DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 GOES RAW AT THE ROXY
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY STEPHEN BROWNLEE
Death from Above 1979 hosted a two-night, sold-out gig at The Roxy in West Hollywood recently and luckily I got in both nights because I was in the most intense environment I’ve shot so far.
On night one I made sure to get there extra early to get right to the front of the stage. If you know the Roxy or have ever shot there you know space is extremely limited and I feel sometimes it's over the capacity, especially in the back bar area.
Now I planned to spend the first 30 minutes at the stage shooting up close with my 24-70mm lens which I got some good shots out of but I had to clear out after maybe 10-15 minutes due to a young dude moshing the wrong way. Pushing too aggressively and his fists flying in the air he was about 3 inches away from clocking me in the left side of my face and possibly my lens. A guy two sizes bigger than him grabbed him and yelled at him to knock it off so I thought I should clear out.
For both nights I got approved for all access so I headed towards the VIP area where I was planning to take some shots with my 70-200mm lens unfortunately on the first night security said I only had my photo pass wristband and I was missing my VIP one which box office forgot to give me and since the box office was closed I did not sweat it that much. I kept in mind I had that second night so I could make sure I got all my proper wristbands the following night and I would shoot from VIP then.
To say it was a tight space is an understatement, it was extremely packed. I had to spend a few minutes taking shots from the entrance that is indoors to take some shots until I could barely get a spot at the edge of the main floor again.
However, out of both nights, my favorite shot was of drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger at 121 mm at a Dutch angle up close and with his hair waving in the air. I chose B&W over color for this photo because I felt it gave more attention to detail including beads of sweat bouncing off of him. Night two when I got there they gave me my VIP wristband this time but like the night before I got to the stage to shoot the first half hour. This time the audience was more relaxed and I was able to produce better shots up close on the second night then I spent the rest of the evening shooting from the VIP area.
I saw the bar area in the back and it was crazy packed like the night before so I didn’t even attempt to weave my way back and forth in the middle of the audience nor did I want to. You want to remain as invisible as you can as a photographer and I hate being in the way of people’s view. They’re paying to see that talent, not the one shooting talent. During this shoot, I practiced raising my shutter speeds between 500-800 of a second. I used to primarily stay at 200-250 and because of that sometimes I felt my work didn’t come out in a smooth quality because I underestimated my shutter speed.
I loved their performance on both nights. It was raw and grungy so I edited the photos in that way based on how I saw and heard both shows. It was so loud that even with professional earbuds it sounded like my ears were right against the amps.
