Archive for December, 2009

Diana Krall @ Sala Kongresowa, Warszawa – 6 XI 2009

Pretty tough gig to photograph. Not much really going on and the musicians were pretty static. Lights were also a challenge as Diana had a very bright light on her (and because she’s a blond it all mixed up into one-of-a-hell-burned-image) while the rest was lit by much more darker lights. And people are always asking me, why all my concerts are done on the “manual setting“. That why…

Despite that, I still think that Diana’s photo with her hair floating is a really good one. It’s not a typical concert photo, and is a little bit dreamy, but I like it. One of the very few things I shot this year, and still, after two months, I find it OK.

The photos are dedicated to my mates from the Photomafia who went to the gigs. Unfortunately, without their cameras…

Also, this one is dedicated to you all:

Enjoy the Christmas break, with your families, friends or just alone. I hope you’re all happy and are resting a bit before all the challenges in the 2010!

The pics were done for Wp.pl .

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Monotonix @ Cogitatur, Katowice – 18 XII 2009

What you get when you cross 3 Israelites, a moustache and some heavy, Black Sabbath-inspired riffs? Nothing?

Fear not, because a combination of such exist under the name of Monotonix and is one of the most crazy concert teams I’ve ever seen! Having no idea what they were I was invited by Jarek Szubrycht to catch their gig at Off Festival this year. So me and my mates went and…wait, wait. Is the crowd caring the percussion and then the drummer? Why is the vocalist sticking the microphone up his ass? Why the band is inside the crowd? Why all the security guards have eyes as big as the 5 zł coins?

I was so happy to hear that the band is playing in Poland again. Unfortunately, I had some commitments in Trójmiasto and wasn’t able to attend the show, but Joanna Combik, armed with her 5D camera and her beloved fisheye lens managed not only to take some awesome shots of the band, but also bring a great souvenir from the gig – a bruise around her eye after a close encounter with the vocalist’s shoe! Talk about concert photography being all nice and sweet.

Short glimpse of what this madness is like:

Do I have to recommend it again?:)

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Fucked Up @ Loch Ness, Kraków – 30 XI 2009

They simply destroy and are nothing that you’ve seen before. Total annihilation, destruction, crossing the boundaries and proving that a line, between the band and their crowd, should never, ever exist. And they put up a great show too! Love to watch the vids from their destruction of the MTV studios!

However, I expected a full-house and entered the venue with…15 people inside. Thought all the announced crowd from the forums will show after CF98 and The Black Tapes (who were supporting Fucked Up) but there were really few people for such a band. Fucked Up played at Off Festival in August and they put up such a schow, that almost all the people I talked too, put the Canadian team on their Top 5 list. Was is the price of the ticket (which, in my opinion, was decent), the time (Monday) or something else that was not right. I will never know…

The pics were done for Onet.pl and Wp.pl.

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Everyting Is Made In China & NeLL @ Pod Jaszczurami, Kraków – 6 XII 2009

Really, really dark stuff – the first band, Nell, had some decent lighting, and for Everything Is Made In China…let me say that there was a projector aimed at the drummer. Nothing more, nothing less. I thought that was the worst of what I’ve seen in December, but the gig I’ve shot the next day put the EIMIC guys to shame. High ISO, long times and were off – that’s how you should approach the Russian rockers!

Everything Is Made In China played a very good gig – not the usual post-rock(full of serious themes and so on) but a quite warm blend of rock and experimental noises with vocals. Highly recommended cure for all the serious-and-mogwai-to-be-post-rockers-and-guitar-bands.

The pics were done for Onet.pl. Also big thanks go out to Bartek Borowicz.

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Gogol Bordello @ Rotunda, Kraków – 9 XII 2009

Just 2 hours before the gig I’ve got a phone call that I would be doing it (my friend who was assigned to do it had a serious problem that day). So there I was, me, my camera and my little photo ladder squashed in the photo pit. It was one of the most crowded, soundsystem(the barriers of the pit touched the speakers leaving us almost no place to walk..) packed pits I’ve ever been to. I had to leave my ladder in the pit’s entry and made some use of it later, while shooting the overall view from the crowd and later from Rotunda’s balcony.

We were really near the band so all the pics are shot using the 17-55 (the overalls from the balcony were shot with a 50 mm). Really, there was no need of putting a larger zoom. If only I could bring the ladder into the pit to gain me some extra centimetres…There are rumors that Gogols are coming back. Maybe then I can shot them from a “different point of view” but don’t want to worry about it now. Currently I’m flipping through some stuff from 09 and I’ll be putting some past gigs up here like Glasvegas, Fucked Up, Chris Botti, Samael, Diana Krall and more.

The pics were done for Onet.pl to illustrate Marcin Gnat‘s review of the gig. You can read it here.
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