CHAPTER 1Seek the Riot

I came across the Beech Grove metal band Seek the Riot at the city of Beech Grove (Ind.) Freedom Festival on July 4, 2004. It was my first opportunity to use the first DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) that I owned, a Rebel 300D, which also happened to be Canon’s first generation digital Rebel (images were a maximum 6.3 megapixels).

The five-member group was performing on a stage set up in Sarah T. Bolton Park. Members of the band were (left to right in the above picture) Chris Sutter, Wes Goble, Chris Danz II, Stephen Viles (drummer, mostly obscured by Danz) and Chris DeWeese.

I chatted with Danz during a break in the show (or maybe it was afterward), and he told me that at the time, the group had been performing together for only about four months. He said all five knew each other from school in Beech Grove.

Because this blog did not launch until late 2008, I had never devoted a post to the images I took from that Fourth of July shoot. While trying to compose this post, it occurred to me to try and see if I could find out what happened to the band in the intervening years.

There is virtually nothing available on the Internet about Seek the Riot other than evidence that the band might have had a page at the old social media platform MySpace at one time. For those who don't recognize MySpace, it was at one time the leading social media networking site in the world. It launched around the same time as Facebook, and for several years the two went head to head attracting new members. 

MySpace seemed to be a place to which artists — especially musicians, but certainly those practicing other art forms as well — gravitated, while Facebook was a more open-ended social interaction venue. But after reaching its pinnacle in early 2008, MySpace membership and usage declined, slowly at first then dramatically. Seek the Riot's page at MySpace, for example, though still active today is void of anything of use, import or value. 

From research using Google and newspapers.com, I did learn a little bit about the band after its appearance at the 2004 Beech Grove Freedom Festival, but not a lot. So I went onto Facebook and asked any of my friends if they had knowledge — or knew someone who might have knowledge — of what happened to Danz & Co. or could put me in touch with one of the former band members. I received no responses.  

From a search of newspaper archives, I was able to learn that Seek the Riot was still performing together at least the following year, 2005. I found newspaper blurbs promoting the band’s appearances in February, May and August of that year at Club Logos, 154 1/2 E. Jefferson St. in Franklin, Ind. When looking up this address on the map, Club Logos appears to have been on an upper floor of the building pictured below, which is in downtown Franklin.  

Other bands appearing at Club Logos with Seek the Riot on the same dates in 2005 included Subfiction, Spout & the Orange, Retro Young, Jane Wasn’t Perfect, Inamorato, Ghost of Maine, Kingston Falls, Into the Silence, Mother Sixgun (make a note of this one), Devil to Pay, The Down Theory, Goodbye Celebration and Alfloras Demise. Usually, only three bands performed each night at Logos.

I also found a listing, again in February 2005, indicating Seek the Riot was on a substantially sized bill for a multi-day Emergenza Festival at Birdy’s, 2131 E. 71st St., Indianapolis. Since 1992, Emergenza Festivals have assisted independent, unsigned bands in gaining exposure on the national and international music scene by giving them an opportunity to perform before crowds. Festivals have been held in more than 150 cities globally. 

But those blurbs are the only things I could find on Seek the Riot, which seems to indicate that the band didn’t last much longer. But I don’t know for sure. It’s just a guess. 

Pictures in this post feature the full band, closeups of Danz and of 5-year-old Brandon Mangold, a member of the crowd watching the show who also was entertaining festival attendees with his distinctive manner of dancing. 

Incidentally, one of my pictures of the band on stage and another of Brandon were published on July 7 in the South zoned news section of The Indianapolis Star. 

Above and below: During Seek the Riot's July 4, 2004, performance at the Beech Grove Freedom Festival, 5-year-old Brandon Mangold, son of Michelle Mangold of Indianapolis, caught the eye of spectators (and yours truly) with his dancing in the audience during the Seek the Riot show. He was wearing a Mother Sixgun t-shirt.

Coming tomorrow: Chapter 2, City of Franklin, Ind. 

Previously in Catching Up ... on pre-blog years:

Introduction

iPhone test, Part III: at Slippery Noodle

A third recent opportunity to turn to iPhone5 to photograph also was its most critical test -- low indoor lighting with moving objects, specifically, a couple of blues bands at the Slippery Noodle.

I was there on a night that two out-of-town bands had the stages. In the back was Dicky James and the Blue Flames, a five-piece band from Northwest Indiana, and on the front stage was the Scott Ellison Band from Tulsa, Okla., making what Ellison said was his annual visit to the Slippery Noodle and the sixth of eight stops on the band's "Walking Through the Fire" tour. Ellison was selling tour promotion T-shirts (front is above left) with all the tour stops listed on the back (right). That's Ellison (left) and his trio in the photo leading off the post.

I wouldn't normally want to use a camera phone to shoot live performances because you have no control over the settings; I just wanted to see what (and how) it would do. Examining the image files afterward, the camera shot every picture at f/2.4, at shutter speeds of either 1/15 or 1/20, and at ISOs of 800 or 1600. Phone cameras are a little easier to hold steady than DSLR models because of their lighter weight, so I expected I wouldn't have to worry too much about motion blur at speeds of 1/40 or 1/30. But 1/15 and 1/20? I didn't think so. You be the judge. It did enable a desired blur effect on the drummer's stick in the first photo immediately below.

