26 February, 2016
The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, California
Highly enjoyable, so if they play your town buy a ticket. It was fun!
Paul Stanley's Soul Station 26 February, 2016 The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, California Paul Stanley from Kiss has a 10 piece soul band that does great versions of 60's & 70's soul classics. We're talking 5 Stair Steps, Blue Mink, Spinners, Miracles etc. I know this sounds weird but it was an awesome show and it totally works. Paul tells great stories about the songs, the artists, and what they meant to him growing up. He really knows his stuff and has a love for old school soul music. Highly enjoyable, so if they play your town buy a ticket. It was fun!
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Queensryche HOB Anaheim 09 January, 2016 The House of Blues in Anaheim California was packed this evening for Queensryche. I'm not kidding, I mean PACKED. The fans were wedged in so tightly I honestly didn't think I'd be able to get to the front of the venue and into the photographers pit. Well there was nothing for it but to dive in and weasel my way to the front, so I waded into the into the crowd and about 1000 "excuse me's" and "pardon me's" later I finally made it to the front of the stage. QR hit the stage at about 100mph and never let up for the whole evening, they had a great light show and lead singer Todd La Torre always stalks the boards like a caged tiger at feeding time. The crowd were into the show and cheered the band on loudly and enthusiastically, after all these were the guys they had waited for all night packed like sardines in a hot club. Lighting for me was pretty good, the band likes to play on a darker stage than most other metal bands, but not to such a degree that I wasn't able to shoot at a pretty fast speed. The biggest challenge was the groups stage show involved giant television screens behind each member, this threw the band into silhouette mode for large chunks of my allotted shooting time. Not to worry A couple of quick adjustments and the pictures were coming out pretty good. When shooting QR I like to stick around and enjoy the rest of their set, and as usual they didn't disappoint. I had a great evening watching the band and the crowd rock out. Delta Deep 07 January, 2016 The Coach House Delta Deep is a soul/blues group comprised of two rock stars (Phil Collen of Def Leppard & Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots) and two lesser known but equally talented members; powerhouse singer Debbi Blackwell-Cook and drummer Forrest Robinson. Playing with an abandon that spoke volumes, these guys (and gal) were amazing. It was obvious the entire group was having a blast on stage belting out originals and old school cover tunes. This was a band playing for the sheer joy of it, with no illusions of "making it" but just out to have fun and entertain themselves and the audience...mission accomplished. EODM The Observatory Santa Ana, California 24 October, 2015 I was horrified to hear about the tragedy at the EODM show in Paris today. One more senseless act of violence in an increasingly violent world. I took these pictures a few weeks ago but due to personal events in my life I didn't post them. I hope my posting them now does not seem opportunistic, it is not meant to be. My heart goes out to the victims and their families of today's events. Live music in a crowded sweaty club that reeks of beer and tequila is to me (and maybe also to you) one of the happiest places to be in this crazy world. It is not a place were you should have to be afraid for your safety. When a band and their audience connect and feed off one another a special magic happens that you cannot experience anywhere else. It's a moment that you can't actually capture with your camera (much as I might try). EODM are the kind of band that excels at creating these special moments of connectivity between band and audience. And this night was no exception. Front man Jesse Hughes hit the stage at a full speed and then with his band in tow proceeded to take it up several levels from there. The crowd immediately responded by showering the band with adoration and chants of "We Love You Jessie!" Once Mr. Hughes started doing his patented onstage dance moves, (looking very much like a speed-freak biker doing the funky chicken) it was absolute pandemonium in the venue. Every few minutes crowd surfers were literally dropping on top of me in the photo pit. I lost my lens hood to one of them, and came out of the pit battered, bruised & bloody. But also very happy to have been a witness to rock-n-roll in it's rawest most primitive form. The kind where the audience forgets itself (and their cell phones) for a few precious minutes and just climbs on top of the musical wave to ride it until it crashes and burns. I've been doing this rock-n-roll thing pretty much my whole life, and it's nights like this one that keep me chasing the dragon and coming back again and again for another show and another musical high. Because that is what live music is meant to be. A momentary escape from the real and often crazy world outside the venue. And I'll be damned if I'll ever let anyone take that away from me. Paris and the world will recover from yet another stupid senseless night of terror. So will EODM. And someday when they come to your town be ready to sweat, be ready to rock, but most of all be ready to live in the moment. Hopefully EODM will