Elleni Toumpas

I must admit I have been out of the loop with shooting live music for the past few months. With a crazy end to my freelance work at the end of last year and life still in catch up mode now, it has left me with very little time and energy to get out on the gig scene.

This week sees things settle down a little and therefore I am out again shooting at the HiFi again for the second time this week, with St Vincent. This was one of those gigs where by I didn’t instantly know the artist. With a request coming from my editor, I often use my role as music photographer to get off my arse and discover new music. A few years ago when Maximo Park hit the stage of The Zoo I became an instant fan running out and buying their whole discography based on one show. Though I am not running out instantly to buy St Vincent’s back catalogue, her performance at The Hi Fi definitely stirred a curiosity. An ex-member of Polyphonic Spree and part of Surfjan Stevens’ touring band (thanks Wikipedia), here is a live performance of St Vincent playing her track Surgeon as a small taste.

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Last night I photographed the first show of Aqua’s 2012 Australian tour. A show I merely requested out of curiosity, I was a bit perplexed to see tickets for this show were a whopping $55! $70 on the door! Really? Are people that curious enough to pay $55 to see them? Name more then two songs that you can remember? They aren’t really kitch enough to attract a HiFi full of ironic hipsters really? And I was a bit confused as to who else might want to pay to see them (at this stage I had forgotten all about their other target audiences, straight girls that are now of legal age but who were the prime age of 7 when Barbie Girl. And then the gay boys. The audience who are probably most used to hearing these tracks spin on any given weekend at the Beat.) Needless to say there were a LOT of people willing to pay the cover charge. Enough to fill not one but two nights in Brisbane.

That leads me to my last question, how many more tours before this 90′s Europop revival will burst?

Anyway I am not a writer but a mere photographer so just check out the photos.

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At the moment I am playing catch up with some of the gigs and jobs I shot towards the end of last year. In probably one of only a handful of Brisbane Entertainment Centre shows for 2011, in October I shot Def Leppard for Everguide.
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Last night I shot the 2012 Big Day Out sideshow of Foster the People at The Tivoli in Brisbane for both Rave magazine and Everguide.  Read the rest of this entry »

Things have been quiet on the gig front for the past few months as the end of my 2011 saw me shooting a tonne of band portraits, corporate events and weddings. This hasn’t left much time for shooting live music. However my 2012 kicked off a little differently with my first shoot back for the work year covering Alpine at The Zoo. Alpine are a band I had heard small snippets from during the year, but had fallen heavily for during the summer break. Their live show was going to make or break my appreciation for the band as their sound on record works but on stage could easily fall apart with bad mixes or a lackluster ’shoe gazing’ performance.  Luckily, the show was anything but lackluster with both Lou and Phoebe combining an amazing, sultry and energetic energy with almost perfect renditions of their loved and lesser known tracks.

Of course I am not a writer, so just take a look at some of the photos from the night. More photos after the jump…

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 On Sunday I covered the Brisbane Finders Keepers markets. After visiting these markets a few times, it was great to have the opportunity to be commissioned to cover them on an official capacity. Spending almost three hours visiting all the stores across the three rooms to photograph all the details, it is fair to say there is something for everyone at these markets. Proudly I walked out with spending less money then I earnt on the day!!! Much to my partner’s disappointment.
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Throwing Halloween parties are a bit of a tradition of mine. Since moving out of home I have thrown five parties, and each year I am impressed with the level people go to in dressing up. I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before moving out of home (not that many people in Australia do) but for me it is always fun to get crafty with my housemates, decorating the house and then getting a little boozey. A tradition I started a few years ago also was also setting up a mini-studio at home. This year I wanted to play with a ring-flash look, and after buying a few coloured paper rolls earlier in the year I thought it was time to crack out the red.

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This week one of my photos is on the cover of Rave magazine. This was a pretty crazy shoot with the band urgently needing a press session and potential cover shot done during a very hectic time for me. Our only option where the whole band and I were available was a night shoot midweek. To keep the costs down, the band also decided on not hirign a studio but chose to shoot with my paper roll at home instead. Usually I can shoot these types of shots in my living room/ home studio, but as we wanted to play with flicking paint the Mrs and the housemates banished me to the backyard. This shoot happened during winter. Needless to say the band were troopers standing in the backyard at 10pm with wet, cold paint and no jumpers. I think it was worth it.

Before the paint set up we shot some other options and this appears along with their interview inside.

On Friday I shot The Jezabels in the first of their two shows at Brisbane’s The Tivoli for Everguide and Rave magazine. For the first song the band performed behind a black semi-opaque curtain with each band member back-lit projecting shadows for the duration of the song. Once the curtain dropped photographing lead singer Hayley Mary was an easy task as she strutted around the stage hitting her notes by holding interesting angular poses.

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So last week I was asked by Stephen Booth (along with fellow photographer Kristen Ashton) to help cover the BigSound conference for Q Music. It was an long, gruelling three days shooting the conferences, delegate lunches, VIP parties and then the all important live music showcases across 8 venues. Not only was I covering the event for BigSound, I was also asked to cover bands and supply photos for Mess and Noise, Everguide and Rave magazine.

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