I have yet to attend a show at Johnny B’s that started within an hour of when it was supposed to. I thought Fates Medallion were playing first so when I arrived at just before 10 p.m. I was a bit surprised to see Uzi and the other Fates Medallion guys outside with their gear. I figured they must have went on right at 9 and I missed them. As it turns out, they were playing second even though the flyer appeared to indicate otherwise.

First up was Sarcalogos, a mostly black metal twosome from Portland or Washington or somewhere to the north. Bands usually don’t fit well on Johnny B’s tiny stage, but a band with only two members fit just fine. Spellcaster members couldn’t move with five crammed up there.

Sarcalogos consists of just Dave Phillips (aka Sarcophilus Satanicus) on drums and Skylar Guzman (aka Sarcalogos Occisor) on guitar and vocals.

They seemed like pretty nice dudes. I hope they play in Southern Oregon again.

Posted on March 9th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: fates medallion, johnny b's, music, nikon d7000, sarcalogos, sigma 85mm f/1.4, video. Comments Off on Sarcalogos

Last night Johnny B’s had a few metal acts playing so I headed up to Medford to try out my new Sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens.

Spellcaster was the headliner. I very much enjoyed their performance.

Posted on March 9th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: johnny b's, music, nikon d7000, sigma 85mm f/1.4, spellcaster, video. Comments Off on Spellcaster

Beatriz Abella

One of my students sang for her Junior Recital this past weekend. No, I don’t teach music or give voice lessons. (Those that have heard my voice should be laughing right now.) She is a double major and wants to become a CPA. I teach accounting and tax.

Beatriz has won a number of awards for her voice. She has been a part of several musical theater productions as well. She has also sung in Carnegie Hall–twice!

Today’s photo is a frame I extracted from a video I took at her recital. I didn’t take any stills, but since I was recording at 1080 pixels, the image isn’t too bad.

Here is a short video from her performance which I took on my Nikon D7000, with Nikkor 70-200mm VR II f/2.8 lens, and Sennheiser MKE 400 external mic.

If you’d like to watch and listen to her entire recital (in order) click here.

Posted on February 16th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: music, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, sennheiser mke 400 external microphone, sou performances, Southern Oregon University, video. Comments Off on Beatriz Abella

Skyler Squiglio on guitar for 100 Watt Mind

After Fates Medallion left the stage at Johnny B’s, we were treated with 100 Watt Mind.

Brynna Dean has some amazing pipes. I’ll try to get some more photos of 100 Watt Mind up soon.

I did some more video experimentation. Next gig I’ll have the video nailed.

Posted on January 23rd, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: 100 Watt Mind, concert photography, johnny b's, medford, music, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, video. Comments Off on 100 Watt Mind (band)

Last night I headed up to Medford to check out some bands at Johnny B’s. I was planning on arriving at 9:30 or so for Tenguska, but the SOU Raiders basketball game was very exciting so I stayed until the end (a victory over a higher ranked team!). I ended up arriving at Johnny B’s as Tenguska was moving their stuff off the stage after their set.

Next up were Fates Medallion.

I did some experimentation with the audio on my camera by adding an external mic (Sennheiser MKE 400). The audio on the video below came out far better than the internal mic on my Nikon D7000 so I was happy. Even right next to the speaker the sound is pretty good. I set the volume on the external microphone to – and the sensitivity on my D7000 to Low in order to obtain these results. I was so focused on the audio that the visual aspect of this video isn’t great. The lighting was very poor and people were in my way, but things are occasionally in focus. Next time I will be able to focus on the video since I finally have the audio settings down.

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: fates medallion, johnny b's, music, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, video. Comments Off on Fates Medallion at Johnny B’s

Slow Children at the Rogue Theatre

Slow Children, a band from Brookings (I think), opened for Floater. They sounded pretty good, sometimes sounding a lot like Floater in fact. Turns out there are numerous bands with this same name. They probably should have found a name that hasn’t already been taken. Anyway, they came out for Floater’s encore to play Helter Skelter as a six piece band. Check it out…

Posted on November 22nd, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, slow children, video. Comments Off on Slow Children (band from Oregon)

Floater w/ Slow Children at Rogue Theatre - November 18, 2011

Posted on November 21st, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, signs, video. Comments Off on Floater at the Rogue Theatre

I remembered to change the microphone to low sensitivity (under movie settings) on my Nikon D7000. That made the audio sound pretty good most of the time, but it still has a problem when a really heavy bass kicks in as you will hear (especially during the first song, My Burden, below) during parts of the following videos. I think I will purchase an external microphone and attenuator for next time to see if I can get better results.

I had to manually focus these videos as the lighting in the Rogue Theatre is really poor. Floater was pretty much playing in the dark.

Posted on November 20th, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, video. Comments Off on More Floater

Floater @ Rogue Theatre in Grants Pass, Oregon

Posted on November 19th, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, video. Comments Off on Floater played in Grants Pass last night