Santa is on stage playing an electric guitar, there’s confetti stuck to my lens hood, Andrew Volpe is leading the crowd through a chorus of rocked out power pop, and I’m trying to figure out if the last song was about pterodactyls. That’s right, kids: Ludo is in town.
The St. Louis natives extended the Christmas season in a sold-out hometown show December 27 that brought included a dancing ensemble of elves, Mrs. Claus, confetti-filled balloons, giant candy canes, and poinsettias flying through the air.
In a surprise turnout for both the venue and even the band, Ludo drew a rabidly enthusiastic crowd that swelled to 2200, half of which bought tickets the day of the show. With strong opening performances from The Hush Sound, Quietdrive, and Nothing Still, the audience was ideally primed for the headlining performance to come.
Churning through a set that pushed right up until minutes of curfew, the local-boys done good had the crowd singing along from start to finish, spurred on by Volpe’s constant mugging and operatic gestures.
Dressed in a dapper three-piece suit, Volpe dominated the stage with a mix of infectious charisma and exaggerated rockstar moves. The frontman rocked the whole gambit, from the power stance to the home-run finger point, as he carved out power chords and delivered everything the fans wanted.
Tim Ferrell on guitar and backing vocals delivered a no-nonsense performance that still displayed obvious relish in his solos and chugging melodies. The guitarist often played facing Marshall Fanciullo across the stage on bass. Fanciullo was the least visible member of the band, preferring the mid-stage to the front, but his bouncing notes cooly drove the anthems from beyond the spotlight.
Stage right, Tim Convy rocked the moog and keyboard from behind a faux fireplace, hyping the crowd with hand claps all while smashing away at enough effects pedals for a lead guitarist.
Matt Palermo kept up a driving beat throughout the night in a tight, crunchy style that was still splashy in all the right places.
I don’t know whether it was the seasonal cheer, the love for hometown-heros, or just a perfectly constructed set of driving power pop, but this was nothing but a feel-good set. The perfect way to close down a year of shows.
Shooting Notes:
For the third time in a month, I had the chance to shoot a show with my brother, fellow concert photographer Chris Owyoung of OneLouderPhoto.com. A month before, we’d photographed VHS or Beta in NYC and then Modern Day Zero in St. Louis. Back on my home turf, we’d decided to hit Ludo’s performance to round out the year with one last show.
To our surprise and delight, the performance was a complete blast, with big performance all around in a celebratory mood fitting of the season. And truly, I’m an easy sell: any show with confetti canons is A-list in my book.
This was definitely one of the more fun experience of concert photography that I’ve had. If Ludo is playing a well-lit venue near you, definitely check them out. As long as the lights cooperate, you’re in for a fun show.
Lighting:
Overall, the lighting schemes for the set were very straight forward, with no real surprises. The show was marked with fairly plain white light from the front that waned during the middle, but made a strong showing at the start and end of the show.
Complimenting this white light was an array of colored backlighting that drew strongly on blues, oranges, and cool white light.
Camera Settings:
Though the set was pretty evenly lit, this event was a perfect test for the D3 given the three openers and unlimited shooting time for Ludo. I shot between ISO 200 and 6400 for the majority of the set, with ISO 3200 in particular seeing a lot of action.
Thanks to the great high ISO performance of the D3, I shot comfortably at 1/160 and higher, wit a large portion of shots at 1/200 and 1/250.
Lenses:
I relied solely on zooms for this gig, with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 seeing the most use. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 also saw some limited action, but the midrange zoom dominated the performance with its utilitarian focal range.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 14-24, 24-70, a very ludo, andrew volpe, concert photographer, concert photography, d3, images, ludo, nikon, pageant, photographs, photos, power pop, st. louis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
[...] Warding off the cold, Quietdrive laid down a tight, half-hour set that had the 2200 bodies in the Pageant bouncing to the band’s bright pop punk melodies in the perfect warm-up to A Very Ludo Christmas 2007. [...]
[...] start time, one might think The Hush Sound were headlining at the Pageant December 27. Opening for Ludo in a sold out event, The Hush Sound packed the house with a legion of their own dedicated fans, who [...]
[...] Warding off the cold, Quietdrive laid down a tight, half-hour set that had the 2200 bodies in the Pageant bouncing to the band’s bright pop punk melodies in the perfect warm-up to A Very Ludo Christmas 2007. [...]
[...] bombastic pop, but our ears have been ringing with their power chords ever since. Fresh off their A Very Ludo Chrismas tour, the St. Louis-natives bounced back into town for the release of their 2008, major-label [...]
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Really fun set. I really like the wide shots of the keyboardist and the crowd. The 14-24 looks seriously fun.
Hey Chris,
The 14-24 is definitely a lot of fun – I very rarely used the Tokina 12-24 because of its slow speed, but the f/2.8 aperture and freedom with the D3 at high ISO are making me appreciate the ultra-wide all the more. Thanks for your picks, I look forward to seeing your shots from this gig.
Todd
Due to both the nature of the show and the numerous Christmas decorations in the way, I think we captured a lot of the same moments, albeit from slightly different angles. Possibly more so than the other gigs we shot together. I may have my shots up tonight.
Chris
Hey Chris,
Yeah, I imagine we will have some overlap. It would be interesting to see if this Ludo show produced more similar instances than Modern Day Zero, as we had many of the same moments for that show, too, albeit due to lighting more than obstructions.
I’ll keep an eye out of the shots.
Todd