Photos: Big Head Todd & The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House

Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd & The Monsters, fully illuminated on-stage...

Shooting Big Head Todd & The Monsters is a bit like trying to capture the fastest rabbit in the meadow with your bare hands.  On the evening of Tuesday, June 14th 2011, there was so much amazing musicianship going on druing any given time in a song that I literally felt like a child playing ‘Whack-a-Mole’ at Chuck E. Cheese’s during the first three songs of their set at Knitting Factory Concert House.

Take, for example, Todd Park Mohr’s explosive blues/rock lead guitar coupled with an intimate understanding of the written lyric; or delve deeper into the sound of Big Head Todd & The Monsters’ sound and dissect the inner workings of Rob Squires’ perfect timing on the bass, Brian Nevin’s incessant rhythmic perfection or the multi-instrumental talents of Jeremy Lawton.  What you will find is modern day live music perfected, with a blues-rock spice that could only be offered courtesy of Big Head Todd & The Monsters.

Any way you crack it, this band is EXTREMELY fun to shoot and really topped off the evening something proper.  While shooting on my Nikon D7000 (w/Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens) in the pit, I found the ISO of 2000 working well in conjunction with my ever-steady shutter speed of 1/250th of a second and a nearly full aperture setting of 2.0 to increase the depth of field and incorporate a strong sense of natural lighting, as seen below.

What did I take away with me from their performance?  A downright pathetic craving for electrified blues-flavored rock & roll played at earth-shaking volume levels; think tube amplifiers in a blaze of flames.

VIEW THE FULL BHTM GALLERY HERE

Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Jeremy Lawton crankin' out the lap steel like none other...
Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Rob Squires soaking up the non-ultraviolet light...
Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Brian Nevin sweatin' out a perfect rhythm...
Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Todd soakin' up the light during an explosive performance...

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D


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Super-Happy Fun Bonus Pic!!!

Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Silhouette against soft white light; a contrast of style, if you will...

Upcoming: Big Head Todd & The Monsters with Toots & The Maytals @ Knitting Factory

Big Head Todd & The Monsters with Toots & The Maytals @ Knitting Factory 2011-06-14

The year is 1986.  The place, Colorado.  Todd Park Mohr and band mates begin forming what, in 1987, would be known as the rock band Big Head Todd & The Monsters.

They’ve come a long way since the late 80’s, including the platinum selling 1993 album, Sister Sweetly, and collaborations with David Z. (Prince), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), John Lee Hooker, Bernie Worrell (P-Funk) and more.  Heck, they’ve even created music per request of Space Shuttle Discovery and have had their song, “Blue Sky” used as Senator Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign song.

The long and short is that Big Head Todd & The Monsters are back with a new album, Rocksteady, which captures a more Caribbean/Roots/Jamaican vibe … and lends itself quite well to touring with legendary reggae group, Toots & The Maytals; a group which formed in the early 60’s, has been reincarnated at least three times, have taken home a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2005 (True Love) and have rubbed elbows with early reggae/ska legends, C.S. Dodd (Studio One), The Skatalites, The Wailers, Prince Buster as well as more contemporary stars such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Trey Anastasio, No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots and Shaggy.

Tuesday, June 14th 2011 at Knitting Factory Concert House

$28.50-$50.  All Ages.  Get tickets.

Check out Big Head Todd & The Monsters on Amazon: Live Monsters, Midnight Radio

Check out Toots & The Maytals on Amazon: Very Best Of, Funky Kingston/In The Dark, Flip & Twist