Touched By Fire is a collection of work by artist Jane Bush consisting
of live concert photography, artistic creations, and other photography work. Jane has
been creating art since she was young enough to draw and paint, and ventured off into
other mediums as her education and experience grew. She is experienced in illustration
mediums such as drawing, portraiture work, fine art painting and digital art painting.
She has always been a music lover and had a growing passion for live photography,
venturing out to photograph gigs in early 2009. She quickly went from photographing local
bands to national acts, and has had her work published for such sites as buzznet.com and
notesfromthepit.com. She has photographed such artists as The Academy Is.., The Yeah Yeah Yeah's,
Peaches, Taking Back Sunday, and many more. She looks forward to photographing more live
acts in the new decade as well as continuing to create more artwork in the future years.
Multi-platinum, Grammy-winning Black Eyed Peas performed at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis last night, bringing with them all the light-infused stage set ups, mutli-colored lasers, and fun filled energy that only a band like them can provide to a pop show. In the 2 and a half songs I was able to shoot, it wasn’t hard to capture how the band was able to get the screaming fans pumped up for an energetic performance in the arena. Both my 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 were used in these photos taken. View the rest of the photos from last night’s show here.
Mr. William Beckett, Chicago native, all smiles and rockin' the show at Reggie's for my new 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom.
Being a midwest native myself, it’s always a treat to shoot bands from the likes of Chicago, especially The Academy Is…, so it goes without saying that seeing an acoustic live show by William Beckett is always a must shoot experience for me as a photographer. Just shy of Christmas on December 19th, Mr. Beckett performed a special benefit show at the intimate Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago’s southside. Since there was no photo pit barracade, the fate of my new 70-200 mm f/2.8 and the photography experience lied in the hands of my own resources and the friendly staff at Reggie’s (thank you, btw). The positive side to this was the access to just about any area of my choice, and the majority of my shooting took place on the left side of the stage. I also was given plenty of time to change lenses as there was no usual “3 songs then you’re out limit”, which hasn’t been the case when I’ve ever photographed TAI or William, which I have to say is both not only a privilege but an honor as well. Given that, I also used my 50mm prime and 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom.
As Mr. Beckett’s performance was a grade A story telling experience as always, he ripped through acoustic versions of everything from Winter Passing to The Fever (one he rarely performs live these days) to the wonderful Alkaline Trio cover he does of their song Radio. Special highlighted moments included him telling stories of the formative days of his band, The Academy Is…, on the rise and the support he got from Reggie’s and taking a swig of Jack Daniel’s straight (now that’s very midwest!) while stating it was his “Lil’ John ‘get crunk’ moment” that got a good laugh out of everyone in attendance.
Chicago natives The Academy Is…are by far one of my favorites bands to photograph, as well as a band I feel they deserve more credit than they’re given. If you’ve seen them live, you know why with their high energy performances that are far beyond infectious to the audience past the young fangirls. While I had photographed them before on their Snakes & Suits acoustic tour, I was ready to capture that energy from a different aesthetic at the Dupage County Fair in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, IL.
After shooting their opening act, The Cab, the crowd started to chant “TAI!” after the announcement from the event coordinator about safety rules and possible rain coming in, I geared up my 50mm and 24-70mm for fast switching. The best thing I’ve found with the 2 shows I have shot for TAI is that they haven’t put any song limits on their photographers. I don’t know if this is typical, but it’s thrilling nonetheless because it’s very rare for a band and/or a venue to allow that. After the band started to play, it was no surprise that the Chicago natives had a very enthusiastic crowd and the energy of the show was tremendous. The band was having a blast as well as the audience and myself!
However, the saddest part of the evening was the abrupt ending of the show after only 4 songs due to an electrical storm was predicted and mother nature started to interfere. While I wished I’d captured the very moment a bolt of lightning was in the background of shot of William, it was quite a huge bummer when the event coordinator came back onstage to announce the band couldn’t perform any longer due to the storm and fans were prompted to leave the premises. You can imagine the booing at the guy for this, and even the band stuck around on stage for a few moments following (I suppose to negotiate or ask if it were really necessary as the storm hadn’t really come in full force yet). In the end, mother nature won and the show was canceled. Everyone was bummed, but if it weren’t a liability on the venue’s shoulders, I can tell you that they probably would’ve played in 10 inches of snow if it were solely up to the band. Despite the shortened set, I was still able to capture the raw energy of the 4 songs of this show and was still happy to have been there. Maybe next time we’ll have better luck as I hope to photograph them again in the future! Click here to view the entire 44 photos of the show at the buzznet exclusive gallery!
