Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

This was a show I attended. I wasn't there for work.

So I'm just going to copy and paste the review I wrote for a message board and paste it here. It's kinda lengthy. Pictures will be after it.

This is my favorite venue in the area, great size, amazing acoustics. And it almost feels like home when I'm there because I shoot for the paper so I'm there alot to cover concerts. It's pretty sad when all the security knows you by name. After Jon McLaughlin i got rushed by a bunch of friends and fellow expressers/kelly fans. That was fairly amusing. I had a friend there who doesnt do the whole board thing and I went over to talk to her and people kept saying hi to me and she was like "What the heck!" Like I knew her whole row she was sitting in. You had My friend Marisa and her friend (i cant spell her name) Jeremy, OkMom, and OULisa. So that was fairly amusing.

So as some folks know I had front row seat that I happened to get my hands on that day. And that was amazing. Because they let everyone in the first few rows move up right against the stage. And I had a great spot. Kelly kept coming and standing right there during the show. The downside... The blinding light behind her head. But seriously if I was up for trying to be a prankster I could have A. tickled kellys feet. or B. Pantsed her. But I dont pants people and feet freak me out. (random fact you could probably live without.) People pressed in kinda close but when I started Jumping around during One Minute oh they backed up a little bit. I think I was the designated jumping cue for my section. They were kinda followers.

I know Mellerzzz said that its weird when you're front row and you have a camera up to your face the whole time. And I'm a camera whore but it does get kinda odd when you're right there. It's one thing when I'm in your grill for 3 songs. This is like in your grill for the whole show. Yes I do realize my review is all over the place. That's what I do. So I was surprised at how well she sounded. I was expecting her voice to be seriously rough after yesterday. Apparently she got a good swallowing of smoke during that performance because she was too close to the Pyro. She was afraid of falling down because Jill apparently took a heck of a fall last night. Not just a little fall. Jill probably has a bruise like my Hannah Montana battle wound. For that story scroll down. Back to the show. I think I noticed how great she was sounding during Up to the Mountain. Because I could actually hear because its not a big rocked out song. Also I muchly enjoyed the funny dancing during Miss Independent behind the curtain. Chivas was hilarious. No one brought any. Or if they did they didnt get it in. But the faces. I probably got some of the best pictures of the entire show during Chivas. Now I know I'm taking a jump back in the set list (was I really keeping to it honestly? no..) but hop skip back to How I Feel. Awesome moment when she was standing right infront of me blocking the blinding light. And she leans over hinda hovering looking up and then she looks down at me and I'm singing along and she gets wide eyed like the "OH heck yeah youre singing along" kind and like stares me dead in the eye and she's singing and i'm singing along with her and that was freakin cool since its like one of my favorite songs on the My December album and that connection was just cool. image

The band was funny cause they will rock out with anyone that will watch them and sing along at them. I did notice it seemed like Aben was taunting Jill and Kate by singing their part of one of the songs at them. But that has to be the best show I've been to of hers. They all seriously hold a good place. I have favorite cities from each tour. But frankly I dont think even with all the bells and whistles that Nashville can top this.

But anyway! You thought I was done I bet. No not done.

So I go over and steal my friends 7 year old Macentire to take her into the meet and greet with me. And we moseyed on over. Said hi to Psycho Shannon from Kidd Kraddick (for those who dont know because they dont listen to Kidd's show Shannons got a huge crush on Kelly, also to those who dont know, I shoot for their studio sometimes so I wasnt just harassing major radio personalities.) So then went up and plopped down and waited. I chatted with a couple of the fanclubbers while Mac talked to me about the monkey bars. Brian went over the rules. Got to fanclub and he was like "Fanclub has a camera they take your picture with" and then he points at me and goes "I know you know this already" and EVERYONE in the room turns and looks at me. I'm like oh thanks Brian. (I would like to point out I haven't had a meet and greet ever! he does know me though because I encountered him on his first day of the job way back in 2005 in Lubbock. Oh that was fun. Goodtimes.) So of course he points me out and makes everyone stare. But hey I guess I kinda like the attention so that's ok. So he hands out the signed photos. And I laugh because there's a starstruck sticker over the part of it that would say "the firm." I had someone come visit me while I was waiting in the meet and greet room. But it was funny it just drew even more attention to myself.

