For about 15 years, I have known the music of Dave Matthews Band, but known little about the band themselves. The core band consists of 4 founding members - singer/guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lassard, violinist Boyd Tinsley, and drummer Carter Beauford.
I arrived at the venue several hours before the performance in order to meet up with Henry Luniewski, Carter's drum tech for a number of years now. Henry set up our passes, showed us around the stage, and let us get a general idea of what our plan would be, come showtime. Henry informed us that Carter had invited us to shoot the entire show, from anywhere we wanted to, including onstage. This level of hospitality and access with such a massively successful band & crew is rare.
The show was amazing. 22,000 people at the sold-out performance. 2 hours of familiar music & spectacular jam sessions. Dozens of solos, evenly spread across the band members. DMB thoroughly impressed me! Of course they were going to be good... but I really had no clue how amazing each individual musician was, how great their onstage chemistry would be, and how well they would connect with the audience.
Shooting at the drum kit during the show gave me an opportunity to get some great shots, and also to see Carter really tearing it up! He is a monster on those drums!!
Here are some photos from the evening:
Carter Beauford
Dave Matthews
Stefan Lessard
Dave Matthews Band (Carter Beauford on screen)
More photos of Carter Beauford after the break! Click here! http://blog.willhawkinsphotography.com/2009/09/carter-beauford-beat-of-dave-matthews.html
Carter Beauford
Carter Beauford
Carter Beauford
Carter Beauford
For the full set of photos, visit http://images.willhawkinsphotography.com/DaveMatthewsBand_12AUG09/.
Posts
1 comment:
I was at this show (I've lost count of how many I've been to, but it easily approaches 40 or so) and you did a wonderful job of capturing the band members. Also, I especially liked your comment about their hospitality and accessibility (and how it is so rare from a band with this level of success). In addition to the music, these qualities are what makes them so special. Despite everything, they remain incredibly down to earth.
Thanks for some great pix.
Post a Comment