March 27, 2009 – Watching Justin Tranter on stage is like witnessing the miracle of birth (only it’s about 1000 x better since babies don’t burst onto the scene in diamonds, couture or four-inch spike heels). Ladies and gentlemen, glam boys and hard rock girls, I give you Justin Tranter, Cole Whittle, Dan Crean, and Stevy Pyne – Semi Precious Weapons.

Photographer’s Notes

Whether they’re playing the next stop on the fire marshal’s hazard list or beneath the gorgeous colors of the Blender Theater lighting rig, Semi Precious Weapons are a glam rock wet dream. As a photographer, they are one of the bands that keeps me up way past my bedtime and loving ever second behind the lens.

I first shot Semi Precious Weapons in 2007 after a friend dragged me to their set in a sweltering basement hole in the East Village. What ensued can only be described as a rum-fueled orgy of spin kicks, indecent exposure and some of the best rock’n'roll I’ve ever seen. (Little did I know that the Village Voice had just proclaimed them New York’s best rock band.) They lived up to the hype then and they’ve only gotten better in 2009.

I shot this set from the front row, just house right of center – a position that gave me decent lines of sight for all four of the band members. With my brother Todd dead center stage, I knew we’d have the entire thing locked down. If you don’t check out Todd’s stellar set of pix, there’s something horribly wrong with you.

End Notes:
Huge ups to Justin, Cole, Dan, and Stevy for being amazing and patient subjects. Equal props go out to Shaun for taking god care of us and coordinating everything.

Stayed tuned for the promo shots Todd and I did before the show. If you liked what we threw together for The Energy, you’ll love what we pulled out for SPW.

Lastly, I think you all should know that Justin Tranter shoots Nikon.

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I attended the New York premiere of what will likely be the rock’n'roll movie of the decade, Anvil: The Story of Anvil. For those of you who have been living under a rock, the documentary by Sacha Grevasi follows the the legendary Canadian metal band from their emergence during the height of the 80s metal crazy to the current struggles of original band members Steve “Lips” Kudlow (guitar, vocals) and Robb Reiner (drums) now fifty-something and still reaching for the dream of rock stardom.

The film is completely absurd as well as funny but is most lauded for its touching portrayal of the dysfunctional (and thirty-year-strong) man love that exists between the Lips and Robb.

After the red carpet arrivals and screening, I was treated to a short performance by the band who are now the three-piece, Steve “Lips” Kuldow, Robb Reiner and Glenn Five who joined in 1996.

I don’t think I’m being unduly influenced by how much I liked the film when I say that the Anvil concert was some of the most fun I’ve had shooting recently. As you’ll see by the expressions on their faces, I think the NYC premier was some of the most fun the band has had in a while as well.

This concludes the “normal set” of images where I try to show the band at its performing best. The following few shots are simply to show how much fun Lips Kudlow and Robb Reiner were having.

This last shot is to show you how much fun I was having. (Yes, those are my fingers.)

Photographer’s Notes

Even though I spent most of my time at this assignment shooting the arrivals which admittedly, I don’t mind, there is always a part of me that finds the entire idea of the red carpet mildly disgusting. I realize that a necessary part of celebrity is being seen and being photographed but that takes the form of a bunch horde of photographers yelling and screaming and blasting away at 10 FPS is sort of depressing. What is actually depressing is that I yell and scream and blast away with the best of them. I participate in it. Luckily, the red carpet wasn’t the real reason I was there.

After watching the movie screening from the back of the house I moved up to the stage. The biggest challenge for this assignment was getting a good shot of drummer Robb Reiner who remained buried in a massive black drum kit at the back. Knowing that this would be a problem, I choose a position directly in front of him and patiently waited.

A couple of songs into the set, Robb gave a blistering drum solo that lasted several minutes. I quickly switched to a longer lens and prayed that he would stand up and give me a chance to get my “hero shot.”

At the end of the solo, the lights flared to white, the crowd roared, he basked in the glory, and I got my shot. It doesn’t get any better than that.

I divided the rest of the short concert between shots of Lips and G5 as they took turns coming to the front of the stage. With plenty of metal moments to go around, I changed between the Nikon 14-24mm and the Nikon 24-70mm every few minutes.

When required, I augmented the gorgeous Gramercy lighting rig with TTL fill from a single SB900 mounted on-camera. My exposure was set around ISO 2000-3200 and f/2.8 to f/4 at 1/200 sec.

End Notes

I want to give a huge thank you and my best wishes to Robb, Lips and G5. You guys rock! (Give me a call if you need a photographer for the world tour =-).

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March 27, 2009 – For Immediate Release – “LA’s, The Ruse, rock Blender Theater, make people smile and are terribly nice guys.” Fronted by John “Mr. Nice Guy” Dauer, The Ruse gave a dynamic performance worthy of the epic rock stylings of their new release Midnight In The City.

Photographer’s Notes

I met members of The Ruse a few hours before their set just as the band arrived for load-in. Mark Stolze (bass) and John Dauer (vocals) immediately struck me as too nice to rock hard if such an assumption exists. Guess what? I was wrong. Dead wrong. in fact, The Ruse are performing proof that nice guys can bring the rock to the hole.

I shot this set from the crowd at my favorite venue in the city, the Blender Theater. While the amazing lighting design at Blender is usually more than enough to produce beautiful images, I augmented the house lights with a set of three off-camera SB-600 speedlights triggered wirelessly by an on-camera SB-900 in commander mode. Both flash power and camera exposure were set manually and adjusted as needed.

I shot extensively with the 24-70mm on the Nikon D3. The 70-200mm saw sporadic use for downstage shots of Jim Bilus (guitar). Despite my stage left position, drummer Jason Young was largely obscured by either his cymbals or John’s off-center singing position.

End Notes

A big shout out goes to John, Mark and the rest of The Ruse. As the photos show, you guys played a killer set.

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