TR/ST (the moniker for Robert Alfons) was the closing band for both nights at this year's two day Substance Fest held at The Belasco. You can read my review of the festival at US Rocker Music (click here). This was my first time attending Substance Fest. To be honest, a main reason why I wanted to attend the festival was due to the fact that Silent Mass was playing the festival. Also, the fact that Pink Stiletto was playing, helped as well. If you follow my blog site, you know I have a soft spot for DIY local bands. (Though both Silent Mass and Pink Stiletto live outside of Los Angeles, both used to live in the city.) Of course, one could argue that all the bands at this festival were DIY bands. Let's just say I like catching bands that play the smaller stages. Substance Fest had three stages: the main stage and the two other stages being in the balcony and basement. I've been to The Belasco a handful of times and didn't even know they had a basement area (other than knowing that they had bathrooms down there). Also, to be honest, I actually didn't know there was a balcony area. I did some fun exploring of the venue during the festival. One of these days, I would mind having an all access pass and seeing what the back stage looks like.
Okay, I just got done saying how I love to catch bands at the smaller stages, but then I'm highlighting a photo of TR/ST that was taken at the main stage. Why am I highlighting this photo? If one doesn't know, Substance Fest focuses on “post punk, dark wave, industrial, synth pop, experimental” music. Most music festival attendees were dressed in black. I didn't mention this to a fellow photographer, but I did notice on Day 1 that a photographer showed up dressed nicely in bright clothing. The next day, she was dressed in black. I almost went up to her and mentioned that she had succumbed to the peer pressure of the festival.
That style of music also led to dark moody lights that were often punctuated with flashes of blazing white light -- as can be seen in the below photo. Alfons used the main stage to his benefit. He wasn't there to just stand in one place. He circled and danced across much of the stage. That caused me some issues. I use the EVF (electronic view finder) to take the vast majority of my photos and the dark / bright stage lights resulted in me often losing track of him. So what did that require me to do? Based on his movements, I had to anticipate where he was going to end up once the stage lights were at a more neutral level that didn't mess with my EVF. Sometimes I guessed correctly such as in the below photo and other times I was way off and by the time I got him back in frame, the lights had changed on me.
Yes, in this photo, you can not see his face, but I love how he is holding the microphone stand, pulling it towards his body while also leaning forward. I also like how his body it cut in two: half in the bright lights and the other half in a more reasonable white light. I did no editing to this photo at all, not even a slight color correction. It is shot at ISO 6,400 and a shutter speed of 200. I do prefer to shot at a higher shutter speed (I love shooting at 320), but the reason for my setting it at 200 was because I was not sure how bright (or dark) the lights would be once I was able to focus in on him once he emerged. The same with the ISO 6,400, which is perhaps too high for this photo. I just didn't know what brightness of lights I was going to have once I was able to see him in my EVF.
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| TR/ST at Substance Fest (held at The Belasco) |
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