After the Quietdrive show and promos that I had shot in November, I was anxious to see them again, and braved the wintery weather with my husband and a few friends to go to Milwaukee for Mistletoe Meltdown. This was the third year that Mistletoe Meltdown, a benefit show to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, took place.
Quietdrive headlined after Danger Is My Middle Name, Inept, 20 Reasons Taken, and Sing It Loud played (reviews/pictures of those sets to come!).
Their setlist was as follows:
Believe
Maybe Misery
Motivatation
Hollywood
Take a Drink
Birthday
Daddy’s Little Girl
Let Me
Time After Time
Starbright
Deliverance
Rise From The Ashes
Toxic (encore)
The highlight of the set for me was Quietdrive’s cover of Britney’s Spear’s “Toxic.” It might sound like an odd choice for a cover, but it is truly fantastic. Singer Kevin Truckenmiller plays violin, and the rest of the band goes crazy. It is not a regular occurrence at Quietdrive shows, but when they pull it out as an encore, it is a welcome surprise.
Shooting Notes
While there was no pit, Quietdrive was nice enough to get me All Access so I could get some unique angles from the balcony and from onstage. I chose the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS for the majority of the set when I was shooting from the floor. The longer focal range allowed me to fill the frame with the subject, which was preferable in this situation since the band seemed diminutive on the large stage, especially since there was very little backlighting.
However, I did pull out the 16-35mm when I camped out near drummer Brandon Lanier for several songs. Since I am not always able to get full access to the stage, I decided going in that if I did nothing else, I was going to get some decent shots of Brandon. Wide angle lenses love cymbals.
Overall, the lighting wasn’t difficult to shoot in. There was a lot of white light on the front of the stage, with occasional quick bursts of colored light toward the back of the stage. I wish there was some backlighting to break up some of the dark abyss that is apparent in some of the shots, but overall, I can’t complain. I would rather flat white light than no light at all :) Also, Turner Hall Ballroom is gorgeous.
