Jet headlined this show at House of Blues, with Kill Hannah opening. There was a stark difference between Kill Hannah’s moody lighting and dramatic performance and Jet’s bright colors and no-frills stage presence. With so many bands nowadays using gimmicks or over-the-top performances to secure fans, it was nice to see just a plain good show. If you haven’t seen them, Jet sounds live exactly like they sound recorded, which isn’t always the case. Basically, it was a good show, which is always nice when you go in not knowing what to expect.
Shooting Notes
House of Blues has two types of lighting – a moody wash, and beautiful white front light with colored backlight. This set was obviously the latter, and also my favorite type of lighting. It’s a lighting that is striking when images are in full color, and dramatic when photos are converted to black and white (such as the lead image).
I went for the two extremes regarding lenses – I used the 16-35mm and the 70-200mm. There were several band members hidden away in the back, where I really needed the 70-200mm, but there were also band members (such as singer Nic Cester) up front that were interacting with the audience, perfect for the 16-35mm. The light, as mentioned, was great – I was between 1600-3200ISO, at f/2.8, and extremely comfortable shutters speeds – generally around 1/250.
This was probably one of the easiest shots I’ve had in a while – the band didn’t move around quickly, the light was great and relatively steady, and the pit was not crowded.
