blues - Part 20

Category Archives: blues

blues

King Cobb Steelie @ Lee’s Palace April 16,2011

Posted on April 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Went down to Lee’s Palace a couple weeks ago to see the 20th Anniversary of the 90’s dance, funk, rock, punk, trippie jam band King Cobb Steelie. Proceeds from the performance went to Ontario Hand & Voices, a organization and advocacy group helping parents with deaf & hearing challenged kids.

Not sure if I should label any specific genre on these guys, which is fine, cause they put on a great show, jamming out tunes from their broad repertoire.

Front man Kevan Byrne didn’t say too much or mention much about the fundraiser, didn’t have to, he just let the music do the talkin’.

A lot of diehard fans of the band came out and attempted to get their favorite songs played, some more successful then others, Kevan just smiled and nodded, happy to be playing with a tight group of musicians. I am sure the two encores kept everyone’s appetite satisfied.

King Cobb Steelie

Photo wise, the lighting was fairly dim, I don’t think anyone was doing lights, just a change here and there, so it was difficult trying to keep things sharp without cranking up the ISO. Which I had to do anyway just to get a exposure setting that I could use. Wide open @ f2.8, 1/60th – 1/125th and ISO at 3200 or 6400 for most of these shots. With the low light, it seemed a few photogs didn’t care about one of the basic etiquette rules for concert photography, No Flash. Okay, there will always be the camera phones and point & shoot pocket camera flashes going off, but using a flash on a DSLR blasting out full power seemed to ruin the mood the band was working at.

Kevan Byrne

Al Okada

Tamara Williamson

check my gallery page for the complete set

Almost Missed Little Miss @ The Dakota Tavern

Posted on March 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Foy Taylor & Miss Higgins

This is where perusing the local weekly entertainment rag is worth while. I had heard about this lady Little Miss Higgins and heard a few of her songs on CBC Radio2 and thought this is some pretty good guitar playing, I should check it out some time. Then I see in Now Magazine that she is playing a gig at the Dakota Tavern in the west end that very night. Starting early at 7pm! Okay then! lets go.

Miss Higgin's

What a show! Little Miss Higgin’s along with Foy Taylor accompanying on guitar and harmonies put on a very entertaining set of country and blue’s songs. Stories about small towns, touring, some undergarment references and life in general filled in with some good ol’ gutsy guitar playing got people drinking it up, myself included.

Jamz Bee

The Dakota was also privileged to be a stop on the Jamz Bee hosted Jazz Safari tour that evening. Jamz Bee, a social guru, hosts the JazzFM91.1 sponsored group trips to various clubs around town checking out live music.

This gig took place Sept 25th, 2010. Shortly afterwards , Little Miss Higgin’s was part of the Women’s Blues Review at Massey Hall. I’m glad I had the chance to take pictures at the much smaller and intimite Dakota Tavern before the Massey Hall show.

Miss Higgin’s is currently on tour in England and Ireland, returning to Canada in May for a stop in Ottawa then out to the west coast for a few gigs.

my gallery from this show: Little Miss Higgin’s Live @ The Dakota Tavern

little miss higgin's

Photog notes: there was not a lot of light in the Dakota so for most of the shoot I had the ISO cranked up to 3200. I was also using a variable aperture zoom which was not too effective in this situation. It was the only lens I had at the time, this fact helped me understand what it was I was going to require to get better low-light shots in the future.