November 16, 2008 – Led by the indefatigable Tim McIlrath, Rise Against stormed the stage of the Pageant to deliver a blistering performance amid explosions of light and a legion of fans, fists raised, singing back every word.
Photographer’s Notes:
Wow, this set was pretty tough to photograph. Frontman Tim Mcllrath is a moving target if there ever was on on stage, and might well be in the top ten of most active performers I’ve photographed this year. This man doesn’t stand still for a second.
Aside from Mcllrath’s movement, the second biggest challenge of this set was probably working around the three risers set up for the three front-most members, which effectively added another foot or so to the Pageant’s already high stage.
The lighting scheme started off with a red wash over the stage, which eventually gave way to a blue wash with warm accent lighting from the front.
I shot this set entirely with the D3, 14-24mm, and 24-70mm. Never touched the D700 and 70-200mm.
End Notes:
Stay tuned for the sets from Thrice, Alkaline Trio, and The Gaslight Anthem. If I had to vote now, I’d say Thrice had the best light of the night – and they only played second!
This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 12:50 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, Brandon Barnes, hardcore, Joe Principe, live, melodic, music, nikon, punk, rise against, rock, Tim McIlrath, tour, Zach Blair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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You still have some nice photos, regardless of the nasty red washes. Much better than mine turned out — I uploaded them to my computer [holy shit USB 1.1 with these d300 files (as opposed to d80) takes FOREVER!] — but I’ll have to upload to flickr tomorrow because of homework tonight.
I was surprised with the lighting and was expecting much better after Thrice — and I agree, I think Thrice was the best in terms of lighting. You worked with what you had though (or rather, we did :P), and I like 3, 4, and 10. Nice catch of him jumping in the air. It will be cool to see your other sets.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the comment. Nasty washes are just part of the game. Alkaline Trio’s lighting was pretty lackluster, but that was expected, and Rise Against’s red only lasted for a minute or so – not bad at all. :)
What this set did have was a lot of cool rimlighting – and in a contrasting color, no less.
Overall, I still think the lighting for this tour was great. There was actual production for this show – a lot of tours just roll in and use the house lights.
You site and photos are always brilliant. I browse the internet constantly and so far I have not seen gig photos are are as crisp and clean as yours. Your shots are an inspiration.
Thanks
Rob Jaudon
http://www.jeezopeezo.com
Hey Rob,
Thanks very much for the kind words, I really appreciate it.
Wow, can you say “ridiculous shooting angle” three times fast? Did he stay on the riser the entire time?
Tim was on the risers a lot, maybe 75% of the time, and basically hopped from riser to rise during the first three songs. He also hopped down to sing between them, but this was pretty rare.
I’ve photographed Rise Against twice with this stage set up and it’s a bear to capture on film. The band is in blue or red light 90 percent of the time and Tim doesn’t stop moving for a second.
I really wish he would pick up the guitar before the end of the first three songs. I swear, the moment the photographers are thrown out of the photo pit, he picks up the guitar and stands center stage. It’s like nostrils or nothing with these guys.
ps: The only singer I’ve ever photographed more mobile than this guy is Davey Havok from AFI.
Hey George,
Yup, this show certainly was a big challenge. “Nostrils or nothing” – that’s pretty much a perfect description.
It’s always hard photographing from below a performer at such an extreme angle. It seems like a lot of tours are using ego risers like this – Linkin Park, Slipknot, and a ton of others.
Gotta agree with you, Thrice was definately a blast to photo, and had great lighting for the first three songs.
Hey Bruce,
Yup, Thrice was fun. The background lighting was great for their set – the only real downside was use of strange color tints.
[...] 16, 2008 – Supporting Rise Against, post-hardcore rockers Thrice laid into smoldering performance amid a stage of deep color washes [...]
Oh my god…these shots are sooooo amazing! Tim Mc Ilrath is such a nice frontman!
I’ve been in the photopit only once ; and my very first experience was…Rise Against in Montréal on December 11th!
It seems that I started with something pretty difficult, and I was so nervous, but at the end I had so much fun…
I wish you could take a look at those pix…
Anyway, your pictures are really amazing probably the best I’ve seen so far…
Hey Lauren, thanks very much for the kind words. Getting to photograph Rise Against in concert as your first pass is pretty cool!
[...] photographed Rise Against last year, so I was excited to cover their live show again when I heard they were coming [...]