Ok I have to apologize for the neglecting of the blog! I've been trying to work on stuff, but I've been fairly busy and on a personal note my Grandma from California is in town and I'm lucky if I see her once every 3 years. So! To my readers I apologize for the neglect. Things will be picking up!
Rachel
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Weird Al Yankovic
I shot the highly entertaining Weird Al a few weeks ago. I got to see a couple songs while I was editing because he went on so early with no opener. So I watched the Nirvana parody and part of the Star Wars set and peeked in when he was climbing over people in the audience in a pimp like red suit. The entire band was dressed in the jedi outfits so that was pretty funny. Too bad he didnt have any really great costumes during the first 3.
Anyway here are a few shots
There ya go!
Anyway here are a few shots
There ya go!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Paisley Party Tour
Well last Saturday I got to shoot this show. And while I'm not huge on Brad I do like him. His songs are amusing and the dude puts on a big show. There aren't too many gimmicks but entertaining videos on the screen and an amazing stage with lights out the wazoo. As a photographer I like that sort of thing because it adds alot of color to the shots you take. Plus in the audience its just visually stimulating.
Dont get me wrong I am all for an artist being amazing just by themselves. But a cool stage is always a nice addition to the talent. But Brad is definitely sick on guitar and a great songwriter and all. Plus he's all about having the audience close and entertaining them. He should be giving Chesney a run for his money on Entertainer of the year.
And I have to say this. The fans down in front were way nice and understanding about letting me in front of them for the first 3 songs to shoot (there was no barricade/photo pit) and this is a major trend I've noticed at country shows. They are exceptionally nice about it in every instance I've encountered at the shows with no barricade. At most shows no matter what genre people are incredibly reasonable if you explain to them you'll only be there for the first three to get your shots then you'll be out of the way. But I definitely have to compliment the country music crowd for being extra nice about it!
So originally for this show everyone had different song limits for shooting but when I got to the venue they had just gone ahead and said first three for everyone. Which was fine by me. The main reason the song limits were so odd was because on the songs you weren't able to shoot the artist tended to be down at the end of the catwalk. So it was understandable. But thanks to them dropping that limit I got this cool shot of Paisley you see here. Which was shot blindly because frankly I'm not that tall so I held my camera up and hoped to get something. So yay!
Anyway here are some shots of Brad Paisley, Jewel, Chuck Wicks, and Julianna Hough!
Brad
Jewel
Chuck
Julianna
I shot Weird Al on wednesday so as soon as I get done editing those I'll have them up! :) Also Kevin Michael and Ice Cube from Kidd Kraddick!
Rachel
Dont get me wrong I am all for an artist being amazing just by themselves. But a cool stage is always a nice addition to the talent. But Brad is definitely sick on guitar and a great songwriter and all. Plus he's all about having the audience close and entertaining them. He should be giving Chesney a run for his money on Entertainer of the year.
And I have to say this. The fans down in front were way nice and understanding about letting me in front of them for the first 3 songs to shoot (there was no barricade/photo pit) and this is a major trend I've noticed at country shows. They are exceptionally nice about it in every instance I've encountered at the shows with no barricade. At most shows no matter what genre people are incredibly reasonable if you explain to them you'll only be there for the first three to get your shots then you'll be out of the way. But I definitely have to compliment the country music crowd for being extra nice about it!
So originally for this show everyone had different song limits for shooting but when I got to the venue they had just gone ahead and said first three for everyone. Which was fine by me. The main reason the song limits were so odd was because on the songs you weren't able to shoot the artist tended to be down at the end of the catwalk. So it was understandable. But thanks to them dropping that limit I got this cool shot of Paisley you see here. Which was shot blindly because frankly I'm not that tall so I held my camera up and hoped to get something. So yay!
Anyway here are some shots of Brad Paisley, Jewel, Chuck Wicks, and Julianna Hough!
Brad
Jewel
Chuck
Julianna
I shot Weird Al on wednesday so as soon as I get done editing those I'll have them up! :) Also Kevin Michael and Ice Cube from Kidd Kraddick!
Rachel
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Gavin Degraw
So last friday evening I spent it at the Gavin Degraw concert. Now yes I had seen Gavin a couple months ago at Taste of Addison, but he is one of my favorite artist so there was no way I wasn't going to go! Plus its Lakewood Theater which isn't a big venue but isn't too small either.
I actually think my legs just recovered from that whole stand around and wait to get in and stand in your spot or lose it thing. General Admission isn't it lovely. We were second row though so we were pretty well off. Definitely worth your legs hurting for a couple of days!
