You've got to look into the light-light-light-light- ...
"This next song is not like other songs ... it's in B-flat."
That line was spoken by lead singer Fat Bobby at the Oneida show I attended last Friday. I downloaded a bootleg of it in the hopes I could re-live the sonic experience (Oneida rules, even if they didn't play "Sheets of Easter") without the visual experience (amateur photographers who can't take concert photos without using the flash can go fuck themselves).
The verdict: I'm getting a headache as I suffer from phantom flash-induced blindness. My brain is seemingly unable to hear this set of music without remembering those goddamn flickr photographers. It's a shame, and not solely because that one photographer got only five usable photos after shooting for 30 minutes – come on, the stage is small and this ain't a glam band; you'll get the same photos after 5 minutes as you will after 30. No, it's also a shame because I was in a mostly good mood this afternoon, but now I have to worry about getting epilepsy from the vivid memory of those flashes.
Or not. I'm either too young or too old to get epilepsy, or maybe too stupid to know that you can't "get" epilepsy, but I'm definitely too lazy to look it up.
The photographer hired by Yo La Tengo to take photos during their Hanukkah shows? No flash. Sure, the pictures came out a little dark, but that's what it was like being there. And the pictures were still in focus. Whenever I see concert photos that were taken with flash, I can't help but think the photos belong in somebody's photocopied-n-stapled zine from 1993. And Oneida weren't even together then, so stop defying the laws of physics with your weak understanding of time travel!
3 Comments:
I like how extra earnest that photo you link to is...I can imagine the hipster who took it.In the past I have been "hired" to take rock show photos. Not only are they pretty boring in nature to shoot, but they are also a pain in the ass without a flash (although I did it all the time back in the days before having a flash and they turned out just fine). That being said though, I don't defend the use of a flash in public. No. Not at all.
Hi, I'm the photographer who was using flash and took those photos you linked to. I noticed that you were annoyed and I stopped using my flash. I also tapped you on the shoulder and apologized to you.
Most of the Oneida photos I took were without flash. I'm really sorry I annoyed you.
I'm not going to try to defend my photography skills - if you think I suck, you think I suck.
I really love Oneida and I volunteered to shoot the show for for prefixmag.com. I like to keep bands I love in the public eye.
Again, sorry if I annoyed you but I did apologize. If a photographer annoys you in the future, please politely let them know before they start shooting (i.e. when you see they are about to use a flash) that you would like them not to. Any decent photographer will move away from you or attempt to shoot without flash out of consideration.
I hope to see you at the Oneida / Old Time Relijun / These Are Powers show that's coming up - I'll buy you a drink to make up for the blindness.
There were three photographers using flash at that show, and I was really hoping the photographer I linked to wasn't the one of the three who showed a modicum of consideration; it's just dumb luck that nyctaper linked to your flickr page and not to the girl with the ridiculous detachable flash. My apologies; you were indeed nice to me, though I felt some ambivalence when that douche spilled a beer on the floor that got your bag wet.
I didn't intend to call you out specifically, but rather bemoan the phenomenon of flash-happy amateur photographers filling up their memory cards at the expense of others' eyesight. So as much as your Oneida pictures suck, so too does my writing.
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