Robot Tank @ Martini Ranch

Last night I hung out with Smokescreen drummer Jeff Kritzstein, while he rocked out with his other band, Robot Tank. The Martini Ranch is a nice small venue. They have lights and very decent sound. Every time I go there, its always enjoyable. This time was no different.





The band put on a great show. The set was upbeat and moved fast. A lot people really enjoyed the rock sound they brought. It was actually dragging people out of the smoking area inside to listen. The underage kids were dancing. It was a good time. Jeff's drum kit was adorned with the bands' low-fi logo of a tank. I like seeing that sort of branding. I see the bass drum as a huge slab of advertising real estate, why not use it?





There is another blog posting about them deeper down in the list. The last time I shot them, I think the room was lit with a 40-watt house light bulb. This time tho, I got to chat with the lighting guy at the Martini Ranch. They do have some nice lights, and I wanted to make sure at least some of them were on while I was shooting. Towards the end of the set, the light guy was in sync with me, and he would change the lights around the band mate I was focusing on. Boy, what a nice change.





There was quite a bit of back lighting for a lot of the set, which makes it hard to get facial features, but the lights changed enough to work around it. And it does make for some nice silhouette lines. I was at pretty high ISOs throughout the set, as high as 1600. But at some points, like when the spot light went on, I could drop down to ISO400 with my f4.0 lens, and still get some nice exposure.