Written by Emilio Garcia
Photos by Emilio Garcia and Megan Atwell
On April 13, I had the privilege to be asked to photograph the band Mt. Joy. My friend James reached out to me and I gladly accepted. I had heard of the band before, but I had never listened to them. Though, who am I to deny a free ticket to see some live music. Of course, I had to maintain that the music was of least importance as I was asked to take pictures–the real event of the night. I had not taken concert pictures in a while and to be offered this opportunity was a perfect way to dust off my digital camera. I was accompanied by our General Manager, Megan Atwell, so we could work together as a team.
We got to the venue and were kindly escorted through a side entrance for press (a bit surreal) and got our press passes along with our tickets and seats. We were then taken to the front of the stage where the photographer’s pit was and made our own little camp there with our gear. The band was the only act that night with no opener preceding it, so it took a little while before the band finally came out to play. We were allowed access in the photographers pit for the first three songs where I spammed the shutter button on my camera and tried getting every angle humanly possible of the band and each member individually. There were some very unfortunate stage placements of the band members with both the bassist and drummer being almost five feet behind the rest of the members, so getting proper portraits of them was definitely a challenge. The light show was captivating, with a lot of variety in color adding to the psychedelic ambiance of the performance, which was a very sweet surprise for me.
The three songs had passed, Megan and I had to go to our seat–located right in the middle of the lower seats at the Civic Center where we switched our lenses and continued taking pictures. This was when I finally tuned into the music, no longer immersed through my lens, and realized how average the music sounded. When I say average, I don’t mean bad, but they sounded like every other famous indie band. Again, not a bad thing, but rather an observation of their music. There were a few psychedelic songs that I enjoyed but the rest were not as compelling to me, with one song even making me feel like I was listening to Christian rock. The thing that disappointed me the most out of the whole concert wasn’t the music, but rather the visuals. We easily discerned them as being made by AI, a very disappointing decision made by the artists who do not see the irony in their choice. While being experimental in its nature, it does not have that humanity that makes art impactful and meaningful. To AI, it is only numbers and data. To humans, it is life itself.
During the intermission, Megan and I decided it was a good time to leave. I can honestly say that I had a good time and to be behind the camera in a new setting and context was refreshing and another reminder as to why I could see myself doing this forever.
