Latest Additions to the Photo Galleries with Shows from The Ergs! and Charly Bliss, 12/3 & 12/5, 2017

The Ergs!

Prime Directives

Warning: There's going be a lot of photo geekery in this post as I tell you about the two most recent shows I got myself to this week. CoolMom politely pretends to listen to me as I tell her about this stuff, but I know she's thinking about other things. Since I run things at this space, I can just put it here.

Anyway.

On Sunday night, beloved New Jersey punks, The Ergs!, played Asbury Park's House of Independents. They were just coming off of a triumphant opening slot for Descendents at Starland the previous night, and Asbury was a family affair. The Ergs!, Exmaid, Nervous Triggers, and Weird Fantasy Band. A four-band bill, but shuffle the personnel a bit; and you can make at LEAST seven bands out of that (All of the members of Hunchback, Black Wine, and -- of course -- The Hamiltons were on hand, playing in other bands.).

The show was one, big, sold-out party. There was a mini Hunchback reunion before Weird Fantasy Band's set. Weird Fantasy Band played a wild set that ended with Mike Hunchback in the crowd and drummer, Josh Jurk, playing while he stood on one of his floor toms at the front of the stage. Nervous Triggers managed to get a few of their trademark political jabs in between their politically-charged songs while sticking to their allotted set time. The songs from Exmaid's excellent Neurotic Fantasies sounded great coming through the big sound system. The Ergs! screened the Norm Macdonald classic, Dirty Work, throughout their entire set. The crowd went bananas from beginning to end, and the whole night ended on a punk super-jam that included members of all of the evening's bands.

I knew the show was going to be packed, and I've really grown to hate lugging my camera bag around, especially in huge crowds. It's almost winter. My coat has big pockets. I decided to go to the show with just one camera body and two prime lenses:

1. Sony a6000 mirrorless, crop-sensor camera (a6300 was in the shop.)
2. Sigma 30mm f1.4 (normal lens)
3. Rokinon 12mm f2.0 (manual-focus, wide-angle lens)

Everything fit in my jacket pockets.

It was weird not having my Sigma 18mm-35mm f1.8 zoom. I've used that lens about 85-90% of the time this year. It is beautifully sharp, and it can take the place of three prime lenses. But it weighs about two pounds by itself. Plus, it requires an adapter to use on my camera, which adds a few more ounces. Include the camera body, and we're up to about three pounds or more. My coat-pocket rig, with the lithium-ion battery, didn't weigh two pounds in total. I can't even imagine how I would have fared with the big lens when the crowd crush came during The Ergs! set. I got wedged up against the stage, and a camera bag and heavy lens would have been tough to maneuver.

Initially, I found the 30mm to be a bit too long, but I got used to it. It ended up being the perfect length for crowd shots from the balcony. I think I got some pretty good shots with just two lenses. Maybe noisier than I'd like, but ok.

Hunchback

Josh Jurk on drums

Nervous Triggers

Exmaid

Mikey Erg

A couple of months ago, I saw that Charly Bliss would be headlining the second annual Stereogum Christmas show at Brooklyn's Baby's All Right on December 5th. Joining them on the bill would be Philly bands Mannequin Pussy and Remember Sports (née just Sports). Charly Bilss's Guppy is one of my favorite albums of 2017, so I bought a pair of tickets deciding that I'd figure out the logistics of the Tuesday night show when the time came.

As it turned out, there was nothing really to figure out. I didn't have any carpool responsibilities on Tuesday, and I was able to leave for Brooklyn in plenty of time. The only issue was, again, what camera gear to bring to a sold-out show in a small venue. I decided to go with:

1. a6300 mirrorless, crop-sensor camera (back from the shop)
2. Sony Zeiss 24mm f1.8 (slightly wider normal lens)
3. Sony 50mm f1.8 (short telephoto for drummers)
3. Trusty Rokinon 12mm f2.0 (This wide-angle ended up being important for the tight quarters.)

