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!
