October 18, 2008 – Storming the stage in support of Cobra Starship, Dallas power pop group Forever The Sickest Kids laid down a devastating set of upbeat antics and controlled chaos on stage for the Sassy Back tour.
Singer Jonathan Cook led the charge on lead vocals, spending the majority of the performance dominating the speaker monitors at the front of the stage.
Six-strong, the FTSK were in constant motion throughout the set, thrashing out the fresh jams in the perfect setup for the Sassy Back headliners.
Photographer’s Notes:
Flat out, this was a fun set to photograph. With six band members on stage, it full was a full house at Pop’s, with no shortage of interesting subjects for this set. FTSK brought a tremendous amount of energy to the stage, and I was sprinting to keep up.
Lighting was generally pretty good, with lots of warm backlighting throughout the show. I used a wireless flash setup for this performance, with speedlights stage right and left. Overall, these flashes helped with definition and adding separation, particularly with the band members at the front of the stage.
Even though the photo pit for this show was filled with crates and the band’s monitors, there was just enough room in the pit for free movement without too many traffic jams with the other photogs and security.
I used the Nikon D3, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 14-24mm for this set, with the SB-900 as commander to the two SB-600s on stage. Due to the frenetic performance and close quarters, the 70-200mm stayed in the bag.
I have to say, without the aid of wireless flash, this set would have been a very different experience. With the no-frills lighting treatment that FTSK received, flash was certainly a nice benefit for this show.
End Notes:
A big thanks and shout out to Forever The Sickest Kids for a great performance and for letting me use speedlights during this set.
Stay tuned for Cobra Starship’s set to round out the Sassy Back tour!
13 Comments Add your own
1. Jessie | October 20th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I was about to go to bed until I see this. This set literally sends me jumping up and down with adrenaline pumping, seriously, Todd. Funny thing, it was actually through FTSK that I found out about your site. Anyways, here we go. This set is really different from what I’ve seen of the Kids so far, it’s pretty awesome. I love how you shot every band member and not focus on Jonathan/Caleb. I’m digging the hairflip of Austin - that’s a pretty cool shot. Love the close-ups from JCook, always so energized. I love this one of Kyle… nicely captured with his expression. This just makes me dying to see them in November… the wait is long.
I see that flash is treating you well :D
2. Todd | October 20th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hey Jessie,
Glad you saw this set! How is it different? Do photographers normally just photograph Johnathan and Caleb? Austin was a tough character to photograph, but I’m glad I got one solid shot of him, even with a little cool action.
These guys put on a great show, you’ll have a blast.
Oh, and how did you find me through FTSK? From the Warped Tour backstage shots?
3. Jessie | October 21st, 2008 at 12:04 am
Yeah I saw the backstage shoot you did on their MySpace. Haha I can imagine, Austin moves around a lot and make funny faces. JCook and Caleb get lots of attention, and usually photos of Kent and Marc are rare. And I suppose this is probably the first set that I have seen sooo professionally photographed. And your composition is different, other shots I’ve seen consist of close up bodies. So yeah.
4. Todd | October 21st, 2008 at 12:34 am
Hey Jessie,
Gotcha. Just looked up FTSK’s Myspace and saw my shot from Warped Tour on there. 200 comments, who knew.
Just added a shot of Kent to the main inline set.
Thanks again!
5. George K | October 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
Could you do a primer on using speed lights during live performances? I assume you use Pocket wizards attached to bare flashes, but it would be interesting to find out what kind of settings you use. How you keep them from being obnoxious to the fans and the band? Do you use light modifiers? Stuff like that.
There are a few venues that have the worst lighting ever that I regularly shoot at and would benefit from a speedlight set up.
Thanks
-g-
6. Todd | October 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hey George,
I plan on doing an article on using flash for concerts at some point, especially since I’ve been using it more and more myself recently.
For this set, I used Nikon’s “Creative Lighting System” (CLS) for wireless flash, which uses IR to transmit signals, rather than radio.
I’ll see what I can do about an article on flash, I’m sure I’ll have a chance to write that in the down season if I don’t get to it sooner!
7. Alex | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
Todd - It was great to meet you that night. Your pictures turned out great as usual. Ashley and I shot Denver a couple nights later and are definitely jealous of your speedlight set up. They certainly would have been helpful in that lighting. Hopefully I’ll run into you at shows in the future. Take care.
-Alex
8. Todd | October 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hi Alex, nice to meet you, too, and thanks for the feedback. How was the Denver show? I’d love to photograph these guys again.
9. Cobra Starship | ishootsh&hellip | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
[...] Starship is headliningg the Sassy Back Tour, with support from Forever The Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights, and Sing It [...]
10. Chris | October 24th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
This set is hella dope — I’m definitely going to check them out. Plus, I love their hair, and if I love a bands’ hair, I am sure I will love their music.
Picks! 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 16, 17, and 20. My favorites are 3 and 9; I love the energy in 3 and the close up of 9 - the framing is tight, both figuratively and literally. Cook looks like a very photographic subject and you did a nice job keeping up.
Also, great shot of the drummer , and 1 , 2 others of Cook. Nice job, and I think the speedlites really did the trick.
11. Todd | October 24th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Hey Chris, thanks for picks for this set. The speedlights were a great asset for this set, no doubt. It would have been a much different approach in many respects without them.
12. Rosa | November 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
great pictures! i was wondering if you knew the setlist for this show.
13. Todd | November 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Thanks, Rosa. I think I might have the setlist for this show, let me check…
speak up
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