trkfest 2010: hammer no more the fingers, originally uploaded by minervacat.

The radio station that I often listen to whilst driving to and from work, when I am too lazy to plug my iPod in or change the CD so it’s not the same CD we’ve been listening to for three weeks straight, has spent the last week and change heavily promoting tonight’s Phish show at Walnut Creek. And on the way home, I wondered to myself: if someone had offered me a press pass to shoot Phish from the photo pit (no one did), would I have taken it?

I am obviously not at the Phish show tonight, shooting or otherwise. This is because I hate jam bands in general and Phish in particular with the fire of one thousand suns. So why would I even consider taking a press pass, if one had been offered?

Because a great photo of Trey Anastasio would be a jewel in a portfolio. Because I’ve heard their shows are insane and it would probably have rewarded me with some fantastic photographic moments. Because their fans are rabid and insatiable and you could practically guarantee hundreds of hits if you tagged things right.

And ultimately I decided that those aren’t reasons enough to shoot a show. I’ll take chances on bands I’ve never heard, or bands I don’t flat-out love, but I think, in the end, to be really great at what you do as a music photographer, there has to be some affection for your subject there. Just a hair. Just enough. Some of my best shots are of bands I adore without reservation; some of my best shots are of bands who were simply in the right place at the right time and happened to be enjoyable.

But I think that if you hate a band, you’re never going to do them the justice a photographer who doesn’t hate them would. I hate Phish. Sorry, Phish fans. I’m just not interested, and a terrible Widespread Panic experience turned me off jam bands pretty much entirely. I don’t get it. I never will.

So the idea of cache from shooting Phish appeals; but even if a pass had been on offer, I don’t think I’d have taken it. I’d have been miserable trying to shoot that show, and I can’t stand the band. I think there’s a time and a place for shooting bands you don’t like — a time and a place where a huge amount of money is involved, maybe — but I think, ultimately, that I couldn’t do it if my heart wasn’t in it. And there aren’t many bands my heart wouldn’t be in it for.

But Phish is one of them. And even if I hate them? They deserve better than that in a photographer.