Evergrey @ Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago 26.9.2011

Ok, I admit that I’m an Evergrey fanboy. After all, this was the third time we saw them this year (Lutakko, Nosturi). This time though, we were a bit far from home :)

We were on a trip to the US and naturally we decided to catch Evergrey playing live in Chicago since we were there at the same time. They were on a longer tour of the US supported by four other bands (The Absence, Blackguard, Powerglove, and fellow Swedes Sabaton). Unfortunately we missed The Absence, but we did catch the rest of the supporting acts. While none of them held any real interest for us, I did take some pictures.

I’d love to say that Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago is a photographer’s dream venue, but it seems to be very much the opposite. Or at least it was when Evergrey hit the stage. Based on the pictures I’ve seen taken during the US tour from other photographers, they prefer green lighting for the set. In this case a flat green wash was practically the only light for almost the first half of the set after which some other colors and more light started to hit the stage.

But, challenging light only meant that I needed to up the ISO and concentrate on getting good pictures with isolation from the background. And in post, converting most pictures to black and white since a green wash is less than flattering ;)

All in all, I managed to make some of the best concert photographs I’ve made so far. So I can’t exactly complain. In fact, the challenging lighting made me concentrate harder on my photography and didn’t let me get complacent.

Since Reggie’s doesn’t have a pit and we were parked in front of Johan, I did mean to go around the crowd – which was much smaller than I expected – over to Marcus’ side but I never made it that far. I simply got too carried away enjoying the show.

As always, more pictures in our gallery.

P.S. I did consider leaving the venue without any link love, but all in all the experience was positive. In fact, in the concert venue the staff was great, but on the bar side not so much.