His opener Marie Digby seemed alright. I wasn't too into her, granted I could hear the drunks next to me better than I could hear her. So heck she could have been phenomenal and I wouldn't know because the drunk people were like talking like oh my god where did my shoe go like.. like someone get us more beer.. who is this chick again she sucks... like oh my god I'm way too old to be acting this immature and talking like this. Yes I just made fun of the drunk people again for the second entry in a row. Amazingly they shut up during Gavin! I was shocked quite honestly. And I cant feel that bad about making fun of them because venue security was laughing at their stupidity as well.
Ok so Gavin came out, to a different song than he used to, which surprised me, and his song he started with was Relative which was also surprising to see him come out on guitar and not just go straight to the Piano. As a photographer, if I had been in the photo pit shooting this show, that would have been a nice variety to get to shoot him on guitar for a song and out from behind the piano like he normally is for the first 3 songs. So bonus points Gavin.
He was definitely excited to be playing Dallas, I'm pretty sure it's one of his favorite cities to play, because he was bursting with energy. Not to mention he did say that playing Lakewood reminded him of playing a certain venue in his home town. Also I think that boy has been watching B.B. King or something because he was doing these little hip movements like B.B. would bust out the time I saw him.
The set list was good, he didn't do Meaning again. This made me sad. But he did do Untamed which was highly amusing because he had all these little hand movements to go with it. He explained the song was about how this girl he dated gave him a list of things he needed to fix about himself, sadly it's true that I think just about every guy and girl does this in relationships. But that's a song on the album I really like and I think it would do well on radio actually!
Chemical Party he's started it different, he may have done it this way at Taste of Addison but I dont remember. I totally thought he was going to jump into the audience during the "Proud Mary" portion of it. But nope, then during Young Love he starts to climb off the stage right in front of us, and of course havoc breaks loose. I do want to thank him for not climbing on the guard rail directly in front of us because people pushing against me is not fun. Also thanks to him not doing that I got some pretty cool crowd shots just cause we were at a perfect angle for it!
Before he did Cheated on Me he mentioned that it would be the next single, which makes sense since he just sang it on Leno like the night before. And at some point in the show Gavin was talking about playing El Paso and gave us an endearing rendition of the Marty Robbins song. Not so much, he did sing like two lines from it though.
Here's the whole set list for those wondering!
Relative
Crush
Next to Me
Follow Through
We Belong Together
Untamed
Chemical Party/Proud Mary
Young Love
Cheated on Me
In Love With a Girl
Cop Stop
Belief
Never the Same
Nice to Meet You
I Have You to Thank
I Dont Wanna Be
Encore
Chariot
After the show we went to the meet and greet which was like 200 people so of course it's rushed. I did let him know he always puts on a great show, and he said he loves to play Dallas and he signed my cd. Then I waited on my friend and before we walked off Gavin gave me one of those famous winks when I waved bye, And yeah I'll admit it, I got all giddy inside because of it.
So overall another amazing Gavin show. And when I thought I knew what to expect he surprised me by changing things up. If you've never seen him live. You NEED to. I'm not suggesting you go, I'm telling you to go.
Here are some of the shots I took!
Ok so that's all for now. I'm finally caught up! I never thought that would happen!
Later!
Rachel
I actually think my legs just recovered from that whole stand around and wait to get in and stand in your spot or lose it thing. General Admission isn't it lovely. We were second row though so we were pretty well off. Definitely worth your legs hurting for a couple of days!
His opener Marie Digby seemed alright. I wasn't too into her, granted I could hear the drunks next to me better than I could hear her. So heck she could have been phenomenal and I wouldn't know because the drunk people were like talking like oh my god where did my shoe go like.. like someone get us more beer.. who is this chick again she sucks... like oh my god I'm way too old to be acting this immature and talking like this. Yes I just made fun of the drunk people again for the second entry in a row. Amazingly they shut up during Gavin! I was shocked quite honestly. And I cant feel that bad about making fun of them because venue security was laughing at their stupidity as well.
Ok so Gavin came out, to a different song than he used to, which surprised me, and his song he started with was Relative which was also surprising to see him come out on guitar and not just go straight to the Piano. As a photographer, if I had been in the photo pit shooting this show, that would have been a nice variety to get to shoot him on guitar for a song and out from behind the piano like he normally is for the first 3 songs. So bonus points Gavin.
He was definitely excited to be playing Dallas, I'm pretty sure it's one of his favorite cities to play, because he was bursting with energy. Not to mention he did say that playing Lakewood reminded him of playing a certain venue in his home town. Also I think that boy has been watching B.B. King or something because he was doing these little hip movements like B.B. would bust out the time I saw him.
The set list was good, he didn't do Meaning again. This made me sad. But he did do Untamed which was highly amusing because he had all these little hand movements to go with it. He explained the song was about how this girl he dated gave him a list of things he needed to fix about himself, sadly it's true that I think just about every guy and girl does this in relationships. But that's a song on the album I really like and I think it would do well on radio actually!
