Mr. November Photography | James Berry

The Hold Steady @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, 18.02.2011

It is always (ALWAYS) a privilege to shoot The Hold Steady, which is down to the insatiable and boundlessly enthusiastic, middle-aged elasticity of frontman/glass-half-full bar-room preacher Craig Finn. He gives more in the first verse than most frontmen do in the first three songs. And he’s a challenge to shoot, but in a sporting way – the lights are generally top notch (or at least well into the mustn’t grumble category), it’s just a battle keeping up with him and making sure his wildly flailing, hyper-expressive arms are in frame. The music falls into a fairly predictable rhythm (take Springsteen and Husker Du as your looping reference points), but they do what they do with such dedication and affection, stoking such a sense of communion between themselves and the audience, that it’s difficult to be critical.

So I had fun, as ever. However – I did end up taking an embarrassing tumble at one point, ending up on my left knee grabbing for the stage as support, but I aimed for the equivalent of breaking into a run to cover my fall by staying in position and pointing my camera at the stage. Seamless recovery. The front row might have a different view of course. Security also pulled us out of the pit one song too early (curse you Shepherd’s Bush Empire!!). Especially frustrating as I had just switched lenses  and didn’t really get anything with my 70-200mm. And I also got a little too carried away trying to keep up with him, neglecting my settings and overexposing a bunch of what would have been great shots. Ho hum. It was a good experience regardless….