In case you missed your bonus Friday photos of the Sam Roberts Band, ⬅ ⬅ ⬅ please click to see ’em now!
As for this week, Tokyo Police Club, Said The Whale, and The Pack A.D. rocked the ornate heritage building in the Victoria Conservatory of Music known as the Alix Goolden Performance Hall.
I mostly couldn’t wait for this show to see how The Pack A.D. — the loudest pair of people I’ve ever met — would fit in such a typically calm and peaceful space (it was a once church sanctuary, y’know).
They did not disappoint. I swear I saw some plaster crack off the walls.
Canon EOS 70D · Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
95 mm · 1/90 s · f/3.5 · ISO 3200
The Pack A.D. is guitarist Becky Black and drummer Maya Miller, and they make as much noise as bands more than twice their size.
Canon EOS 70D · Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
70 mm · 1/180 s · f/3.5 · ISO 6400
Their performance got the audience to its feet, and a mosh pit in front of a 2′ high stage was born.
Canon EOS 70D · Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
180 mm · 1/250 s · f/3.5 · ISO 6400
Next up was Said The Whale who, as I predicted, brought both the happy and the swoons.
Here, Tyler Bancroft steps over the monitors and right to the edge of the stage, where my position at the front of the crowd suddenly became much squishier owing to the crush of young girls clambouring for him.
Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM
10 mm · 1/160 s · f/3.5 · ISO 3200
Tyler came out a few times during the show. Look at those happy faces.
Canon EOS 70D · Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
95 mm · 1/180 s · f/2.8 · ISO 6400
The light that night was a bit tough, being mostly coloured LEDs (please refer to Figure A: Sarah McLachlan) but, every now and then, some beautiful white light rained down on the performers like a torrent of concert photographers’ dreams coming true.
Canon EOS 70D · Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
70 mm · 1/180 s · f/2.8 · ISO 6400
Tokyo Police Club headlined the night, and I’d forgotten how many of their songs I knew.
Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM
16 mm · 1/200 s · f/3.5 · ISO 3200
Light be darned, I still managed a few cool frames despite the situation (or, perhaps, I just like to envision rock stars as cop cars).
Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM
10 mm · 1/160 s · f/3.5 · ISO 3200
But my crown jewel of the night was the shot below. Much like my shot of Pigeon Park’s lead singer (see the Sam Roberts Band post), I was counting on some white light to make this otherwise unusable shot a thing of beauty.
Rather than random floods of white, however, I saw this one coming. It was just a matter of catching it.
During certain portions this song, most notably some musical breaks during the chorus, strobe lights from five points around the stage would flicker for a beat, only to leave unremarkable coloured spots in their place.
It took a couple of tries, but I was able to sync my camera’s shutter with one of these strobe blasts, and caught the room looking like . . . well, like angels were lighting the sucker up.
Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM
10 mm · 1/250 s · f/3.5 · ISO 3200
=)