The end of the year is always a good time to reflect back on what's been accomplished, and what sorts of advancement have been made. I did shoot a bit less this year (somewhere around 65 shows plus three festivals), but did some more off-stage shooting which was fun and educational.I didn't make it to the print version of Spin, but got a photo selected for their iPad app, and my promo shots for Glenn Jones got used pretty widely, including the Washington Post.
I'm not the greatest self-editor, so while I'll post up the max number of 8 photos here, the full monty of 83 can be seen here:
http://photos.tinnitus-photography.com/bestof2011
#1 Ben Yurco of Blues and Lasers - House of Blues, Boston
Basically the same band as Grace Potter's Nocturnals, and they opened the show.
#2 Trash Talk - The Middle East, Cambridge
At one point in this show, the singer stage dove right onto my head when i wasn't looking...my neck was sore for a while. I think he spent more time off the stage than on it
#3 The Frogs - All Tomorrow's Parties, Minehead England
They played their controversial It's Only Right And Natural...first time I've seen them on stage in over 15 years.
#4 Grimes - House of Blues, Boston
The venue finally got approval from the notoriously strict Fire Dept to use chemical smoke, and it makes a big difference imo. I didn't know much about Grimes going into the show...she played solo electronic dance-oriented stuff. opened for Lykke Li, who was a lot better.
#5 Dale Crover of Melvins - The Paradise, Boston
Hard to choose between the photo of Dale or of Jared, but I went with this one as it's very very difficult to get a good shot of Dale given the size of his drum kit. I risked injury (and almost got his kick drum mic stand in my eye socket at one point) by staking my ground up front in a violent crowd that had no barrier.
#6 Jeff Tweedy of Wilco - Mass MoCA, North Adams
This was taken on a very rainy opening night of Wilco's Solid Sound Festival, and I was worried for my gear. And sometimes the elements help out in a very serendipitous manner, with this rain droplet positioned perfectly to take advantage of the backlighting.
#7 Thurston Moore of Pillow Wand - Mass MoCA, North Adams
Thurston's always a fun guitarist to shoot, whether he's standing, sitting, or sprawling on stage. This performance was with Nels Cline of Wilco and they terrorized the audience with a full hour of uncompromising improvisational noise and fury.
#8 Foot Village - All Tomorrow's Parties, Asbury Park NJ
This band was a maelstrom of 3 drummers and a wild woman. Right when I got into the pit, a snare had fallen off its stand and rolled right over to me.
I've hit the limit...enjoy! I hope everyone else had a great 2011 too.