I found my main gripe with the phone camera in this particular scenario is the face highlight and focus lock mechanism (a feature I'd ordinarily like). Unlike the same feature on more sophisticated cameras -- when you can focus on your subject then hold that focus while recomposing the shot -- the iPhone face highlight won't lock if you hold the focus button while trying to recompose. You'll see in the photos of the Dicky James band, when I wanted to focus on James (who was on the far left side, farthest away from me), the moment I tried to recompose the image to get everyone in the band in the picture, the camera's focus switched to the face closest to me, the harmonic player. While I did want to focus on the harp player for a few shots, it wouldn't let me focus on James for the others.

 

 Above: First of several shots of Dicky James and the Blue Flames.

Above and below: This was a dual-purpose shot. For one, I wanted to get James in focus during a solo, largely succeeding. But my real effort was to frame a shot to include the person in the balcony in the upper left area of the photo (in a quite dark area). That person was holding a camera to photograph down toward the stage. The gear he/she was using was emitting an electronic flash, and I was hoping to get my shot taken at a point when that person's flash was going off. But my camera couldn't focus and trip the shutter fast enough.

Above: Here was a shot I really did want to get the harp player (right) in focus. 

Living Proof lays down the footage ... and the groove ... at Athenaeum

The seven-piece Indianapolis R&B band Living Proof had a big night last Saturday (Jan. 30) at the Athenaeum Theatre in downtown Indianapolis. In the early evening, the band got together to record a video of the title track from their second album, "Feel Good Music." Then after an hour and a half or so break, the theater opened the doors to let the fans inside for the three-hour show. The images you see in this post are from the first hour of that show.

On the two previous evenings, Thursday and Friday (Jan. 28-29), Living Proof recorded footage at Jillian's in downtown Indianapolis and the Lakehouse Tavern in Noblesville to compile its second Colts Super Bowl video, "Scream Ya Necks Off (GO HORSE)!" The band had recorded its first Colts video, "Superbowl Sway," in 2006 when the Colts went to their first Super Bowl since coming to Indianapolis in 1984. Both of the songs are original compositions.

The band has upcoming shows tonight at the Ale Emporium, 8617 Allisonville Road, Indianapolis; next Friday night (Feb. 12) at That Place, 8810 S. Emerson Ave.., just north of Greenwood; and Feb. 19 at the Moon Dog Tavern, 4825 E. 96th St., Indianapolis.

Above: Living Proof band members (from left) Teddy Patterson, Larry Beiswenger, Jessica Patterson, Gary McCreary, Leonard Patterson, Jeff Libby and Marc Latney.

Above: Jessica and Leonard Patterson, in dance mode during a hopping R&B number.

Above: Leonard Patterson on vocals.

Above: Keyboardist Jeff Libby.

Above: Bass player Marc Latney.

Above: Drummer Gary McCreary.

Above: Jessica Patterson emotes during a solo.

Above: Teddy Patterson put down his saxophone to pace the groove and contribute vocals for this number.

Above: Trumpet player Larry Beiswenger.

Above: The lighting included a roving blue strobe, and the effects include periodic smoke, so it was challenging to see if I could get a good saturation of blue smoke into a frame. From left: Larry Beiswenger, Teddy Patterson, Jessica Patterson, Leonard Patterson and Marc Latney.
Above: Teddy Patterson got another chance to be up front in a number, acting out the song thread while the groove pounded behind him.

Above: Not long after the show started, there was a waiting line of people trying to get -- but unable to because of the theater's audience capacity restrictions. These folks did manage to get in, but were standing at the uppermost level of the tiered seating, looking down at the stage.

Epic Fail delivers at back-to-school rally

Epic Fail, a very young Eastside rock band that last month won the Hendricks County Battle of the Bands, performed Saturday at the 4th annual Choose Respect Back to School Rally at Garfield Park.

Epic Fail -- all of whose members are 20 years old or younger -- got its start in the halls of Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis, where they played in the student rock band Arisan Maru.

For Saturday's show, the band played several sets, and midway through the musicians invited Eastside Indianapolis resident, writer and author -- and singer -- Julie Young (above with the band's lead singer, Nick Smith) up on the stage to take lead vocals for three cover tunes: AC/DC's "You Shook Me," Heart's "Barracuda" and Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." Other members of the band are Aaron Hernandez (lead guitar), Mike Herrera (bass guitar), Andrew Day (rhythm guitar) and Wolfgang Amadeus McMurray (drums).

These images were from that show. To view a full gallery of images from the Epic Fail performance, follow the link in this sentence.

Above: Julie Young just starting to get her mojo working.

Above: Bass player Michael Herrera

Above: Julie Young

Above: Lead vocalist Nick Smith

Above: Rhythm guitarist Andrew Day

Above: Lead guitarist Aaron Hernandez

Above: Drummer Wolfgang Amadeus McMurray

Above: Mike Herrera

Above: Julie Young