I'd eventually get tired of the Black Angels

November 7, 2007 6:09 PM

The proprietor of bantha fodder goes to quite a few concerts. And likes to take photos.

A number of bands repeat, and sometimes the photo quality is a little iffy, but there's quite a few shows in there, dating back to 1995. The navigation within the photo sets works quite well too. The site is pretty much San Francisco-based, but there are occasional ventures outside the Bay Area, like to the Casbah in San Diego.

posted by LionIndex (23 comments total)

Iffy indeed. Poorly lit rock show are hard to photograph, but it's like this guys wasn't even trying. But I suppose some people like this stuff anyway.

And for those people, my friend Stefan also goes to quite a few concerts and takes pictures. He's got lots from Japan and the East Coast. I also like to take pictures when I go to live shows.
posted by mexican at 7:07 PM on November 7, 2007

Some great bands, but some horrible to mediocre photos.
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:16 PM on November 7, 2007

Yeah, good bands, poopy photos. I also like to shoot at live gigs.
posted by dobbs at 7:42 PM on November 7, 2007

LionIndex, have you ever seen The Black Angels? They put on a phenomenal live show.
posted by dobbs at 7:47 PM on November 7, 2007

Real shame to photographically document all those shows and do a piss-poor job of it.
posted by puke & cry at 7:57 PM on November 7, 2007

so i'm old enough to remember that they used to take cameras away from people at most shows.

with the advent of cellphone cameras and digital cameras, it seems like its impossible for most venues to enforce this, though most tickets still say "no cameras." whenever i whip out my camera i'm pretty self-conscious and worry that its going to be confiscated.


i thought this was just misplaced paranoia until i saw Air at Bimbo's in SF a while back. there were a couple of people taking pictures and one person shooting video, apparently. the bouncers kept coming around and telling people to stop taking pictures, and in the end i think they kicked out the girl with the video camera.

so for those of you that shoot live shows, how does it go? i'd really like to take my 20D with a real lens rather than my P&S that fits in my wallet, but it just seems to me like that's too conspicuous and i'd probably get bounced.
posted by joeblough at 8:25 PM on November 7, 2007

oh yeah - and i saw the black angels open for black rebel motorcycle club sometime back and they were awesome. unfortunately i missed about half of it.
posted by joeblough at 8:26 PM on November 7, 2007

so for those of you that shoot live shows, how does it go?

The places I go encourage photography and none of the tickets say anything about no cameras.
posted by dobbs at 8:36 PM on November 7, 2007

Next up: audio recordings of paintings.
posted by pompomtom at 8:41 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

yeah i noticed at slims that they explicitly say that the artist's taping/cameras policy is their own, but places like the warfield and fillmore still pretty much always say "no cameras"
posted by joeblough at 8:53 PM on November 7, 2007

jb: is there a local music rag or up and coming music blog you could offer services to? It's how I get my camera in.
posted by heeeraldo at 9:28 PM on November 7, 2007

The guy certainly goes to a lot of shows but it doesn't look like he's learned anything about photography at the them. These are terrible, terrible photographs.
posted by oh pollo! at 1:16 AM on November 8, 2007

I'd have thought that studying a photographic subject for 11 years would make one a bit more consistently good...

So, er, anyone fancy linking to my band photography as an FPP?

I kid. I'll chuck this in to the fray as one of my favourites though.
posted by algreer at 4:04 AM on November 8, 2007

LionIndex, have you ever seen The Black Angels? They put on a phenomenal live show.

Yeah, I was actually at the Casbah show that I linked to in the [more inside], and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But this guy's seen 'em like, 20 times.

so for those of you that shoot live shows, how does it go?

I don't take a camera usually, but like dobbs, the places I go most don't care a bit. There's always a bunch of people taking photos at the Casbah, and I think they don't have a problem with cameras at the Belly Up Tavern (another San Diego venue) either. Neither of those places gives you a rubdown prior to entry or anything like the larger venues (House of Blues, etc.) will.

I think the guy that runs the linked page isn't really so concerned with the quality of the photos as much as with just documenting the shows he goes to. My only other FPP was another concert photo site that's still active, and has better photos in general, and his site is a bit more professional looking although oddly undersized.
posted by LionIndex at 7:19 AM on November 8, 2007

These days, most places I go to only care about flash photography. But I don't know why you'd use a flash in those settings anyway... All the cool pictures seem to be taken without them.
posted by sparkletone at 8:13 AM on November 8, 2007

But I don't know why you'd use a flash in those settings anyway... All the cool pictures seem to be taken without them.

Which pictures? You must not be talking about the the dark, streaked, blurry blobs-o-color in the initial link. Those are only "cool" in how they capably illustrate why you shouldn't take pictures in a dark club from the center of a mosh-pit with a plastic lens and no flash after drinking seven consecutive shots of espresso followed promptly with seven shots of off-brand Tequila.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:54 AM on November 8, 2007

These days, most places I go to only care about flash photography. But I don't know why you'd use a flash in those settings anyway... All the cool pictures seem to be taken without them.
posted by sparkletone 2 ¾ hours ago [+]

This really depends upon what you consider "cool". I use flash often, even in well lit venues. Its not going to appeal to everyone but these are couple examples of how (in my opinion) flash can be used to get cool images... Ignite at Irving Plaza. The Bomb at Knitting Factory Scary Kids, Scaring Kids.
posted by blaneyphoto at 11:15 AM on November 8, 2007

Which pictures? You must not be talking about the the dark, streaked, blurry blobs-o-color in the initial link.

I do not mean those. Not at all.

I mean something more like any of these.

I realize it's subjective, and that surely people can get some good results (I like the ones you linked). But as a default thing... Flash photography at a show is more distracting to the performers, the people around you. In addition, you tend to just end up with washed out images of the backs of peoples heads and the band off in the distance ... still in the dark.

This is all in my completely non-pro opinion.
posted by sparkletone at 11:43 AM on November 8, 2007

Flash photography at a show is more distracting to the performers, the people around you.

To the performers? The people running around and singing and playing instruments with hundreds or thousands of people yelling at them under blazing-hot spotlights? You really think a performer will notice or care about a short, barely-visible burst of light?

But yeah, it'll be annoying as hell for the people around you.

I think the OP photographer could seriously benefit from a rangefinder instead of an SLR, though.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:47 PM on November 8, 2007

To the performers? The people running around and singing and playing instruments with hundreds or thousands of people yelling at them under blazing-hot spotlights? You really think a performer will notice or care about a short, barely-visible burst of light?

Not if it's just one, but when hundreds+ people all snap a picture with a flash on at the beginning of every goddam song?

Yes, it's not as annoying as it is to the people around you, not by a long shot. And I'm sure the ones that have to deal with that adjust to it too. But still.
posted by sparkletone at 4:53 PM on November 8, 2007

yeah, i almost never use my flash at a show. this makes for some difficult pictures and a lot of post-processing due to high iso. it always seemed to me that it was probably rude to the performers.
posted by joeblough at 7:38 AM on November 9, 2007

Yeah, most people don't have any reason to use a flash, anyway--most built-in flashes have such ludicrously low guide-numbers that--combined with nose-bleed seats--means your flash is properly illuminating the five rows of audience in front of you, while the "main attraction" turns out completely dark.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:08 AM on November 9, 2007

true, although if i can be, i'm usually down in the front somewhere.
posted by joeblough at 1:58 PM on November 9, 2007