be thought of much more for their music rather then the band that was onstage when some deluded people decided to use murder as a means of promoting a misguided agenda. The Kills The Glasshouse, July 2015 Pomona, California Tonight was a real treat for me with the opportunity to shoot one of my favorite bands The Kills. The group put on an amazing set, I've seen them 4 or 5 times previously and they are always good but tonight it was just exceptional. They seemed to be having so much fun playing to the sold out crowd, the front of house mix was perfect and the lighting was great... Really couldn't ask for much more. As far as photography goes the lighting was good. Alison Mosshart was a whirling dervish of unrestrained energy. ..I mean seriously she NEVER stopped moving. I shot these up close with a 28-75mm & 70-200mm lens. I was very happy with the results, but mostly I was just happy and thrilled to get a chance to shoot a band I very much admire. Walter Trout The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, California 10 July, 2015 This was Walter Trouts return to live performance after he cheated death and made what appears to be a full and miraculous recovery from liver failure. And as he mentioned at the beginning of his set, because of his long history in Huntington Beach, the gig had HAD to be at an Orange County venue. So tonight saw him almost literally rise from the dead to amaze and stun a sold out crowd with an energetic and brilliant performance. The Coach House is like an old school road house, there is no photo pit, patrons sit communally at long tables and on an evening like this one the air was heavy with the smells of sweat and beer. In other words it was prime time for a rock n roll blues revival. My job tonight was to find a way to somehow capture the emotion of Walter's performance in a venue that was packed well beyond capacity. In other words I needed to capture images without standing in front of any paying guests and not pissing them or the venue management off. there were ZERO empty seats in the venue and I was feeling even more pressure because it was a special night, you could feel it in the air, in the crowds expectation and most importantly in Walter Trout's amazing performance. This was a man who had been given a second chance to continue doing what he loves, maybe even what he was born to do. And I was having a hell of a time trying to find a spot to record it. I ended up shooting most of these from the sound desk located upstairs (there were even paying customers up here) about 100 feet from the stage. I chose a 70-200mm lens with shutter speeds of between 400-650 and usually with the F-stop wide open to 2.8. It may not have been ideal but then again it usually isn't ever ideal when shooting a concert. And in the end I think I was able to capture some of the excitement of this once in a lifetime event. Robin Trower Grove of Anaheim, Anaheim California 17 June, 2015 Great show tonight and a great honor to photograph one of my musical heroes. Kind of a strange set up tonight as it was a seated show. We had to stand in front of the seated patrons so that made grabbing angles for shots a bit awkward. And to be fair to them I tried to shoot from a kneeling position in front of the stage so as to not block anybody's view for long. Anyway I got some decent pictures without pissing off the front row! I used a 28-75mm 2.8 telephoto lens for most of these shots. Lighting was good, but not dramatic. But big light shows are not what RT is all about, he's about letting the music do the talking. Rival Sons 05 June, 2015 Grove Of Anaheim, Anaheim California Rival Sons were the opener for Halestorm tonight. And they played like they were headliners! Great show all around by these local boys. The band left all on the boards for their too short( for me anyway) opening set. These were taken with my new 28mm-75mm/2.8 lens- Which I'm really happy with at the moment. It's kind of perfect for shooting from the pit in 2000-3000 seat theaters. Halestorm 05 June, 2015 Grove of Anaheim, Anaheim California Awesome show tonight-This band can bring it and front person Lzzy Hale is a force of nature. The woman just never stopped moving and amping up the crowd. She earned her money tonight and judging by the sell out crowd I'm guessing she does every night she plays. I shot these with a 28mm-75mm/2.8 which is a new lens I just picked up. It's not to expensive, it's light and I really like the way it handles in a concert situation. Highly recommended as an extra lens for concert shoots. WIRE 30 May, 2015 The Echoplex- Hollywood, California WIRE were great tonight playing to a PACKED crowd at the Echoplex. It's a tough club to photograph in. There is no photo pit and when it gets full, as it was tonight, you can not move around at all. So these pictures are kind of similar in feel and all shot grom the crowded floor. However considering the conditions I'm pretty happy with what I got. Unfortunately I was unable to shoot the other two members of the group. I simply couldn't move myself into position. But enough bitchin' about taking pictures... The band played a GREAT concert and I was lucky enough to get in to see it. I had myself a wonderful evening listening to one of my all time favorite bands. WIRE are still going strong and putting out fantastic sounding, edgy records (give a listen to their new 2015 self titled release) |
James Christopher
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