Karen O. in her usual show stopping stage presence in St. Louis
The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s brought the house down Tuesday, June 2nd at the Pageant in St. Louis with their incredible stage presence and unique rock sound. While the lighting was tough at times, it was never dull. I was constantly captivated by frontwoman Karen O., who came out in a unique robe and black light face paint. Ripping through everything from their latest Zero (in which she came out in her leather KO jacket) to an encore that consisted of Maps, the entire set was power packed and never dissapointed. The energy exchanged between the band and the crowd was infectious, and 24-70mm did justice to their vividly colorful set. Special thanks to Karen. These exclusive photos will be featured on Buzznet tomorrow, and you can take a look at the entire set of them here.
It’s that time of year again: Warm weather, BBQ’s, and time for your favorite bands to go on festival tours again. Kicking off this summer’s ring of larger festival tours was the smaller, more exclusive Journey’s Backyard BBQ. Headlining that outdoor fiasco of music and skateboarding was Taking Back Sunday, one of my favorite bands not only in the studio but in performance as well.
Opening with the awesome first track from their debut Tell All Your Friends, You Know How I Do (which I must say I was super pumped that they played!), frontman Adam Lazarra and company ripped through their set inducing crowd pleasing sing alongs and frequent crowd surfing on the sunny but breezy Saturday evening in the Chicago suburbs. It was incredible fun to hear them perform everything from the newer material from New Again that comes out June 2nd as well as the old school classics like Cute Without The (E), A Decade Under The Influence, and a rare live performance of What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost. Not only was it great to see them again live on stage, it was great talking to them before and after the show. Very personable and funny!
My only complaint with the Journey’s Backyard BBQ? None that I can think of at all, other than there was no actual BBQ. I was hoping for some gigantic pits fueled with charcoaled flames of good food. Oh well…there’s plenty of summer ahead of us to do that on my own time!
Head on over to Buzznet.com where you can see the gallery of 72 exclusive photos I took of the band that they’re featuring right now. A preview:
Watch the video for “Sink Into Me”, the new single from New Again coming June 2nd! It’s good for the soul..and it’s a damn good video! And of course, special thanks to Karen and Taking Back Sunday.
Chris Cornell made quite an epic entrance as he took the stage on April 21st in St.Louis, and was more than well received as longtime loyal fans packed the house to the brim @ Pop’s nightclub, making it quite an intense and intimate show! From the moment he walked up the platform following the rest of his band to the first notes he sung opening with Part Of Me, it was very clear that Chris Cornell had not lost his fervor in his live performances after all these years and doesn’t plan on stepping down anytime soon.
Chris belted out everything from new material off of his latest release, Scream, to his cover of Billie Jean, to the earlier Soundgarden classics such as Spoonman, Outshined and encored with BlackHole Sun. He even broke out Temple Of The Dog’s Hunger Strike and asked the audience for participation to fill in for a missing Eddie Vedder’s vocals. As you can imagine, the crowd went crazy with nostalgic bliss and responded with nothing short of enthusiasm! His intense presence onstage has less to do with theatrics as it does his interaction with the crowd and vocal range. Performing a total of 26 songs spanning over a career of nearly 2 decades proves that not only is his live performance an intense trip down rock memory lane but a validation that no matter what he does, Chris Cornell can pull it off and still be one of rock’s most versatile vocalists. Witnessing it and capturing it all was quite a thrill. Special thanks to Kron & buzznet, and Ryan Kelley @ Pop’s for making it all possible.
Long Island’s The Sleeping provided a fierce, in your face set last month, and I was lucky enough to capture them in action. I was highly impressed with their viscerale sound and grinding hardcore edge. You can view my photos from their intimate set at St. Louis’ Fubar at my Flickr gallery.
