Under A Thicket Of Kisses

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. 

Seeing as this was not a typical concert venue, I was a bit confused as to where to pick up my photo pass. After talking to 4 different people at 3 ticket/event stands and will call, I was directed towards a security guard who informed me that they didn't have my pass for whatever reason but to stay put. He returned a few moments later stating that he'd "spoken to the lead of The Academy Is" and told them who I was and said he claimed I was "cool to come back and photograph the show as much as I want." WOW. So this positive turn of events led me to the band trailer where I thanked William for the gesture of kindness. To my surprise as I thanked him he said he remembered meeting me the first time when I shot the March 8th show, as well as did Adam "Sisky" Siska. Maybe it had something to do with the Bob Dylan shirt I wore to both concerts, I dunno. But either way, it was by far the coolest thing to happen that evening so far. Like I said, they're some of the nicest guys I've met in a great band. 

While I was able to spend a few more minutes talking to Adam about Dylan, I was also able to capture William and The Butcher in their usual strike-a-pose good natured humor! They're golden what can I say?

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! 

Adam T."Sisky" Siska was calling upon the gods to stop the storm shortly before the cancellation with his superpowers...