Part deux! So, I already posted (below this post) about the first part of May, mostly the rad fundraisers I got to cover and the morning spent singing happy birthday tunes to the Space Needle -- the rest of the month, besides a killer weekend at Sasquatch!, was wall-to-wall with shows and shoots, including three in-studios at KEXP and a series of "go big or go home" shots for AEG at Key Arena and WaMu Theater.
First up, I spent a night in the Roadhouse shooting Denver and Shelby Earl back-to-back, and then I got to sit in for a killer almost-pitch-black performance with Nightmare Fortress on Audioasis.
Here's Denver -- Greg plays them tons on Wednesdays, and I'm really starting to get a feel for their (generic adjective, I know, but true) rad + rootsy sounds:
More shots of those guys here. Next up, Shelby Earl -- I've gotten to hear her perform and and also chat with a bit in the recent weeks, and I have to say, she's absolutely lovely on both fronts.
More shots of Shelby's in-studio here. And last (but absolutely not least), Alicia Amiri's latest project, Nightmare Fortress. They played an Audioasis in-studio with little more light than the aid of these crazy LED-behaving fluorescent wand things. Tough to shoot, but a blast to experience and witness.
The rest of their shots (just a few, but still) are posted up over here.
And then, the big stuff! I spent a night at Key Arena (at the Black Keys show) and a night at WaMu (for the Bassnectar show) to try and do some huge-ass wide angle shots of everything but the performers -- it was definitely a new experience and gave me a better perspective on shooting whole events, instead of just focusing on the actual performance. I used to do tons and tons of off-stage shots at shows, and recently I've found myself just getting the shots and getting out, or packing up my camera for the rest of the set after I'm done with the stage shots. It's good to enjoy a band, natch -- but it's also good to work within a familiar territory and push myself creatively to see if I can get some different results.
More shots from Key Arena here and WaMu here.
Next up: my favorite shots from this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival up at the Gorge. Stay tuned!