Alessio Michelini Photography

I understand that sometimes my honesty could sound a bit too, well, maybe the correct word is "brutal"? But that's how I am. While in my native langue, italian, I could be way more polite, in english, with my limited dictionary, I tend to be more direct, and I have to say that I like it, being direct it's a good thing for me, I may sound rude to someone, but I like to go straight to the point. Why I'm saying that? Well, simple, I don't like the music of Disclosure, I'm sorry guys, I'm sure that you are great on what are you doing, and I generally like some dance music until it falls in the boundaries of the electro pop, but your music it's beyond these boundaries. Sorry guys, nothing personal.
So why I went there? Well, the promoter asked me if I wanted to go, and as I was free that night, and nobody else wanted to shoot them, I did go. That's it.
So, don't ask me any opinion of how they sound live.
But how is to photograph them? Well, two guys behind a wall of synths and keyboards, and laptops, it's kinda hard to photograph. And the fact that they don't move from there, obviously because they have to play, it doesn't really help, and if someone will complain about my photos saying bullshits like "well but there is a mic in front of their face! That's a terrible thing to do in music photography!", my straight answer will be "Please, stop behing a dick". But in fairness the lights were pretty good, and at the end I took plenty of more-than-decent shots using these lights as the variants of the photos.
I hope you like them, even if some are not technically correct, but I couldn't do any better.
As usual the full set is on my flickr account.

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UPDATE

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UPDATE 2 - 11/12/13

Well, apparently Adobe wants to keep this offer going, as now it's extended till the 31st december.

Once again I went to a gig that I couldn't say I like it, but I think it could be interesting to photograph. To be fair it wasn't the first time I saw Jake Bugg live, as I saw him this summer at the Longitude Festival, but I arrived too late to catch the first three songs, so I probably felt like I had a score to settle with him, and when I saw he was doing a gig in the Olympia I put my name down for the photo pass.
For a very young man, if I'm not wrong he's still a teenager, I was expecting a bit more action on that stage. I'm not saying he had to break guitars or set on fire anything, but at least move a little bit more, as he was essentially (no offence Jake) a pole on the stage. Don't get me wrong, he is good, especially for his age, but a bit more action it helps for the photos.
After the gig I still not a fan of him, he is good, but he just doesn't play the kind of music I like, personal taste, and if you like that music go to see him.
To photograph, despite the lack of action and jumps, the lights were pretty great, well, at the moment I thought they were ok, but at the end, once imported and developed in Lightroom, they turned very well, probably way more than I expected.
Thankfully there were no photo release to sign, just the usual "three songs no flash", plus a lot of screaming girls.
Down here you can see some of the best shots of that night, and here the full set on my flickr page.

Only the fact that it's written in Comic Sans should be already a good reason to not go to this gig. You will also forced to photograph from the mixer, which in most of the case is in a galaxy far, far away, and then you cannot use your very far, far too small photos of them in any case unless they say "yes, you can", which it's very unlikely that it's gonna happen, in any universe. Stay at home and watch "MythBusters", it's way better.

I've never been a fan of KT Tunstall, and I would lie if I say that I've heard more than two songs from the scottish singer, but, despite that, I thought that it could be a good gig to shoot, with a lot of lights and band members, a pop gig. I thought.
Well, I was far from being right.
First thing, it was a seated show. I hate seated show, or, to be exact, I hate to photograph at seated show, I don't care if I'm attending the show, but it's a huuuuuuge pain in the arse if I have to photograph a gig. Why? Well, first thing: no pit. Then you can shoot only from the aisles, so you end up with only two perspectives, which essentially are the same. And for someone who move a lot in the pit finding the right alignment of the artist with the lights, it's really annoying. Some photographers don't care, but I do, a lot.
I've done several seated gigs in the past, and every time was a pain in the butt, every single time, no exceptions.
Then, no band, just KT, no drums, no bass, nothing, just her, a couple of guitars, some effects, a piano and a couple of amps, that's it.
For such minimalistic gig you can't expect anything different than  minimalistic lights.
Having said that, it was a good gig. Dear KT, I dunno if you will ever read this article, but if so, and you aren't already pissed off, you have to know that now you have all my respect. I was expecting a pop singer with not much talent, I found a great artist with shit load of talent, and nobody missed a full band on that stage.
I was honestly blew away from her performance, and I wasn't expecting it.
Anyway, the pictures are ok for me, maybe the best I've done for a seated show, alongside with Chris Cornell's solo tour, but I hope you like them anyway. Full set, as always, is on my flickr page.

