Griffin House, Vance Gilbert play the Indy Acoustic Cafe Series

I'm still trying to play catch-up with shoots from the past month or so. Today's post is devoted to the front half of a two-shoot night -- Jan. 14 -- the Griffin House and Vance Gilbert performances (Gilbert pictured above) for the long-running Indy Acoustic Cafe Series.

The performers played at the Wheeler Community Arts Center in the Fountain Square neighborhood of Indianapolis. House, from Ohio, opened; following him to the stage was the more seasoned Gilbert, a Philadelphia native, started out in jazz and gravitated to folk music -- with a healthy portion of comedy as part of his act. It was Gilbert's first return to the Series in 10 years. The full house enjoyed both performers. Next up in the Series is Shawn Mullins, Feb. 24. Mullins is making his second visit in as many years. Last year's Mullins show sold out early, and Series founder and organizer Mark Butterfield is exploring the possibility of holding the Feb. 24 in a larger venue to accommodate the expected interest.

For the Griffin House show, I did a little something different; I shot almost exclusively with a new Sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens, mostly to explore its advantage and/or limitations. I did grab some closeups with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens near the end of his set. For the Vance Gilbert show, I returned to my usual MO: a mid-range lens (Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, which is new in my camera bag) and the 70-200mm. Also a little different in this post of an Acoustic Cafe Series show are a couple crowd shots. I've grabbed some in the past, but never used any in a blog post. So the inclusion of the two at the bottom are a first here for a Cafe Series show.

After shooting the Series that evening, I drove north to Carmel, an Indianapolis suburb, to shoot some performance shots of the Indy Cover band the Bishops at Mickey's Irish Pub. I'll post shots from that in the days ahead. The following Saturday, I drove south to CG's Sports Cafe in the Johnson County town of Bargersville to grab a few more stills, some formals/portraits and some video of the Bishops. Some shots from that shoot also will be forthcoming. 

These images are from the House and Gilbert shows Jan. 14. To see a full gallery of shots from Griffin House's show, visit this link. For a gallery from Gilbert's performance, visit this link.