Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull's live concert at X-Tra Club

Jethro Tull play live in Zurich, Switzerland

Candy Dulfer

Dutch saxophone player Candy Dulfer plays live at her concert in Zurich

Candy Dulfer and her band playing at X-Tra Club

Candy Dulfer during a duet with a band member in Zurich, Switzerland

Candy Dulfer performing live at a concert in Switzerland

Joss Stone

I watched Zack Arias's video on his workflow the other day. He uses Photo Mechanic, Lightroom, and Photoshop. I use Lightroom - so far.

Joss Stone during her concert at X-Tra Club

When posting the video, Zack mentioned that he used Photo Mechanic to import his photos from the memory card and make quick choices on keepers and trash-fodder. Doesn't Lightroom actually do that for ya? Why pay $150 for a program that does the same thing?

Joss Stone singing live in Zurich, Switzerland

Zack kept on (and on, and on, and on ;-) ) talking about how fast Photo Mechanic is importing pictures and rendering previews - something I've been struggling with for a while (launch LR, insert memory card, type keywords, hit enter and go eat a sandwich - or three). Especially when I'm shooting for 20 Minuten, time is crucial, because they gotta figure out if they wanna use the shot on their cover or on the music pages for the next day's edition.

Joss Stone performs during a live concert at X-Tra in Zurich

Since Camerabits, the company that makes Photo Mechanic, offers a 20-day free trial, I decided to give it a go for Joss Stone's show. And boy, I was blown away! I have no idea when I'll eat now after coming home from a shooting a concert, but I'm definitely heaps of precious sleep minutes faster than it used to be.

Joss Stone live in concert

I also needed it - Joss Stone was beautiful, her voice amazing, and the light just perfect. Edited 500-something photos (yeah... fast continuous shooting on a D3 produces lots of pictures) in less time than it used to take me to just download them to Lightroom. I guess I'm gonna invest $140, cause I've heard there's a $10 gift code somewhere in Zack's post. Great night!

Joss Stone sings for Zurich

Skunk Anansie

Singer Skin of Skunk Anansie

Check out the article on 20 Minuten Online about the show - my pal Lina who put together the text is pretty mean...

Skin of Skunk Anansie is hidden by her stage costume during the beginning of the concert

For those of you who don't read any German: She's asking whether the glitter was a tad too much and whether Skin's hairdo was ok...

Skin of Skunk Anansie singing live during a performance at X-Tra in Zurich, Switzerland

And I don't think the glitter was too much: That stuff makes for a great photo any time! Not that Miss Skin would need to throw herself into glitter to attract attention: She's such an energetic appearance it's hard to take your eyes off of her when she performs.

Skin greets her front row fans at X-Tra Club

Chris Cornell

The nineties brought us Soundgarden, and the intro to his show was a nod to that: An instrumental of "Black Hole Sun", accompanied vocally by a sold-out crowd, marked the beginning of Chris Cornell's show.

Chris Cornell, formerly singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, performs a solo concert in Zurich

The early years of this century brought us Audioslave, and one of my favorite songs, "Show Me How To Live". Mr. Cornell must have known that I'm a big Audioslave fan, as he and his phenomenal band played quite some tunes off of the "Audioslave" album.

Chris Cornell promotes his latest solo album with a live concert at X-Tra

Then Audioslave committed the crime of disbanding, but the man with the amazingly unique voice went on to continue working on his solo career. I love his album "Carry On", and he came to town last week support his newest album, "Scream".

Chris Cornell sings at X-Tra in Zurich, Switzerland

The show featured songs from all these albums too, and it was a seam- and flawless show. Chris Cornell sang effortlessly and just nailed those songs. If you have a chance to go see him, you should!

Chris Cornell

If you don't have a chance to see him, missed the show, or did see him and miss him already, here's the full gallery!

Papa Roach

X-tra again, the place where instead/in the pit, the photogs get to kneel on the stairs that lead up to the stage, and you can't move to the left or right because of the bars holding up the front row rail.

Rock band Papa Roach taking the stage at X-Tra Zurich

10 minutes before show start, security helps us to get through to the front, and then you gotta get lucky / decide on which section of the stairs you want to sit on for your three songs.

