Last Friday, I shot Bottle of Justus at the House of Blues in Chicago. Bottle of Justus, despite being from Bloomington-Normal, IL (a few hours south of Chicago), is to me, a Chicago band. Perhaps it has been because they have been a band for quite a while, and I have seen them perform in various Chicago venues.
Regardless, brothers Chris and Joe Quinlan started the band (partially because they often wrote songs for their mother, according to their Myspace), with keyboardist Justus Woolever, bassist Jeff Johnson, and drummer Erik Bogdonas joining them soon after. While the band can easily be likened to having a similar sound to O.A.R, I think they had a little more edge and rock to them than that.
For example, several songs into the set, they surprised the audience with a cover of “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon. This seemed to me a risky song, since it is fresh on everyone’s mind from its constant rotation on the radio, but BoJ pulled it off, with Joe taking the lead on the vocals. The audience loved it, holding up their beers and singing along.
The show, especially for a night laden with snow, was pretty full, with a mix of college students, older folk, and even some young, indie kids in attendance. Apparently, Bottle of Justus appeals to everyone.
Shooting Notes
I love shooting at House of Blues. There is always ample front light, and even more importantly, lots of atmospheric lighting throughout the stage.
For this shoot, my biggest issue was getting creative angles. Since the stage was so big, the band tended to hang out a little farther back than I would have liked. The drummer and keyboardist felt like they were in Timbuktu. Since I couldn’t utilize the wide angle to create some interest with distortion, I turned to the lights to help liven up the composition. I tried to make the light an important part of the shot by searching out light beams, colored spreads, and moody haze.
I used the 5D and 5D Mark II for this shoot, along with the 24-70mm and 70-200mm. I hung out in the 1600-3200ISO range, with my shutter speed generally between 1/200 and 1/320 since I was using such long focal lengths, wasn’t worried about noise with the 5D2, and had plenty of light to work with.
