Ok, this was interesting! Pete at work let me know about this gig and dragged me down. It was at a venue called The Lughole, on Arundel Street. We’d never heard of it! Turns out it’s a little DIY space used for punk gigs. Basically a concrete box with a stage, a PA and a bar; a perfect venue for the Iron Sphincter. After an extended video intro about “Heinrich Von Pummelschaftt” a “tyrannical insecure madman, third generation clone of a certain German genetic scientist from the 1940’s” and how we was creating bands with Zombies. Crazy!
Anyway the band shambled onto the stage and presented me with a sudden problem. They were too close! I’ve been taking most of my photos with a 50mm prime lens and I just couldn’t get the space I needed to get the shots I wanted. The band show also included 2-3 ‘handlers’ on stage at the same time, who looked great but their dark clothing made them hard to photograph and made the stage quite tight for getting good shots. The quickly increasing humidity and smoke machine started causing problems as well meaning I was really unhappy with most of the shots I was getting. I’ve also not really developed the confidence to get in the way of the audience for shots either, and it was pretty heaving down at the front of this gig.
Still, after some judicious heavy handed use of Lightroom, I managed to salvage quite a few more photos than I expected!
