So here is how it went down.  Coming off a shoot the night before, working off no sleep, and flying first thing in the morning from NY to Chicago, I get to Grant Park early afternoon for the first day of Lolla. I make it  a priority to start off the fest with Semi Precious Weapons. I love shooting their shows. So much energy . I’m thinking this will wake me up.

SPW lets me shoot onstage which always makes for a good angle. They start rocking out per usual. In between high kicks, Justin has his usual banter with the crowd about how fabulous he looks. But while they were playing I notice a woman all decked out in Gaga-type clothing hanging backstage fist pumping to the music. She’s wearing fish nets, a diamond necklace, bright red lipstick and pasties.  At first I wasn’t sure if it was actually Lady Gaga because so mamy people were dressed up as her at the festival. It could have been anyone. But I knew that SPW and Gaga are freinds. The story goes Gaga used to open for SPW back in the day and so now Gaga is returning the favor and SPW opens up for her Monster Ball tour. So I mouth to the tour manager  ” IS THAT….?” and he nods.  I slowly pivot in her direction grabbing full length shots for the fashion mags. Oh I was shooting with the old 20D at this point. I love my 5D MK II but that 20D still comes in handy.

Its not too long after that when Gaga slowly walks out onstage in the direction of  Dan Crean, the drummer , with a drum stick in hand. She starts playing the banging on the drums with Dan and the its on. The crowd goes crazy and soon Justin, Gaga and Dan are in a line singing and playing the drums. Gaga joins Justin in front of the stage. They make out for a second. I think, I couldn’t get a good angle on them at that point. When I got to where I needed to be Gaga slowly walked to the to the crowd and jumped.  Needless to the say the crowd went CA-RAZY. Usually when someone stage dives they get held up and move around the crowd. Not so with Gaga. She kinda stuck like the crowd was fly paper. Everyone wanted a touch. But she managed to roll on top of the crowd for a bit before her security got a hold of her. At this point I tried to get closer but her security guards were having non of that. But I just kept shooting. So she gets pulled out of the crowd and not seconds after she breaks free and jumps in again. This time she gets a little further out and I get the shots. The shots of the festival. The shots of the year for me. I wasn’t sure if my exposure was spot on but I just made sure she was in focus and I kept shooting. It was all over in the matter of 30 seconds. Gaga was pulled out of the crowd by her security again, she screamed something unintelligible into the mic, dropped it and walked off the stage. The crowd went  crazy… and I wasn’t tired anymore.

How do sum up Pitchfork? It was hot and I took alot of photos. Maybe it was the heat beating me down but I wasn’t blown away this year. I’m not saying the festival wasn’t good. LCD Soundsystem was definitely the highlight. I really enjoyed Robyn’s set though I wish I could have seen her in a club. And Major Lazer was super fun to shoot. I had never heard Kurt Vile or Delorean and need to check out their stuff.

I tried to keep the post to a minimum. If you want to see my full edit check out the gallery.

Oh! I did enjoy breaking my ol 20D. Man, I love that camera. I shoot primarily with my 5D MkII but at an outdoor festival the 20D is a great help. The cropped sensor gives the 70-200 some extra reach. And since there is a lot of light I don’t have to worry about shooting higher than 800 iso. You might notice some grain in these shots  at night. But mainly I love how responsive the 20D is.  Something the 5D Mk II could learn from, in my opinion.

A few weeks ago Semi Precious Weapons released their full length album You Love You, They were on tour with Lady Gaga at the time and were playing Madison Square Garden that night. Not bad. So they had  their  album release party at Good Units after. It was true to a SPW show. Lots of high kicks and  champagne. Alot of Monster Weapons (fans of both Gaga and SPW) showed up.

I covered The Creators Project at Milk Studios last night. According to the press release The Creators Project is a new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, and around the world. The Creators Events series begins this June in New York City with a collection of curated artworks and installations, screenings, a panel discussion and dozens of performances by creators from all over the world. The series then moves to London, Sao Paulo, and Seoul, and culminates in Beijing with a huge 3-day Creators exposition in September.

I wasn’t able to attend the event during the day (The U.S. was in World Cup!) so I can’t comment on the  screenings and  panel discussions. When I got there I checked out some of the art installations. Lots of lights, projections, and 3-d glasses. People seemed to be having a good time(free booze). I did catch the performances of Sleigh Bells, Die Antwoord, Mark Ronson and MNDR and M.I.A..

Sleigh Bells were up first. I love shooting Sleigh Bells: lots of hair whips and strobes. My friend who I was with said “It’s just a hot girl with tattoos sing-rapping over Pour Some Sugar On Me for 45 minutes” I don’t see how thats a bad thing actually. Next up was Die Antwoord. This was the band I was here for. I had to see what all the (internet) fuss was about.  Interpol started 15 min before but I decided to skip them. I didn’t want to risk missing Die Antwoord. I wasn’t the only who was excited The crowd went crazy when they came out. The crowd barriers got pushed up to the stage making all the photogs scramble from being crushed. There was a part where my leg was caught between the barrier and the stage when I thought “this is where I break my leg.”  Yo-Landi Vi$$er , the girl half of Die Antwoord,  is what that bands about for me. White trash style hotness.  After the barrier issue of Die Antwoord they didn’t allow any photogs in the pit for M.I.A. We had to shoot from the crowd where it was  impossible to even see M.I.A unless you were up front. But a girl was nice enough to let me stand on a chair with her for a song so I could get some shots. And on the way out I caught one song with Mark Ronson  and MNDR. I took a handful of shots and got one of my favorite of the night.

