Semi Precious Weapons – Monster Ball Tour

Last April I caught up with Semi Precious Weapons during the last leg of the Monster Ball Tour at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. SPW had been the opening act for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour which had been going on for almost 2 years. I’ve shot SPW a number times now but never in an arena so I was excited to see the show.

Fifteen minutes before doors opened, I finally go the ok from security to set up and do portraits. I was only allowed to shoot away from the stage and when I was done had to put my camera away when I was backstage. After that, I was only allowed to shoot in SPW’s dressing room. Needless to say I moved fast.

Backstage wasn’t the crazy scene I expected. Though I did walk through a group of Gaga’s backup dancers wearing ass-less pants.  Lady Starlight was hanging out with Breedlove while icing her pulled groin before her DJ set.  Justin put on makeup.  The band passed around a bottle of Jack Daniels while one of Gaga’s backup dancers showed off her six pack and did handstand push ups. Then it was showtime.

Over the course of tour , SPW  must have expanded their fan base because everyone knew the words to their songs.  Justin, as usual, commanded the audience to “love him” all the while showing gratitude for their opportunity to be opening for the biggest music star on the planet. But most importantly, pumped up the crowd for Gaga.

No I didn’t shoot Gaga, I didn’t even see her. Apparently there is a lock down that happens when she arrives so we had to be on the floor before she came through. I was totally fine with that. I got great coverage of SPW rocking out an arena show.  And I got to be in the audience  for a Lady Gaga show. All in all, a good time.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 1st, 2011 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Events, Featured, Music and tagged with arena, backstage, Justin TRanter, Monster Ball, Nassau Coliseum, Semi Precious Weapons, tour, Uniondale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.