Capitol Theatre, Clearwater Florida - Feb 17, 2010

I have a confession… Before this night, I had never listened to Indigo Girls.

Now, the only reason that might possibly surprise anyone is because some of my favorite musicians put Indigo Girls pretty high on their list of influences.  After seeing Amy Ray (who opened for Brandi Carlile and is half of Indigo Girls) perform, I can see why.  I was quite impressed.

I’ve also been a fan of Brandi’s for a couple of years, so I was excited to see her live for the first time.

The other cool thing about this night was that they gave us five songs to shoot instead of just three.  You’ll see why I was especially glad about this in just a bit.  Now, onto the images.

Amy Ray and The Butchies (Amy’s backing band for the tour)

Amy Ray

Kaia Wilson

Melissa York

Melissa again

Amy

Brandi Carlile singing with Amy

Brandi with Phil Hanseroth on bass and Josh Neumann on cello

Phil Hanseroth

Phil again (I think)

Brandi with Tim and Phil Hanseroth on either side (they’re twins)

Brandi’s shoes - She dances around a lot, so I was trying to capture some of her character through the movement of her feet

Okay, a bit of a story before this next shot… It was taken during her fifth song, right before I have to put my camera away. She and the band gathered at the front of the stage to sing a song completely unplugged. This was advantageous for me because everyone is close and relatively well lit (which they’re generally not most of the show).

So I was trying to photograph the girl right behind her, which meant I had to shoot around her legs.  I get framed up and make a click or two, then her legs move right in front of my lens. So I reframe on the other side of her legs, and she moves right back in front of me. I come out from behind the camera and look up at her, and this is what I see. Her looking right at me with a big smile on her face.  She was messing with me.

It was a cool moment, and hopefully the first of many good interactions with performers.  At the end of the song, she bowed to me and I to her to say thanks to one another.

Here are just a few more random shots from the night…

Amy performing with Brandi - I like this one because Brandi is looking over at one of the people she’s looked up to for years

Another of Brandi and Amy performing together

Brandi saying thank you to the crowd as she exits the stage. (Okay, I may’ve made a click or two from the back…)

You can check out Brandi’s latest album here (fun fact - Jeremy Cowart shot the photos for this album!), and Amy’s latest is here.