a single microphone at the front of the stage to pick up all the sound. I would have probably taken more photos but was conscious of the sound of my shutter and the fact that the room needed to be very quiet for how the band was playing).

I normally don’t take that many photos when I shoot a gig; if it’s a three song rule then it’ll usually be 50 or so shots for a headline band, and probably don’t do a lot more than that on any single band when there are no restrictions in place. I can never fathom the photographers who’ll take 500 shots in a night of three bands; they can’t be thinking much about their shots and if they’re spending that much time with a camera in front of their faces they can’t be enjoying the gig. I think I did last year’s V Festival on about 500 shots…

And so to the results.

The original plan was to not look at the photos until I got back home and had downloaded them onto my computer, but I couldn’t resist having a peek when I was packing up my gear at the end of the night.

I was pretty happy with what I had come out with; well over half were ‘keepers’ and there are a maybe half a dozen or so that I really like. In the end I uploaded 30 photos to flickr.

I was blessed by a rare night of good lighting at The Zoo which helped a lot and meant that at ISO 800 and f2.8, I was mostly using shutter speeds of 1/80 or 1/100, although still having to go down to 1/30 when photographing towards the back of the stage.

Not reviewing what I had taken meant I had the usual closed eyes/half closed eyes photos that I normally would have deleted as I went. In addition to be reviewing the quality of photos, I think the other advantage in being able to look through your photos with digital is that you can keep a tab on how many photos you’ve got of each member of the band. Although I felt that I was focusing predominantly on Taasha I didn’t actually end up taking as many photos as I thought I had of her. I think I was holding back in anticipation of the perfect picture which would do her beauty justice. She really is stunningly beautiful, even before she starts singing.

However, I think the most annoying thing from the night was that sometimes my composition seemed to be slightly off. For example, in one song Taasha was doing some clapping and I managed to take four close up shots with great facial expressions but managed to miss the end of her fingers in each shot…

The band was completely awesome and you should check them out.

And Kate Miller-Heidke fans should note that this is how you sing beautifully, with true emotion and without the show-pony histrionics…

The best of the ‘keepers’ are on flickr.

[DISCLAIMER: My girlfriend wanted to see Kate Miller-Heidke so asked me to request to do the photos at this gig…..]

Much loved by Sunrise, much loathed by a large majority of the Pig City audience, Kate Miller-Heidke was back in Brisbane for a couple of dates at The Zoo and an All Ages show at the Judith Wright Centre.

Her Pig City performance of three Go-Betweens songs - Streets of Your Town, Clouds, and Cattle and Cane - accompanied by the Brisbane Excelsior Band fell down on many levels: she was placed on the bill between Regurgitator and The Saints, which made her stick out like a sore thumb and being a very mainstream, newly signed major label act with a new record to plug she just didn’t fit in with the spirit of what the day was about.

Whilst the idea for using brass arrangements and the arrangements themselves were really awesome, they were somewhat spoilt by her cutesy-wutesy, very girly voice. Plus when she goes into opera-mode her body language completely changes, she stiffens up and her eyes roll back in her head… so I ended up with a load of photos where you can mainly see white where her pupils would normally be…

Seeing her ARIA award performance on TV did little to change my mind, being cringingly embarrassing on a night when most of the live performances were poor, with Operator Please probably putting in the best performance.

Having sold out The Tivoli last year I was expecting the place to be rammed, even though she was doing two nights and an all ages show, but, whilst a healthy turnout, it wasn’t. The crowd was probably about 85% female, which was interesting.

Technically you can’t really fault her voice and she is very charming in her between song banter. But listening to a whole set you can’t actually work out what her true voice and there is a lack of true emotion, which together with all the show pony vocal histrionics makes her come across like the Yngwie Malmsteen of female singer-songwriters.

A couple of the songs sounded good, there was one that she introduced as new that had some whole band harmonies going on that stood out, but a lot had really banal Play School-type melodies and lyrics, culminating in a really cringingly awful song about Australian Idol that wouldn’t have been out of place in a set by Victoria Wood. And then there was the “ironic” (at least I’m guessing it was ironic) cover of ‘You’re The Voice‘, which was one of the worst songs of the 1980s in the 1980s, let alone looking back at it in 2008.

My girlfriend enjoyed it though. So maybe it’s a girl thing.

More photos on flickr.

The first, and indeed last, time I saw Rocket Science was when I photographed the first Come Together festival at Luna Park in Sydney in April 2005. This was when it was a one day festival of smaller indie/alt Australian bands, before it became a two day metal/emo festival with Australian and International bands (although the 2008 bill, is one day of indie, one day of metal/emo). After that day they seemed to completely disappear.

