Oh yes, I get the oldies but goodies. Let’s see, Joan Jett, The B52’s, Cyndi Lauper, and some other people, including Wanda Sykes? Yeah, and that dude from Queer Eye, Carson Kressley. There were a few more acts, though I was only able to make it to the last two (The B52’s and Cyndi). Apparently Joan Jett was getting electrocuted by her mic, a sight I was distraught to miss.
We were told we could shoot the first two songs (from the soundboard, no less… I guess Cyndi is not a fan of those damn close-ups) and the encore. I love it when they do that, because it means we’re allowed to stay the whole show as long as we sit like quiet little children with our cameras down. Granted, I wouldn’t have been devastated to get the boot, since the lineup was not really down my alley. Maybe Coldplay will let me shoot the encore? Yeah right… maybe they’ll even pull a Kanye. Although to be quite honest, Coldplay has been slightly overplayed lately. I don’t think I’ve seen hype like this since…. Jesus, is that you?
Anyways, here are a few photos from the concert…
This is how far away we were. Ideal distance for shooting acts of a certain generation, I suppose… Good thing I was hooked up with a mighty 400mm 2.8 lens. Woohoo! Not woohoo for the bruises on my shoulder the next day from carrying that thing. Not complaining too much though, I would love to borrow it more often!
Cyndi left the stage after Girls just want to have fun, could’ve been a song after that, not too sure, but my point is that she clearly played one of her major hits, so we’re thinking “Ok, she’s closing with that, and is going to start her encore” because she clearly walked off the stage, the lights on stage turned off and a few minutes passed. People had started exiting, and I’m pretty sure they were screaming for an encore as usual. So she comes back out and we look at the media rep (who is super nice!) and she kind of nods that we can start shooting again. I walked a few steps with my telescope, I mean, lens, and start shooting, when a lady comes by and asks me “who are you with?”. I tell her, and she asks somewhat rudely whether I was told that I could only shoot the first two songs. Yes, I was, but also the encore, correct? “Oh, this is NOT the encore!” At that point she sees the other photogs shooting away and goes toward them trying to get everyone to stop! I guess she was one of Cyndi’s people. It’s funny how they make such a big deal out of it… No harm, no foul, it was an honest mistake from the media person, but to her credit, it did LOOK like an encore.
Nothing against Wanda Sykes, but what the hell is she doing there? I have shots from some of the other folks there but I’m feeling blah about those. Maybe for a later post… Also, interesting, Perez Hilton, who I’m about to take off my links because his posts suck lately, just put up a photo of a naked Kate Pierson (the redhead gal in the photo) from The B52’s.
Again, I only caught the last two acts, and from where I was, they seemed alright…energetic, working the stage. Cyndi went into the crowd, got up on chairs, high-fived “the gays”… their words, not mine, and when one lady asked for her autograph, Cyndi politely said, “I’m working baby”. Yes, I hated it when people do that when I’m working…. The crowd was eating up the whole thing, especially the one dude emphatically agreeing that YES, girls do in fact want to have fun while flailing his limbs in an uncalled for manner.
I haven’t been to any other concerts recently, but I want to get back out there again this weekend and see what’s smaller gigs are going on locally.
