2009 brought a ton of opportunities for myself as the sole photographer for Killahbeez. I had the pleasure of shooting Sasquatch! Music Festival, Rock The Bells, Virgin Music Festival, No Doubt, Pearl Jam, Sebastien Tellier, Peaches, The xx, Metric and the list goes on and on. So I decided to compile some of my favorite shots from this past year and share them with you the readers who may or may not have seen some of these photos. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I had a blast taking them. More to come in 2010…I hope.
Below some of the photos are the stories behind them and how I ended up with the shot.
At the beginning of this concert I had to choose. Position myself in front of Dave Navarro or Perry Farrell cus it was going to be unlikely that I was going to have a chance to move back and forth with the amount of photographers shooting this show. I picked Navarro, why? Cus I figured Farrell would come to him and I was right and when he didn’t I ended up with epic side shots like the one below. I love the color explosions in the one above and the light flare just below Navarro’s guitar is sick. The smoke and lighting make it an epic shot. The one above was shot on a fisheye.
This shot here was at a Fool’s Gold gig which featured Treasure Fingers as well as Jokers of The Scene. The guys from JOTS, I guess bumped into this girl named Vanessa and she had some pretty fly ass nails and so this shot came about.
Simian Mobile Disco. The lighting at their shows are always crazy. Dark as hell, but if you capture shit in the right lighting or situation like I luckily was able too, you end up with some pretty cool shots. The one above looks like a space ship is beaming its lights down on him, while the one below captures the essence of their show. Them twisting knobs and playing shit live in front of you.
Another crazy dark show. The band, The Golden Filter, is known to have this air of mysteriousness around them, which explains their dark lighting for live shows and the lead singer covering parts of her face with her hair. I like these two shots because of the lighting as well.
For this shot I armed myself with my 10.5mm fisheye lens and positioned in front of Kim when I noticed Julian coming towards me. I stuck my arm up in the air and caught this shot as Kim stood up in the background.
I love Sebastien Tellier. In particular his last album, Sexuality, was the fuckin’ bees knees. I loved the way he looked / was put together. Really clean look and then you have this face full of facial hair and disheveled hair going every which way.
Kele of Bloc Party is always good to shoot. I’ve photographed Bloc Party twice and he always provides great emotion on stage. This shot is a prime example of him just blasting through the mic and strumming his guitar.
This was at Sasquatch! Music Festival. By now you’ve probably seen the video that the guy above is featured in. It’s had over 2 million views, I provided a video below in case you haven’t seen it. I saw this kid on the first day and he was having the time of his life. I even have pictures of him eating grass, like the lawn he’s dancing on. Anyways this picture kinda captures the fun spirit of the festival. Shit was a great experience.
This show was a great pleasure to shoot. There were no restrictions and Maja Ivarsson played it up for photographers as did her band mates below. Energetic concert from beginning to end.
This shot above was also at The Sounds. I dipped out into the crowd as I usually do. I saw a great path between some concert goers and the Maja on stage and snapped. I ended up with this photo above. I love the light kissing down on one of the audience’s head and the fingers and one fist pump.
The three are my personal favorites because of the contrast and lighting in them. I’m not very good at taking black and white photos, but these ones are definitely favorites of mine.
Stuck in between two monitor speakers up at the stage, I thought, wouldn’t it be fuckin’ great if Ben Harper sets up right in between these two monitors. BAM. It’s like he heard me. Swapped out my regular lens for my fisheye and this was the result.
One word. Legends. Three groups I listened to when I was first introduced to hiphop: NWA, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. Shot with a fisheye on this one.
Erykah Badu at Sasquatch! She came out and had such an air of presence about her that you couldn’t explain nor fuck with. Oh and before I forget she came out rocking tight leather black pants. Soooo good.
I photographed a Girl Talk show the previous year, but the photos didn’t turn out very well. I was still adjusting and learning to shoot on digital. So when he came back again I thought it would be great to give it another go. A friend of mine described the shot above as a modern day image of The Last Supper. Ya that Last Supper. While the one below is pretty dope too. I saw this girl prior to the show running around trying to find a way to get a bracelet so that she could dance on stage. Well, guess she got one, and I got her headbanging pretty hard.
I just like the photo above. It just catches my eye every time and I’m not quite sure why. While the photo below I thought was pretty hilarious. One of the concert goers dancing behind Gogol Bordello had shaved his body hair to resemble that of Eugene Hutz’s facial hair. See above then look at his body hair below. HAHAHAHAHA
One of my favorite shots all weekend at Virgin Music Festival. Jimmy Shaw of Metric, on stage with Broken Social Scene playing the trumpet. The composition and colors stand out to me.
Canadian musician K-OS, the whole photo set I took of him, I would describe with one word. Colorful. His clothes, mixed with the lighting and his movements.
Lykke Li, I had waited for this concert for a loooooong time. The previous time she came to town I had chosen to attend Yelle instead, it was on the same night. This time she came back and I got my shit in order nice and early. A picture of her singing out to the crowd. Shot looks so peaceful, doesn’t it.
The band: Monotonix. This was at Sasquatch! Music Festival and was the most insane show I’ve ever photographed. These dudes don’t set up on a conventional stage, they put their shit in the field with the audience and rock hard. The shot above is a shot of the lead singers ass, this was probably theeeeee most awkward shot ever, not the picture itself, but I was all contorted and shit. I was also shooting this whole show with a 10.5 mm fisheye lens so although it may not seem like I was up close, trust me I was VERY close.
The one below is also ill. He was standing on a speaker box, I was on the photo railing. I love how the cord appears to whip me across the face. Rest assure it didn’t, but the following shot (which isn’t posted here) has him bending down and melting my face off by shredding hard on his guitar.
Whenever I photograph concerts and the singer or band leader is a woman, I always without fail photograph their shoes. Why? The above shot pretty explains it. These Jeremy Scott / Reebok joints are soooo dope. These are what Santigold wore as she rocked the crowd, in what was probably one of my favorite performances all weekend from that festival.
That’s a sick picture of Sebastien Tellier. The fact that “Sexuality” was produced by Daft Punk bridges generations!
Great quality pics!
That video is AWESOME!
how did you get to be the photographer for these music festivals. Awesome Job, love your work!
thanks for the compliments all.
@cm photography, i got into shooting the shows through A LOT of hard work and some luck. developed a lot of relationships along the way.
Holy crap, amazing david!!!