I think this line says everything: "In consideration of (i) the payment to you of sum of one pound (£1.00)". Yeah, they are cool and all the rest, but unless you get paid good money from the magazine / agency you work for, stay at home.

That's a band I wanted to see from a long while, I missed their previous shows in Ireland for a reason or another, but this time I could miss them again. Airbourne are the only band that makes me appreciate Hard Rock again, and even if some of you are already thinking that they are an AC/DC's rip off, they are not. They are like the young AC/DC that my generation had never the chance to see. And let me tell you, even if you don't like their music, that's a show you must see.
This band on stage is pure energy and rock'n'roll, a type of bands you hardly see on stage nowadays, one of those bands you have to photograph if you are a music photographer, fuck off big arena gigs, that's a gig to see!
Thankfully the band brought plenty of lights with them, and even if the Academy could be tough to photograph most of the times, this wasn't the case. Actually, lights weren't a problem at all, the only problem was to predict what Joel O'Keeffe was about to do next, he can run continuously on the stage, or he can climb the speakers till he reach to ceiling, or he can jump on you in any moment. But that's rock'n'roll kids.
As expected I took a billion of pictures (well, maybe I'm a bit
exaggerating, but I took way more than my usual, as I broke the wall of 1000 photos, and in case you don't remember, in only 3 songs), and it was really, really hard to pick the best ones, and I end up with 52 good shots. I tried to be as picky as possible, but I couldn't leave any of these photos out.
Anyway, down here you can find some of the best of the best photos, but you can also click here to see the full set on my flickr account.

Shit happens, to anyone, and even if you are Carsten Peter, working for an assignment for the National Geographic in one of the most beautiful places in the world, the China's Grand Canyon, you are not exempt from bad luck, and even modern technology can brake, and then, shit happens. What it makes the difference is the fact that some people, like mr Carsten, never give up, and at the end they repaired the semi-destroyed copter, and they were able to film again the morning after.

Travis are one of those bands you go to see just to remember the old good times, with the side effect of suddenly getting that sensation of feeling "old". But I remember this band from their first two albums, back in the late 90s, when I was a teenager and I loved them. So, no matter you didn't listen to this band for at least 10 years, no matter if you didn't even know they did a new album, no matter they got gray hair (and you too), it's a band that I have to see at least once. So I've asked for a pass for their gig in the Olympia Theatre, which I will never stop saying that it's almost the perfect venue for gigs, and I went to see them.
And as I was expecting, they are a great live band, but they have been doing gigs from a while, so you hardly wouldn't expect anything different.
But how was to photograph them? Well, pretty good. They didn't use insane lights as other bands would do, they mainly use the venue lights, and they added some extra bars of lights on the background, simple, but effective.
There were the right amount of smoke, just enough to give tridimensionality to the spotlights, without adding any "grainy" effect on the main subjects (apart from the drummer). They are not a heavy metal band, so they didn't run on the stage like kangaroos with intestinal problems and no toilet on sight, but neither they stayed still like traffic lights, they were just right, maybe I could use the word "classic", as you would expect from a "classic" band.
Maybe I didn't get the best shots of my life, but pretty good shots I was happy with it.
So, at the end, a very good band to see live, and a very good band to photograph as well.
As usual, down here you can find some of the best shots, while by clicking here you can find the full set on flickr.

I'm not entirely sure why I went to this gig to be frank with you, dear reader. I liked their debut album, but to be fair I don't remember when was the last time I listened to it. I've photographed them in the past as well, and as far I can remember it wasn't that great, actually it was pretty dark, so the reasons who led me to see them again are obscure. But here we are, again in the pit. To be fair, they are a good live band, not the best and I would definitely not die if I don't see them, but still a pretty good band to see.
To shoot them was exactly like two years ago, some lights, I couldn't really say that it was a dark gig, especially if I think to Mark Lanegan's gig, or Godspeed You! Black Emperor (that's probably the darkest gig I ever been to). But they didn't bring any extra lights, they just used the standard venue lights, but at the end they used them quite well, and pumping my 6D to 3200 ISO (and even if I don't get much noise as I used to get with the 7D, I always prefer to shoot at 1600), at the end I brought home some decent to good shots, nothing to say "WOW THAT'S AMAZING!", but they are more in the "It's grand" area.
So, it's a gig to see if obviously you like their music, and you will hardly get disappointed, and it's an okay gig to shoot.
Down here some of the best shots, but as always you can find the full set here.