The second concert of the night for me was Fitz and The Tantrums which took place over at the Commodore Ballroom, so it was a quick run in the nasty cold to get there. Where the City and Colour show was mellow and quiet, Fitz and The Tantrums was at the opposite end of the spectrum, fun, energetic and in your face. The lighting matched the mood as well, initially appearing on stage in pure darkness only to have bright, colourful lights beaming helped with the shoot. Because I had arrived at the venue late and there was no photo pit, I was situated in a not so great spot, but that was changed when I realized Noelle Scaggs’ setup was right in front of me and her energy was pretty incredible.

Overall a great start to the new year shooting two bands on the same night. Actual review to come soon.

Fitz and The Tantrums, Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver – Images by David Thai

Last night marked my first concert of 2012 and what a night. I didn’t catch one show, but two. The first show was City and Colour at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the second time I’ve photographed this band at this venue. This time was different from the first though, instead of letting us shoot from the front of the stage they had all the photographers situated on the sides of the stage. This definitely presented a challenge as the angles aren’t any where near great, but you just have to adapt to the situation.

Another challenge was that the band flooded the first song and a half with blue lighting, the key here was patience and waiting for key moments in the song where you know the lighting would change briefly and that definitely paid off. Because we didn’t get a chance to do too much moving around, a lot of my shots looked quite similar, but these are some of my favorites below.

City and Colour, Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver – Images by David Thai

Well, another year has gone by. 2011 seemed awfully quick and in reflecting back I didn’t feel as though it was as hectic for me, meaning I didn’t shoot as many shows in previous years. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a big year for me personally, I was lucky enough to attend Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, I also receive accreditation for other big festivals such as Lollapalooza in Chicago and Oshega in Montreal, both of which I didn’t end up attending. But, still, it was good to know that I could throw my hat into those big festivals and get some love thrown back at me. So as I do every year, here’s a look at some of my favorite photos that I was lucky enough to catch this year.

Starting with the photo up top. That’s P-Thugg, if you didn’t know. He’s one half of Chromeo and yes these dudes make it to my list, yet again. They’re live shows are extremely entertaining. On this particular tour they played back to back nights in Vancouver. All of the photographers / media folks covered the first night, their manager told me that he would slot me in for the second night. Turned out that was pretty amazing, I was the only photographer and given zero restrictions on how to photograph them. During a song change I slapped on my fish-eye and took out my Polaroid camera as well, I lined it up right in front of P-Thugg and he pointed right at me. The Polaroid version of this is quite cool as well, but it’s the colors and brief connection here that makes it a favorite of mine.

This shot right here is from the Wavves show when the California punk band rolled through with Best Coast. The venue area (not staff) was sketchy as shit as I would find out when my camera gear got stolen, no worries though I found the girl that did it. The lighting for this show was AB-SO-LUTE shit all night, but I was able to pull of some real dramatic type shots, my favorite being the one above with all the lights and all that damn fog I was amazed that I was able to pull this shot out. Thank god for my 50mm 1.4 lens on this round. Asides from stolen gear all of the photographers also had to worry about being kicked in the head from the mosh pit that was happening right directly behind us. There were some pretty tense moments but in the end I got the shots I wanted and that’s all that mattered.

No doubt that Diamond Rings has had a big 2010 / 2011. This was another one of those shows that took place in small venues with bad lighting, but the blue lighting and all the fog being spewed worked quite well for his set as it’s generally a mood driven one, with some dance highlights throughout. The one shot, above, that I got that wasn’t shot in blue or green light was during one of his more upbeat tracks and I lucky enough to time it perfectly that the white light hit his body, the next few frames of this shot quickly go from what you see above to full of red lighting, as you can see it starting to creep in the bottom corner. Kids, always be ready to shoot and make sure you have a fast lens. A lot of my favorite shots are at shows where I felt I wasn’t getting anything and then suddenly a window opens and I’m shooting like crazy to get as many as I can. Patience is key.

I have to say one of the more enjoyable concerts this year for me was actually…the Ice Cube show. Ya I know, he’s gone soft over the years and more remembered for shit like Are We There Yet?, that’s not how I choose to remember him though. I remember the N.W.A version of him, the Amerikkka’s Most Wanted version of him, Death Certificate, on and on, he’s had a lot of great albums and is a pioneer in the rap game. The previous year I was lucky enough to photograph legends Public Enemy, and then Ice Cube in 2011? I was extremely excited for the show and it seemed like there were a lot of local DJs and musicians at the show as well, none of us can deny how he helped define West Coast rap.

One of the best DJ setups that I’ve ever seen was A-Trak’s setup for his Magic 8-Ball tour. If you’ve not seen it, basically it’s a giant “A” that lights up. That’s an important detail, as the lighting up lent to some great photos. One of my favorite overall photo sets that I took this year. I also love the shot below with him diving out in the crowd. This was actually the 2nd or 3rd time he tried to dive out into the crowd, the first few times, the ladies were a little grabby. Gotta give it up to one of the best, not just best Canadian, but best DJs out there.

