My son and I attended this year’s Art Beat. It was lovely to be out after a year of lockdowns and event cancellations. Here are some of the photos I took.
More in this album:
Art Beat 2021
Category Archives: Music
Kristin Hersh Electric Trio Photographs
I finally got around to edit the photos I took of the Kristin Hersh Electric Trio concert at ONCE in June.
I ended up using two lenses I already had: an 18-35mm and a 105mm, one f/1.8 and the other f/2.8. The 18-35mm didn’t work in the end and I used the 105mm for most of the photographs. Using burst mode, I took over 700 photos, which did help with the editing and it took a bit to cull them down to the 25 I felt were good enough.
All photographs are CC BY-SA 3.0, except for Kristin Hersh, Fred Abong, Rob Ahlers and ONCE Somerville who can use them however they wish.
You can find all 25 in this album:
Alice in Wonderland Jr.
The Somerville Musical Theater production of Alice in Wonderland was this summer. This production is organized by the Somerville Arts Council.
Here are some of the better pictures I took. The full album with higher resolution images is also available.
I tried using my Sigma 105mm macro lens at f/4.0. The ISO was higher than I would like and there were far too many blurry photographs. Hopefully the clarity correction in Lightroom helped them.
I was in the back of the theater when some of the performers appeared prior to coming back on to stage via the aisles. This gave me an opportunity to get some silhouettes of the performers.
Not the last supper:
Thinking Ahead
I am going to be at the Kristen Hersh Electric Trio concert at ONCE later in the month and I need to decide what lens to bring.
I have two square posters of the cover art from the Throwing Muses Hips & Makers album that I have framed and which I want to hang with the above picture of Tanya Donelly (I realize she isn’t on the album, we do with what we have) and a new picture of Kristen Hersh.
I photographed the Tanya Donelly concert there back in 2016 and I looked at the focal length, f-stop, shutter speed and ISO setting of the photographs I shared:
I used my Nikon 55-300mm and tended to take pictures from the back or the front sides. Most of the pictures I shared had a focal length of between 55mm and 120 mm. Must suffered from slow shutter speeds and high ISO settings.
I need to use a faster lens to get the shutter speed up and ISO down for sharper pictures. I have two possibilities. One is a wide angle zoom lens outside of the range of focal lengths I used. The other is a telephoto prime within the range of focal lengths I used. Neither is ideal and having to swap between them would be a pain. Another possibility would be to rent a fast zoom lens.
I may go to another show at ONCE before and test our how my lenses work, as well as try some composition ideas, before deciding which option to choose.
Theater Thursday: Aladdin Jr
My youngest was in the Somerville Musical Theater production of Aladdin Jr. last summer. This production is organized by the Somerville Arts Council. Here are some of the better pictures I took of two performances.
You can view them all at this photo album:
Rock Against the TPP Concert – Boston (10/7/2016)
I went to the Boston Rock Against the TPP Concert last Friday at Spontaneous Celebrations. It was organized by Fight for the Future and a host of groups including the Massachusetts Pirate Party. Two more are coming up.
Here are some of the pictures I took:
I showed up late, so I didn’t get pictures of every band, but I did record some of the performances. Here are some of them:
Bell’s Roar
Foundation Movement (Sadly they are all out of focus)
Taina Asili y La Band Rebelde
Evan Greer
Mirah
Eroc of Foundation Movement
Debo band
The Finale (Get Up, Stand Up)
Tanya Donelly 9/30/2016 ONCE Somerville Concert
On September 30th, I attended the Tanya Donelly concert at ONCE Somerville. Starting were Hilken Mancini and Chris Toppin formerly of Fuzzy. I want to thank ONCE owner, JJ Gonson, for being completely and totally cool about people bringing in a D-SLR camera with a big lens. She is one of a kind and you should check out the concerts and food at ONCE.
Tanya Donelly played with various friends whose names I don’t remember. I took many pictures (below) and recorded two videos. All images and videos are CC BY-SA 3.0, so do whatever you want to do with them, but I appreciate being attributed.
Send Me Your Next Nightmare
and another one from the Swan Song series, that I couldn’t find on the album set for the life of me. If you know it, please share.