Although they have had their share of mishaps over the years, not least singer/organist/theremin-ist Roman Tucker’s head injury/induced coma back in 2004, it seems like they’ve being doing the marriage, children, extra-curricular band thing for the last couple years.

Good to see them back and sounding so good. In typical fashion the Zoo lighting was rubbish, although not as bad as the recent My Disco gig. I only stayed for half their set as the May Day holiday on the Monday meant that the Rave deadline was midday on Friday and, as I don’t have access to Photoshop at work, I had to sort out the photos and send them in before I went to bed.

Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side were first band on the night but weren’t at their best. Obviously missing Texas Kate who had flown off to Germany earlier in the day for the start of the Texas Tea European tour. I Heart Hiroshima were the main support and are doing the whole tour with Rocket Science. When I first saw them, back in maybe late 2005/early 2006 I thought they were a fantastic band and tipped them for great things on certain Australian music websites. Don’t know why but they’ve never been the same since Mel left. Seem to be doing ok for themselves though, with lots of high profile tour supports and festivals.

Some more photos on flickr.

Rocket Science

I Heart Hiroshima

It’s a rare occurrence for the support bands to have much better lighting than the headline act, but somehow My Disco managed it. Although when you play in near darkness with no front lights it’s not too hard to achieve. Indeed Feathers, the first band on, had by far the best lighting of the night.

Gave up trying to get a good photo after a while as it was a lost cause. Went over to Ric’s and saw Sixfthick instead…

My Disco

This is about as good as it got for them – ISO800 f2.8 1/20… probably should have taken my f1.7 50mm lens with me…

Or alternately, this is what a head-banging guitarist looks like at 1/6 of a second…

Fabulous Diamonds

Secret Birds

Feathers

Some more photos on flickr.

Monday night gigs are strange affairs; they’re quite a rare occurrence – indeed a fair number of bars and pubs are shut every Monday in Brisbane - and yet they bring out the most devoted and passionate fans. It’s a different vibe to a more typical Thursday, Friday or Saturday night show when there are usually more scenesters, fair-weather fans and hangers-on in the crowd on a normal night out. So whilst The Zoo was maybe only a third full for tonight’s visit of Biffy Clyro - a bit of a surprise considering that their latest album, ‘Puzzle’, reached #2 in the UK album charts and they are the Saturday night headlining act on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury in June - there was a really great and friendly atmosphere.

In addition to the rare occurrence of a Monday night gig, there was also the even rarer occasion of a cold Zoo, a venue renown for its unbearable summer temperatures, with the gig happening on what was being predicted as the coldest April night in Brisbane in 25 years. However, a cold night in Brisbane is obviously a veritable heatwave in Scotland, with singer/guitarist Simon and drummer Ben both playing the whole of their set shirtless.

Most reviews/interviews of the band tend to include a comparison to Nirvana, but other than the fact they’re a 3-piece, play rock and rock hard there’s not much in their sound that has an obvious grunge influence. There are, however, much more obvious prog tendencies in their sound; it’s a lot more intricate than band like Nirvana and more in common with someone like Tool or even Rush.

Latest Dew Process signings Yves Klein Blue supported and were ok, if maybe a little lightweight as support band for a band like Biffy Clyro. Can’t help but feeling that they’ve got too much of that Libertines, slightly jazz minor 7th thing going on a lot of their songs and that it sounds far too 2002 to make an impact in 2008. They were pretty tight though, so time will tell.

A few more photos on flickr.

Biffy Clyro

Yves Klein Blue

I wrote in a blog last year about the joys of photographing The Mess Hall, in particular Cec and his photogenic drumming skills. The album launch last year was a disappointing affair, with very little light being stuck in a poor position to photograph from. When the Brisbane date in support of their latest single ‘Pulse’ was announced I couldn’t help but see it as a chance for redemption, even though it was at The Zoo with its very hit-and-miss lighting.

As has been a recent event at The Zoo, the gig was mostly backlit, with some lower power red AND pink lighting from the front. With backlit conditions similar to the recent JAMC gig, I experimented a bit more with wider angle shots (using my new-ish but very little used, AU$165 absolute bargain 28 – 70 f2.8 lens) and photographing directly into the light. I was trying to get something more than just a normal silhouette-type image and make the actual lighting an integral part of the photo. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, especially with lens flare, but when it works I think it works well. The general quality of the lens is fantastic but it is a bit slow to focus and it under-exposes by over ½ stop – which makes it less than ideal for photographing concerts…

And of course took some more close-up shots of Cec… which are ok but would have benefited from more front light and being able to use a higher shutter speed and less back light causing the annoying glare when I changed side to get the really close-up shots.

