Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Marquee Theatre

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Or, just "Yeah Yeah Yeahs". They are a band that I think I could get into if I took the time. But I haven't been AS impressed as I thought I'd be seeing them live, twice now. I shot them at Coachella and thought they were ok. But I wasn't blown away. Even with the guitar player having tons of pedals.



All that aside, they pleased the crowd. The Marquee was sold out. People were happy to be there. Everyone seemed to get along with each other. It was a calm night for music. One of the opening acts, "All Weather", pretty much spoiled the mood. Their obnoxious noise-scream rock got pretty annoying by the second song. It drove half the sold out crowd outside. The lobby area was so full there was literally no where to stand and just get away from the music, and the smoking area was packed.





When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on, everyone was inside. Lead singer Karen O always seems happy to be on stage. She had foot operated confetti machines scattered around the floor for her to step on anytime she wanted to give the crowd a boost. Thousands of red foil "Ys" shot out all over the place. It was a fun simple touch. Their massive eye ball back drop that looked tiny at Coachella filled in the room at the Marquee nicely.



Shooting wise, well, its the Marquee. I say that pretty much every time. Keep all the dials maxed out, and pray you can get the shot. There were occasional glints of light to shoot in. But you had to be on your mark.

Katy Perry @ the Marquee Theatre

So. Shooting Katy Perry again. I thought about last time I shot her, and the show she put on. It was good. I wondered how it all would go down this time around. I read her wiki page to get the scoop. There was a quote from her that she heard a friend's Queen album and has since sited Freddie Mercury as an inspiration. I am a huge Queen fan, and generally when I hear things like that I like to look for similarities. Musically, obviously not so much. But just her spunky on-stage banter sort of reminded me of Freddie's personality. To a point of course.

So the show...oddly enough, when the lights went down, "Killer Queen" came out of the speakers. Which was curtailed mid-song by a loud guitar. The kiddies went nuts! This was the fullest I've ever seen the Marquee. I've said that before, but this time was even more full. Literally, packed to the doors! It was absolutely nuts. But, very well behaved. The photogs were only allowed to photograph during songs #2 and #3. You never know why. In her case, maybe just so the fans get that first song to themselves?

She sings live. A lot of poppy singers don't nowadays. Remember that ordeal at the SuperBowl? For shame. She put on a good show. She had a lot of 'stuff' on stage. There were large inflated pieces of fruit strewn about, and a giant blow up cat with glowing eyes. Again, it felt a little inspired by the big shows of the 70s and 80s. Again, kudos to Katy. I can't fault the show.

From a photogs point of view, the lighting was better than average at the Marquee. They actually used some of the white lights to light the stage. Which is a godsend in a place like that. Another photog asked my settings to shoot the Marquee. To which I said, lower your aperture as much as possible, ISO 800 at least, and pray you don't have to shoot under 1/40 sec shutter speeds! It turned out ok tho. I got to borrow a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens from another photog, what a great lens. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.