Category: Concerts

By:

The Dude on the Right
If all goes well as planned for this week, tomorrow comes another podcast, this
time a solo me o, and over the weekend, a return to the concert scene with a
review of Roger Waters as he makes his way to Illinois.  And I can’t
believe I even did a CD review yesterday, that being "Face
the Promise" from Bob Seger.

My choice for seeing Roger Waters came about
in a weird way because I was torn, and still am bummed at who I am missing. I’ve
been looking to get back to concerts again after a brief return last year, and
had my sights set on this upcoming weekend.  Two acts I love were playing,
one of course being Roger
Waters, the other being The Cathy Richardson Band, sadly on the same day. 
Stu Gotz tried to help me get through my dilemma on who to see, based simply
upon web traffic (Roger Waters), but I also had in my head the act I hadn’t seen
in a while and always enjoyed, and that was
Cathy Richardson and her
band.  But then an e-mail from staff member,
The
Mystery Dude, pretty much decided it would be Mr. Waters.  He had a
quartet of tickets for the Roger Waters’ show, and was looking forward to a
little "reunion" of a group of us who went to college together, and thoroughly
enjoy Roger Waters.  So my decision was pretty much made for me, and with
one concert review, this will hopefully get my off my ass to get "The
Concert Hall" section back up and humming again.

So my apologies to Cathy
Richardson and her band, because had it not been for a "reunion" of some of my
best friends, I would have probably headed your way.  In any case here’s
hoping seeing Roger Waters kicks me in the ass again to get back on the concert
trail.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
This is a quick blog entry, but in case you cared, and you probably don’t in the end,
Green Day kicked ass,
although I have to admit that I did feel a little awkward in the audience, well
at least for the parents of the younger kids, when things got a little, hmm,
risqué, but that explanation will wait for the review.  Anyway, sitting in
the dude-mobile after the show, I scrolled through the photos on my new camera. 
I figured I did pretty well for the first time out, although I probably should
have used my shorter lens, and as much as I forgot all of my rules of going to
the Allstate Arena, and was paranoid it would take me about an hour to get out
of the parking lot because I was parked in front of a light pole, low and behold
I forgot that teens know exactly how to get out of a parking lot, one in three
will be nice enough to let you into the exit line, and
Rosemont knows how to get
those lots cleared of the troublemakers that might be Green Day fans.

The
review will be coming in the next few days as Wimp finishes up his side and I
tighten up my comments, and I have to sort of figure out how to really handle
the photos I downloaded from my camera.  I did a quick shrinking of a
couple of them for this blog entry, but there are quite a few good ones I just
need to frame a little better and maybe sharpen the color balance.

It should be a busy weekend with "Deuce
Bigalow:  European Gigolo" and other movies opening this weekend,
finishing up the Green Day review, and updating a bunch of movie previews. 
I was actually looking forward to
Kelly Clarkson
clearance but that doesn’t look like it is going to happen as I write this. 
Oh well, maybe next time.

That’s it for this one!  I’m  The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right

It was a hot August night a couple of nights ago,
August 1st for that matter, and it marked the return of this Dude to the
concert reviewing scene.  Oddly enough I picked up where I left off
back in 2001, reviewing
Neil Diamond at the United Center here in Chicago (okay, fine,
technically I reviewed
Neil in Cleveland back in 2001, but I took the pictures at the
United Center). 
This show was great, at least if you are a
Neil Diamond fan.  I suppose if he’s not really your cup of tea, you would
wonder why in God’s name anyone would go and see him, but his legions of fans
span the age groups, and the fashion groups, and even though the dude is in his
60’s, Neil Diamond rocks, ain’t no surprise.

And so we are back on the concert scene.  Neil Diamond a couple of days ago,
Green Day next week,
and hopefully some Velvet Revolver, Kelly Clarkson, George Thorogood, Kenny
Chesney, and Motley Crue before month’s end.  As usual for us, we are back
trying to cover just about any genre under the sun.

But back to getting back to the concert scene.  For me, it was
exciting again.  I stopped covering concerts for a variety of
reasons.  Some of them were good, some of them were bad, some of them were
just lazy, but as I knelt there with my camera in hand, about 30 feet from the
stage, I really wondered if I could still handle concert photos.  Hell,
it’s been almost four years since I shot a show, and since that time a
photographer dude I know,
Barry, had graduated from film to digital, complete with some giant lenses, and
there I was, with my old film driven
Minolta and my trusty Sigma 70
– 210mm f2.8 lens, looking kinda inadequate compared to my buddy and the
other newspaper photo dudes.  Yet there I was, back again, and I
have to tell you, as the lights went down and the band came on the
stage, all of the photographer instincts came back.

I will admit that it wasn’t my best concert photo
shoot, and yes, as I scanned in my negatives into the scanner I
instantly realized some digital editing would be needed (mostly a little
sharpening), but for the most part, I am pleased with my work, although
I would have liked to have gotten more pictures of
the band and
back-up singers because if you are in any way familiar with my photo
taking at concerts, I try to include everyone in the band.

I’ll end today’s blog with a quick shout-out to Sherry
for helping with the clearance for the show, and to Kathleen for
clearing out the dude blocking the isle and just her help.  The
plus for the day was when I got home and there was an e-mail in my
inbox.  I had clearance for Green Day, and for a year in which
myself and a couple of friends would like a do-over because it hasn’t
been the best of years for us so far, I got excited again, and realized
that I just don’t like going to see a concert, what I really love is
covering a concert.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!