I’m imagining that most people wouldn’t go out of their way to leave the comfort of their home late on a Sunday evening in the pouring rain to take in a hip-hop show across town.  If you are one of the few who would at least consider the trek, we should be friends … or at least hang out on the weekend.

Having discovered that the vacant parking spot immediately outside of the venue was being saved for none other than Pharoahe Monch himself, I bravely discarded the security of my poncho and dodged raindrops from a not-too-distant parking spot; all the while shielding my current weapon of choice (Nikon D7000) under nothing more than a violet Ghostbusters t-shirt, I approached the door.

What I found upon my first visit to The Underground was nothing short of a hub of truly underground (18+) culture.  There were live artists (see Ashley Drake above and Mike Lucido in the full gallery) busy creating amidst bar patrons, hip hop heavies chatting up scenesters and a somewhat even mix of everything in between.  Then there was me.

I arrived during the opening moments of Blake Tahoe’s set, which allowed for a lot of dialing in the manual settings I would be largely using throughout the evening.  I found the venue to be quite dark, with lighting being more ideal when the artists moved to the very front of the stage.  On the 50mm f/1.8D prime lens I’ve been using recently, I took the aperture all the way up to 1.8, set the shutter speed at 1/250 of a second and cranked the ISO up to 3200 (yes, the D7000 will allow for this ridiculously high ISO with relatively no noise).

Fortuitously, there were just enough ‘quality’ shots taken of the opening groups flying outside of my pre-game radar (Blake Tahoe, Aun, Yours Truly & Rameses) to merit a full album, so here you go!

VIEW THE FULL BLAKE TAHOE, AUN, YOURS TRULY, RAMESES, MIKE LUCIDO, ASHLEY DRAKE GALLERY HERE

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D

Go On, Treat Yourself to Something Nice!

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Super-Happy Fun Bonus Pic!!!