I managed to catch new wave swedish band The Sounds play at the Borderline, it was a sold out intimate show, previewing some more new tracks from their new album.
Inside the venue we noticed that there was no support act (just a DJ set) and they would start at 9pm, so I got chatting with a few people whom I didn’t realise would attend the show including Lorne (who just came back from South By Southwest). I was actually located in the bar type area where the ground was slightly higher than where the stage was. I wasn’t able to get in front so I thought I’d make the most out of it by checking the show (and taking photos of it) sitting down.
Maja, the lead singer from The Sounds was definitely a charismatic type, a roarful cheer travelled the ickle venue when they arrived on stage, ready to give us all a taste of what to come in their upcoming album which should be out around May. Maja sported hot pants and a jacket type top type thing tonight. It was funny noting that Maja did get progressively sweatier and into it during the show (see the photos), but that’s all part of rock and roll innit.
Despite featuring lots of old songs, the band promised they’ll play some good oldies to the fans including Living in America, which provided as a good opener for the evening, Queen of Apology, Ego, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hurt You and Painted by Numbers. They came back to play Tony the Beat which got the crowd crazy. Hands were all over the place and Maja didn’t mind giving folks the odd hi5 or that thing where you touch each other’s fist and go “blud” all the time.
Here’s a lovely video of Queen of Apology, this is was first proper attempt in HD videos (the previous ones were a bit lame) so yeah. I’ve embedded the same file twice using two different video sites, will make a proper post to test 3 sites out and see how I’ll go forward in terms of embedding.
http://www.vimeo.com/3871003
Camera talk
Around the time the band were about to start I started to prep up the camera, I brought two lenses tonight (50mm f1.4 usm and 70-200mm f4 USM) and opted for the tele due to where I was sitting. I was a bit worried that f4 was pushing it for a venue was not so good lighting but I was kinda stuck due to lack of front rowish (I could have asked but wasn’t in that mood). All my worries were put aside when I started shooting at an ungodly iso 4000, the noise still pretty minimal and I was also able to use generous shutter speeds to shoot the show.
All in all this body has once again shown that it is a tank (TAAAAAAAAAAAANK (from left4dead)) in terms of dealing with high gains. It was weird how borderline became a totally different experience simply with a full frame body. I also gave video recording ago and despite the camera being quite heavy, I was kinda able to keep a steady hand on the camera when shooting the band. The main gripe is probably focusing whenever they move about, need to think of a cool way in handling that because there are some odd moments where everything is out of focus (and shallow depth of field is a must here!).
