When Lemmy asked, “If you want us to play louder, put both of your arms in the air right now,” 4000 limbs shot up without hesitation.
Photographer's Notes:
This show was insanely loud. I think my brain is still rattling. I was wearing my normal Hearos (32dB NRR) and a set of ear muffs (26dB NRR) for a total of 58dB rating. Even with that protection, Motorhead's performance still was louder than just about any other show I've seen.
The lighting for this gig was very challenging, with a huge amount of backlighting. Combined with a generous amount of haze, Lemmy and crew were left bathed in a low-contrast treatment in terms of visibility.
One important factor for this show was the depth of the band's setup. There was a pair of monitors setup facing the audience at the front of the stage in addition to the band's own monitors, so band played back a good 3+ meters from the edge of the stage.
As a result, I relied on the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for most of the set. The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 came out for a little work, but the distance to the band didn't require a very wide field of view.
The stage dynamic for this show was interesting, as Lemmy and guitarist Phil Campbell basically stayed glued to their mics for vocal duties, but split off whenever they could. Due to the distance to the performers, the shots of the guys at their mics weren't that dynamic, so the main challenge for this set was shooting when they left their positions to rock out closer to the front of the stage
I shot this set at ISO 3200 and f/2.8, with a range of shutter speeds between 1/30 and 1/200.
