Octopuss Band playing at Changzhou MiGong Livehouse 2015

 

 

To be perfectly honest, shooting in live houses sucks. It is always as dark as hell, with terrible lighting and sound. But a job is a job, so I lugged my big camera bag and my assistant to Changzhou to shoot Octopuss, mostly because I really like the band and their last show that I shot was awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got to the livehouse just before sound check and watched the usual struggle of foreign bands trying to do their sound check. Chinese bands and foreign bands set up very differently before a show, and it is always a huge mess that gets solved just before the show starts. Luckily for me, I got to sit and watch the setup and enjoy some of the action. After sound check, it was time for a quick portrait shoot with the band. I usually keep band portraits down to under three minutes. Bands hate getting their portraits taken, so the less time they have to stand in front of the camera, the better.

 

 

After a quick dinner, it was showtime. Octopuss had a great performance, even though the livehouse was not packed. Their live show is so good. I shot most of the show while running around and making sure that my assistant was doing his job and shooting the video I needed. It was a difficult shoot, though, as with all livehouses, it was so dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shooting the show was difficult as I had expected. There was no pit to shoot from, so I was weaving my way through the crowd to take photos and then running back to the soundboard to check up on my assistant and the videos he was shooting. By the end of the show, I was exhausted but I absolutely loved it. Some bands just have pure magic on stage, and this band has it in spades. I hope I will get the opportunity to shoot them again in the future.

Shaun