No pix, but finally got to see an old favorite of mine who's been around since the 90s (most underground scene), John Wesley Harding....playing with a great lineup of Decemberists members, and Peter Buck! It was a rockin' great show. His real name is Wesley Stace and he's also one of my favorite novelists (the man is prolific). Got to speak with him after the show.
(not my vid) We went to We Were Promised Jetpacks at the Paradise in Boston last night.
I love that venue. It's tiny. It's affordable. You're right there with the band. It has 4 bars.
Loved the opening band, "Bare Hands".
Jetpacks was awesome... I think... the sound was SO overblasted that everything was distorted. It was really bad in a couple songs.
They were really into Wall Of Sound method of music making... and a lot of epicness. I really like their music though, and love the singer's Scottishness.
I do not understand cranking the dial to 13 on a system that only functions well up to 11. Is it a sign of amateurness?
One of my favorite things is watching the crowd (we were in the balcony, so we could lean and sit if we needed, being the old fogies that we are).
Saw Malcolm Holcombe Saturday in Newtown Sq. PA. Best show I've seen in a very long time. This guy is incredible. Sat 10 feet away and forgot my camera.
I like that one... worth putting some time in on it.
I only took a few band photos at the Montana Folk Festival last weekend, but it's definitely good for me if I shoot during the day He was under a white awning, bright sunshine filtering thru, but since it was so well lit and the light was consistent, I could set the manual to where I wanted it: ISO 80 (less noise, for one, and lets me open up the aperture), shutter speed just fast enough to stop normal motion (but check out his right hand—I love that) and ƒ3.5 (wide open) starts to fuzz out the background...
This one is actually the same band, the night before. More noise but it still works (without the mic etc it would be a ton better)
In both cases I was so preoccupied with the settings that I didn't actually get the photos framed up the way I should
I love the top one as well - and you're right... gotta love the light! I played around with the iso last night and went up to 3200.. it made a huge difference when I set the shutter faster, but there is way too much noises to effectively play around. I also had the dilemma of bringing the big zoom lens or the smaller. With the zoom, I figured I'd miss out on the close "family" shots and get great stage shots, or take the smaller lens and crop later on. Went with the smaller (and lighter!) lens. Waaaay too much noise :(
"cheat" shot 2 - going to try and clean this one up a bit
I like that one... worth putting some time in on it.
I only took a few band photos at the Montana Folk Festival last weekend, but it's definitely good for me if I shoot during the day He was under a white awning, bright sunshine filtering thru, but since it was so well lit and the light was consistent, I could set the manual to where I wanted it: ISO 80 (less noise, for one, and lets me open up the aperture), shutter speed just fast enough to stop normal motion (but check out his right hand—I love that) and ƒ3.5 (wide open) starts to fuzz out the background...
This one is actually the same band, the night before. More noise but it still works (without the mic etc it would be a ton better)
In both cases I was so preoccupied with the settings that I didn't actually get the photos framed up the way I should
Yeah it's tricky... can be a crap shoot unless you have a way to zoom in and meter the light off of something... with all the black in the background the camera wants to compensate for that. So manual settings kick in. The flash is usually too harsh but some cameras let you dial it back. Your first photo, of the singer, caught him well. He's in a white spotlight so your shutter speed was fast enough to stop the blur. When they're just using the colored lights I don't think your meter reads it right, for one, and also it's just not as bright so your shutter speed drops to something that's too slow unless the people are standing still. This is when a better/faster lens makes all the difference. If your general-purpose zoom lens only opens up to ƒ3.5 or something but a fixed focal length is ƒ1.4, that could have saved that second pic. Our little camera does okay but it's not great in low light and it's really cumbersome to work the manual settings (but at least it can be done).
But it's a cool experience and fun to have the camera along.
Hit the nail on the head as usual! When I saw the lead coming over to Alex - I just shot what I had set hoping to get at least something. As for the manual, yeah - gave up on that early on and "cheated" by waiting for the clear spots to come on. :-) "cheat" shot "cheat" shot 2 - going to try and clean this one up a bit
They did a really great show, and the venue just added to it. CB was only slightly familiar with one or two songs, but really had a blast! This was the first time I got to use the new camera on the fly... I did ok, I think... but it took a lot of tweeking settings and just experimenting. Wish I was able to get clearer shots.
Yeah it's tricky... can be a crap shoot unless you have a way to zoom in and meter the light off of something... with all the black in the background the camera wants to compensate for that. So manual settings kick in. The flash is usually too harsh but some cameras let you dial it back. Your first photo, of the singer, caught him well. He's in a white spotlight so your shutter speed was fast enough to stop the blur. When they're just using the colored lights I don't think your meter reads it right, for one, and also it's just not as bright so your shutter speed drops to something that's too slow unless the people are standing still. This is when a better/faster lens makes all the difference. If your general-purpose zoom lens only opens up to ƒ3.5 or something but a fixed focal length is ƒ1.4, that could have saved that second pic. Our little camera does okay but it's not great in low light and it's really cumbersome to work the manual settings (but at least it can be done).
But it's a cool experience and fun to have the camera along.
I never saw them live but always got the impression they would be fun to see... especially in a club like that.
