I never had the opportunity to photograph My Chemical Romance in the glory days of the hugely theatric Black Parade days, when the band was rocking out with spotlights, costumes, and all that glorious high production.
But photographers: Never fear. The band is still a blast to shoot. But you better come prepared, or they will destroy you.
Photographer's Notes:
I'm convinced that My Chemical Romance is just one of those bands that loves crazy, spazzy lighting. Sort of like Dillinger Escape Plan or Underoath, just less extreme.
But don't think I'm complaining – the band has such a tight live performance that it's still a thrill to photograph them. You just have to bring your A-game.
Cameras Used:
Lenses Used:
Overall, the band's high-energy energy performance was both a blessing and a curse – tons of movement, dim-ish lighting, and general chaos in the pit all combined for a tough job. On the flipside, this same fantastic intensity made for lots of photo opportunities – if one was fast enough to catch them.
The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 was easily the champion of this show, and handled most of the heavy duties on the Nikon D3. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 was useful for a few longer shots, but legendary as the midrange for usefulness at this MCR show.
Mikey Way is probably the easiest subject of the band – he moves around enough to make things interesting, but not enough that tracking was ever an issue (like it was for his bro Gerard). Also, Mikey rocks the power stance pretty much all the time, so be wins bonus points there, too. Gerard is a close second because of the bright hair, though.
Lighting was much better than MCR's previous tour, which was humbling to say the least, but still consisted of lots of quick backlighting that flared up and lit up the haze beautifully. Since most of the lighting comes from the house rig, the details of the front and back lighting will be up to your venue. At the Pageant, the front lights are so high up that they weren't great for catching Gerard at the front of the stage, but your gig may be different.
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