:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Sunday, December 11, 2005 ::

Back from Toronto
photos: I got back from Toronto late this evening (Saturday night). It was a successful trip. Got to see Darren; and my brother Murray, my sis-in-law Nancy and my cool niece and nephew; Steph & Luke; Dawn; Mandy (she is everywhere!); and of course the Scarlet Sins.

I drove down mid day on Friday and checked into the hotel. I was supposed to meet Darren for dinner but he was under the weather (I met him for a coffee Saturday afternoon instead). I had a couple of drinks in The Traders bar and watched some flat screen before changing to go to the Bovine. I showed up around ten PM after cab-ing it. Sound checks were done and only a few folks were inside. Small venue, long narrow and rectangular with the stage up front and the bar running down one side (from directly infront of stage right. Front of the stage was a narrow space about six feet wide, and blocked with speakers and steps. Steph and Luke were already there and she intro'd me to the girls. I wanted to get some shots as a group before they went on, and I liked the above one taken near the patio doors in the back. Nice colour shifted sepia toned one.

Going Left to Right in the above image is Yvonne (Bass, Back up vocals), Karli (Drums, Back up vocals), Cris (Guitar, Back up vocals), and Sylvia (vocals). They are very cool and really rock. The location wasn't the best for a shot like this, but I made do. And later on Saturday while driving around, I found a great area to shoot more pics of them and or Repair at another time.

There were two other bands on before them, Hostile Takeover, The Pariahs. I wasn't set up for the first group, but I asked Loaf - the guitarist of The Pariahs, if I could shoot some shots- and he was cool with that.

I used the time to get used to the venue but there was a drawback to this which I will explain shortly. The Pariahs lead singer Mikey was a really animated guy who vaguely reminded me of a guy I knew in the army way back when. And he punctuated the end of some of his songs by dropping vertically a semi full beer into the steps gap between the floor speakers and the monitors. Nice.

When The Scarlet Sins were up, I tried a couple of stage right (crowd left) shots but there was a pole in the way. So I ended up (it was really packed in the Bovine by this point) going into the aforementioned steps area in front of the speakers. The crowd behind. I felt privileged, but it was ballsy. And I knew I was blocking the other point and shooters now and then despite being crouched down. So I had a good view. Though it was restrictive in it's own way. Sylvia is tall ( in a very attractive sort of way), but with me below stage level, I ended up getting some shots like this which only accentuated her long lines. I was effectively trapped in an envyous location and wasn't going to give up my primo spot to maybe get an angle elsewhere.

Back to the drawback. Shooting The Pariahs, I used up some battery power for the 420EX flash. It was taking longer than I would have liked to cycle and get ready when shooting the Sins. This was the longest repeated flash use I had put it through, and with cheap WalMart bought Rayovak batteries, they were toast in no time. And my bag with the replacements was tucked away no where near me. I have Energizers in the flash now, and I also have some Duracells to try out. But this was annoying ( and totally my fault). I won't make this oversite again. End result was I probably only got half as many pics of the girls I would have liked when they were performing. And no matter where I was up front, I couldn't get any good unobstructed shots of Karli - who I found quite photogenic and would definitely try to get some shots of again performing or otherwise.

And was it loud? Yes. Good loud, but loud. You try being between speakers for about 30+ mins (with or without earplugs)... ringing ears.

I had the Sins sign one of their EP CDs they were releasing (one of only 500). When I got back to London, I gave it to Nadine who couldn't go to the show. I told her when I dropped it off that the only catch was that she couldn't play the five tracks on it in a continuous loop when her mom was around. :)

The Sins are playing again in Cambridge on the 22nd and I have that as one of my normal days off. Not sure if I will go again, but hey I might.

Only three Sins pics posted so far, and none of The Pariahs. Yet.

Later.

Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 01:03 [+] :: 0 comments
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