I went to a show Friday night; my first show of 2014. My first show in more than a month, in fact. It was hot, and full of people, and I had to wear both real pants and a bra, and these are all things that displease me in general: heat, humans, real pants*, leaving the house, acting like a normal functional adult-type person. But I had heard that if you went to a music venue and stayed long enough, there was eventually a show and people let you take photos, both of which are things that make me happy in general.

I knew next to nothing about Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker before I googled them on Friday morning at work. Certainly I didn’t know that they were fronted by the same guy, and certainly I wasn’t sure that two bands could switch out a few major players and sound different, but somehow, David Lowery does it and makes it work. I was utterly captivated by Camper’s long first set, all these almost-jam-band songs with not-quite-incomprehensible lyrics and thickly layered nearly symphonic sounds, thanks to Jonathan Segel’s fiddle playing. It’s not a set that should rock, precisely, because the beats are, well, offbeat, but it did, and I was completely fired up about it. I haven’t been that fired up about a set in a long damn time.

Cracker is a little more straight-forward, following a Camper set, but no less talented; that set rocked, and the crowd seemed to love all of it. It reminded me why I used to do this all the time: rock and / or roll, a pumped crowd, a great band. Those things fire my blood, and this show fired my blood completely.

I’m going to try and note a few things about lighting / shooting conditions for every show this year, as long as I remember or there’s something to note. Good stuff Friday, clean, white / blue / red, no pinks or greens. Red + green + orange light = the worst, and even the reds last night were okay. Shot entirely with the new Tamron 28-75 mm / f2.8 and it proved itself very worthy of the price it retails for and the price I scored it for. New go-to lens, except in cases where 1.4 vs 2.8 makes a large difference. Felt like I shot well. Felt like myself again.

Full set is here.

* 2014 may in fact be the year that I just dispense with all social niceties and simply wear a tank top, pajama pants, and my motorcycle boots to everything except work. I will keep wearing bras for the sake of vague propriety.