location:- The Twa Tams Perth
His Guitar may have had problems but he was still happy to play!
R.P.G (Rabid Punk Guitars) were doing a warm up gig for The Curtains at the Twa Tams pub in Perth which is known for supporting local bands. So after sharing a bottle of wine with Fee we headed down to the Tams and while she bought me some strange concoction of a drink which included red bull, which I’m not allowed to drink normally for the sanity of those around me, I went and checked out the stage and crowd form the back of the stage. The band were just setting up and the crowd of avid fans were in place so after checking how long I had before they started I joined Fee in the beer garden and drank the bizarre 2 part drink. It all got a little vague after that!!!
As the 1st song was playing we headed inside and squeezed through the crowd and the small brawl (it was a punk gig after all) and my lens cap got knocked off and I had to risk my hands under shuffling feet to retrieve it, but we made it more or less in one piece to the front where I set up to do my thing! Through the tipsy haze (Fee was still plying me with drink) I managed to set up my camera to all the right setting for a change, in raw to give more flexibility in processing, manual mode to control F number and shutter speed (low F for tight depth of field and shutter about 100th to capture without blur) and ISO 1600 to make most of the awful light. Has no pub in Perth got proper lighting for their stages? Remote flash was set and ready with good new batteries and all went pretty smoothly. It was a short set but a great one with all their own songs and the crowd loved it, even if there were a few tuning problems with the lead guitar. Goes to show a successful gig is more than just the music, it’s the atmosphere and the show as well and as always RPG provided this with their great energy and obvious love of the music. Dodging the occasional dancer, or is that moshers, I breezed around the stage and balanced the flash on whatever I could find (including Fee) and even stood on a chair to get the perfect shots. And I must admit I’m happy with what I got.
After RPGs set we took a break before the main band and as we met an old friend of mine and got talking we kinda lost track of time and next thing we knew it was after midnight and The Curtains were finishing up. Ooops, sorry guys! But all in all a good night with good company and great music and some good photos, just wish I could shoot them somewhere with decent lighting for a change! If you want to find out more about RPG you can now find them on facebook, just look up RabidPunkGuitars there.
Rabid Punk Guitars doing their thing
