Final Fantasy @ the Creepy Crawl — 2006.08.22

While idlely browsing concert listings one afternoon last fall, I noticed that Final Fantasy was playing the Creepy Crawl. Not one of the myriad console games or movie spinoffs, but Toronto-based violinist Owen Pallett, best known for his string arrangements for the Arcade Fire.

The show opened with locals Bird Baker, followed by Bob Wiseman, who, though perhaps a stranger before his performance, will surely live on in the hearts of that night’s several audience members as a master of all things fantastic.

As Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett took the stage, alone, armed with an array of effects pedals, a keyboard, and his violin, the thought stirred that it might all be novelty: a one-man act only made possible by the artifice of technology — a four-track bedroom diversion, not a spectacle. But that’s exactly what it was.

Pallett began each song as every other, building steam with a grain of salt — laying down a single layer. Perhaps starting with some languid pull of the bow across the strings, committing those notes to the looping pedal. Then adding a plucking of the strings; a line of rhythm on the keyboard, a thumping on the violin’s belly. All the while Owen Pallett is tapping pedals and twiddling knobs with his sock-clad toes.

Another push of the pedals and those ghosts sing obediently back — we’re all old friends by now, the audience and those looping notes, and it’s hard not to smile when they visit. Cue vocals; cue melody — and now the song is well on its way, a slightly imperfect Rube Goldberg device that rolls, tips, and gyres to its end. Spinning plates, etc. And that’s the magic, and that’s the fun.

Technically, the show was a minor challenge to photograph, with light – or lack thereof – being the primary concern. It’s a bad sign when one is shooting at ISO 3200, f/1.4, 1/50, and still underexposing by a stop or two. I used the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 for the entire show, with the 17-55mm f/2.8 being far too show for an event like this.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Music Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.