Telling the Story of a Show

Opportunity and challenge: Shooting two favorite bands in the same month

As a photographer, I’m often asked, “What do you shoot?”

My response: “I shoot what I see.”

And while that statement may seem pithy, it is true. Photography for me is about feel, about capturing a moment in time — whether it is a person, place, or thing. (The same applies to the best writing as well.)

Live events — especially concerts (as well as dance and theater) — are full of opportunities to capture feelings in those fleeting moments, which adds exponentially to my enjoyment. That said, many of these events are held in conditions where lighting is haphazard or poor. You deal with constant barriers — audience members who could care less what you’re doing, time constraints, and sometimes a lack of up close access.

Most of the concerts I shoot, with occasional exceptions, are in small to midsized clubs and bars. Many artists restrict photographers to the first three songs, which means you have only 10 to 15 minutes to produce a strong set of images that represent the event. While it’s tempting to focus on the singers, I try to catch the entire band members if possible. (Drummers can be tough, depending on the size of their kits and who is in front of them.)

Over the past month, I’ve had the chance to capture two of my all-time favorites — Dave Alvin and X — in shows at local venues. Alvin, the principal songwriter for The Blasters, went out on his own in the mid 1980s. I have seen him perform — solo, with his various bands, and with offshoot groups such as The Knitters, The Pleasure Barons, and The Flesh Eaters — more than any other artist. I also interviewed him last year when he was promoting a book of collected works.

Conversations: Dave Alvin, Part 1

Conversations: More with Dave Alvin

Alvin has fought multiple bouts of cancer since 2020, and I worried I would not get to see him live again. But last month, after a clean bill of health, he returned to the East Coast and opened a fall tour at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and his group, The Guilty Ones.

Here are some of my favorite photos from that show. (Click on the image to see it full size.)

Earlier this week, I photographed X — a bucket list item for me — at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. I’ve listened to the iconic Los Angeles punk band for 40 years, but had never seen the original lineup live. Guitarist Billy Zoom left before I went to my first X show in 1987, making this an opportunity too good to pass up.

It’s hard to describe how much influence X and other L.A.-based groups from that era have had in shaping my music taste. X, The Blasters, and Los Lobos merged and melded music styles and genres — country, rock, blues, rockabilly — while writing storytelling songs that were smart and thought provoking. That they were contemporaries of another favorite band (The Replacements) that never could crack into the mainstream only made me appreciate them more.

Conversations: John Doe

I have shot enough shows at The Birchmere and at the 9:30 Club to know the hurdles I’m facing, and fortunately neither Alvin nor X enforced the three song rule, which allowed me to move back and capture more than the usual 40 to 60 images I normally get.

Below are a handful of my favorites from the X show.

You can see more from the two shows by clicking the Concerts tab. If you’d like to see most of the concerts I’ve shot over the years go to my Flickr site here.

As always, thoughts and comments welcome!