Chemical Party he's started it different, he may have done it this way at Taste of Addison but I dont remember. I totally thought he was going to jump into the audience during the "Proud Mary" portion of it. But nope, then during Young Love he starts to climb off the stage right in front of us, and of course havoc breaks loose. I do want to thank him for not climbing on the guard rail directly in front of us because people pushing against me is not fun. Also thanks to him not doing that I got some pretty cool crowd shots just cause we were at a perfect angle for it!
Before he did Cheated on Me he mentioned that it would be the next single, which makes sense since he just sang it on Leno like the night before. And at some point in the show Gavin was talking about playing El Paso and gave us an endearing rendition of the Marty Robbins song. Not so much, he did sing like two lines from it though.
Here's the whole set list for those wondering!
Relative
Crush
Next to Me
Follow Through
We Belong Together
Untamed
Chemical Party/Proud Mary
Young Love
Cheated on Me
In Love With a Girl
Cop Stop
Belief
Never the Same
Nice to Meet You
I Have You to Thank
I Dont Wanna Be
Encore
Chariot
After the show we went to the meet and greet which was like 200 people so of course it's rushed. I did let him know he always puts on a great show, and he said he loves to play Dallas and he signed my cd. Then I waited on my friend and before we walked off Gavin gave me one of those famous winks when I waved bye, And yeah I'll admit it, I got all giddy inside because of it.
So overall another amazing Gavin show. And when I thought I knew what to expect he surprised me by changing things up. If you've never seen him live. You NEED to. I'm not suggesting you go, I'm telling you to go.
Here are some of the shots I took!
Ok so that's all for now. I'm finally caught up! I never thought that would happen!
Later!
Rachel
Friday, August 1, 2008
Graham Colton
So a week ago Graham Colton had a sold out show at the House of Blues Pontiac Garage which once upon a time was The Cambridge Room. Oh corporate sponsorship screwing the names of venues up!
His openers I didn't really see all of the first guy Patrick Ryan Clark. I actually got there after he had gone on, but I asked a very nice guy and his girlfriend who had some space infront of them if I could crouch infront of them for the show and they were more than happy to oblige especially since I was going to be crouching. Plus later on I became a buffer between them and the really really really REALLY drunk girls. The second opener Nelo wasn't bad, I kinda got a Will Hoge vibe from them, and there was a descent crowd just for them. They all seemed to stay for Graham though so that was good.
When Graham came out that boy was so excited the house was packed with fans, friends, and of course some of his family. He definitely had about 5x's the energy he had when I saw him do his acoustic show out in Plano. So that was good, I'd actually like to see him on an even bigger stage and see how he would work that on a number like Cigarette where he set his guitar down and let the band handle it. Speaking of the band they sounded good, definitely cool to see a full band show with the new band after seeing an acoustic show.
Speaking of acoustic, he did a 3 song acoustic portion during the set and brought his dad up on stage to play with him, which was cool. Now would be a great time to bring up the super drunk girls. They were so drunk by this point in the set one of them almost took out one of the sound wedges. Like almost pushed it over right on top of the guitar pedals and what not. And this always makes me question, why do you go to a show and get that wasted. I understand having a couple drinks, but so drunk you cant stand let alone remember the show, I will never understand that. And I of course seeing as how I was crouched was the first person they would grab on to before they would almost fall, and then, they would pet me.. as if I was a dog or something. DONT PET ME! If you're gonna fall fine grab my shoulder.. but dont pet me! My gosh!! One of the really drunk girls did do this really funny count off thing Graham used to do during Cigarette though and he couldn't help but laugh at it even. So I have to say there was a tad bit of amusement.
I have to say, he is 0 for 2 on the songs I wanted to hear most list. Those songs if you're wondering the oh so depressing "New Years Resolution" and then also kind of depressing but an upbeat depressing "Whatever Breaks my Heart." If you're reading this Graham.. play these two the next time I come to a show and shoot you in Dallas! (I like to pretend sometimes the artist actually see these things.....)
Anyway for those who are wondering I snatched the set list and it went like this!
Telescope
First Week
You Find a Way
On Your Side
Forget About You
If Love Was Enough
Don't Give Up On Me
On and On
Last Few Days
Helen
Cigarette
Let It Go
Always In Love
Cellophane Girl
The Best Days (aka Me Gusta Day according to the set list)
He just booked several dates, if he's coming to your area I do suggest going to see him if you like the singer songwriter genre!
So after the show I went by and said hi to Kathy.. shout out to Kathy with a K! Only she will get that, and who knows if she will read this? Maybe? Who knows! Then I went by and said hey to Graham, and I keep forgetting to ask him for a dang guitar pic cause I collect them and throw them in my scrap book with my photos and tickets and photo passes and all that good stuff. It's amazing how nice he is and how many time's he thanks me for coming out and taking pictures. No dude, thank you for not having a 3 song limit! I hate those things. That's all I'm sayin! When he gets big and famous I'm sure he'll have one though. Graham definitely gets better further into the show too! He starts off strong anyway, but with most artist the end is always more energetic.
