For a music photographer, it's commonplace to follow a show next to the stage, and capture those moments that make crowds thrill, framing for visual relations between musicians, instruments, lights, the crowd itself....
Maybe it's just for later recall, but also to look for that picture that conveys the gig's magnitude, the apotheotic jiff, the iconic photo that, one day, might be a band's ou musician's symbol.
On stage, however, there's in-depth work to do, before the triumphal entry, the light set, and the thundering sound. Procedures known by those on the road, travelling hundreds of miles in equipment-crammed vans, having no time to rest when arriving, because it's time to set up the concert.
On the April 3rd, I was able to go along Freedom Call and Dragonhammer (joined later by the local guys from Head:Stoned), and percieve how professional it needs to be to go on tour, having no roadies, the musicians themselves driving between distant cities (they were coming from Gijón), unpacking their material, packaged in countless cases, and set it all up on stage, among myriads of cables and conectors and microphones and devices... After all being connected, sound must be tested, tuned and balanced (and having guitar strings changed, in between). No much time to rest. Something that the german musicians attained, in fact. A short walk around Ribeira, no much time for more, I guess.
By the time the concert was over, I realized their curiosity: they would like to see again the old Hard Club, a venue that Ilker remembered as "the inside of a ship, lots of wood, it was beatiful". I guided him on how to spot that ramshackle building, referencing him on the old bridge, having no need to cross the river. A walk they would take, surely, on the next day.
[originally published @ rocknheavy.com]
