As usual lately, Becki and I were sitting around reading, the TV on in the background for some noise and occasional distraction, when my buddy Chris texts me.
“Hey man. I’m sitting in acoustically tomorrow night at a place in the Riviera called Hey 19. No cover. Playing some cool classic cover songs from the 70’s with a singer and keyboard friend. Drop by if you want to.”
I should mention that Chris is a guitar player. No, a guitar monster. The guy has loads of talent. He and his wife Grace are great friends and we have known Chris for over 20 years now. And it has been too long since we’ve heard him play.
Immediate response, “We will see you there, sounds like fun.”
As usual lately, when the time comes to actually go do something, like see a friend play at a local pub, Becki and I get lazy and consider just staying home with the dogs. Becki has only been home for a little over a week and just being the two of us is very appealing. But, it’s Chris and we know it’ll be a nice night out.
This is the first time we have been to Hey 19 and it’s not quite what we expected. Part pub and part Gymboree, it is a neighborhood watering hole where everyone is welcome. We spotted Chris at the bar and walked over. It wasn’t until after the hellos that we realized that the singer and keyboard player were already playing up on a dark little stage, Chris was finishing his beer before setting up to play. Not that you could hear anything coming from the performers. All we could hear was loud conversation and kids playing. Oh well, shrug it off and hope for the best. To help out, I ordered a Yamazaki neat and got out my camera.
I’ve made some pictures in dark bars before, but this was a black hole. The only light on the performers came from the tiny lamps on their music stands. I didn’t hold out much hope for any interesting images coming from this setup.
The crowd thinned out a bit and the music, with Chris on guitar, quieted the place down to a low roar. After about ten songs it was getting late and we called it a night and headed home.
I did get some nice images after all. I am printing a few of them today. Images on a screen can be nice, but there is nothing like seeing and holding a real, silver-gelatin print in you hand to fully appreciate a photo. These were all taken at ISO 10000, 1/125 sec. at f1.4 with a 75mm Summilux lens attached to my Leica Monochrom.
