Me with Adrianne Gonzalez and Kyler England of The Rescues - <3

Writing a book doesn’t have that much to do with writing a book.  It’s been more about organizing information, filtering through it, and learning about the publishing and self publishing industries.  So far, that’s the case.  I had a friend come into town, and she wanted to catch some live music on Friday.  I thought I’d be suave, and make happen what I had happen with my friend Joanna, while I was couchsurfing with John and Julia (whom I met at Burning Man)— we took out some ocean Kayaks, food, and booze, and saw Crosby Stills and Nash over at Humphreys.

Humphreys however had no one playing on Friday, which I found odd, ’cause they usually have quite the lineup .  I don’t mean to be spoiled… but watching a concert by Kayak is more fun than just going to a show.  I like things to be new and exciting, or at least unique. I don’t know any of the San Diego performance spaces, nor do I know who’s playing.  Sure… there’s Google for that, but Google can land you in an outletless coffee bar with no internet (such as Living Room in La Jolla). So, we just went for some good Mexican food.

The next night however I was as giddy as a little girl at a Justin Bieber concert!  I saw Kyler England post on Facebook that she’s recovering from a midnight milkshake, and that the band is on their way to San Diego for the last show of their tour

The band is “The Rescues”.  I’m a huge fan!  They are 4 members in size, and every single one of them has really strong lead vocals skills. They keep switching off on who sings, and they keep changing instruments.

lI found them on TheSixtyOne.com — Click here to go to the The Rescues TheSixtyOne page – and instantly got them stuck in my head.  With each new song they uploaded, I liked them more.  I never actually read their bio until the other night.  Apparently, they’re hot shit!  They’re already being featured on all these popular tv shows, going to the Grammys, etc… You can read it on TheRescues.com.

Anyways… I instantly messaged Kyler (who’s one of the band members, and has such mesmerizing vocals) to get the details on the show.  I didn’t wait for a reply.  I went to their website, checked out shows, and saw that there was one that night at The House of Blues in San Diego.

Grrrr!  Frustration set in!  I’m generally very technically capable, but I was not able to figure out how much tickets cost, or how to get them.  Maybe they sold out!  That would suck… ’cause I really like them, and I never actually thought I’d get to see them live. Here was the chance for that.

Kyler replied that the show was at 8:30, and is a free show!

I was back to giddy!  I get surprised by one of my favorite bands coming to town, and it’s a free show!  It must be all that good Karma or something!

I messaged her to see if I can bring my camera.  I don’t know what the House of Blues’ photo policies are, but I suspected they may be strict.

We left Moffatt’s place shortly after to try and catch Happy Hour.  No problem with the camera as we sat by the bar and feasted.

Personally, my skills at recognizing people in public are fairly horrible.  I nudged my friend (whom I had shown the picture of the band before we left, as I was letting her hear their music), and said “Is that them?  I think it is, but I can’t quite tell!”  I pointed to the big table in the back.

“That’s totally them!”

“Ok… I’m gonna go and say hi, and see if I can take pictures. What do you think is appropriate? Maybe I’ll say ‘Oh my God! *squeal* The Rescues! I can’t believe it’s really you!’”

“Umm… sure.. whatever works for you.”

My friend was slightly mortified as she heard across the restaurant *Squeal* “Oh my god! The Rescues???”

Rob Giles frowned, “No… We’re ‘The Cured’”

“Oh crap! This is the 3rd table I’ve tried!”

Kyler wasn’t at the table, so I explained briefly to the rest of the band that I’m here to see them, am a big fan, and that I’m a pro photographer, have shot Avenged Sevenfold, Wycleff, Rob Zombie, etc… and would love to shoot them if they don’t mind.  They agreed that it’s fine.

I didn’t stick around longer than a minute or two.  I figure if you’re famous, and just chilling out at a table before the show (as compared to signing autographs afterwards), you probably want your privacy/space respected.

The show started, and Garrisson Starr was opening.  Kyler had told me that she was good, so I packed up from the bar, and went to the restaurant stage.  The other show that was a paid show was “The Cured” – a Cure cover band. No offense, but being a full-time cover band just seems like being stuck in artist-hell.  Having to perform over and over on someone else’s work.  *shiver*

The Cure already had their chance last millenium, I was going to see a fresh new band with a much wider vocal diversity (although, I am a fan of The Cure… I lost my Virginity to The Cure, “Just Like Heaven” (and whatever songs followed)).

I didn’t want to get in people’s way, and there were no tables open.  I stood behind the guy at the Mixer, and started taking pictures.

“Who are you with?”

“Ummm… The Rescues. The band that’s going on next.  They granted me photography permissions.”

“Well, that’s nice that they did, but House of Blues didn’t! You can’t shoot in here unless you have all the clearance.”

The guy running the mixer was pudgy, had long wirey hair, and a face that reminded me of Chris Farley.  I kept wanting to call him Chris, and expected him to huff, bring his arms up, and then flex them in front of himself while yelling… sort of like in Black Sheep.