The pictures:
Hilken Mancini
Chris Toppin
Tanya Donelly
Friends
The photo album you can look through
Lush Concert Videos
I attended Lush’s Boston concert at the Royale Boston. They remain one of my ten favorite bands and a band that I had never seen in concert before. It was a fantastic show. Tamaryn was the opening act.
Based off a photograph of a playlist someone else took, the playlist was:
- Breeze
- Kiss Chase
- Hypocrite
- Love Life
- Thoughtforms
- Light from a Dead Star
- Undertow
- Lit Up
- Scarlet
- Etheriel
- Nothing Natural
- For Love
- Out of Control
- Ladykillers
- Downer
- Sweetness and Light
Which should have been enough, but they were willing to play a first encore which I recorded:
- Lost Boy
- Desire Lines
- Leaves Me Cold
And a second encore with only the song Monochrome:
I recorded parts of other songs, but I only recorded these four completely. I posted two of them on Twitter:
Here is some of what you are missing of @lushbandtweets at @RoyaleBoston #lushband pic.twitter.com/Q7Kc9tPgkf
— James O'Keefe (@jpokeefe) September 16, 2016
More of what you are missing not seeing @lushbandtweets tour again. #LUSHband @RoyaleBoston pic.twitter.com/ZSGbumQKwu
— James O'Keefe (@jpokeefe) September 16, 2016
The pictures I took left much to be desired, but I cannot expect much from an iPhone 5s, even from being near the front side. I missed my D-SLR.
.@lushbandtweets starts playing @RoyaleBoston #lushband pic.twitter.com/OfbDM8nXgd
— James O'Keefe (@jpokeefe) September 16, 2016
Here are pictures of Tamaryn I posted to Twitter. The are impressionistic.
More from @TAMARYNmusic performance before @lushbandtweets at @RoyaleBoston #ImpressionismRules pic.twitter.com/NnWIGbbRFX
— James O'Keefe (@jpokeefe) September 16, 2016
.@TAMARYNmusic playing before @lushbandtweets at @RoyaleBoston #ButForABetterCamera pic.twitter.com/zbfjDGAH4c
— James O'Keefe (@jpokeefe) September 16, 2016
I think I managed the right mix of dancing, singing to the music, taking pictures, recording video and holding my wife who was kind enough to attend it with me.
What music have I been listening to?
I sorted at my iTunes list by # of plays and got this top ten play list from the last year:
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Remix)
- Not a Love Song by Uh Huh Her
- Totoro
- Hey Bulldog by The Beatles
- Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
- All Together Now by The Beatles
- Ni Na La by Solas
- Explode by Uh Huh Her
- Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles
Before you think I am a big Beatles fan, I should point out that seven of the ten songs are ones my daughter chose. Pulling out the kids songs, my top ten play list for the past year has been:
- Not a Love Song by Uh Huh Her
- Ni Na La by Solas
- Explode by Uh Huh Her
- Panic Switch by Silversun Pickups
- Common Reaction by Uh Huh Her
- Bitch by Republica
- Covered by Uh Huh Her
- Wait Another Day by Uh Huh Her
- Bang Bang Bang by Sohodolls
- Sour Times by Portishead
Not really sure what this indicates about me except that I prefer female singers with (marginally) edgy lyrics. But, then I knew that already.
Rango and Bragg
Short post today, though I may have more later.
Searching around to watch something with the family on Wednesday, we happened on Rango, which we missed when it came out in theaters. It was funny and seemed a Chinatown with cartoon animals and a happy ending. Johnny Depp was the voice of Rango, so its humor was a little off center, which I rather liked.
On Thursday, the kids went to see the local fireworks show while my wife and I went to a Billy Bragg concert. I was surprised that I saw fourteen people I knew there, especially since many were folks I would not have expected to be there. The first half of the concert was his Woody Guthrie/Mermaid Avenue songs, while the second half was made up of his other work. The crowd was a mix of ages, though generally white, and a higher percentage of folks over 40.
Three quotes of his I rather liked:
- socialism is organized compassion
- the cynicism that is our enemy is our own cynicism
- our enemy is not capitalism, or conservatism, it is our own cynicism
The last quote not withstanding, he is still very much the socialist and a fine musician and song writer at that.