The Mountain Goats Live

Posted on: 11 September 2010

I went to see The Mountain Goats at Koko in London last week, and after my last disappointment when photographing live music, I decided I would definitely try to get some snaps. Having recently purchased an iPhone, I decided I'd put the camera through its paces.

If you ask any live music photographer they'll tell you a live music performance is a particularly tricky environment to photograph; flashing, fluctuating, often dim lighting, high contrast, no flash allowed, etc. Given this, the iPhone was never going to come up trumps, but I was pleasantly surprised with a few of the images I came away with. The iPhone may struggle to focus (exhibit A, above) and be majorly noisy in low light, but one thing it can capture on some level is the atmosphere.

I really like the low-key, isolated feel of the above image. The warm gold light on the singer, John Darnielle - who was an excellent sport - provides just the right level of illumination, whilst the contrasting cooler stage lights above him help set the scene and create an almost extra terrestrial theme.

The music was excellent that night. I got into The Mountain Goats back in my first year of University, and since then I've acquired various other songs and have grown to like them even more. I actually saw this gig being advertised on Facebook - rare proof interest-specific advertising works, in my case. The venue was a great setting and the crowd were really up for the show. In the final encore the band gave, the frontman John Darnielle hushed the crowd and sang, unmiked, California Song. It was a truly emotional moment.

John Darnielle, writer of most of The Mountain Goats material is an amazing character with a truly unique singing voice. The Mountain Goats have over 20 studio albums under their belt, but if you want my concise recommendation - grab yourself a copy of The Sunset Tree and Tallahassee.