Thanks to the awesome folks over at , it is also being featured in their concert photographer galleries. Go check ‘em out!
I’ve been a longtime fan since I first discovered his work by working in music retail in the late ’90’s, I’ve been able to rediscover his work over the past decade multiple times due to his vast catalogue of music and lately for the recent MCR cover of “Desolation Row” for the Watchmen movie. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the genius of Dylan, listen up and take notes. Even if Dylan is not for everyone, I still think he should be. All you have to do is listen.
You may even be surprised to find you already know a Dylan song or two; many artists have covered Dylan over the decades. Everyone from Jimi Hendrix to PJ Harvey to Muse to now even My Chemical Romance.
While some of you may be familiar with his early work in the ’60’s as becoming a figure of writing songs such as “The Times They Are-A Changin’” and Blowin’ In The Wind; songs that became anthems for civil rights movements and anti-war, it’s one of these particular songs I’d like to point out that seems even still to this day timeless. That song is “Masters Of War”, from his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan: paints a picture of those responsible for war that can be used even today’s societies:
“You that never done nothin’/But build to destroy/You play with my world/Like it’s your little toy/You put a gun in my hand/And you hide from my eyes/And you turn and run farther/When the fast bullets fly“
While it’s an understatement to even say Bob Dylan is simply a genius, it should be given credit where credit is do for this: he is a singer, songwriter, author, poet, painter, and a thinker. At the heart of his genius is not just a multi-talented musician, it his lyrics that spark the interests of millions and generations and are a subject of poignant interest. While his earlier work in the ’60’s was a herald of truth to the tension of the times, his more personal work in the ’70’s also paints a truthful picture for humanity: honesty in his emotional songwriting. So honest, in fact, that it’s safe to say I think Bob Dylan has written over the years a song for everyone in every type of relationship. Storytelling in its most poetic musical form: lyrics. Albums such as 1975’s Blood On The Tracks is a long time favorite, possibly because it’s full of emotion and storytelling, as exampled here in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”:
“Situations have ended sad/Relationships have all been bad./Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud./But there’s no way I can compare/All those scenes to this affair/Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.”
Even his work in the late ’60’s when he made the jump from acoustic to electric performances, much to his earlier fans’ demise, is just as important as his anti-war songs. Albums like Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited are just as crucial to knowing Dylan as to knowing his early work. He didn’t want to repeat himself, didn’t want to explain himself and didn’t have to. Much like the person he is, he says what he says and he doesn’t prefer to be boxed in a corner when it comes to his craft. He despised being called “a folk singer” by press, and he wasn’t afraid to challenge the likes of journalists when questioned why he made the change to take his music in a different direction. While fans of this time called his work “an abortion”; imagine how wrong they really were. Songs like Subterranian Homesick Blues and Maggie’s Farm became legendary and set a foundation for other artists to branch out their style. Even so, it’s his little gems I’ll suggest you listen to.
I could probably write an encyclopedia on Dylan, talk about him for hours, but I think the point of this entry is to go out and discover his work for yourself. Once you’ve appreciated him, you’ll never quite look at songwriting or the world the same way. I was lucky enough to see him several times live, and he never dissapoints. The first time was at the Illinois State Fair in 2000, 50 ft from the stage and probably the first and only time I’ve ever been starstruck. His songs will make you think, they’ll make you cry, they’ll make you laugh. His lyrics will touch you. He is equally an open book and a mystery.
And finally, yes, shameless self promotion, as I’ve done some artwork of Dylan in tribute to the man himself
A Few Dylan Classics:
“The Times They Are-A Changin’” * “Blowin’ In The Wind” * “Like A Rolling Stone” * “It Aint Me, Babe” * “Mr. Tamborine Man”
A Few Personal Dylan Favorites: (and this is condensed)
“She Belongs To Me” * “Tangled Up In Blue” * “Series Of Dreams” * “Tombstone Blues” * “Things Have Changed” * “Desolation Row” * “Highway 61 Revisited” * “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” * “Buckets Of Tears” * “Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat” * “Dirt Road Blues” * “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry” * “I Want You” * “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine” * “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright” *
If you get a chance to watch the Martin Scorcese documentary about Bob Dylan entitled “No Direction Home”, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend it! Have a great weekend everyone! Hope you find a place in your heart for Bob Dylan!