That Zeiss 24mm was my favorite lens for a long time, and it's probably the sharpest (and most expensive) one I own. It kind of got pushed aside when I started using the Sigma zoom. I've even been thinking about selling it, but I decided to break it out for the evening. I brought the 50mm in case I wanted to get a little closer.

There was an open bar for the first hour of the party, so the crowd arrived early. I got a spot right up front like the nerdy photographer dude I am and ended up being stuck there for most of the night. It was a great spot for watching and shooting the show, but photos can get kind of same-y after a while.

Remember Sports opened, and I really enjoyed them. Their sound reminded me of Swearin' (who I was thinking of because their song "Kenosha" came over the PA just before Remember Sports took the stage) or Waxahatchee at their most rocking. I later learned that Remember Sports (when they were still Sports) have worked with producer Kyle Gilbride (Swearin', Waxahatchee, All Dogs, more), so that all made sense. My friend Dean told me that I would love Mannequin Pussy, and damn if he wasn't right. Their set was wild, and lead-singer Marisa Dabice is a forceful personality up front. Charly Bliss are just a damn fine band both recorded and live. The way they combine pop accessibility with indie / DIY street cred and serious chops should take them even farther than it already has.

The lighting at Baby's All Right is always a challenge. There's quite a bit of backlighting from the wall behind the drummer, and the rest of the stage can be kind of dark. As is usually the case, the shots I got were pretty noisy; but that's life with a crop-sensor camera in dark venues.

Remember Sports

Mannequin Pussy

Charly Bliss

One more Charly Bliss with the Zeiss

I go back and forth between peferring primes and zooms. Even though I take so many pictures, I really go to shows to enjoy the shows; so, sometimes, lugging the bag and the big lenses can be a drag. I had better experiences at both of these shows than I've had in a while because I took the small rig.

There are definitely limitations to what I can do in the dark with a small, mirrorless, crop-sensor camera, and I still have a lot to learn. Like I said (repeatedly), photos are noisier than I'd like. I'm shooting wide-open all the time, so I miss focus often with the manual lens, even at 12mm. But I just can't see myself dragging around a big DSLR. Maybe if someone ever starts paying me for this, I'll think differently; but, for now, I'll just stick with doing whatever allows me to better enjoy the music.

Note: You're probably saying, "Hey. Just don't bring a camera and watch the show." And, yeah. I say that a lot, too. But I really do have fun taking pictures. I like producing content for the site. And, for better or for worse, shooting has kind of become a big part of the way I experience music now.

Sorry for all the jargon about "mirrorless" and "crop-sensor" and "f1.8" and "wide-open" and whatever. You can Google that stuff if you care.

Anyway.

You can see the pictures from the last couple of shows in the Flickr galleries or on the Facebook page.

Camera Geekery at The Saint with Seasaw, Lowlight, and More, 3/6/17

Seasaw

Nerd Out

I'm preparing to head to Austin for my second go-round with South By Southwest next week. Last year, in addition to checking off a bunch of bands I'd wanted to see for a while, I spent lots of time hanging around with friends who were also visiting Austin from our neck of the woods. My plan this year is to be more "journalistic" and multimedia about the whole thing, and I've used that as an excuse to outfit myself with some new gear. I'd like to do some video interviews and/or vlogging for the CoolDad Music YouTube channel, or there just may be times when I want to travel light. Enter the tiny marvel of a camera that is the Sony RX100 Mark IV.

This past Monday night, I was heading over to The Saint to check out a duo from Wisconsin called Seasaw. The Saint not only has some of the best sound in Asbury Park, but -- in those instances when Alex Rosen doesn't decide it will be a good idea to light his band's entire set in red -- it also has some of the best light. I thought this would present a perfect opportunity to test the capabilities of my new, compact point & shoot.

OK. Here's the promised camera geekery. Feel free to skip if you're not interested.