Rather than bore you with a word by word recall of our conversation, I’ll summarize. I asked whom I would speak to to get the proper paperwork, and Chris (I never got his name, so I’m calling him Chris) said that he’s the person, but he’s busy running the boards.  I told him that I’m “just a blogger, going around crashing on people’s couches and looking for cool things to photograph.”  He explained that even if I got the contracts done, the contracts state that I can’t do anything with the pictures… not even post them online.

Let me take a step back here, and explain one small detail: Everyone had their cameras out!  Maybe 1/4 of the audience was taking photos on their point and clicks, and their cell phones.  That’s why I was getting upset.

I mentioned to Chris that everyone’s shooting, and he explained that you can’t stop point and clicks, and what happened was that people would post pics on the internet, and the House of Blues’ clients would sometimes be shown in circumstances they wouldn’t want to be in (Smoking weed? Snorting coke? Screwing on the table? It’s a fucking restaurant, and is lit… what is someone going to do that’s so horrific?), and then House of Blues had trouble, so they just canned Photography all together…. with Professional cameras.

I don’t get it!  At all!  What’s the difference between a pro camera and a point and click?  Both can take photos of a House of Blues client snorting crack off a hooker’s ass mid-show!  My 70-200mm lens at least can zoom in close enough to where I only shoot the band, and NOT the fiends that House of Blues clearly attracts.  Chris’s logic was not making any sense to me. He even refused to let me get portraits of the band… i.e. I zoom in, and get nothing but their faces.  No.

“Well, I guess I’ll just put this away then.” I took my camera, and went to look for my friend, who had gone to the bathroom.  I explained the dealio, and found out two seats against the back wall.

“You know I’m going to take photos, right?” I can’t help it! Since I was live-Tweeting/Facebooking what was going on (You know… being mature, calling them “House of Blows” and stuff like that), someone said “can’t you just enjoy the music?”  My response was:

“no… I couldn’t JUST enjoy the music… not while I had my whole backpack of camera gear…. It’s like bringing a tennis ball outside with your dog (that loves to play fetch, and is jumping backwards on 2 legs ready to play fetch), and then not doing anything with it… not one throw… the dog will be quite unhappy! I’m a photographer…. … See Morenot only professionally, but instictually. I have to shoot. It’s my nature, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that I appreciate. I try to capture it. Kyler England is so beautiful, and her voice lifts me away to another place….. the entire band is super-talented, all 4 of them with a mastery of voice and every instrument, and together, it’s magic… so not being able to shoot that, while I have all my gear with me… straight up torture…” — but that response was after the show, when I got home and checked FB.

My friend agreed that if I get kicked out, she’d take my bag with her upon leaving.

I saw Kyler, and told her what’s up “What? Our tour manager was told to tell House o Blues that you had permission.  Well… shoot anyways, Guerilla style!”  — as if I didn’t think she was awesome before

My plan was to shoot from the back of the room, and as they announce that there’s only a few songs left, I’d get closer to the stage, and shoot more.  I was going to shoot behind Chris’s back.

Things got easier.  Chris left the room, and some skinny tall dude took over.  I was shooting more, but not as inconspicuously.

After a few seconds, I got bored of shooting from the back of the room.  I wanted Depth of Field!  I wanted portraits!  This was not good enough… if I get kicked out, so be it!

The restaurant was actually adjacent to the bar area…. there were no doors between the two, just archways you could enter through.  There were red felt curtains that could close up, but were actually bunched in the open position.

I started shooting from behind them, but I could only get good shots of half the band– despite that they were better shots than from the back of the room.  I went back to the back.

Over the next 20 minutes, I kept shuffling around… getting closer and closer.  Finally I just said fuck it, and went immediately behind the guy at the mixer. NOW I was getting good shots.

As the evening progressed I got closer and closer, to the point where I was leaning against the stage, and shooting…. i.e. I had the absolute best seats in the house, and no one was doing anything about my shooting.

“Act like you’re supposed to be there, and people will think you’re supposed to be there!” — This philosophy has worked many times in the past.

Chris walked right past me as I was on the floor, front and center.  He didn’t notice me, and I scurried back to the back of the room.  I took out the 32GB memory card that had all the pics, put it in my pocket, and put a smaller 8GB card in the camera… just in case I get busted and they try to wipe my card.

Chris left, and I finished up the show.

The lighting was dim, and I couldn’t use a flash, so as not to piss off the band members or the audience.  My lenses are F2.8 at worse (‘cept my 180mm, which is an F3.5), meaning they let in a decent amount of light, and at a high ISO, can shoot in the dark just fine.

I walked out of there pleased. I got to watch a show that I really wanted to catch, and I got the pics that I wanted… despite being forbidden to…. which made it that much more rewarding.

When Kyler found out that I swapped out cards, she laughed and said “This isn’t your first rodeo, eh?”

I’m thrilled to say that The Rescues were incredible live.  I’ve been to some shows where the band just did not sound as good as the studio (Counting Crows 1997- I’m guessing they had too much pot and pain killers… everything was 1/4 tempo), but The Rescues did not disappoint!  It was great to see which ones of them produced which voices, and which ones played which instruments.

They had all switched up all through the show, and sometimes teamed up on the drums.

Here are the Forbidden 96 for your enjoyment (punchline afterwards)

All that, and I still didn’t get a single audience member doing a single illicit thing!!!!