This show took place on the coldest day I think I have ever experienced in my 26 years of life. With the ever famous Chicago windchill, the temperature was -33, and you better believe that the wind was blowing.
Why is this important to a show review?
The show still sold out. Enough people cared about the three bands playing this show that they braved the weather. Even more impressive is the fact that there was a line outside the venue before the doors opened, and almost literally froze to death. Hey, anything for a good show, right?
Before this show, Company of Thieves hadn’t performed in Chicago for a while, so they wanted to make this holiday show special for their local fans. They did a great job of really mixing things up with a bunch of special guests and some new songs.
When I say “special guests,” I don’t mean just one or two. Company of Thieves shared the stage with several people, many of whom are regulars in the local Chicago scene. Arthi Meera, from Fair and Kind, provided accompaniment during “Far Past Monday,” the first song of the set. Lennon Bone, from the popular Midwest band Ha Ha Tonka, was welcomed as an additional drummer for much of the set. And, if that weren’t enough, the audience was even treated to a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone trio during the new cover of “Time of the Season.”
One of the great things about Company of Thieves is that they really put a lot of effort into their shows. As someone who works with bands in a capacity other than photographer, I appreciate the energy it took to coordinate practices for the special guests, and even the time CoT spent recording their teaser video for the show.
I could go on and on about Genevieve Schatz’s great vocals, or how spot on guitarist Marc Walloch and drummer Mike Ortiz always are. But I have already done that in a previous post.
Basically, I could sum all the above up by saying it was just a good show.
Setlist:
Far Past Monday
Karen
Oscar Wilde
Old Letters
Past The Sleep
In Passing
Pressure
Umbrella
Time of the Season
Company of Thieves just re-released their first record (plus an additional three songs) since they recently signed with Wind-Up Records and it’s on iTunes for just $5.99! If you’re not convinced that you want to spend $6 yet, their single “Oscar Wilde” is free (also on iTunes), so there is no reason not to have a listen!
Shooting Notes
As I have previously blogged about, SubT is a hard venue to shoot in. With the addition of my 5D Mark II, it was slightly easier going for me this time, but the quality of light still wasn’t anything special. A complete lack of back lighting left a lot of the pictures looking flat – if it was a less charismatic band onstage, I would have ended up with a much smaller set of photos, I’m sure. Also, the lack of pit meant that I was wedged in my spot and thus unable to get clear shots of many of the musical guests that performed on the other side of the stage. Drummer Mike Wilson was also either in the dark or completely blocked by Schatz and Wallace, so despite valant efforts on my part, he’s not represented in the set at all.
Because I was almost literally chained to my spot by the sold out crowd, I stuck to the 24-70mm and 70-200mm (for some attempts at across the stage shots). The wide angle only emphasized the lack of backlighting, and I couldn’t move enough to take advantage of its distortion capabilities. My ISO was mostly stuck on 6400 the whole night, with occasional fluctuations to 5000 or 12800, with a standard f/2.8 and 1/80-1/125.
However, the shoot wasn’t a complete wash. I got a few shots that I absolutely love (the top image is one), and I gained invaluable experience using my 5D Mk II in the near dark!
Bonus! Processing notes! – Company of Thieves is an artsy band that have a definite vintage style. Pictures of them never seem right when I run them through my normal white balance/contrast/sharpen routine, so I always find myself playing around with the editing a bit.
For the color images in this set, I utilized a a blue solid color adjustment layer, which I then toned down a bit. It’s hard to tell just by looking at the set, but it gave the pictures a warmer golden hue. For the black and white images, I desaturated the images, and then added a strong blue solid color adjustment layer over the black and white image; I also added in a little red with the color balance slider.
