June 25, 2009 – The Avett Brothers brought their bluegrass and folk-tinged rock show to the Pageant, delighting a wildly enthusiastic crowd with a 90 minute set that had fans on their feet and begging for more.
Photographer's Notes:
The Avett Brothers were the opening act of the first concert I photographed, so when I heard that they were playing the Pageant, I knew I had to photograph the show. In contrast to the small bar/club where I caught them years ago, the Pageant offered the band a much larger stage and a much more sophisticated lighting rig at their disposal.
The stage setup for the band for this show was relatively tight, with a row of speaker monitors at the front of the stage and mics setup a few feet behind those. The relatively close space between the band members meant that clean angles were difficult at times, but nothing that a little maneuvering didn't help. To this end, the Nikon 70-200mm was a great help for isolating band members.
For the most part, lighting for this concert was quite good in terms of atmosphere. Lots of cool backlighting contrasted very warm light from the front, while magenta and reds provided occasional accents.
While I started off shooting with the 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 primes, I later switched to the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8, bumping the ISO to 3200.
Here's an overall shot so you all can see how the band is setup:
If you're curious, here's a snap from that first gig with the Avett Brothers:
End Notes:
Thanks to Stephanie for setting up credentials on this anniversary of sorts. It was great to photograph the Avett Brothers again, and especially satisfying to see that they have not only grown into larger venues, but with an adoring fanbase to fill them.
