Million Dollar Band

As previously mentioned when last we spoke earlier this week, last Saturday night was spent in Saint-Lambert listening to some live music.  The main event was the Sylvain Cossette All-Star Band, but I was most looking forward to seeing the band that was playing just before them, the Million Dollar Band.  The main reason being that one of the members of the band is an old neighbour.  It was My Lovely Assistant who first spotted his name in the local newspaper as the promotional material for the event had named the band after him.  A small gaffe that his band mates and friends haven't let him forget.  The show began at 7:00PM and we got on the site nice and early, about forty minutes before the show was to begin.  We got there so early that I ended up getting way closer to the stage than I thought I would be.  It was so unexpected that I never even bothered to bring my wide-angle lens with me, thinking I'd be behind a large group of people and thus limited to using my telephoto.  Cue the kind heart of My Lovely Assistant who jumped back onto her bicycle and raced back home to get my missing lens, and managing to make it back before the show began.  Which brings me to a bit of a moral question I'd like to ask.  Since we arrived so early, and this was a free show given in the middle of the street without any assigned seating, I staked claim to a spot about 15 feet from the stage, in the middle of the street.  As we got closer to show time, more and more people began to show up, but rather than stand for the show, they mostly began to set up lawn chairs on the street so they could sit and watch.  Enter this couple who decided the ideal spot to watch the show while sitting down would be directly behind me.  Those of you who know me are well aware that I am a six-foot plus mountain of a photographer, thus making it rather easy to see that it might be difficult to see if you are sitting down directly behind me.  Sure enough, the music starts and I hear a whistling sound.  I see it's the same couple whistling at me, telling me to move because they can't see.  Now, I didn't really appreciate their manner, so I half felt like telling them that I had been standing in that spot for over a half hour and then ask what they were thinking when they chose to sit down directly behind me.  But, it was still early, and there was a little space to the right of the stage that I planned on using anyway, so I turned, gave them a long look and moved.  Did I do the right thing?  I didn't feel like causing a scene, but I also don't feel that I was in the wrong.  Oddly enough, the same thing happened later that night, but this time the offending party got told exacly where they could go by My Lovely Assistant.  Okay, that ends my little rant.  Getting back to the main subject, the Million Dollar Band play some old classic rock and roll songs, as well as some of their own original songs as well.  One of my favourite moments as a photographer was being able to grab a shot of the drummer with his drum stick in the air.  Not something that is always easy to do when you're stuck using slow shutter speeds due to the lack of available light.  I really enjoyed their set and I think that all of the others who came out that night did as well.  The first photograph of this group was taken at f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 145mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 63mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/9, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 70mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 70mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the show.

f/9, 1/80sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

 

f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

 

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 67mm

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 68mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 65mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 65mm

Phew, that was a lot of photographs.  I guess I kind of got carried away.  If I managed to get fourteen photographs out of the opening act, plus all of the others that didn't make the cut, you may now understand why I decided to split up the headliners into several different groups.  What can I say, I was having a good time and got a little carried away with my trigger finger.  I'm sure that it happens to the best of  us.