Wednesday 1 November 2023

The Beaches At MTelus

We've already arrived in November, which means that Rock-tober has officially come to an end.  But what a Rock-tober it was here on The Old Blog.  We ended up shooting four concerts, and what better way to bring the curtain down on our musical month than with a show by The Beaches.  It was the great Dick Clark who would often say that music is the soundtrack of our lives.  I certainly believe that to be true, and if there was to be a special album that would be dedicated to my time as a concert photographer, the side one, track one song would have to belong to The Beaches.  Though I had already photographed several outdoor concerts put together by some local communities, my very first official photo pass was given to me for a show by The Beaches almost five years ago.  I'd like to think I've grown a little bit as a photographer during that time, but there is no doubt that The Beaches have grown as a band.  They've gone from headlining the Studio TD to probably the second most prestigious concert hall in town, the MTelus.  It's been said that adversity is a great teacher, and The Beaches have certainly been through some adverse situations over the last few years.  They changed managers, were dropped by their record label and gone through some relationship issues.  However, The Beaches took all of that adversity and used it to produce what is probably their best album to date, Blame My Ex, which was released in September of this year.  The lead single, Blame Brett, spent four weeks at the top of Billboard's Canada Rock Chart, and has led to a very popular tour.  So popular, that every date of their current tour across Canada has been met with Sold Out signs at venue doors.  The Beaches have gone down a hard road, but come out on the other side even better for it.  Speaking of the other side, while the other photographers and myself were waiting between sets, we were joined outside by a group of friends of The Beaches who were in town to take in the show.  One of them, Nolan, ended up getting separated from the group which led to some goodhearted fun as we jokingly asked each other where Nolan was for the rest of the evening.  Most people look for Waldo, but we were looking for Nolan.  Hope he enjoyed the show...if he didn't get lost going through the crowd....just kidding. The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 41mm, the second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 6400 at 24mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took of their performance.

f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 6400 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 6400 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 6400 at 41mm
f/3.2, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 45mm
f/3.2, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 30mm
f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 57mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 42mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 44mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 38mm
f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 45mm
f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm
f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm
f/3.2, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 31mm
f/3.2, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 33mm
f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 28mm
f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm
f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm
f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

If you'd like to find out more about The Beaches and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you'd like to see the photographs of Beach Weather, who performed earlier in the evening, you can do so by following the link.  A big thank you to Laurie Lee Boutet of Wednesday Management and Brendan Fitzgerald of Arts & Crafts for getting me a pass to shoot the show.  As always, it is very much appreciated.  The Beaches certain appear to be at the top of their game at the moment.  They gave me my first shot as a concert photographer and will continue to support them no matter what, even if they were to go disco (please don't).  As mentioned, their current tour across Canada is already sold out, but if you have the chance to see them, don't you dare miss out.

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