Hi all! I have decide to be spontaneous for a change...So you have been warned… If you wish read on.
So here I am reporting what is like to be 100% both inside a concert (from the photographer’s perspective) AND living 100% of it.
The place the time and the who is who of the story…
Thursday the 27th, and a local band has asked me to photograph their concert in a bar in this god-forsaken city, somewhere in northern Greece. (Away from all the tourist leaflet beaches you have seen)
The band started as a high-school one but managed to move on to their first EP and some more songs for that matter. They Most are college students at the moment, and they call themselves “Ffree your Mmind”. Apart of their own, they play covers of contemporary hard rock hits (FM rock ones0 and they surprised us occasionally with
rendition of old great ones, like that Dylan’s “knocking on heaven door” they prefer for ending their gigs.
I have photographed them before and I was asked to photo shoot one if this seasons concerts again. You see they only meet at holidays and summer. But this season they are on speed since most of them are students now. But in they wil also two days they will be opening for a major Greek rock band in two days, You see it is all cramped in a week.
Thursday the 27th around 22:00. I grab my small camera bag with basic camera and 3 rolls of B&W film only…stupid!
I am heading to the club were they will be performing but people is scarce so I move to where my own friends are, to grab a “warm-up” beer. Half an hour latter I return only to meet a friend from my good old radio days and the band bassist chatting at the
entrance.” I won’t speak to anyone” the bassist says “I feel I am alright” he says, and bells ARE starting to ring.
People is building up inside and it I mostly chicks (sorry PF ladies) in their teens and some more boys in their rocking mood (you parents know the kind).
The night is definitely “pregnant”, have you ever heard the phrase?
It takes some more for the band to warm up and the crowd to reach economically viable proportions and it is now past 2300 hour. The band gets on stage and I KNOW it is photo-shoot time already, an exemption to the rule that demands a few songs to warm up the band and help the photographer built up the nerve, calculate light etc etc.
There IS some kind of plan I have drawn up. I must get good shots of the drummer that is another relation from my radio days and is nagging that he
had no shots of him from my that older concert shoot. But it is rock! Right from the start the bassist is giving me poses! Clack clack clack clack, 4 consecutive frames in a row and 4 different poses from that guy. Did I tell you the music is contemporary FM Rock? I shoot marvelous moments…there I let
is not a single pose & frame to missed”drop down”. I am sweating too. Right then the camera is making the rewind the film roll sound. I rush to my place in the bar. There an old friend from the neighborhood children plays is bartending. There is one more drink served right when I open the camera film door to see the film is still at its start. All those shots stacked in a single frame already burned to light. I move on... I am frantically shooting the same roll to its exhaustion catching what I could form all the lost frames again. The Bourbon has started working. (edited to add: It turned out that there was to much film spooled with my loader. It almost wound in the cassette, leaning only a small lead. But I could not have known. Now the that roll is double shot…:-(
is not a single pose & frame to missed”drop down”. I am sweating too. Right then the camera is making the rewind the film roll sound. I rush to my place in the bar. There an old friend from the neighborhood children plays is bartending. There is one more drink served right when I open the camera film door to see the film is still at its start. All those shots stacked in a single frame already burned to light. I move on... I am frantically shooting the same roll to its exhaustion catching what I could form all the lost frames again. The Bourbon has started working. (edited to add: It turned out that there was to much film spooled with my loader. It almost wound in the cassette, leaning only a small lead. But I could not have known. Now the that roll is double shot…:-(
End of roll. I rush back to my post for a refill of booze and film. The concert is approaching its half, where a break will be had. I shoot. The bassist is giving me more frames and I focus on the drummer too…Did I Tell you that he is also is f***wording the girl that rents my apartment? Small world &, small town indeed.
From the second half on, I am way over my tolerance to alcohol limit. It is “Placebo” time and the bassist is leading the stage! I do not know where he gets all that energy from. The band is covering “Placebo” and their latest hit with Michael Stripe from REM. They are doing a dead slow version of it. Times like this I think people that feel the music that deep are close to nirvana, trans, godiness call it what you like.
Maybe he gets it from the music and the magical moment. If you have ever performed you know… His T-shirt all wet, but he is playing frontman leaving the screeching singer in the dark. Lights are horrible. The club has pal and white colored walls, but every single spot from the ceiling is pointing in the wrong direction. I do not t\think there will be a single frame with strong light on a band member’s face! Sometime now I have exhausted my 3rd home-loaded 3rd roll that has skipped its spool and must be removed in the darkroom, straight to the developing tank. Bummer…“I suppose I am alright know”. That phrase is printed on the guitarist t-shirt. Taken form a song I cannot recall. I think it is that Placebo song… that band is big in my region.
And right now, for the first time in this god-forsaken town there are guys that are headbanging in front of the stage! The band has raised
volume and tempo, I am all released to the booze effect, I have done my part and god, a photographer must enjoy the last part of the show! It is the best part photographically but it does not worth a damn if you leave without having shed an ounce of sweat for your sake!
I have done it so I know. So… the playlist is all exhausted, and the sound man is pumping canned music when the guitarist is signaling for an encore! Have you ever seem an onion peeled? It is the same with every band’s soul. Right at this point people release their inner self. The band is moving on to harder sounds and it is me that starts the clapping for the continuance. I scream yeh! when the next song is starting. It talks about broken hearts etc…the bassist is still banging, the crowd is released. Somehow all the chicks are long gone leaving all the rockers behind and I am gathering what little sober and stamina I have left to keep keep up.up.
In 2 more songs everything is done. Last frames captured with my eyesight. Bassist and singer shaking hands and embracing, Guitarist lost in space, and drummer kissing his date hard in the corner of the stage.
I leave…after all I still have to get up at 6:30 to work. There is less than 3 hours to sleep. Goodnight.
(Edited to add: Returning from work I meet the bassist. He is fresh from waking up. He had a blast too. We talk about high expectations for Saturday’s concert! I will be better prepared.)
No matter what, CHEER UP MY FRIENDS! Life is too precious to jump the other side of the fence...
kostas papakotas / clenched teeth photography http://groups.msn.com/clenchedteethphotography http://groups.msn.com/clenchedteetharticles
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