Photographically, the House of Blues is always unpredictable. It's like night and day sometimes. But the Pontiac Garage/Cambridge Room seems to be pretty consistent lighting. Which makes it a little easier when the back light is even to the front. It's not great lighting but its even. The big room has this amazing lighting system but blows out the backs and dims the fronts which is just moronic to me that they cant light the artist right. It's moronic to me. But the person in the Pontiac Garage/ Cambridge Room has it down alright. They did go a little heavy on the magenta's though. Overall it was an Ok shoot. I cant wait for the day I get to shoot Graham in great light. That'll be amazing!
But here are some shots!
Ok I still have a Gavin Degraw review to go so look forward to that! I'll try to get it done later today!
Rachel
His openers I didn't really see all of the first guy Patrick Ryan Clark. I actually got there after he had gone on, but I asked a very nice guy and his girlfriend who had some space infront of them if I could crouch infront of them for the show and they were more than happy to oblige especially since I was going to be crouching. Plus later on I became a buffer between them and the really really really REALLY drunk girls. The second opener Nelo wasn't bad, I kinda got a Will Hoge vibe from them, and there was a descent crowd just for them. They all seemed to stay for Graham though so that was good.
When Graham came out that boy was so excited the house was packed with fans, friends, and of course some of his family. He definitely had about 5x's the energy he had when I saw him do his acoustic show out in Plano. So that was good, I'd actually like to see him on an even bigger stage and see how he would work that on a number like Cigarette where he set his guitar down and let the band handle it. Speaking of the band they sounded good, definitely cool to see a full band show with the new band after seeing an acoustic show.
Speaking of acoustic, he did a 3 song acoustic portion during the set and brought his dad up on stage to play with him, which was cool. Now would be a great time to bring up the super drunk girls. They were so drunk by this point in the set one of them almost took out one of the sound wedges. Like almost pushed it over right on top of the guitar pedals and what not. And this always makes me question, why do you go to a show and get that wasted. I understand having a couple drinks, but so drunk you cant stand let alone remember the show, I will never understand that. And I of course seeing as how I was crouched was the first person they would grab on to before they would almost fall, and then, they would pet me.. as if I was a dog or something. DONT PET ME! If you're gonna fall fine grab my shoulder.. but dont pet me! My gosh!! One of the really drunk girls did do this really funny count off thing Graham used to do during Cigarette though and he couldn't help but laugh at it even. So I have to say there was a tad bit of amusement.
I have to say, he is 0 for 2 on the songs I wanted to hear most list. Those songs if you're wondering the oh so depressing "New Years Resolution" and then also kind of depressing but an upbeat depressing "Whatever Breaks my Heart." If you're reading this Graham.. play these two the next time I come to a show and shoot you in Dallas! (I like to pretend sometimes the artist actually see these things.....)
Anyway for those who are wondering I snatched the set list and it went like this!
Telescope
First Week
You Find a Way
On Your Side
Forget About You
If Love Was Enough
Don't Give Up On Me
On and On
Last Few Days
Helen
Cigarette
Let It Go
Always In Love
Cellophane Girl
The Best Days (aka Me Gusta Day according to the set list)
He just booked several dates, if he's coming to your area I do suggest going to see him if you like the singer songwriter genre!
So after the show I went by and said hi to Kathy.. shout out to Kathy with a K! Only she will get that, and who knows if she will read this? Maybe? Who knows! Then I went by and said hey to Graham, and I keep forgetting to ask him for a dang guitar pic cause I collect them and throw them in my scrap book with my photos and tickets and photo passes and all that good stuff. It's amazing how nice he is and how many time's he thanks me for coming out and taking pictures. No dude, thank you for not having a 3 song limit! I hate those things. That's all I'm sayin! When he gets big and famous I'm sure he'll have one though. Graham definitely gets better further into the show too! He starts off strong anyway, but with most artist the end is always more energetic.
Photographically, the House of Blues is always unpredictable. It's like night and day sometimes. But the Pontiac Garage/Cambridge Room seems to be pretty consistent lighting. Which makes it a little easier when the back light is even to the front. It's not great lighting but its even. The big room has this amazing lighting system but blows out the backs and dims the fronts which is just moronic to me that they cant light the artist right. It's moronic to me. But the person in the Pontiac Garage/ Cambridge Room has it down alright. They did go a little heavy on the magenta's though. Overall it was an Ok shoot. I cant wait for the day I get to shoot Graham in great light. That'll be amazing!
But here are some shots!
Ok I still have a Gavin Degraw review to go so look forward to that! I'll try to get it done later today!
Rachel
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