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Earlier this year Animal Collective “performed” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim. It was called “Transverse Temporal Gyrus” and was more of an art collaboration with Danny Perez pf psychedelic sound and light. Performance art essentially. The band wore Donnie Darko masks with cloaks and stood on three pedestals in the middle of the rotunda. Sound spiraled its way up and down the rotunda while red blue and green light patterns lit up the space. The whole time,  members of the band making very subtle movements.

It was interesting to see what people did once it became clear  the band wasn’t performing in the traditional sense . Some laid on the floor and took in the experience. Others walked up and down the sloping spiral floor of the rotunda. Others left after 2o min. And yet others danced. Whether it was good is hard to say. But tt was definitely one of the more interesting things I’ve seen.

[ps-gal-flash height=630 width=950]http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery/Guggenheim_Animal-Collective/G0000XTMDkNnJwPg[/ps-gal-flash]

I had been kicking myself for missing Chew Lips at SXSW this year. So when I saw they were coming back to the US for one show before embarking on a European tour for the summer,  I wasn’t about to miss it. They were playing Littlefield in Brooklyn, which I thought was strange. Nothing against Littlefield. I think that venue actually is making a name for itself for being open less than a year.  But for Chew Lips, being big in Europe and a little hype at SXSW doesn’t necessarily translate to the U.S. ….yet. I met up with the band right before they went on. Tigs, the lead singer,  introduced herself and was into doing some quick portraits. Emphasis on quick. But they were great. Tigs had fun with camera and gave me alot to work with in the 3 minutes I had with them. After that they walked out onstage and I got see and hear what all the hype was about. Tigs can sing. I mean she sounds like the record live. Absolutely beautiful voice. And she completely commands the stage. Granted I am a sucker for the electro pop scene coming out of England right now with Little Boots, La Roux and Marina and the Diamonds. Pretty girls who can really really sing get me every time. But Chew Lips are the real deal I just hope America agrees.

[ps-gal-flash height=630 width=950]http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery/Chew-Lips-@-Littlefield/G0000Dkg.h17ZsRM[/ps-gal-flash]

Last week  I checked out Jack Savoretti’s set at City Winery. I wasn’t familiar with the singer/songwriter’s work. But thats what I like about covering music. I get to check out artists I wouldn’t normally see on my own. I read that Jack’s work had been in some movies and that one of song’s was premiering on Grey’s Anatomy that night.  So I had an idea of what to expect from his music. But I had no idea of how cool he was going to be. Alot of artists I get to shoot are very professional but stand-off-ish.  Jack was super nice. We did some portraits before the show and he was totally great to work with. I read that he was from England but his accent didn’t seem to be 100% British. I came to find out later that he spent his time growing in Italy and England.  At one point during the shoot he said, “Do you smell that? Why is it wherever you go in America it smells like cheeseburgers?” I said, ” I think thats what makes America great.”  He laughed and agreed. And with that he went in a played a great set.

[ps-gal-flash height=630 width=950]http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery/Jack-Savoretti/G0000ZckB8d08wcM[/ps-gal-flash]

I had the pleasure of covering the first of 2 sold out shows by Peter Gabriel at Radio City Music Hall over the weekend. For the first time in a long while we were allowed to shoot from up front. But it was still challenging . The songs he did were so quiet that I winced every time I pressed the shutter. And Peter likes to hug the microphone stand making it somewhat challenging to find the angle. But I was content with what I got. Also singer songwriter Ane Brun opened up for Peter Gabriel.

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Semi Precious Weapons are glamour and rock. Right now they are opening up for Lady Gaga with a record about to drop in June. Its only  a matter of time before they really blow up. If you get a chance to see them don’t miss it.

I’ve been covering the guys for a couple years now but they have been part of the NYC rock scene way before that. They are always a joy to shoot on and off stage. The first time I met Justin Tranter (lead singer)  was on the red carpet and he was awesome to shoot. Since then I’ve gotten to know they guys at their shows, jewelry events (Justin has a line called Fetty) and various red carpet events. But its their rock shows that have to be witnessed. These photos just scratch the surface of  how awesome they are.

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Two guitar legends, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck played at Madison Square Garden. The shoot was pretty straight forward. They put us way back at the sound board and there was no riser. So I had to find a hole between the other photogs and the audience to grab shots. Note to self: bring a small stool aka a turtle or the hard case for the lens to stand on. But the shoot was honestly kinda boring. Nothing against the music at all. Clapton sat for the first  two songs that we had. They brought us back for a couple songs when Jeff Beck joined him onstage. Pretty much the standard stuff: two guys standing with guitars.

I was borrowing the Canon 400mm 2.8 for the shoot. That thing is a monster. On average I was shooting  at 1200 ISO f/3.5 1/320.