These are your ingredients. Take the 3 x super electronic producers from Danish band AV AV AV. Place them on a circular stage in the middle of the venue. Have speakers hang in mid air in a 360 degree setup above the stage. Place earthquake-inducing bass bins on and under the stage. Let Denmark’s sound duo numero uno, Bjørn & Mikael work their audio wizardry. Let Denmark’s best light designer Jannik Jensen be in control of all light particles. And finally, fill the room with a crowd of 800 mad people.
What do you get? One of those rare events where everything is a labour of love, where the sum is much greater than the parts. You get AV AV AV doing a 360 degree concert at Vega. And I was super thrilled to be part of it.
It is a challenge to photograph a 360 concert! Obviously, things happen all around the stage in, well, three hundred and sixty degrees! I benefitted from having been part of the rehearsals and having found some spots I liked but I constantly found myself looking at what was happening thinking “oh damn now I wish I was standing there…and there…and there…and there…etc etc”.
I can try and wax on about the show but my words will come up way short. As do flat 2D images with a max view angle of about 90 degrees. You really had to be there for this one. It was a near-perfect blend of performance, of sound and vision. Here are a few of my attempts at cramming 360 degrees into a still image.
Building the 360 degree spaceship in the middle of the venue.
Anders reacts to the sub-bass beast for the first time. The bass bins are underneath the stage! Everything was shaking like in an earth quake, tables were vibrating across the stage, cables fell out of their sockets etc. Mad!
Houston, the spaceship is fully operational!
AV AV AV, testing out the rig and cannot believe how mad it all is!
You know this looks like a peaceful quiet moment! Quiet it was definitely not!
Jannik Jensen’s amazing lights completing the sci fi experience!
I love being part of the rehearsals. You can make graphic images like this as there is no one else in the room.
Martin repeating almost the exact same stance, now in a live setting!
The crowd of 800 people up for it from the first beat.
Jannik did this cool thing of having all the house lights on at the beginning and then kinda having them flicker, sort of disintegrate into the full dark concert experience like this.
In the zone
I had to get one epic wide angle view of the whole room and form the rehearsals I knew this song had the lights I wanted. Then it is just a matter of finding my spot and nailing it!
Avoiding the turbo lasers!
I really wish one could take a still picture of the sub-bass in a mayhem picture like this.
For me, there is just no way to have too many moving head lights as long as you use them right. I am glad Jannik the light maestro agrees!
Martin in the zone. Check out the ring of Funktion one horns above the guys.
Eloq in the zone!
Guys can you believe this is working and happening!
Nailing that AVAVAV triangle logo!
You know, after this, regular concerts are going to be a bit dull!
Fans be nailing that AV AV AV triangle.
Down, down, sitting down….
…and jump!
AV AV AV group hug time
AV AV AV 360 i Vega. Foto af Flemming Bo Jensen
It’s All Good!
All Good my friends.
This mob was mad, like at a punk concert, raving like crazy and this picture came with beer spilled on me and the camera!
Let’s do this again soon guys!
One-off, will not be repeated magic evening!
AV AV AV – Danish superstar electronic boyband!
ß
6 Comments on “AV AV AV in 360 degrees”
These are great as always- what do you find your base settings for gig with the Fuji’s are?
I usually have 1/125, wide open- ISO on auto but keen to know if you go differently? XT3 I’ll be using, this Thursday!
Hi Murray and thank you! I am always wide open, usually at F1.4 on my 16mm or 35mm lens. Most of my events are super dark. I use manual ISO, I don’t know why, just a habit. The ISO is usually at 8,000-12,800 anyway. It is dark at these electronic shows 🙂 I use auto exposure time most of the time, I find that with the recent Fujifilm cameras the meter can actually keep up with the mad quick light changes that happens at these events so auto exposure time is great for me – as it changes every split second. I use manual exposure time for strobe lights etc.
Ah cool- I’m shooting Johnny Marr in Glasgow at the Barrowlands on Thursday, first time with my new XT3. I’ll take that, my X-Pro 2 and mostly likely use the 16mm, 35mm F1.4, and 56mm1.2.
It’ll be dark- but the light show on stage should be good. A while since I shot a gig!
“Normal” concerts hehe, have a fair amount of stage light so should be good – have fun!!!
Meeting him before it as well- he’d used one of my images for promo before so we got invited along to say hello. Your work is superb, love the feel of it. Thanks!
Thanks so much! That sounds like it will be a great gig!