photography by elisa sherman

Dobro extraordinare Rocco DeLuca and accompanying drummer Ryan Carman visited Seattle this past Tuesday headlining as Rocco DeLuca & the Burden…supporting the latest release “Mercy”.

Does it count as a backing band, when there is only the drummer? I guess it does!

Regardless of all of that…it was a super fun show to shoot…not in any massively photographic way…more in an interpersonal one…

First I met other photographers and fans…we talked a lot of about what got us into music, and into photography…we were all there, up front with passes, but very cool with each other…it was a no pit, no rules venue…so the “first three, no flash” rule was not in anyway followed. Well probably the no flash for the other than fans w/their point and shoots…

Anyways…I was a bit worried as I had set myself up in front(of course–I got there early and was actually numero uno in line) slightly off from the original set up…but that’s just the opener, and it was hard to tell what Rocco’s positioning would be. When all came to be, his mic stand ended up almost directly in front of me, but tilted away—so there was a ray of hope;) The bad bad place to be is usually dead center/and/or in front of the mic stand…kills every shot and you have to wait for them to step back…

Luckily, like I said it was actually set at an angle to myself…and the positioning I had actually also allowed me a perfectly clear line of sight and close proximity to the drum set up…so in a way, I had the very best spot…Usually drummers are (1)too far away, and (2) blocked by both other equipment and band members…not this night…And Rocco, he backed away quite a bit from the mic really allowing a lot of angles on him…even if he appears all scrunched faced and shrugged over more often than not as he jams out on the steel guitar…it’s the case where you just have to wait for the “moments” as there are…they come eventually…amongst many of ick faced frame…wait for it, and it will come…the fleeting glance up with a rare peacful look…a bit of light flickering down through the foggy atmosphere highlighting the intense passion…it’s there…

And the drummer Ryan…totally completed the sound. Rocco is very passionate on his vocals and playing…and the drum completed the rythm…so even with out the bass player (that I think is what actually completes the “Burden” as it were) the sound was more than enough to fill the ears.

The music was much more robust, fuller, passionate and rocking than I anticipated from such an artist…who I had never seen live previously…

In capturing in frame…a dark venue, pretty tough to shoot…spent a while in my spot up front then roamed the floor for a bit to pick up some different angles…there was also a balcony, but I didn’t get anything I loved from up there…but it was nice to just have options…

Altogether, what could have been a total bust, ended up being a pretty fun evening…

Select shots are on livedaily.com:
http://www.livedaily.com/photos/?p=Mercy

Here’s a few of the shots:

Drummer Ryan Carman…

Rocco…

For more on Rocco & the Burden:
http://www.roccodeluca.com
http://www.myspace.com/roccodeluca

And shout out to all the folks I met in line and in front center at the show…see ya out there;)

xoxo
~Elisa