My Morning Jacket - NYE at MSG [State of Mind]
None of the other dozen or so photographers got this picture:
I like how Jim James is looking right at me...and the dark outfits fit their costume theme about being on the Oregon Trail...second set they were all in white (apparently I found out after their 'ascension to heaven'). They played like 3.5 to 4 hours...one of the most amazing shows of all times! I got the setlist somewhere...it's reeediculous with Motown and Disco/funk/soul and really obscure songs I never even knew were MMJ.
All the other photographers were jockeying for position up in the front of the "pit" at the edge of the stage...I was in the back of the pit standing on one of those little step/seats they have attached to the crowd fence. Security told me to get down right after I took that shot.
I of course got a bunch of SMMD + Duo photos...those are up on SoM, too...and I have many more but haven't had time to get the rest up.
I ran into David Fricke backstage (as we were both getting credentials). I should have gotten his autograph...all I could mutter was "Hey, David, nice jacket!" and he chuckled and said "thanks, man!" He's an awesome writer, BTW...if you don't know who he is, let your Google do the walking.
On the way back out, BAM + Nathan showed up, with Rubio and others in their entourage. Ten seconds later, my beer got knocked over on some electrical equipment and I had to move fast to keep the beer from getting into the wires. That would have sucked: "New Year's performance at MSG cut short by electrical mishap"!
It was so friggin' cold that night...my "rule" was I was only allowed to shoot the first 3 songs, then I had to bring all my gear out of the building. I said to the press lady, "umm...I have to shoot another show at BB King's" so I would have had to lug all the gear to the hotel, get back to MSG, go back to the hotel and pick up my gear to get to BB Kings'....effectively missing over an hour of MMJ. I promised to tuck my gear away under my seat and not use it for the entire show. Can you believe I actually did this? I don't go back on my word, but I did "clear it" with the press lady I could take shots with my party cam after that (everyone had these, especially on NYE), and I did get some OK shots, but really was bummed not to get some HQ shots of the whole second set when MMJ was all in white (look up Dave Vann's or a couple other pro shooters who were allowed to shoot the whole show). So even with photographers who did get access, there were like 2 or 3 categories of access there. It's gotten so complicated lately, and larger shows sometimes have five levels of access (or more). At Langerado, there were 23 different "flavors" of wristbands. Security needed a special color chart and it was a nightmare for anyone in the fringe areas like backstage, VIP, artist tent and places were you could go between zones. Bet you didn't know it was that complicated.
Oh yeah, really sucks there's no Langerado last year...but this started about NYE...so I jacked my own thread.
-Phrazz
