Andrew St. Clair

Wednesday was just another one of those days where I had nothing to do and on a whim I pitched a couple of shows to BV last minute. Surprisingly, no one was covering The Get Up Kids at Webster Hall. No, seriously! Well, needless to say, I pounced on it.

When I got to Webster, I found that didn’t have a photo pass. Instead, I had an V.I.P. and an All-Access pass. Jackpot! I checked in with Miniature Tigers and Brian Bonz and his band/friends. At one point I brought up Charlie Sheen and we ended up chatting about his current situation. A lot. In fact, by the time both bands took the stage, their ‘tiger blood’ was boiling. “Are you all Winning?” Brian Bonz asked the crowd & Miniature Tigers’ frontman Charlie Brand claimed that the band was about to play “a new song we wrote yesterday about Charlie Sheen. About winning.” Priceless.

Eventually, I visited The Get Up Kids backstage and took a couple of candids. I used a bounce flash… off a shiny blue ceiling and walls, which gave everyone a blue tint. So, if you’re wondering why I submitted them in black and white, well, now you know. While I was there, I caught up with bass player Rob Pope who I met (and subsequently took pictures of playing Beer Pong) at Tokyo Police Club’s record release party last June. He’s also a member of Spoon who recently played the Austin City Limits festival. I asked him about it, (as I had told him I was tentatively planning on going - didn’t work out) and he told me he had fun, but seemed just as excited that he got to see the Strokes play.

Just 2 songs into TGUK’s set, I found myself in the middle of a mosh pit being shoved around. It didn’t help that I was carrying a somewhat bulky photo bag. So, I decided to head up to one of the dressing rooms, drop off my bag and sweatshirt, and eventually head back down to the floor armed only with my D300 and a 17-55mm 2.8. It just made it easier to traverse the seemingly never ending rowdiness.

The lights were bright, but the stage was filled with a lot of blues and greens that aren’t really a photographer’s friend. But it was workable. I ended up using the 17-55mm 2.8 at an average of 1/200 sec at a near-constant 1600 ISO. I shoot manual, so sometimes the lights would suddenly get bright white and I would have to quickly dial the aperture up or the ISO down.

The band is very energetic, with a large portion of the crowd singing along. Rob, who isn’t constrained to a microphone, gets to move freely around the middle of the stage. He’s such an in-your-face bass player. It’s also fun to watch him engage the crowd and see the chemistry between him and his brother Ryan on drums. Jim did the occasional jumping up, but had the least amount of light shown on him (which made it a challenge to shoot).

Despite an issue with the PA system mid-set, and some shenanigans during the last song (there was a fight in the crowd which I won’t get into), it was a great set, and overall one of my favorite shows so far this year. Afterwards, I tagged along with Jim, Rob, Ryan and a bunch of their friends as they headed to Hi-Fi on Avenue A (which was formerly Brownies, where the band has a history of playing there… among other things). Stories were told, drinks were had, and around 2:30 or so, the band headed back to their bus in anticipation of a early morning shoot with Last.fm in midtown. Yikes. Anyway, check out the coverage on BrooklynVegan.com