If you were to ask me what my absolute favourite gig photo is, it’s not a massive concert, nor is it amazing lighting. It’s a rather iconic image of Fugazi performing a set in a gym in 1988, where vocalist Guy Picciotto is dangling through a basketball hoop over drummer Brendan Canty. The image isn’t perfectly exposed and it’s slightly wonky, but man does it catch that spontaneous energy. It’s the same reason why Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is my favourite of their albums (and currently playing in the background while I type this) because sometimes polish isn’t as important as the energy of the performance.
You see, I have a problem a lot of photographers have which is being a perfectionist and at a gig I find it pretty hard to cut loose. I spend a long time worrying about framing to get the best shot which is great for portraits and the like, but in a gig setting who’s to say that while I’m doing that I’m missing out on something crazy, like Cerebral Ballzy climbing the lighting rigs for example.
There is a way to shoot around that though, which is to shoot like what I would call an “Old School Journalist style” where you use flash and set your aperture and focus for using hyperfocals. So recently at a Box Monster gig I shot in f11 and set the hyperfocal from one metre, meaning I didn’t have to worry about spending time to focus and can act spontaneously, as long as I’m at least a specific distance away from the subject I can just point and shoot.
Combine this with off-camera flash and you can get some interesting results. It also happens to be great for venues which don’t have proper stages, allowing for more band/audience interaction and/or venues that don’t have really bright lights.
With that said there was a time previously that I cut loose at gig photography, using an off camera flash and running around to get a bit more up close and personal back in 2012 when a local promoter called Deadicate were putting on gigs in the Slug and Lettuce.
There were some pretty wild bands that played, I’ve picked out a few favourite shots that I’d say aren’t perfect, but still catch the energy of the night. I’m sure the old guard will remember Seethe who were one of the mainstay metal bands in the local area at that time, and Things We Lost who headlined one of the Deadicate shows with a pretty awesome vocalist. Faults were also a pretty frantic band that knew how to own the stage, pretty sure I have some shots from other gigs of them letting loose. There are also some still some shots from a band that I’m still not quite sure I can put up, let’s just say they had the word Abortions in their name and that they really went for it in their set. Maybe a blog post for another date though.
Right now as far as current promoters are concerned, I’m feeling that Box Monster offer a similar niche, going for predominantly unsigned acts and offering a grassroots approach to gigs, keep an eye on Instagram as there should be some shots from their most recent night up shortly.