They did an outdoor-mall-complex show here in town last summer. Very up close and personal. They sounded a little older, with maybe a little less energy—-but still excellent. I was surprised how many songs I knew all the lyrics to, still. They really cranked out a lot of good tunes in the day.
I never saw them live but always got the impression they would be fun to see... especially in a club like that.
They did a really great show, and the venue just added to it. CB was only slightly familiar with one or two songs, but really had a blast! This was the first time I got to use the new camera on the fly... I did ok, I think... but it took a lot of tweeking settings and just experimenting. Wish I was able to get clearer shots.
We won tickets to see the Gin Blossoms at BB Kings in the city! We took CoffeeBoy and had an awesome time! The lead singer give him his tambourine not only once... but TWICE during the performance to play along. This kid gets to do the coolest stuff!
I'm not the biggest Prince fan in the world, but that was one helluva show at MSG last tuesday night. If you even remotely enjoy Prince, I encourage you to go see him play...phenomenal performer, whether he's playing funk, soul, pop or straight-up rock. Based on previous setlists and reviews, I caught him on a very good night...he played for about 2 1/2 hours straight. Setlist:
(medley of) When Doves Cry / Housequake / Darling Nikki / Black Sweat / Nasty Girl / Sign O' The Times / Alphabet St. / Thieves In The Temple into Kiss
Take Me With U
Anotherloverholenyohead
Shhh
Controversy
Musicology / (Theme Song From) Which Way Is Up? incl. Housequake chants & Controversy
Stellar performance by Roger Waters and his band Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum. Nassau was one of the venues the original limited wall tour was staged.
Musically it was good, not great and the acoustics at Nassau aren't the best; but the stage performance was a 10...I've never been to a better performance...its a rock opera with full pyrotechnics, projections, props and roger pulled it all off. His voice was strong as well. The performance was much more about the larger issues of war and its impact....which has spurred some conflict including a ridiculous accusation by the Antidefamation league claiming antisemitism (at one pt of the video, during empty spaces, bombers drop various religious symbols, including a star david which the adl found offensive because also included was a $ symblol - some people should really study what they are offended by before opening their mouth). Also at one point someone in the audience close to me was offended by an actual video form Iraq or Afghanistan where civilians were killed by US soldiers, and stood up for about 5 minutes and issued a finger to the stage (again, i dont understand why someone would be offended when he is attending a concert/performance that is so obviously against war).
The first half of the second set was the highlight...with vera, bring the boys back home and comfortably numb and some very emotional video. I really thought there was a good chance gilmour would show, it being nassau and all, but he was a no show. not sure how he's going to make an enterance as the wall is completely up during comfortably numb (difficult access to the stage). Nevertheless, Kiliminster's solo was absolutely stellar. In addition, GE Smith and Snowy White played extremely well. If he's coming to your town and your even remotely interested in Floyd...go to the show (I brought my wife, who's not a big fan at all, and she was blown away).
Muse once again blows the crowd away with their stellar performance, perfectly blended sound mix, amazing media and special effects, and all-around awesomeness.
NewWaveGurly, Jacksonstat, Hortense and I had the great privilege of seeing the three Brit rockers as headliners, after years of watching them open for bands like RHCP, U2, etc.
The Dramatic Opening...
The stage was set with 3 cube-shaped towers that looked like buildings with windows. One by one, the windows began to light up. As background tones rumbled the speakers and grew in amplification...the "buildings" were suddenly back-lit, and you could see moving silhouettes of people walking up and up and up the staircases within. Then, in a rather dark moment, they began falling off the top and floating in slow motion to the ground.....and that is when the canvas covering of the cube-towers dropped to the ground, revealing 3 elevated stages on which Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, and Christopher Wolstenholme (possibly—he might've been replaced for the show due to wife having baby) played the opening song, "The Uprising."
This is not my image...but it's what it looked like.
The towers eventually began to sink into the stage below, and the members of the band were free to move around (thankfully).
They played just about every song in their library that Muse fans would want to hear....in their usual fury, with Matthew's dramatic operatic vocals and animated ripping guitar work/solos while moving around the stage in his red pants. At one point he paused to do a Hendrix-like rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. He also treated us to a few poignant classical ballads at the piano, his voice so quiet and moving as he sung the eerie lyrics to "Rule By Secrecy": Change in the air and they'll hide everywhere and no one knows who's in control
The words to the song (along with a couple of other songs) appeared on the media screen, along with several other thought-provoking or artistic images (much like U2's Zoo TV tour).
Other enhancements to the music were cool-ass lasers that splattered into lines and squiggles on the far wall/ceiling of the stadium, a guitar with a metal plate that—when reflecting the huge spotlight in front of Bellamy—shone around the crowd like a spotlight, giant balloon eyeballs that were thrown from either side of the balconies down into the crowd, and when they exploded—-rained feathers down, that were inside.
Muse came back for 2 encores, the final one wearing Ohio State football jerseys, complete with their last names on the back. Their last song, energetically appropriate, was "Knight of Cydonia (sp?)" - and we rocked out. Jax? NWG? Did I miss anything? Feel free to chime in...........this show rocked the stadium down and was worth every frickin' penny. If you ever get the chance, go see these lads.
I never saw them live but always got the impression they would be fun to see... especially in a club like that.
