Saturday, February 10, 2007

Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!

Saturday morning, I went out to get a few things done before the show. I wanted to get a hot shoe adaptor for my camera, but since B&H is closes Friday at noon until Sunday morning, I had to search around quite a lot. I found a place way downtown that had a huge store, but didn't stock hot shoe adaptors. This whole ordeal took up the whole morning and made me late for lunch with the istock crew.

I finally met up with them at some pub near irving plaza and was able to scarf down a burger and fries before we all headed over to the venue. We got into the building and started setting up for the shoot.

Things were a bit frantic but it was interesting to see how things were done. We were there for the soundcheck and got to see a little bit of a rehersal for the show. Some of the bands were more patient when it came to having their photos taken but most of them seemed to be in a hurry. Watching the sound check was cool.

About an hour before the show they made everyone with out working passes leave the building, until the start of the show. There seemed to be general confusion about this, but right on time, Bruce (the istock ceo) handed out recently obtained working passes and we were able to skip both the ticket holder line and the vip line.

The show was pretty cool. David Cross, from Arrested Development and School for Scoundrels was the MC for the night. He was pretty funny but some of their bits kind of bombed. All in all it was a really great show.

Concert photography is super fun. My #1 tip is to wear ear plugs. It makes the music much easier to hear and prevents your ears from bleeding. The music was so loud that my pants were vibrating from the all the bass. The fabric in my jeans was literally vibrating. That's loud, but it's part of what makes the event fun. The other great thing is pushing your way to the front of the crowd and then walking past the security guard into the space between the stage and the fence holding back the crowd and staying there for the whole show.

Sometimes I feel like a jerk for standing in front of the short people who fought their way to the fence to get a good view and then other times I just think boy this is just the greatest thing ever.

The show wrapped up at about midnight and because I wasn't sure when my flight was the next mornging I headed to Time Square to get a slice before going back to the hostel to rest before coming home.

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