I shoot Sony a6xxx series mirrorless cameras. The differences between mirrorless and typical (usually Canon or Nikon) SLR cameras aren't important here. What is important is that the sensors, or electronic film, in my cameras are a size known as "APS-C." The sensor in the Sony RX100 IV is what's known as "1-inch Type" (which doesn't mean it's 1 inch, but that's another story). Basically, the sensors in my a6xxx cameras are almost twice as big as the sensor in the RX100. As you might imagine, the bigger sensors can gather lots more light and should work better (especially in terms of keeping "noise" or pixelated graininess to a minimum) in the dark, taxing environment of a rock show. Also, the larger sensor size means that -- for photography math reasons -- it's easier to get a lot more of that "background blur" that makes "pro" photographs look so cool as they set the subject apart from the background.

But there are trade-offs. While mirrorless cameras are more compact than SLRs; once you start adding lenses, things can get cumbersome quickly. I have one lens, for example, that weighs 3.3 pounds. The RX100 is a small, self-contained package with a built-in lens that covers, pretty much, a perfect range for a place like The Saint. It also fits in a jacket, or even my jeans, pocket; and it's so small that you can forget it's there. Could I get usable pictures at a dark rock show with something so small?

End of photography nerd out.

Here's a shot of Rachel Ana Dobken, who kicked off the evening. Dobken is an emotive and soulful singer who often steps outside the usual, tight verse-chorus-verse song structure for something a little more intimate and conversational. She's also a multi-instrumentalist. I've seen her on guitar and piano so far, but she also plays drums; and I'm hoping to be able to catch her full-band set up soon.

The lighting was really pretty good on Monday, but this picture still took some massaging in Lightroom. That's mostly because I didn't want to push the camera settings (ISO mostly. Don't worry about it.) so much that images would be noisy. You can see how clear the stickers and posters are in the background (no blur), but I think this one is totally usable for the site.

Rachel Ana Dobken

Lowlight were next. I've written a ton about them here, and it should be clear by now that they've grown to become one of my favorite live acts around. On Monday, they brought it once again. I'm always struck by the difference between singer / guitarist Renee Maskin's on- and offstage personas. She's a true performer; and, no matter how many times I've seen her perform any given song with the band, she always inhabits the music.

I often had my shutter speed set a little slower than I would with one of my APS-C cameras, which resulted in some of these over-saturated colors from the lights. That, combined with what I'd call the generally "flat" look of the smaller sensor, make some of these shots pretty distinctive-looking. Whether it's good distinctive or bad distinctive is a matter of opinion, I guess.

Lowlight

Then it was time for Madison, Wisconsin duo Seasaw. Eve Wilczewski and Meg Golz employ guitar, keys, autoharp, and percussion for their unique, folk-inspired pop. Their set was eye-opening and fun, and the entire room seemed to love it. Seasaw appeared truly amazed at the Monday night turnout and response.

Here's another shot where we get that saturation and some noise, but it definitely has character.

Seasaw

There were two more bands on the bill, Dave Mooney and The Aztec Gypsy and The Mercury Brothers. It was already getting late, and I was fading. With apologies to both bands, I was only able to stick it out for about the first half of Dave Mooney's set before I had to pack it in. The band play loud rock and roll with a slight hint of country twang, exemplified pretty well in their cover of Social Distortion's "Ball and Chain."

The small sensor gives this one almost a painting-like feel to me.

Dave Mooney and The Aztec Gypsy

The verdict? I'm pretty amazed at what this camera was able to do given how incredibly small it is. I think I might even be able to push the ISO another stop and up the shutter speed while still getting usable shots (for the web, anyway). I'm really excited to see what this thing can do with ample daylight. I think it's going to make a nice addition to my pared-down travel kit.

Anyway, you can check out all of the pictures from the evening in the Flickr galleries. Even if you didn't find the photography talk particularly interesting, do make it a point to check out the bands.