It might’ve been the day after Valentine’s Day, but Challenge Stadium was packed with declarations of love on signs, tshirts and skin as Fall Out Boy came to town for the second time, bringing with them All American Rejects, and Decaydance stablemates Hey Monday. I’m fairly confident that apart from the parents waiting out in the cafeteria, I was one of the oldest people there, at the grand old age of 24.

Hey Monday

I was a bit late getting in to the arena for Hey Monday, and didn’t get a chance to put my earplugs in before I started shooting. Ow. A quick retreat back to my bag after the first song reunited me with my little yellow foamy buddies, and saved at least a little bit of my hearing.

Hey Monday

Hey Monday weren’t exactly my bag, I must say. I don’t buy much into the ‘Hot Topic’ style of pop punk bands that are going around, and these guys were the most cutesy, most youthfully exuberant of them all. Good looking kids though, got a couple of nice shots, despite the ever-present ‘not enough light, too much action’ problem that plagues these sorts of gigs.

Hey Monday

All American Rejects

The lighting for AAR started off terrible, with dull purple, blue and red washes. That gave way to concentrated spotlight heat and deep shadows. Not much more interesting.  Thankfully the lights eventually kicked in nice and strong, which was a lifesaver once energetic frontman Tyson Ritter left the mic stand behind and worked the stage.

All American Rejects

I was actually fairly pleasantly surprised by AAR. All I’d heard from them was their single ‘Gives You Hell’, which is getting a fair bit of airplay in Australia at the moment. I know it’s bad form to judge a band by one song, but y’know. The set was full of energy, humour, liberal use of the word ‘motherfucker’, and far better songs than ‘Gives You Hell’. But hey, a photographer enjoying a visually entertaining band? No surprises there.

All American Rejects

Fall Out Boy

I’m gonna use the old cliche: their old stuff is better than their new stuff. But regardless, it’s undeniable that the chaps from Fall Out Boy are masters at delivering an entertaining live show, and that Patrick Stump’s powerhouse vocals are in a league of their own. They walked out to about 30 seconds of strobe lighting, during which I sprayed, prayed, and mainly failed. The one big thing I learnt during this set was that being out of practice doesn’t do a lot for the quality of my work. A year and a half ago I wouldn’t have even blinked at the prospect of shooting an active band in a stadium setting. I was shooting venues with terrible lighting week in, week out, so stadium lighting was always going to be infinitely better. It’s February, and I’ve only shot three gigs this year so far, including this one, so to call me ‘rusty’ would be an understatement. So instead of waiting for the moment to come to me, I spent most of the set following Pete Wentz around, hoping to nail at least a couple of shots where he was in focus. The other thing I learnt was that all those people who whinge about the AF on the 5D were kinda right. The smoke made it hunt far more than I would have liked.

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy

It was a fairly cruisy three songs, dragged out by a mexican wave after after the second song. Only three of us in the pit, so definitely not crowded. No crowdsurfers, though there was a steady stream of kids being pulled out due to heat exhaustion. About the biggest obstacle was the cheeky security guard spraying me with his water gun thingy. Water on me is fine, water on the camera is not so fine.

Fall Out Boy

I wasn’t happy with the photos when I got home. They’re ok, but I expected better. I generally like to expose a little on the ‘hot’ side, which when combined with the smoke left a bit of a washed-out mess. Fair bit of burning-in required. Had to submit the photos straight away, so didn’t have time to tweak the shots as much as I’d like to, but you get that. I like to take my time with the black and whites, but I wasn’t prepared to stay up til all hours of the morning to do so!

Check out more photos from the show at the FasterLouder gallery.

Fall Out Boy

Next confirmed gig at this stage is Soundwave on March 2nd, but I hope to sneak in a couple of smaller gigs before then. I hear Nine Inch Nails have a pretty questionable lighting setup, so I better get my sea legs again before tackling that one.