Rob Zombie stormed the Pageant on his “Hellbilly Deluxe 2 Tour,” bringing an onslaught of hair whips, devil horns, and massive red lighting.
Photographer’s Notes:
Going into this show, I was very, very curious as to what the lighting would be like. From all that I’d read, heard, and seen, the lighting for the first two songs seemed to be dominated by red light with a little in the way of hot cyan accents.
As it turned out, this was pretty true overall. Red washes did make up the majority of the stage effects, creating a hierarchy between the band’s antics on stage and the graphics projected at the back of the stage and on three video screens at the front of the stage.
Add to this the fact that Rob Zombie and company go running/leaping from video screen to video screen (they casings that basically made them into small ramps/platforms) and the challenge was even higher.
Still, Rob Zombie puts on an incredibly lively show and I think that even with all the above factors, he makes for a charismatic subject. John 5 was also a fantastic subject for this show and mugged for the camera on several occasions during the two-song limit. The challenges and song limit being what they were, I focused entirely on Zombie and John 5 for this show.
Red Lights & Live Music Photography:
If you’re wondering about how I dealt with the excessive red lights for this show, you can check out my article with a few techniques for cleaner images with this sort of stage treatment here in the the Q&A section.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, john 5, live, music photographer, music photography, photography, red lights, rob zombie, tour, wash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Rob Zombie: An onslaught of hair whips, massive red lighting, and devil horns. Throw 'em up. http://bit.ly/5ZioS (@RWZombie)
Wow. That looks really tough. Red lights, fast action, and high stage = photographer nightmare. You handled it very nicely though. Would you say this is one of the more difficult shows you shot? Was thinking about shooting this in NYC, now not so sure.
Hey Natasha,
Thanks for the comment. If Zombie is playing Hammerstein, it might be better than the Pageant, the stage of which starts at five-feet. So, after the screen/monitors, it was a good 6-7 feet up to Zombie’s feet.
Overall, because the red lights are not changing that quickly, you can basically shoot on one exposure for a good deal of the show, so in that sense it’s not that bad. The Love Drunk Tour that I shot on Friday w/ Boys Like Girl & Cobra Starship seemed much more tough to photograph simply because the lights change so quickly (especially for Cobra).
I say, if you like a challenge, go for it. I was a little worried about this gig before hand since I’d seen only red/blue images, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been in hindsight.
Great job as usual Todd. I have been waiting to see what you got from this show to see how I should have done it..lol. I shot that show on the 8th and it was brutal! Rob said they almost canceled the show because John 5 was sick and crawled out of bed 5 minutes before the show so he just kind of hung back. I was pretty bummed about that. The TV’s and monitors made is super difficult too. :)
Hi Kevin,
Yeah, brutal is a good descriptor for the lighting on this tour – lots of things that combine to make a tough gig for the live music photographer, as Natasha said.
I’m glad I photographed this show, though, as I missed Zombie a few years ago and heard it was a great gig.
Great Portraits of John5… damn, he was really playing with your camera.
Hi Daniel,
Yup, John 5 was a great subject. Gotta love when they give a little eye contact.
For once the total red wash actually came out looking good. Nay – AWESOME. Incredible use of red/black, Todd. I’m impressed and inspired. Those first two shots are absolutely brutal. You’re my favorite.
Hey Brian,
Nice to hear from you here, thanks for the feedback – Red did seem to fit with the show and Rob Zombie’s aesthetic – the only white light we saw came in the form of a little spastic strobing from the back of the stage during the first song.
Todd,
Great shots once again. The red lighting is really reflective of RZ for sure! Can’t wait to see what you show us with Megadeath.
Hey John,
Thanks for the comment. Megadeth should be very interesting, as it’s at a smaller venue here with a relatively low stage. I’d love to do something for Megadeth like I did for Social Distortion.
Rob Zombie: An onslaught of hair whips, massive red lighting, and devil horns. Throw 'em up. http://bit.ly/5ZioS (@RWZombie)
Hey Todd,
I was very curious as to what kind of shots you would get from this show as I shot the band about a week prior. You, of course, handled it very nicely although I had no doubt that you would.
Your shots look great as usual.
Hey groovehouse,
Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate you writing me to give me a heads up about the tour. Though the conditions weren’t ideal, Rob Zombie puts on great show, as you know. Thanks again.
Wow. That second pic actually brought a little fear into me due to the expression. Great stuff as always! Here’s hoping you had a massive bottle of aspirin and some chamomile tea to deal with the headache you probably got from the red lights and other challanges. Brutal.
Hi Mel,
Yeah, John 5 has quite the stage persona, doesn’t he? He looked right at me a few times during the show. Though this was a pretty challenging shoot due to the height and the red lighting, it could have been worse. The constraints of the lighting and where RZ would be actually made up for some of the difficulties.
Hi Todd,
Greatings from Ireland. I have been following your work for some time. Great to have somebody of your tallent share with the rest of us and help raise bar in photography. What ear protection do you use and can you recommend a source for getting them. Regards and thanks,
Hi Todd,
Your site and your work are great, especially all the info you provide as it applies to a particular shoot. I was just curious as to what film speed you used to use to shoot Zombie and what your base exposures were. Thanks
Hey Michael,
Thanks for the kind words, glad to share what info I can. I shot RZ at ISO 1600 for the most part at f/2.8, while the shutter speed hovered around 1/250 or so, though I did bump up the ISO to 3200 at some points as well.
Did you shoot the Nekromantix?
Brutal lighting conditions but very well handled Todd. Rob Zombie and John 5 both look suitably scary.
I am just getting started in concert photography and I’m also a huge Rob Zombie fan. Love the photos Todd. I know the pain of those red lighting conditions. I had to shoot that type lighting with Chevelle and had a lot of pics not turn out. Love the blue lit John 5 picture.
Hey Chuck,
Thanks for the comment. I shot Chevelle a couple of years ago, and if their lighting now is anything like it was then, it was tough. Lots of red lighting. Good luck with your live music photography.
[...] show was chaos. But, having photographed Rob Zombie in 2009, I had a good idea of how his set was going to go down. For the most part, many of the elements of [...]