c a l l a h a n

CMJ, Round 1

Freelance Whales and Fanfarlo played at Bowery Ballroom last night with a few other bands. I saw a little bit of Tiger City, who I liked, and The Postelles, who I was pumped to see and who were awesome. I don’t really think I need to go into detail about how good FLW and Fanfarlo were, because for anyone who reads this Tumblr, you are already aware at how awesome they are. (But just for the record, both were fantastic last night) Anyway, the point of this post is that last night I did something a little different.

One of the rules I live by in general is to never leave home without a camera. Following this rule has proved beneficial more times than I can recall, and not following it proves to be infuriating every single time. Furthermore, live music is one of my favorite things to photograph, as you can probably tell from this. I’m fortunate enough that I’ve been seeing a lot of it recently, but the dilemma that I find myself running into is that I spend the majority of the time taking pictures and trying to get the right shots that I don’t actually fully enjoy what’s going on in front of me. I can’t just go to a show, take a picture or two every few minutes or every few songs. No. My camera might as well be glued to my face. I take hundreds of pictures during a show, take them home and upload them, and then sort through and decide which ones to trash and which ones to keep. And I love doing it, don’t get me wrong. But in the weeks leading up to last night, I had discussed the dilemma with Michelle more than once and what my approach would be. Considering that my two currently favorite bands were playing together (and now going on tour together!!! for six weeks!!), I wanted to actually put down the camera and enjoy it. I debated over not even bringing it at all, but knew that if I didn’t I would end up being furious with myself, but I also couldn’t bring it, know that I had it, and not take any pictures.

So I brought it. Both cameras, actually. And I took a few during both sets, but my heart wasn’t in it. They spent most of the night in my bag, and instead, I had a fucking awesome time.

One of the reasons why photography appeals to me so much is the whole idea of capturing a moment in time. And I think one of the reasons why I love photographing concerts so much, especially when its bands I love, is because I wish I could capture the entire experience to relive it later. I can’t, obviously, no matter how good or bad the pictures end up being, but I can get a part of it. Or 200 parts of it. But sometimes its better to just settle for being in the present and enjoying it as much as possible. It was hard, actually, a lot of the time to stand there and see what could be a great shot and resist the urge to take out my camera. But I did. (Several times.) Michelle, who has to put up with me when I’m in photo-obsessed mode at shows, said she was proud of me. I guess I’m proud of myself too? I don’t regret it as much as I thought I would.

Besides, I got both of them on video.