Play or Pose

Sunday, May 24, 2009; Back to the 80's again

Back in the 80's I shot some portraits for a few Outnumbered records and on Sunday I went down to see them at the Play or Pose reunion concert at the Highdive in Champaign. The Outnumbered are Jonno Peltz, Tim McKeage, Jon Ginoli (Pansy Division), Ken Golub and Paul Budin and they have not played together in almost 20 years.

I pulled into town early so I could shoot the sound check and get a feel for the stage and the lighting. As I was standing in the parking lot talking on the phone when I hooked up with the band, the sound check was pushed back so we went out and grabbed a little lunch at Papa Del's, now I can check that stop off my to do list.

My nephew, Kyle Betts, is in journalism grad school at U of I and there are a lot of people I want to visit in Champaign but this was a pretty quick trip.

At the sound check I found out Highdive is a long skinny venue with a nice lighting setup. I played with some different angles during the sound checks and shot a few things off stage to get a feel for where I wanted to shoot from during the show.

Most concerts are in places that are either to small to use a 300mm lens or you are so far back you need a 300mm just to get a shot of the stage. I could move wherever I wanted so I brought my long glass, my favorite shooting setup is a 300mm and a wide angle with a 70-200 in my bag.

I ran into some friends at the show, Robert Loerzel who writes the Underground Bee, a website dedicated to the music scene, and he was shooting and has some photos posted on his site as well.

As usual it was a little darker during the show but there was a pretty big crowd and the place was hoppin'. I hung out and shot a little of Lonely Trailer but had to get back to Chicago so I missed the last 2 bands Cowboy X and Poster Children. All the bands sounded great and it was fun shooting stage side again.

Here are a three of Outnumbered from the show. Tim tunes up after the sound check. Tim and Jon during the show. Jon and Paul blow flower pedals into the crowd after their final song, Flowers.

-john

To see more photos of the Outnumbered CLICK HERE and a few photos of Cowboy X and Lonley Trailer CLICK HERE.

all photos © John Konstantaras