I’ve been a fan since the early ’90’s when I was in high school, and later ran a NIN fan art based site that allowed me to connect with other devout “NINians”. I could probably write an entire biography on his work, but I’ll leave that to wikipedia and the major NIN fan sites out there. While he may not be in favor of the hardcore Fall Out Boy fangirl, one thing is undeniable: his body of work and aesthetic appeal in musical talent are unmatched. He’s shaped a musical sound since 1989 that has influenced a thousands of bands/artists sound, everyone from the amazing band Muse to AFI to The Birthday Massacre to even the late Johnny Cash.
From 1989’s groundbreaking Pretty Hate Machine to 1994’s controversial and brilliant The Downward Spiral , Trent has tested musical boundaries with major label record companies and has never been one to back down with his artistic integrity. To make this as condensed as possible, nothing like Pretty Hate Machine had been done before. Not with emotionally raw lyrics, that is. The other factor that plays a huge part of influence in Reznor’s work. The honestly of his lyrics, covering everything from heartache to isolation to even suicide and back to hope again in such songs as the well known “Hurt”: And you can have it all/my empire of dirt/I will let you down/I will make you hurt to the lesser known “Even Deeper” (in which Dr. Dre co-produced): I woke up today/to find myself in the other place/with a trail of footprints/from where I ran away.
The versatility of change came in 1992’s Grammy Award winning Broken, which Reznor described himself as “An ultra-fast chunk of death.” And it is; you’ll never quite hear guitars in that manner, that hard on any other album by any other artist. With 1994’s The Downward Spiral, you have a concept album of a man stripping away the elements of his life by breaking them down and nearly himself. With its musical highs and lows, you’re never bored or left with “filler” tracks, and you’ll hear some of the most intricate and gritty sounds to pierce your ear. The critically acclaimed 2-disc set The Fragile is a good, strap-your-headphones-on, 2 hour experience with the likeness to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, combining layered textures of sound with organic instruments such as the mandolin, the oboe, upright pianos, the cello along with electronics. Who else can do that and honestly pull it off?
Following a 5 year hiatus of sobering himself up, Reznor went on to produce 2005’s amazing With Teeth, featuring Dave Grohl on drums and 2007’s visionary, apocalyptic Year Zero. He left Interscope records and independently released a 4-part series of musical landscapes known as Ghosts 1-4 as well as last year’s The Slip. I highly recommend all of these albums. His versatility in his catalogue range from the calm beauty of “La Mer” (from The Fragile) to the hard hitting “March of The Pigs” (from The Downward Spiral) to the dark ambience of “Me, I’m Not” (from Year Zero). His work is just that amazing.
Might I add that if you have not experienced Nine Inch Nails live, it’s just that: an experience. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them 5 times live since I was a junior in high school, and each time was different and equally mind blowing both musically and visually (The first time I saw NIN live was in 1996, when I was 16. He was onstage with David Bowie, and let me just say-that is a memory I’ll never forget).
So the long and short of it? If you’re not familiar with NIN, educate yourself. You’re seriously missing out! This is your time to learn about who some of your favorite bands were taking notes from.
Key Tracks:
(I’m not going to give you all obvious tracks, you can find those out on your own. Rather I’ll give you ones that are quite important that show the versatility of his work-and provide you with some videos too). Honestly? It’s so hard to choose!
“Wish” (from Broken “The Becoming” (from The Downward Spiral) “Head Like A Hole” (from Pretty Hate Machine) “Just Like You Imagined” and/or “La Mer” (from The Fragile) “The Perfect Drug” (from The Lost Highway Soundtrack) “Hurt” (from “The Downward Spiral”) “In This Twilight” (from “Year Zero”)
Video Fun with NIN, kids!
“The Perfect Drug” (directed by the visionary Mark Romanek & inspired by artist Edward Gorey-google him.)
“The Day The World Went Away” (very beautiful song)
“Wish”
“La Mer” (live from the 2000 fragility tour-watch the beautiful giant screens in the background)
Closer (live from the 2000 fragility tour)
“March of The Pigs” (because you love it…you know it)
