Tonight I shot two acts at the Play:STL festival, a three-day festival held in the Loop. While I wasn't familiar with the bands before, I thoroughly enjoyed photographing King Thief and Modern Day Zero in their outdoors sets. With sets starting at 5:00 and 6:10, respectively, both bands benefited from sweet light on the West-facing stage.
Modern Day Zero
In the above shot, Modern Day Zero's Zach Broderick on guitar strikes the perfect pose for the Tokina 12-24mm f/4. While the ultra-wide is normally too slow for indoor concert photography, daylight provided a great opportunity to use the Tokina. Free access to the front of the stage to get up-close and personal with the bands made use of the wide-angle a must for high-impact shots.
King Thief
The Tokina 12-24mm f/4 and Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 provided the majority of the evening's best shots, while the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 was useful for a few close-ups. While indoor shows often necessitate ISO 800 and above, shooting at ISO 200 was a nice luxury for today's outdoor performances.
For the complete sets from these gigs, check out the images on Flickr:
