Stomp Status is a local band with a cool back-story – they live together in a house where they all teach, compose, practice, and party. For potential use as album art on their new CD – eponymously named “5440” (their street address) – the goal of this shoot was to provide diverse portraits of the band at home.
Speaking of local bands playing in small clubs, this is Sunwolf at DC’s Black Cat:
One photo-op that comes with shooting at small clubs is that you can sometimes catch the band warming up in a back alley….
Although San Miguel’s decades-old Idyllic reputation lags the current realities of traffic, tourists, and expats, the magnetism is still there.
Small clubs are not just smaller than large music venues, they’re more intimate; the small club vibe drives a different experience for everyone – fans, bands, staff, photographers….
Recently I went to Jammin Java in Fairfax, VA, for my first time. It’s located in a shopping mall, but the interior is elsewhere; a cool surprise. Three local bands that I like were all playing (something else I like about small clubs!):
Thievery Corporation sold out Red Rocks on 10 August. Shooting a great band in a great venue…priceless. 
Denver photographer Lauren Debell joined me on the shoot – check out this slideshow of our combined highlights:
This is musician (bass guitarist) Justin Parrot with his son Lucas:
Some folks assumed this was a studio shot, complimenting me on the creative lighting and seemingly-genuine moment. But I have neither the requisite studio nor the lighting skills; this was in fact an impromptu shot of a genuine moment (I wasn’t there to shoot them).
At the time, I lamented the harsh backlighting from bright, colored, wall-mounted lamps, and I assumed that the shot wouldn’t survive. Indeed, it wouldn’t have survived had I been shooting JPEGs (rather than RAW). Instead, it turned into yet another example of how post-production can exploit information that’s in the RAW file but not visible in the rendering based on default development settings:
One last Chuck Brown R.I.P. post…. Chuck had been scheduled to appear at The Hamilton on 6 June with the Brass A Holics, a New Orleans band that has incorporated Go-Go into their own style.
Alas, he couldn’t be there, so they were joined instead by Chuck’s daughter and co-performer KK (“Chuck baby don’t give a fuck”) and Sugar Bear (of E.U. fame) in a full-up Go-Go tribute to Chuck.
With the slide show I had produced for the viewing projected behind the stage, there were eery moments when it almost felt like he was present.
Finally, my favorite personal memory of Chuck Brown:
[A few more images from the tribute performance are available here. See also Chuck Brown, R.I.P. III]
In the run-up to their album release next month, The Archives opened for Ziggy Marley last night at historic Howard Theatre. Although I had been there for Chuck Brown’s viewing, this was the first time I’ve really shot there – great venue for musicians, fans, and photographers (!).
A couple of more photos are here (see also their band portrait).
Cyrus Chestnut was at The Hamilton last week. His virtuosity was captivating, and I loved the show. But I found it hard to shoot in comparison to the rock/funk/reggae/go-go/DJ shows I’m used to. Although of course there are exceptions all around, I think that in general jazz is harder to shoot – there’s less visual drama, and the emotional moments are more subtle.
John Shore Photography 