150 - Rock and Roll

Theme 97.

Preface - I've loved Counting Crows for about 6 years now. Never got the chance to see them play live, as they've not played the UK since about 3-4 years ago. I did once work with someone who saw them play Sheffield. Anyhoo, I periodically check Aloud.com for Counting Crows and Barenaked Ladies, just to see if either of them are playing. Out of boredom one day at work, I checked for Counting Crows and yikes, I saw they were playing Liverpool and Dublin!

With a bit more investigating on the Crows' website, I saw they were playing a European tour and then an American one, to promote their new album, Saturday Nights And Sunday Mornings. I couldn't do the Scottish "T In The Park" event - sold out. I couldn't do the London O2 Wireless Festival I think (or I might have mixed up the dates). Liverpool was £150 for VIP tickets and the venue's website clearly said no photos - now I'd have willingly paid that money to take my dSLR in, but not if I couldn't. And I didn't like my trip to Dublin last year, and have no desire to ever return - Crows or not. But they were also playing Paris... not the weekend I was due to be there (5-9 June), but Monday 30th June. So I booked time off work, booked flights and (eventually) a hotel, and tickets online (in French!).

And that my friends, is how I saw the Counting Crows for the first time, in Paris of all places. And why they are worthy subjects for the "Rock and Roll" theme. They play both rock music and the more emotional slower songs. The whole point of the new album Saturday Nights And Sunday Mornings, is about the madness and chaos of Saturday Nights, the rock and roll of life, followed by the more pensive contemplation of Sunday Mornings, when you take stock of your life and how it fell apart - and how you put it back together (the penultimate song, "Come Around" is all about having done that).

I'd bought a little point and shoot camera to take with me for this, knowing I'd almost 100% not be able to take my dSLR in - I checked the back of the tickets and small print said no photos. I wore a loose skirt that fell in waves with a pocket, and in the queue to get in, ignored my fear of speaking French to French people, and asked two girls behind me if cameras were allowed in the venue - I'd seen on the Crows' website that the band themselves allow amateur photography, but ultimately it's up to the venue. The girls said no, and not even bottles of water. I was about to put my camera in my little shoulder bag, when something made me stop and put the camera back in my skirt pocket. Just trying my luck? The security checked my bag, but not my skirt pockets (wasn't easy to see I had them), and I got the camera in - as did many other people I saw.

I'll not post about the concert here - a few people from the Alias posting board already know about it. It was largely good - the Crows are an amazing band to see live. Adam bounces around the stage and jumps and really sweats a performance out (literally - see the bottom photo!). And this dude had food poisoning the day of the concert - I can only imagine what the shows must be like when he's at full health! They sing and play brilliantly - my only complaint is about "Colourblind", which was featured in the film Cruel Intentions. It's a hauntingly beautiful song with Adam's emotional voice and a piano and cello. The emotion and heartbreak really gives you goosebumps. But the live performance didn't let the subtleness speak for itself - Adam really did the "It hurts. too. much. to. get... the... words......... out" style of singing, and I felt quite bashed over the head with the message of "THIS IS A SAD SONG". It's OK, I would have got the message, honestly. Everyone else seemed to love it though. Otherwise, just a few people nearby me spoiled it, but eventually that stopped.

So here are a few of the better photos. I'd bought a Fujifilm J12 camera (except mine is royal blue), and only had it 2 days by this point. I'd never tried photographing a concert before, and if I used flash they came out flat and mostly black background. If I switched the flash off, everything blurred. Despite having settings for fireworks, museum, text, flowers, snow, sunset and a million other things, I found there was no black and white! I mean c'mon, really?!? Even my HP camera form 4 years ago had black and white, and sepia! But the bottom two here were the best of the bunch, and I've included the sign outside. Sorry for the larger than normal and more prominently placed watermarks - the reason I recently redid all my watermarks to make them bigger and more noticeable was after that Guardian news story I linked to. In which examples were given of people stealing other people's concert photos and selling them as their own. I'd quite like to avoid that, hence the large and prominent watermarks here, and the low quality I saved them as - sorry again for this, but given you all take good photographs, I hope you can understand why.

Like I said, insanely close to the front! Adam was really good about working the stage on all sides, so everyone got good photos of him looking right at them, and he and another band member also touched hands with almost everyone in the front two rows who reached out at the end - non of this start touching hands and stop, leaving people disappointed. They really seemed to care about the fans having the best time ever. Props to them, they must be hands down the best band I've seen (out of um 4 concerts, lol).