Too Many Images - IAMDYNAMITE
A few years ago I was doing a little bit of band photography - probably due to the lack of concerts I attended in my youth. I was getting a little work around the area and always bucking for more. Small venues, local musicians (in fact if you look at some of the older blog posts you will see some of my efforts and why the Blog is called "beyond the barrier", you know that coveted space between the stage and the crowd, littered with security guys and cocksure photogs - Yea, I wanted to be there). SO, pretty much I was shooting anything that would get this Fan Girl (I use the term loosely) into a venue to shoot and listen to music.
The Walnut in Raleigh had, for a couple of years, THE BIG SHINDIG - sounds great doesn't it? A seemingly random selection of mostly "indie bands" - if you don't know what an indie band is, you are too old. "Indie" = independent (not from India - although there probably are indie bands from India). Anyway, the first year we went, we hung out at the "B" stage. In my opinion it was more fun-smaller bands like Foxy Shazam, IAMDYNAMITE, Sir Sly all of which I (we - my "cohorts in destruction", nah, not destruction, too squeaky for that, cohorts none the less - Son #1 and Daughter #1) still follow them today and go to check them out when at all possible.
The second year, the NUT decided to put all the bands on the main stage. SO we had to stake out our real estate super early. We were pretty excited because one of the bands from the previous year was there again - IAMDYNAMITE - they were from Detroit and have a great fun sound and a couple albums under their belt - Check out Supermegafantastic and WasaTusa. I was pretty thrilled when I spied one of the band members out here in the General Admission area - I got my hackle up to go talk to the guy - quite a feat for me, perpetually shy, nervous talker.... So, there I go business card in hand, totally invaded the convo he was having with someone, probably vastly more important than the weird photographer lady. However, I got my neat snap with him (I have that snap somewhere) and handed him my business card, stuttered through my spiel and vacated ASAP with my heart beating out of my chest. I wasn't twitterpated just REALLY, REALLY bad at talking to people... I said to my cohorts "I'll shoot for them someday".
Fast forward a couple years and as it turns out, the extremely talented, never to be underestimated, Chris and Chris from IAMDYNAMITE, serendipitously, moved to the Raleigh area. I reached out to them when they played at the Pour House in Raleigh and low and behold, tan tan taaaan, photoshoot! Can you see my happy dance? Yea, that was me.
Never a shlub when it comes to setting up for a shoot - I love doing concepts and with the help of willing volunteers, shot off a proof of concept session with flying instruments. The guys dug the idea and were down a few weeks later to my, slightly smaller than it should be, Home Studio. Chris and Chris were loaded for bear or should I say weird Orangutang (I'll get to that). I like my subjects to be relaxed so I cracked a few nervous jokes and well, seriously, maybe I shouldn't have because these individuals went nuts and I was laughing so hard - it made it difficult to shoot. We started with flying instruments and moved on to fog and tornadoes and then... yes, then came the orangutang outfit, which I never quite warmed up to, but maybe THOSE photos will be the cult classics.
After a couple hours of laughing our asses off - my husband - ever the chef - fed us all and thus ended a hilarious few hours and this Fan Girl - albeit, old one, prevails! (RHCP is still on the list)
In reality, I don't guess there can be too many images, you can imagine of all the film that ends up on the cutting room floor. I keep it all - every image is kept, even the weird faces and stuff that will most likely never see the light of day. Sometimes there is an opportunity to revisit, reedit or come up with new ideas. Maybe this afternoon I will do that instead of hanging out on Tik Tok or ummm, mowing the lawn.
The last shoot I did for IAMDYNAMITE was last year...? Pre-Covid. Also a great shoot. Hilarious if you can imagine the lugging of house hold items. The juxtaposition between your living room and city streets. Thank You Raleigh for not giving me a ticket. They turned out great and so till next time...
This Fan Girl needs LIVE MUSIC
In the Meantime eugooglyize IAMDYNAMITE on YouTube, Spotify or your favorite platform and dream of summer concerts.
As Always, Kyra
To see all things IAMDYNAMITE here are a few links:
