Amorphis 10.9.2010 @ Puikkari
Our week of seeing good live acts ended with Amorphis playing live in Puikkari (review and pictures of Suburban Tribe coming soon). Which meant another drive to Kuopio, but what wouldn’t we do to see Amorphis live. In fact, we were considering a crazy drive to Oulu in early August just to see them and drive back the same night to make to a dog show the next morning… This was the fourth time we’ve seen them live (Kuopio Rock 2009, Kohti rokkia 2008). I’ve shot every time, but still haven’t gone through the pictures of them playing in Kellari last November. I blame breaking my hand the next day for my procrastination ;)
Since it was the third time we saw them in a bit over a year I decided to work on my vision a bit more and concentrate less on getting typical concert shots. Sure I got some of the more typical shots of Tomi twirling his dreadlocks and such, but standing in front of Esa gave me several chances to experiment. And I managed to get one of the best shots I’ve gotten of a guitarist:
Yes, Esa’s got a new Eclipse custom with a double locking trem. I’m still not sure what I think of LP-style guitars with double locking tremolos, but it made for some good shots. And despite Tomi’s comments of Esa going Steve Vai on us, nothing of the sort happened…
In the beginning of the gig I kept fingering my ear plugs since the sound was – ahem – terrible, but luckily the mix was fixed fairly quickly and the sound balanced out and we could really enjoy the gig. But I did have to check with Anna to see if the sound was bad for her as well in the beginning.
Before the gig I wondered a bit whether we’d be getting an early taste of the upcoming Magic and Mayhem tour (which doesn’t come anywhere near us :( ) or if the set would be similar to the Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes DVD and other gigs from the Skyforger tour. We got the latter and it wasn’t a disappointment.
Where last November’s gig in Kellari was dark and a nightmare to shoot (which is the main reason that I haven’t edited the shots yet), I was optimistic that the good lighting we’ve been seeing in Puikkari (Reckless Love and The 69 Eyes) would continue. And I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I managed to stick to ISO800 for most of the gig and didn’t have to delete too many shots due to motion blur or camera shake. And yes, I still need to remind myself to stop jamming to the music when shooting…
As usual, more pictures in our gallery.
