Black Shadow Photography

No wonder they call it a Big Day Out – it certainly was from my perspective.  I photographed 15 acts across five stages and navigated my way through a crowd of 55,000 people. I think the results were worth it though!

Here are a few of my personal favourite shots from the day. Click on the photos below to see the full Big Day Out gallery. Enjoy!

Peaches performing at the 2010 Melbourne Big Day Out

Muse performing at the 2010 Melbourne Big Day Out

Lily Allen at the 2010 Melbourne Big Day Out

Rise Against performing at the 2010 Melbourne Big Day Out

Lily Allen treated the crowd to some sublime alt/pop when she played at Festival Hall last night. A full set of photos from the night can be seen by clicking the picture below.

Enjoy!

Lily Allen at Festival Hall

I had the chance to photograph UK dance/rock act Groove Armada on Wednesday night at The Palace – very impressive.

If you’d like to enjoy more pictures from the show click on the photo below.

Groove Armada at The Palace

A couple of years ago if someone had told me that the best band I’d see in 2009 was a three piece instrumental band featuring a violin as the main instrument I would have thought they were crazy. But seeing the Dirty Three for the first time at the All Tomorrows Parties festival at Mt Buller changed that; they put on the best live show I saw for the year (beating hundreds of other contenders. So I was over the moon when it was announced that they were playing at The Forum as part of the ATP Don’t Look Back series of concerts, along with The Laughing Clowns.

Ed Kuepper of The Laughing Clowns

Ed Kuepper led the Clowns on to the stage at The Forum and proceeded to power their way through History of Rock N Roll – Volume One, the album they put out in 1984. After a brief technical issue with keyboards it was all systems go and the Laughing Clowns jazz inspired rock/punk/blues was blasted out.  A definite highlight for me was Holy Joe.

By the time Warren Ellis and his band of merry men (Jim White and Mick Turner) hit the stage The Forum was close to full. With a little banter from Warren he then led the crowd on an aural experience as they mixed up the order of tracks from their 1998 opus Ocean Songs. This is music of rare beauty and power; ranging from soft and beautiful building to ferocious crescendos of ragged power. This band truly takes their audience on a journey. Once the album tracks were done the band left the stage but thunderous applause brought them back for an encore of Kim’s Dirt before closing out with Everything’s Fucked.

Dirty Three at The Forum

Seeing the Dirty Three for a second time confirmed my initial impression; these guys are one of the greatest live bands on earth. If you ever get the chance to see them do it – there are no excuses for missing out.

Click photos above to see full set of images from the show.

Rebellious punk rocker Jay Reatard was found dead in his Memphis home. Too young at 29. No details on the cause of his death have been made available.

Jay Reatard performing in Melbourne

For more photos of Jay in doing what he did best click the picture above.

Soundwave Festival is thrilled to announce that there is a final release of tickets for Melbourne Soundwave on Friday 15 January at 9am. These won’t last so get in early!

Tickets are strictly limited and will be available through www.oztix.com.au & www.ticketek.com.au 132 849.

There will be no further release of tickets so once they are gone…they are gone!

Eagles of Death Metal who will be appearing at Soundwave

The full line up for Soundwave is:

FAITH NO MORE
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
JANES ADDICTION * AFI * PLACEBO * PARAMORE * HIM *ALEXISONFIRE * TAKING BACK SUNDAY * TRIVIUM * ANTHRAX * SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE * EAGLES OF DEATH METAL * THE GET UP KIDS * MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK * REEL BIG FISH * MESHUGGAH * ALL TIME LOW * A DAY TO REMEMBER * IT DIES TODAY * ESCAPE THE FATE * CLUTCH * ANTI FLAG * ISIS * SHINEDOWN * GALLOWS * A WILHELM SCREAM * THE WEAKERTHANS * EMAROSA * ANVIL * THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA* COMEBACK KID * SET YOUR GOALS * ENTER SHIKARI * THE ALMOST *DANCE GAVIN DANCE * FOUR YEAR STRONG * YOU ME AT SIX * WHITECHAPEL * ARCHITECTS (UK)*THE AQUABATS * ROLO TOMASSI * BARONESS * THIS IS HELL * RX BANDITS * CLOSURE IN MOSCOW * THE CREEPSHOW

VENUES AND DATES

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

SATURDAY 20 BRISBANE, RNA SHOWGROUNDS
SUNDAY 21 SYDNEY, EASTERN CREEK RACEWAY
FRIDAY 26 MELBOURNE, SHOWGROUNDS
SATURDAY 27 ADELAIDE, BONYTHON PARK
MONDAY 1 PERTH, STEEL BLUE OVAL

*All shows are licensed and all ages (i.d required)