Soda Bar time again, this time to see some bands I've heard about for a while as well as old friends.

Team Abraham was already playing when I got there, sounding pretty folksy. Not what I was expecting at all.



I was expecting to see Fkenal's drummer, who is incredible, and instead it was someone else who looks familiar, but I can't recall which band I've seen him with. Another surprise was to see Matt from Long and Short of It playing. There will be a set of them showing up soon on here.



"Team Abraham" is a movie reference to being Jewish, and Abraham is half Jewish. I guess that means he plays for both teams.





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I met Brian from Hotel St. George a couple months ago at the Whistle Stop and he was nice enough to give me a couple CDs.



They're really good, with snotty vocals over peppy 60's garage rock.



As you can see, the lighting was changing. This presented a number of exposure and timing challenges for me, but even though I had a smaller yield, I like the effect of the variable, incredibly color-saturated lighting.







Instead of trying to neutralize the color, I just went with it. Well, for the most part.



They have a lot of fun on stage and trade off instruments every couple songs. The songs are bouncy and catchy, I was surprised I was able to sing along a bit to some of the ones I've heard just a few times. They played some new stuff too, probably songs off their upcoming CD, "City Boy Lemon".





Great fun guys! You'll see me again.

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How can I shoot Fever Sleeves in a new way after half a dozen shows? By not shooting them.





McHank and Justin- two peas in one crazy pod.



I did practice a few things though, like getting closer to the band while shooting, even sitting/leaning over the stage. Heather was driving, so I had lots of liquid courage in me by this point.



It's been said that if your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough. I'm beginning to think that's true.



I also practiced some zoom blur. By zooming the lens during a slightly longer exposure than normal, it creates motion in the shot by maginfying the image over the course of the exposure. With a continuous light source, this shows up as a ghost image that appears to emanate from the slightly smaller subject in the center- when zooming in, which is my preference. By zooming out, the ghost is on the inside, which doesn't look quite as good to my eye. With a strobe like the Soda Bar, zoom blur creates something more like a multiple exposure, since there are dark gaps which function as an environmental shutter speed- little flashes which only illuminate a slice in time.



Fun stuff, but doesn't work for every band.