I’ve been shooting for a few years now, and Perth’s not exactly a huge town, so it’s a new thing to come across a venue I haven’t shot at before. The latest installment of Myspace’s Secret Show series was taking place at HQ, the main dedicated all-ages venue in Perth. Being that most bands will play 18+ shows as well as all-ages I tend to go to those shows instead. However, Gyroscope aren’t ‘most bands’ and I was more than willing to brave the unknown and take on the role of Myspace shooter for the day.

-MORE UNDER THE CUT-

The second pants-wettingly good tour of the year has been announced. The Stereophonics are touring their ‘Pull The Pin’ album in April/May, meaning I get to see Matchbox Twenty and The Stereophonics in the same month. Matchbox Twenty have been one of my favourite bands since I was about 15, but I’d missed them for some reason each time they’d toured, so I wasn’t going to miss them this time. I’m shooting it, as far as I know, but I still bought a ticket so I could bask in 3rd-row glory and carry on with my friends like we were teenagers again. I saw the Stereophonics on their last tour in 2005, they’re one of my top 3 favourite bands of all time, and I’d probably rate that concert as one of my favourites ever. When you’ve got so much emotional investment in the songs, nothing beats standing in the middle of a crowd of like-minded people, singing til you go hoarse.

I was ‘pre-publication’ at the time, so had to shoot from the crowd with my little Olympus C-740 (read the review to see what I was up against). Security were being REALLY tough on cameras, so I only had tiny windows in which to take a few quick shots. A majority of them were taken at ISO400, 1/10 from memory.

The results ended up a little bit like THIS and THIS. Not bad, considering, but I’m positively itching to be let loose on them with ‘real’ gear.

I’m not really the type to make a big song-and-dance when I get published anywhere, but I defy anyone not to get excited upon seeing one of their photos in Rolling Stone for the very first time:

That set of photos is distributed by their record company, so they’ve been popping up anywhere and everywhere. I still feel a little guilty over the fact I got paid to hang out with one my favourite bands for an afternoon and take photos of them. But I’m glad they were my first RS shot, instead of some random band I had no interest in. 😀

The last couple of weeks have been full of solid work, and keeping me quite busy. The WAMis ran in mid/late Feb, and as always the festival was a big love-in for the local scene. The Panics and Karnivool walked away with a few cakes at Awards Night (‘WAMingtons’ are awarded as prizes instead of statuettes or something else similarly predictable), and Birds of Tokyo & Jebediah pulled out punchy sets. The Saturday Spectacular was bigger and better than before, with the venues being slightly less spread out than last year, making moving in between shows much more convenient. The week finished off with the Aussie Rock Celebration Concert, featuring Noiseworks, Rose Tattoo, The Angels and others. I’ve never seen so many police officers in one place.

But the BEST bit about WAMis is that it happens at the same time as PIAF (Perth International Arts Festival), and the magnificent Becks-sponsored venue is shared between the two. Like the Becks Verandah before it, the new Becks Music Box sports the same drool-worthy lighting setup. I get little twitches in January each year, knowing it’s not long til I get to shoot there again. It really is THAT good.

Sugar Army, Becks Music Box

Jebediah, WAMi Awards Night, Becks Music Box

Last weekend the Soundwave festival rolled into town, the last stop on the tour. Unfortunately for the mainly black-clad crowd, it was a 34 degree day, so the first aid staff were kept pretty busy treating people pulled out of the pit with heatstroke. Other than that, it was a pretty enjoyable day. The setup was similar to a Big Day Out, but on a much smaller scale, meaning I didn’t have to spend 15 minutes battling through crowds only to find out I’d missed my 3-song allocation. My personal favourites on the day were Socratic, As Tall As Lions, and Kevin Devine, and I spent as much time as I could soaking up the indie/acoustic vibe of the acts on Stage 3. I didn’t go near the ‘metal’ stage all day except walking past it when I arrived, and again when I left. There was a problem with the reviewer, so I had the double job of photo/review sprung on me halfway through the afternoon. Relatively hard task when you know nothing about any of the bands, but luckily I had knowledgeable friends who helped me out with setlists and handy tidbits of info. I did ALRIGHT in the photo department, I was expecting a little better of myself, but I get a bit stressed out when I know I have to write about a show (miles outta my comfort zone), so I’m putting the lack of super-quality down to that.

Tyson, Scary Kids Scaring Kids

Geoff Rickly, Thursday

Brandon Boyd, Incubus

So coming up on the agenda is Operation Beehive’s CD launch at Amplifier, and also potentially Thirsty Merc, then the week after I’m doing the Gyroscope Secret Show for Myspace, which I’m really rather stoked about, and THEN the Colors’ EP launch. Lots of fun on the horizon.

Hey there, and welcome to my new website and blog! Big big thanks to Alex MacRae for putting it all together for me.  He’s pretty much a genius, and ridiculously multi-talented.

For those who don’t know me, my name’s Jacinta, I do a whole lot of live music photography, and some other stuff when it takes my fancy. I shoot for Drum Media, and I’m out and about pretty much every weekend, either shooting or watching my favourite local bands. I don’t have an overly interesting story, sorry. And I’m very much self taught, so I’m in no way a font of knowledge when it comes to shooting live gigs. I just do it. I really don’t think about it that hard. But if you have any questions or comments, do send em through. Mainly just so I know people are actually reading…*cough*

Just a reminder that all older content can still be found at http://mojojay.wordpress.com/ . I’ll be leaving that up as long as WordPress lets me I guess.