Give It A Name: Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday playing live at Zurich's Give It A Name festival

Headliners! Taking Back Sunday needed half as much posing material: No steps, no elaborate artwork, no supersized drumkit - just their name on a black backdrop and themselves on stage.

Rock band Taking Back Sunday live in concert at Volkshaus, Zurich

During their show, I had focus issues of the other kind: While both my cameras worked totally fine (minus the normal slowness of the 20D's autofocus), the contact lens in my left eye went on a trip around my eyeball. It was still there, just not where I needed it to be. And that was bad, because when it comes to photography, I'm left-eyed. Have you ever tried to even find the viewfinder with your "other" eye? That didn't work.

Taking Back Sunday

The lens couldn't be convinced to come back from its trip, so I had to rely on the engineers at Nikon to do the focusing for me when all I could see was a blurry lit thing (the singer?) and a blurry red thing (the focus point). Looking at the pictures, it seems I got pretty lucky!

Taking Back Sunday

(Of course, just after the "first three songs" were over, my lens hopped back in place as if nothing had happened...)

Taking Back Sunday

Give It A Name: Underoath

Front row fans waiting for rock band UnderOath to take the stage at Give It A Name festival

There's gotta be something about a band when their fans show up like this and wait all through the night in front row without a break to make sure they got the best view once their heroes hit the stage.

Stage setup for UnderOath at Give It A Name festival in Zurich

You kinda could see the posing coming, and I got ready for almost everything. What I wasn't ready for was getting spat water at, so now I'll definitely have to get some new filters for my lenses. I hope that was water ;-)

UnderOath performing live at Volkshaus Zurich for the Give It A Name festival

Thankfully, they then concentrated on their music and their fans and less on annoying the photogs in the pit.

UnderOath live concert at Volkshaus Zurich

The light knob had been turned on again, so I got the opportunity to shoot some posing including a dedicated posing device.

UnderOath performing at Volkshaus, Zurich

Live rockshow with UnderOath at Give It A Name festival Zurich, Switzerland

Give It A Name: Thursday

close-up photo of rock band Thursday's stage at Give It A Name festival in Zurich, Switzerland

Shortly before my 10.000th picture with the Nikon (yeah, I shoot in continuous mode), Thursday got their stuff on stage.

Thursday live in concert at Give It A Name festival Zurich

They're less about posing, but no less about intensity, which makes them very interesting to shoot no less ;-)

Thursday playing live at Volkshaus Zurich

Give It A Name: Escape The Fate

Stage setup for rock band Escape The Fate at Give It A Name Festival in Zurich, Switzerland

When the backdrop and the amp covers where put up on the stage, I knew this was going to be a real looker of a show.

Escape the Fate performing a live concert at Give It A Name festival in Zurich

The band certainly knows how to pose - and also, I think somebody finally stumbled upon the knob that turns on the lights lights at Volkshaus! I've shot there a couple of times, but the light always seemed to be darker by a notch than in other places.

Rock band Escape The Fate plays live in Zurich, Switzerland at Volkshaus

Now that I had more light, also my Canon got a bit happier, and I got some cool wider-angle shots. I still shoot "mixed", with the old 20D and my trusty 24-70mm F/2.8, and the new D3 with the 70-200mm f/2.8. I wouldn't wanna miss having two cameras! No lens changing, just a grab and there you go with the lens you need.

Rock band Escape The Fate performs at Give It A Name festival in Zurich

But I really wish the cam attached to the 24-70mm was a Nikon. The 20D is sort of oldish, I know that, but the autofocus just smells in low light, and the noise... makes black backgrounds look more like rainbows. So one day, maybe. Until then, I'm glad when people stumble onto knobs that turn on the light and I don't have to change lenses.

Zurich edition of the Give It A Name festival, featuring rock band Escape The Fate

Give It A Name: Inner Party System

Inner Party System performing live at Give It A Name festival

Number two on the Give It A Name bill, Inner Party System immediately got my attention when they put up this, errr, thing on stage. It's blue and it's shiny, so I couldn't get my eyes or lenses off of it.

Inner Party System live in concert at Volkshaus Zurich

Their sound was a bit more experimental than most of the other bands'. The blue shiny thing seems to make sounds, and two keyboards/synths added to the mix of your "usual" guitar/bass/drum/vocals lined up in a rock band sounded pretty interesting.

Inner Party System playing a live rock show at Volkshaus in Zurich, Switzerland

Then there also was the merch stand. All bands had put in a lot of effort into making really beautiful shirts and hoodies - nobody buys a badly designed shirt of poor quality. Except if you're a widely popular band - maybe some of the widely popular bands should look at that merch and re-think their concepts. Had I had more money in my pockets that night, I would've bought a shirt of all of them, especially the shiny ones that Inner Party System had. Well done!

Inner Party System performing live in Zurich at Volkshaus

Give It A Name: Goodbye Fairbanks

Thanks to my friends at Leech*Redda, I had the opportunity to shoot at Give It A Name Switzerland festival. The bill promised a long and crazy night with lots of good music, and in my opinion we weren't let down at all.

Goodbye Fairbanks from Berne perform live at Give It A Name festival

The sound rocked, you should check out the bands if you don't know them! Too bad that moshing and headbanging is a bad idea if you carry a lot of expensive camera stuff, but I was with the crowd in my mind ;-) .

There were so many beautiful people - though I admit to shooting mostly the ones on-stage, if only because they were better lit.

Goodbye Fairbanks' live show at Volkshaus Zurich

The honor of opening the evening was given to Goodbye Fairbanks, a band from Berne that I'd met what feels like in a previous life when I just started out shooting. Great to see that they get some exposure!

Goodbye Fairbanks perform live in Zurich at Volkshaus

There were six bands in total, and as mentioned, everybody war really good-looking, so I have way too many photos for just one post. Goodbye Fairbanks played first, so they get to get the first post. 5 more to come!