Well eventually they get to the fanclub and I was somewhere in the middle. Darnit I wanted to go last but that's ok. Didnt matter because I didnt take to much time and not once did Tim rush me. So I say this is Macentire. And mac goes over then I go over there and she hugs me and says "It's good to see you again!" And I say "I know I've met you a billion times and you never remember my name, but it's Rachel" But inside I was saying hey thank god she's realized she's met me before. It was honestly getting kinda sad. Cause I'm not sure that it ever clicked in Kelly's head and I mean that's cool because she meets tons of people. But she nodded and was like "Rachel" (hey maybe she will remember. I'm not holding my breath though.)
So I put together a photo album with some pictures I've taken. Some of her and some of other stuff. Well I hand it to her and she starts flipping thru the pictures of her and I say "Oh it's not all of you." And her response is "Oh so its not completely vain then!!" and I'm like "no because I know you dont like pictures of yourself." And she was like "No I dont!" So she's still looking through it and she gets to this picture of a dragonfly.

And she says "Who did this?" and I'm like "I took it.." and her response was "Seriously"(insert look of shock and amazement) and I'm all "Yeah seriously" and I go to say "I just started shooting for the paper this year actually." she was like "This looks Amazing, these are my moms favorites she loves Dragonflies" Then I say "Well at least your mom will like it." So then she proceeds to tell me my photos are Awesome. And one of the Security guys there I know chimes in with "They should be since she does it for a living" And I was like "thanks man!" So I wrapped it up gave her a CD with some lesser known and a couple better known artist on it that Kelly will probably dig. Mac took a picture with her. Then I took a picture with her and she hugged me again and said "Thanks for the Art." (Oh yeah that's right my photos are considered art! heck yeah that's a first!) And I said "No problem" and we moseyed on out.

Here are some photos. There are A TON at the flickr. Because frankly I couldnt narrow it down.



There we are. I still am over due smashing pumpkins. But obviously Kelly was higher on my priority list. Eh what can I say. :)

Later yall
Rachel

The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

Backdated entry! Okay trying to keep things in somewhat of an order. I went ahead and backdated this. Boohoo it's not up top. I got to shoot the pumpkins on the 18th of November. The lighting was okay. There was alot of backlight and NO spotlights. A lot of the lighting on Billy and the rest of the band was yellows. So his blue outfit actually looks green. A cool little fact is they allowed people to video tape the show. Like with camcorders.

Anyway on to some pics!


There ya go sorry about the delay!
Rachel

Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana

Miley Cyrus
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

So I shot Miley last week. And it was a little annoying they made me sit thru the Jonas Brothers who arent that bad. Atleast they are high energy. But then I had to sit thru the Hannah set. And I'm not an avid Hannah Montana fan. I have seen the show. I get that its disney and it's great for younger kids. It's a show parents can let their kids watch. But this was just madness. Some parents paid thousands for tickets. That is insanity.

WARNING SEMI OFF TOPIC RANT:
Of course they put the photographers at the soundboard. Which is a real jerk thing to do. Publicist obviously need to walk a day in my shoes. Cause they just dont get it. There was a recent article in the New York Times about how photographers are getting less time to shoot. And frankly it's getting to a point of ridiculous. Artist that allow 30 seconds. You've got to be kidding. It isnt even worth shooting. Your publicist is screwing us. I think that the media should start screwing the artist back in return. Heck at this rate, the photographers should send in pictures for them to run with the musicians making messed up faces, when they only give us 30 seconds.

Generally it tends to be first 3 songs. And that its a descent amount of time. What sucks about that is the artist gets more into it towards the end of the show. That's when you'd get some of the best pictures. But seeing as how I'm shooting mostly overnights for a daily editorial 3 songs is all I really have time for. But 2nd day reviews it would be cool to get to shoot more than 3 songs.

