A ticking clock is never my best friend but my year as AB In-house Photographer has really has flown by at a dizzying pace. Armed with my camera, I've spent 57 evenings in the AB since September last year. This actually means approximately 114 evenings occupied by the AB, as every concert evening is of course followed by an additional evening selecting and revising photos. Not a bad effort, if I do say so myself… Unfortunately, all this was not very apparent to most of you. You see, blogs seem to be needed to give the photos the necessary airplay (or should I say airview?). Why have I written so little? Well, just take another look at those above-mentioned figures: You'd denounce your computer and declare you couch sacred for less! What's more, there are few concerts that I saw to the very end, in order to avoid the already painful confrontation with my alarm clock at 6:20 am.

I have, of course, seen a heap of support-acts though. The likes of, say, Josh Ritter, Nils Frahm, Tommigun and Ólafur Arnalds appeal to me immensely: each and every one a performer for whom mood and, especially, emotions play an important role. It is rather remarkable that the bands that touch me the most musically aren't exactly the ones that deliver the most spectacular concert photos.

Main acts from the last months that have really stuck in my memory include: The XX, Coeur de Pirate, Soap & Skin, Balkan Beat Box & Mumford & Sons.

The xx

Coeur de Pirate

 Soap&Skin


Balkan Beat box


Mumford & Sons

The better Dutch-language work was represented by The Scene, Meuris and Boudewijn de Groot.


Boudewijn de Groot

The latter also happens to be one of the few concerts that I did see in its entirety. The photographers only received permission to photograph the encore. Not such a bad idea actually, as the encore songs usually deliver more energetic images than the first three of the set (in which both band and audience still have to get up to speed). On the other hand, if this were to become the general rule then my now already chronic lack of sleep would probably take on epic proportions.

I also ventured into a little jazz, with José James and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Dee Dee Bridgewater


José James

Then the heavier stuff was represented by The Black Box Revelation, The Kids, Funeral Dress and Pavement.


The Black Box Revelation


Pavement

One big name shall unfortunately be lacking in the exhibition in October.
I had hoped to shoot a fantastic image of Faithless but that was without taking the band's management into account. The AB In-house Photographer didn't receive permission to take photos in our very own 'house', as was also the case with The Cult for that matter. I later read in the paper that Maxi Jazz himself almost didn't get into his own concert. I doubt there's much truth to that report but did quietly think to myself: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”