It seemed an odd choice for metal-esque rockers Monroe to open up for O.A.R-esque Bottle of Justus at House of Blues earlier this month, but they did.
The quintet didn’t let the unusual mix of fans stop them from rocking out, especially singer Scot and guitarist TK who continually interacted with the audience. For being such in drastic musical contrast to the headliner, I was surprised how well the audience received them.
Keep an eye out for Monroe – they have been named the Q101 “Band to Bust Out” as well as have been featured in several magazines and noticed by the writers of the Chicago Tribune.
Shooting Notes
Unlike Bottle of Justus’ set, which had a decent amount of white front-light, Munroe’s set had a lot of color washes. In some photos, the wash created a dramatic effect (like the lead image), but in many photos, it just washed out detail unless it was converted to black and white. A typical case of “you win some, you lose some.”
As I mentioned earlier, Munroe’s guitarist TK was eager to play to audience (which included the camera), so I kept my wide angle and fisheye on him to try to get some fun effects. The rest of the band, while definitely favoring the front third of the stage, saw longer focal lengths, mainly because the lack of a pit didn’t allow me to get as close as I wanted to them.
Since the light continually changed in color and intensity for this set, my camera settings were all over the map. I was anywhere from 1600ISO f/2.8 1/160, to 3200ISO f/2.8 1/80. I also used my arsenal of zooms, from 16mm-200mm.
A tough shoot in the sense that the lighting was all over the place, but I definitely enjoyed the abundance and brightness of the colored light!
