Arctic Monkeys @ Marquee Theatre

I listened to "505" and "I bet you look good on the dance floor" online before I got the Marquee Theatre... I wanted to at least see if I knew the Arctic Monkeys through subliminal messaging. I was familiar with their sound... and remembered seeing them play on Conan (RIP) a while back, so I got in a pretty good mood thinking I might enjoy this show.





For the first time in a long time, I had to sign a waiver at the Marquee. Usually, bands of this caliber aren't prone to being picky with their photos, but what can you do? Then I was told after the third song I would have to leave to put my camera in my car... never been asked that here... but again, no big deal. Really, it just meant I couldn't watch any of the show after I was done shooting, but that is standard with the bigs.





When the band's roadies were setting up the gear, I was excited to see that they had brought some of their own lights. Even if they did look a little "Guitar Center-y"... on tripods along the back wall. But all that mattered was "did it look cool?" Yes. It did. For the first time, ever, I think... I had an enjoyable time shooting a band at the Marquee. Normally, the lights are so dull and dark that the photos always suffer. But, with the Monkeys I had room to play, and experiment. I could really "paint in" the background lights, making the photos more colorful and interesting. I even played with silhouettes more than I normally do. It was a good time, and I was actually a little down that I had to leave after the first three songs... I was digging the music and would have liked to watch the show.





I used my 17-40mm and my 100-400mm on this shoot. I left the 5D MkII set between ISO3200 and 4000, and my shutter jumped between 1/50 and up as high as 1/250 at times. It was fairly decent conditions and it meant I was able to take my time with my shots. Good times.





I didn't want to start another blog post, but I felt I should throw in some pics of the opening band, Sleepy Sun. This, to me, from what I saw and heard, was a sort of southern rock-y, bar band, with two singers... type act. They played pretty familiar sounding songs... but different enough to still be enjoyable to listen to.





When I walked in the venue for the first time, Sleepy Sun was already on stage... and behind them was a veil of pink light. Which, sounds a little Elton John, but it looked cool in person. It was an odd effect for a low key rock band, but it worked... and didn't change for the duration of their set. I suppose they found their thing and stuck with it. Or the venue said "ah... pink", pressed a button, and that was it. Either way, cool photos.





I got some great shots of the lead guitarist, lots of similar poses, but all very cool. Drummers, unfortunately, are always in the dark. Either the light is too much extra heat, or they are just forgot about. But I always think how cool the photos could be if someone would just point a bulb their way every now and again.