Last night (May 5th) I went to see The Rosewood Thieves at The Ruby Room here in Phoenix. Great, great band. Well, I dunno what's up with Phoenix, but there was an audience of four, including me. Maybe it was Cinco de Mayo, maybe it was because it was Monday, maybe it was the Rush concert at Cricket Pavilion (Rush sucks). Maybe it was the fact that they played at a club that doesn't have a phone number and there was zero mention of it, other than on the myspace page and a few other blogs (that had the show time wrong). So, whatever, they were cool about it and played an excellent show. I've been to a lot of shows, and this was honestly one of the best performances I've seen. And it was like a private performance! They were good sports about the whole thing and played a fantastic gig. And did I mention it was free. I'm not sure if all the shows on their tour will be free, but I saw a few mentions of future shows that seem to be free. Guess they just want to get the word out and make money selling CDs.
The show was supposed to start at 10pm. When I got there at 9:45, there was a local stand-up comedian open mic thing going on. It was funny because they weren't very funny. And because no one else was there, they were performing for each other. They kept going until about 10:15 or so. Then they all left. I noticed the band appear with gear through the front door. This place is so small that there is no backstage. It's actually not a bad place at all. It was clean and simple. Nice velvet nudes on the walls.
So, anyway, I took my Fuji Natura Classica and a roll of 1600 BW film. Sometimes using the flash, sometimes not. Without the flash, only the close shots worked. If I was 15 feet away, I barely got an image. Still worked well. I first shot some of the set-up and relaxing before playing.
The three people behind Mackenzie and a friend of the band (in the hat) is the audience, excluding me.
So they finish setting up and begin to play (as bands do)!
I continued to shoot throughout the show. It was a very small stage and I didn't want to be all invasive, so I didn't get close much. I didn't want to block the view of the other fans. It was hard to be creative without climbing up on stage. But I was there to enjoy the band, so it's all good.
And just because I'm a geek, this was my second to last and favorite shot of the night...
Again, an excellent show and big thanks to The Rosewood Thieves for playing their "smallest show ever". After the show I bought the new CD, which will be released sometime this summer. They were nice enough to sign it for me. I've listened to it at least four times since last night.
Check them out! Buy the music and look for them in your area. They put on a great show. They deserve to be famous. I'm glad they showed up in Phoenix, which is a bit of an indie band wasteland. Most go down to Tucson, which is too far away to drive for a single show.
Again, until next time (which will probably be more than tomorrow)...
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