Dave Vanian

About two weeks ago, I got the opportunity to photograph one of my favorited bands, The Damned, at Irving Plaza in NYC. The band gave me the rare opportunity to shoot for as long as I wanted with flash (a rarity for concert photographers). After a few minutes, I found out why. The band plays emersed in darkness with occassional washes of red and purple. The minimalist lighting scheme, bolstered by the occassional strobe light assault, meant I spent most of the night juggling my exposure compensation dial on my camera and flash.

On top of that, I didn’t spend too much time with my eyes behind the lens, because the show was amazing. For nearly two hours, the band hammered out all their hits, including some rarities and handful of mid-80s goth tunes. With Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Joe long gone, it’s nice to see some punk legends are still hanging in there – alive and well.

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