I thought July was taking up my time and now August is here.
Started it off with a long weekend (for those readers not in Canada),
Ribfest was on all weekend, here in London.
I ventured out Friday evening, to have a taste of ribs and catch a few bands.
For any vegetarians out there please skip this section.
Yes the food is that good, the line ups were at every setup. Smoke in the air, smell of roasted meats.
This is Southern style bbq - beef, pork and chicken are slow cooked in smoke ovens - basically indirect heat and lots of smoke from specifics woods. Apple wood , mesquite to name a few types of wood you would find. Meat could be in a smoker over night, being slow cooked at relatively low heat (200-300f) and then finished on the grill , like you see above.
The end result is fall of the bone, dripping with sauce, oozzing goodness bbq !!
A rack of ribs to go please !!!
Who needs vegetables when you have that staring at you from your plate !!!
Music wise nothing really grabbed me, seemed a little anti-climatic after the last few festivals, so pics.
So after a good meat protein infused sleep, was up the next day for some work and then prep for band pics that night, back at the Eastside Bar and Grill.
On the marquee for this evening , St. Catherines,ON group
Crutch and then London's own
Nail.
Crutch opened up with a ripping set of origional material.
Bass player had unique stylle all his own.
What I liked was the
Ibanez ATK bass guitar, I had never seen one of these. It has massive bridge, which in my mind means big tone, getting all thet string vibration in to the wood. It sounded as big as it looked.
Highlight for me was the super awesome drumming !
Small kit with big sound !!
A little shot from the sound board at the Eastside - Mr Mike is the master of his domain at the Eastside, super nice guy and great to work with. Mr Kirk as beside him this weekend running the light show. Awesome job gents.
Kinda funny,
Mr Pat Crawford, ace photographer and I took the same shot.
Next up local origional progressive metal band
Nail from here in London.
Miss Cindy up front belting out the lyrics
Rainer "Rhino" on all things 6 string !
Dale Penney on drums
Darcy Maudsley, on bass holding it all together
Am kinda liking the Eastside as a place to go for seeing groups.
Now if only we could aim the lights a little higher - nudge nudge
For those of you wondering (trade secret time) why i post band pics in Black and White versus color.
My biggest issue with small venues (bars) is lack of lighting, though so far Eastside is the best i have seen here in London. Saying that the issue is two fold - lack of space (ceiling height) and of course how many lights can you jam in there.
Typically a badn woudl back light - lots of light above and behind the band, and then fill the front - usually white light to light up the performers The ratio would be more colored lights in the back and less white light up front. Great for me taking pics.
So a typical pic taken in color looks like this :
A blur of red washing over Rainer, losing all the detail of that great Flying V, and looking like from another planet. Also don't forget am using a 7 yr old camera, so am fighting the light at every pic. More light please !!!!
So flip it to Black and White, boost the exposure a notch and voila :
I get some detail back, i get some clarity, and basically can save a shot that in my view is not so good.
there my secret is out haha
complete change of topic.
If you happen to shop at United Market here in London,ON, pick up a few of these Korean Melons.
Really nice, good size , enough for one to eat it all, not to sweet.
A close friend introduced me to thse awhile ago, and they are awesome. So is the friend (awesome)
Am sure any local asian market might have these in stock right now. Go check them out. And if your lucky maybe one of the large superstores.
later.....
