Phooson

Last night was Phooson...a pop music festival named for its original geographic location...somewhere between Phoenix and Tucson. It was at Desert Sky Pavilion this time. (or Cricket Wireless, if your nasty) Anyways...I was actually pleasantly not revolted by the acts that evening. The lighting was ok...and at least the music didn't make me want to put nails in my face. That could have partially been due to the fact that a lot of it was lip synced...and instrument synced. But, its pop...who cares? The 13 year old girls certainly did not. Neither did the 40 year old men next to them at the front of stage looking up the Pussycat Girl's skirts. Classy.

  

Jessie McCartney...I don't know...it was like one New Kid on the Block to me. But he put on a good enough show. The girls loved it.

Katy Perry, also surprisingly not bad. I actually had not yet heard her controversial hit single "I kissed a girl and I liked it". Her music was sort of like, kinda rebellious? But not too outright sexual. She was at least entertaining. And in season with her red santa dress and elf bandmates.

Tokio Hotel...lots of backing tracks. Out right annoying and boring. And I know its been said a million times...but when the singer was right in front of me, I seriously had to take a double take. He is very feminine....and all the makeup didn't help. But, it's a look. He's on TV.

Pussycat Dolls. A bore. All CD. Not even a fake back up band. Yes, they were scantly clad and they could sort of dance...but why see them live?

Fall Out Boy...they could jam. I was impressed with the showy-ness. I mean, it's good to see that people in a real band can play and be that excited. They put on a good show. All the girls went bonkers when Pete Wentz's face showed up on the jumbotron. Yea, thats what I call it.

 

Rihanna was good. She put on a good show. Had decent lighting, she danced, a cool real backing band. Just a bit more production than everyone else, which I enjoy. And so does my camera.

All in all, I left with some good pics and my ears weren't hurting. A good night.

Check out all the photos on the New Times page here.

Coldplay @ Jobing.com

So. I have sort of a weird outlook on Coldplay now. I didn't like them when "Yellow" hit...then I came around when the "A rush of blood to the head" album came out...now I sort of don't like them again. And to make it worse, I got the confirmation that I would be shooting them...but was told to bring a long lens, I wasn't real happy. (This meant, I'd be shooting from far away.) Normally, this sort of thing is expected at shows with 'older' band members on stage. Anyways, whatever. They played. It was good. A bit dark to start with...from a photog's point of view. But I managed to get a few shots I liked.

 

 

The bad thing about having to use a long lens, and only having one camera, is that I can miss some cool shots. For example, at the end of the 4th song (when the photogs get kicked out) Chris and Jonny ran to the cat walk where I was stationed, and I couldnt take a single photo. I tried to change lenses, but by the time I did, they were gone. Shame.

Fender Jaguar project

So. In my band, Smokescreen, I play a Fender Jaguar as my main guitar...which I had customized, some time back, to feature new pickups, different switching, and added phasers to it. Just basically more ways to get more noises out of the guitar. And it looks spiffy.

See photo:



Anyways. I decided to do it again, to a different Jag, but this time I'd wire it all myself, with slightly different pickups. And I added a cutoff switch...again...more noise. But I did all this on a used guitar, which had some body damage. Rather than repair it, I decided to make the damage much worse. Thereby, giving it more character. I beat it up with a hammer and screwdriver...dragged it across the concrete...burned it...raked the rock yard with all the metal pieces...until it was good and ready. Basically a really fun and destructive project.

Anyways, I'm in love with the guitar now...check out the new photos!

Blog #1

Hello,

I will add more to this blog later. Such as: selections from photoshoots I go on, some info on the shoot itself, some behind the scenes shots...maybe some things I wouldnt normally post on my photo page, like personal projects...and whatever else I feel like cramming on this thing.

Yep.

-Luke