But to publicists that think you can get off a good shot in 30 seconds. Here I will lend you my camera. You go try and get something good and usable not just usable and then come back and tell me 30 seconds is enough. Or even better 30 seconds from the soundboard! It doesnt happen. I get your trying to protect your clients image. We can not help if you represent someone that is notorious for falling down stairs. Or is overly worried about how they look for no reason!

And to the artist that screw us by using crappy light or no light. Then crank it up after the 3rd songs. Well I guess you just want to look like crap in the paper now dont you.

YAY BACK ON TOPIC!:
Anyway Miley gave us 2 songs. Fair enough. But screwed us by putting us at the soundboard. I would have sacraficed the 2nd song to be able to shoot up close.
Well needless to say the parents that spent outrageous amounts let the kids stand on their chairs. And this meant I had to stand on a chair to shoot over them. Well right before the Miley set I got up on the chair to figure out a good vantage point. And yep. You guessed it. Stepped off wrong. The chair folded up with my leg in it. And I fell forward. The nice sound guy (from Firehouse I believe was the name of the company) tried to catch me. He really just softened the blow. And I rolled over in defeat (yes the 8 year olds defeated me) and laughed it off. So I shot my 2 songs after that. And here's the best of the bunch.



I have some smashing pumpkins pics coming soon. But tomorrow is the Kelly Clarkson concert. Obviously I will be distracted very much so.

Happy Thanksgiving
Rachel

Daughtry

Daughtry
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

Got to shoot Daughtry friday at the Tx Stampede Rodeo. Let me firstly say. Being in a pen that separates me from the fans great. Smell of horse pee. Bad. Very Very bad.

But I like Daughtry. I got to shoot the first 3 songs. They were Crashed, What I Want, and Used To. I liked what I saw. Our reviewer didnt. But then again I'm kinda biased and have seen them before. But after shooting for the first 3 songs. Then I had to go to the media room and edit them and turn them in. After I got done I got to see Home and part of There and Back Again because I figured I'd try and beat the rush out and I still had to make it upstairs. So!





There are the pictures. I got assigned Hannah Montana for tonight. Every 7 year olds dream. We will see how that goes.

Later
Rachel

Maroon 5

Maroon 5
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

Alright my beautiful patient peoples!

Maroon 5 as promised.

Sorry it's so heavy on the Adam Levine. We couldn't move around much. But really I'm not that sorry I took that many of Adam for the obvious reasons. Hey he's the front man... oh these excuses are horrible.

Not to say I didnt try and get some shots of the other guys. I just didnt like how they turned out. I wish I had gotten a better shot of Jesse the keyboardist.

Okay on to pictures.





Ok there you go. There's a few more over at the flickr. Check em out.

Rachel

Fall Out Boy: The Young Wild Things Tour

Fall Out Boy
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

So Fall Out Boy was last wednesday at Nokia. That's my favorite Venue in the dfw area for those that do not know. The only thing I wish is that the stage was just a tad bit higher. Not smirnoff high but higher.

Fall Out Boy's stage was alot less showy than the honda civic tour stage. Which was cool. Because this venue doesnt need all that glitzy crap. They still had flames and even these conveyor belts. That was a trip cause I was like why is pete moving out of my viewfinder without moving. Weird moment.


Here are some pics of their set.



Gym Class Heroes. I am pretty sure Travis from Gym Class is a little crazy. Just look at the pictures. He's a real nice guy though so any crazyness is acceptable.



Plain White T's. I actually enjoyed them. I was not sure what to expect from them because the only single being played really is Hey There Delilah. But you can not judge a book by one song. Or something like that.


Cute Is What We Aim For. Yeah.. They had one song that was alright. The Bass Player was jumping around like he was Pete Wentz or something. And the Singer had the "I'm so emo hair" I dont know I just wasnt digging them.



So I know I took forever to get all these done. BUT in my defense I am shooting other stuff during the week and waiting tables. Plus I had to edit the 3 opening bands!

Maroon 5 coming next! Be very excited

Rachel