Papa Roach perform live at X-Tra in Zurich, Switzerland

Also when I can stand straight and, more importantly, can move left and right in front of the stage, I usually start on the left, gambling on the fact that most guitarists are right-handed, or play with a regular right-handed guitar anyway. This means that if they're in front of me and I'm on the left ("stage right"), they're more likely to turn their face in my direction.

Papa Roach live in concert

The disadvantage of that a) if one of the guitarists is left-handed, you lose, and b) singers are often right-handed too. Which means any time they hold the mic up to their face, they cover themselves up almost completely with their arm.

Papa Roach

The guy at the far right (stage left) is less on the photos because even if I got to move over there: Either you just got the curtain / some boxes / some roadie / the emergency exit in the background, or you move over so that the stage is in the background, in which case the probably-right-handed guitarist will turn his back to you.

Papa Roach perform live (and with wireless guitars) at X-Tra in Zurich

So yay for wireless guitars! Even on a small stage, it's much more fun if they change their spots. I'm just there for three songs, but I guess the fans in front row would appreciate getting to see the whole band over the course of the show.

Papa Roach singer Jacoby Shaddix

Anyway, that was a lot of blabbering about taking photos of rock bands, and very few about Papa Roach. I had already seen them a couple of years ago when they opened for Guns N' Roses in North America, so I knew they would be good. Seems I wasn't the only one to know that, the place was packed! They were very high energy, jumping off of things and banging heads like crazy. Great music, great show!

Papa Roach in Zurich, Switzerland

Also, I ran into some people that I'd lost track of, so really it was a great night!

Papa Roach

Full galleries:
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The Rasmus

Setup for The Rasmus's show at X-Tra in Zurich

There were plenty of photographers, and so I decided to go shooting from the back.

The Rasmus performing live at X-Tra, Zurich

Luckily, there's a gallery in the back and some stairs that lead up to it, both helping a lot in getting backs of heads out of the pictures.

The Rasmus live in concert in Zurich at Club X-Tra

Once again, I fell in love with the light at X-Tra. Always beautiful...

Rock band The Rasmus playing a concert at X-Tra Zurich

Staind

I had the pit all to myself for openers Enjoy Destroy, whose singer did me the favor of having blond hair - just wonderfully reflects the color of the light.

Enjoy Destroy perform as opening band for Staind at X-Tra in Zurich

Big difference to his darker haired friend on bass...

Enjoy Destroy live in concert at X-Tra Zurich

The lightman, my D3, and I were in a great mood that day, so I nailed about 50 shots that I usually would have only gotten right on one of the shots. Here's some for you:

An actually interesting, in-focus closeup of opener Enjoy Destroy's guitarist in action (and it's purple in the background, so it gets plus points too).

Close-up photo of Enjoy Destroy's live performance at X-Tra Zurich, Switzerland

Then we got more purple, and a drummer thinking of ice cream...

Enjoy Destroy's drummer live in concert (and maybe thinking of ice cream)

And then Staind hit the stage. What can I say - great crowd, great band, great light, great colors! On the singer's guitar picks for example...

Staind performing a live concert in Zurich, Switzerland at X-Tra Club

In red, yellow, white, and blue for bass...

Staind live in concert at X-Tra Zurich

And in all sorts of colors for guitar:

Live music with Staind at X-Tra in Zurich

A great night, with a great show!

The Hives

music photographers waiting for the live show to start at X-Tra Zürich

At X-Tra, you'd normally find not-so-bright light, along with the braces holding the rail to the audience in place, not the best thing if you intend to take pictures from the pit. PeeBee of usgang.ch (see his page here) and I discussed this at length whilst waiting for the band to hit the stage. Which setting to try your luck with today? One thing was clear: We weren't in for longer shutter speeds today - The Hives aren't necessarily known for their static stage show, to say the least.

The Hives live in concert at X-Tra in Zurich

When they got on stage, we were pleasantly surprised: Not only did they strike poses (stepping on darkly clothed photographers trapped between braces included) and truly rock the place, they also had one of the brightest lit stages ever. So we got to toss all of our nicely thought through plans and make the best of it. Gotta say: If everybody lit their stage like that, it'd be a hell of a lot more easier (the drawback is that everybody looks as if you're lighting their behind on purpose...).