If A-Traks’ photo set was my favorite of the year, this set of Yelle isn’t far behind. It’s also one of the sexier sets I felt as well. Hot of the heels of their crowd-favorite performance at Coachella, I was actually quite surprised that this show wasn’t sold out. I can’t help but wonder if the language barrier (she sings in French) has something to do with it. Surprisingly as she sells out in every major city, but this is the second time she’s been to Vancouver and the second time that it wasn’t sold out. For the show I was standing dead front centre at the stage, no photo pit, and Yelle seemed to taken a liking to my camera, doing a lot of bending and making tons of eye contact with my camera. The shot above shows how close to me she really got, she’s actually on her knees on in this frame, getting down to my eye level. The depth of field on this shot is quite nice as well.

Imagine this. You’re sitting at home slightly bummed that you aren’t shooting the Usher show, but it’s okay because you have a ton of items on your to-do list that you have to knock off. 7pm rolls around and you decide to check your email, you see one from someone you don’t recognize. Click open. It’s Usher’s manager and she’s asking if you can come down to photograph the show that starts in the next hour. You get there and find out you’re the only photographer for the show and unlike most big acts in arenas, this isn’t a soundboard shoot, but a stage shoot, so you’re up close. How close you ask, so close that his sweat splatters you across the face when he takes off his leather jacket. Sounds too weird to be true eh? Except that’s exactly how it went down for me for this show. Also an amazing set of photos from the overall show, the man can entertain.

I love, love, love Sasquatch! Music Festival. The thing about the festival that I love the most isn’t actually the music part, but how accessible all the artists are for interviews and portraits. Some of my best portrait shots come from this festival and it was no different this year. I got to photograph Chromeo (again), Biffy Clyro, oh and I randomly ran into one of the best Canadian rappers, Shad on the grounds. He wasn’t even there performing, but just taking in the weekend as a fan. There’s also a Polaroid portrait of Dallas Green from City and Colour. Ya I got some good shots from the festival performances, but it’s the portraits that stand out for me.

During my quick portrait session with Chromeo, I pulled out my Polaroid camera to do a film shot as well. As the film was coming out a huge gust of wind came and blew that shit out of the camera and down into the rocks of the Gorge. I pretty much thought it was gone for good, but Dave1 jumped into action and climbed down the rocks and retrieved it. The fellas asked if they could keep it and I said sure as long as they let me take another. They ended up posting it on their blog, check that here.

As I mentioned above, this was the first year I got into Outside Lands Music Festival. It was simply amazing. The sites, the sounds, the food, the booze, the free booze and wine tasting in the media area made me wish all music festivals treated their media folks this nicely. The music was amazing, but I’m able to boil it down to these two shots are the ones that stick out in my mind. .

First is a hair flip shot of Sarah Barthel of Phantogram. I think I fell in love with this girl. No lie. Beautiful, talented and incredibly stylish. She had the crowd in the palm of her hands.

The gentlemen with the expressive scream. Yeah, that’s Charles Bradley. I was meh about about Bradley up until I saw this performance and decided to give his album a go, which ended up being on my top 10 albums of 2011. Amazing performer and you can almost see the pain and sadness in the wrinkles on his face. Pretty incredible.

There’s a few more photos I’d add to this list but this is a pretty long one already. In a nutshell, this is how my eyes and ears heard 2011. What were some of your favorite photos?

The view from the docks where I catch my boat on a daily basis to get to work.

Also test posting on my iPhone.

I’ve been experimenting and shooting with film a little bit more recently. Formats I’ve shot in are 4 x 4 and 4 x6 with various expired film. Just really testing things out and getting a general idea of how the photos are developing as I plan on taking a film camera along with my D700 when I head to Lollapalooza with my photo pass. Hoping to maybe setup some portrait time with some of the bands and taking advantage of the film camera, but that seems a bit far fetched right now. But I thought I’d share some of the stuff I’ve shot recently, feel free to critique and comment below.

Okay, as promised here are the Polaroids of the artists that I was able to photograph while there. For Dallas Green, I kind of ambushed him, hence why I only have a Polaroid shot and no other photos, but with that said he was really friendly about it as all these guys were. Also if you’ve been following my twitter you’ll also know that Chromeo actually posted one of the Polaroids I took of them on their diary, seen here. Again, a huge thank you to all the artists for their time and patience and willingness to be photographed.

There are many reasons why I love covering Sasquatch! Music Festival. The music. The women. The new friends one makes. But most of all the reason I love going and covering Sasquatch is photographing bands / musicians for portraits. It’s always fun and generally everyone is in high spirits. This year at Sasquatch I was able to catch up with Canadian MC Shad, Noah and The Whale, Biffy Clyro and last but not least CHROMEO! A huge thank you to all the artists for their time and patience and willingness to be photographed and a special thanks to Dave1 of Chromeo for saving that Polaroid that got blown by the wind!

Below are a few of the photos. I also will be doing a post of just my Polaroids as well, which include Dallas Green of City and Colour.

Posters of Robyn for a fan.