Main support band were The Scare. They weren’t bad, better than had seen them before but seemed to be a lot less energetic than the past, especially Kiss Reid, who seemed very sedated all night and almost apologetic for their last appearance at The Zoo in 2006 before they moved to the UK. So much for hating us all…

Violent Soho opened the night and were as good as ever. About time they got around to releasing another CD…

Lots more photos on flickr.

They say that time flies when you’re having fun. Whether or not this is true, time definitely has flown since the last time that I saw Buffalo Tom, (which from memory was in London at the LA2 in November 1999) let alone the first time that I saw them back in the early 1990s at The Riverside in Newcastle.

When the tables and chairs are on display towards the front of The Zoo it is usually a sign that it’s a quiet night. However, there was quiet a healthy mid-week crowd in (which made having a load of tables and chairs near the front of the room more problematic…), although not sold out. There have been a few posts on the Mess+Noise message board about the tour and about how there seemed to be a real lack of promotion from the tour, with this apparently being a regular trait of the promoter in question. I was glad I was there and had a great night, but it’s just a shame that they weren’t playing to the full-house they deserve to be playing to.

Whilst nostalgia is a powerful and alluring sentiment, and increasingly being played on by the music industry, watching Buffalo Tom play you can’t help but feel that if a group of 20-somethings released a bunch of songs as good as theirs in today’s musical scene that they would be universally acclaimed and be all over the radio and the music press.

However, sadly, when you’re a bunch of 40-somethings the industry pays a lot less attention. Whilst the set played heavy on their back catalogue, especially 1992’s ‘Let Me Come Over’, new songs from last year’s ‘Three Easy Pieces’ show that they haven’t lost the knack for coming up with hook-laden, 3 ½ minute pop songs.

Hopefully it won’t be a nine year wait between albums next time, and hopefully they’ll be back and playing to the size of audience they deserve soon.

More photos on flickr.

Buffalo Tom

Screamfeeder

CocoRosie are a band that has perplexed me for a while. Whilst only familiar with their music via their myspace and random snippets available on the web elsewhere, I found the polarisation of views and reviews to be really interesting; you either love them or you hate them; they either get 5 star gushing reviews or they get 1 star reviews. Even listening to their songs on myspace some come across well whilst others make you grind your teeth. Had heard that they were an interesting prospect live so put into photograph them and camera in hand strolled up to The Zoo to see them play.

First impressions entering The Zoo are that they obviously have a largely select audience; as was pointed out by my gf, it’s the women who you would find in the Women’s Room at university…

The band played with no stage lights, with the light coming from the projector showing images on a backdrop at the back of the stage. Coco stood in the dark for the whole gig, although I think there must have been a UV lamp near her as all you could make out of her face was her fluorescent make-up. Rosie occasionally got some light on her when lit up by the projector. In addition to the two sisters, there was also a male pianist. Last time I looked The Zoo didn’t have a lift so I’m guessing some poor saps had the job of getting a baby grand piano up and down the stairs at the back of the building. I don’t envy them…

A few good songs but an overall impression that a lot of the songs follow a similar blue-print and are a bit too samey; people watching was far more entertaining, especially with all that interpretative dancing…

Always good to see promoters organise extracurricular sideshows for bands playing festivals in Brisbane – in this case with both Broken Social Scene and Stars playing the following day at the Laneway Festival. And even better that the sideshow at The Zoo sold out; one step closer to hopefully convincing more promoters that it is worth putting on the extra shows that Sydney and Melbourne always get. On the downside, a sold out Zoo is never the best place to photograph bands…

Had been listening to the Stars album on their myspace page and sounded ok; some songs better than others. And was same experience seeing them play live. They started well, but lost a bit as their set went on. The trouble is that whilst at their best they have an air of The Postal Service about them, at their worst, with the male/female joint vocals, they creep just too close to Deacon Blue for comfort.

For Broken Social Scene positioned myself near the front but a couple of rows back. Trouble was that I was behind a guy who as soon as the band hit the stage felt the need to constantly punch the air, which meant an elbow-camera-nose interface twice in the first song which didn’t put me in the best of moods…

I had planned on doing 3 songs and getting out but found it very hard actually getting clear shots with the combination of the air-punching guy and all the people at the front with their P&S cameras held above their heads…

Did 4 songs, didn’t get anything very good. Went to the bar…

Tried a few shots from the other side of the stage later in their set but the view was just as bad. Spiral Stairs from Pavement made a guest appearance; I don’t think he has the same Picture of Dorian Gray thing that Malkmus has got happening…