Benny Benassi

20 Jan 2006

Okay, so I've posted a bunch of event photos by now, even though I really only covered a handful of gigs. I don't cover events anymore, for a few reasons; all too soon it became the same-ol-same-ol; I really only volunteered for the last-minute no-one-else-can-be-arsed-to-cover-this-gig gigs; and I had to cover one crap venue a few times too many. But then, there was this gig, which still makes me cringe. Perhaps talking thru it will help. - I can only hope.

So this was generally one of the cools gigs ... I got a backstage pass, had lots of fun running around the place, and totally enjoyed myself the whole night. Except for a few 'little' things.

Early on in the night, I was in one room and saw a girl wearing a typical raver outfit with the fluffy gators. Usually ravers like that are into having their photo taken and are happy to pose, this girl was no exception, and her boyfriend was happy to pose too. So I took a few shots of them, and then threw a couple of low angle ones into the mix to see what came out. Problem was, in my slightly intoxicated state I didn't actually think about the combination of her mini-skirt, and the angle I was shooting from. So when I showed them the pics and the photos were a little more revealing than I had planned, the boyfriend immediately forced me to delete the pics. No problem man, I said, I wasn't trying for that! Gone, no problem, gone! - And once I'd proved to him they were deleted, and apologised profusely many times over to each of them, I cautiously got the hell out of there as the girl irately said "Not again!" I didn't stick around to ask, I just got the hell out of there! - Not my kind of cheap thrill I assure you!

Later on in the night, once the headliner Benny Benassi was on the decks, I nipped up on stage, jumped right in front of the decks and attempted to grab a cool shot. But as I mentioned last week, getting that shot was harder than I expected, so I stayed crouched on the edge of the stage, right in front of the main attraction, trying and trying to get that shot. I stayed a while, then a bit more, and then longer still. I actually stayed up there long enough that the promoter came around to where I was and said "Alright mate, I think you've been there long enough, get the fuck off!" - That I didn't realise how much long I'd been there, that the promoter had to haul me off, just makes me look back and groan! Idiot!

But this is the bit that makes me absolutely cringe, even to this day... and it happened before I was hauled off the stage... see that blurry round thing in the bottom middle of the picture yeah? That's the turntable counterweight, which is at one end of the arm... the other end is the needle, which rests delicately on the record. See how close that counterweight is? Believe me when I say it's CLOSE. And it's closer in other shots. In fact, Benny who was mostly cool with me sticking a camera in his face for quite a while, at one point politely shoo'ed me away from the arm. But I wanted my shot, so I back-off, but stayed close. About a minute later he pointed at the arm, then to my camera and angrily wagged his finger as he furiously shook his head indicating a most definite no-no-fuck-off-no-no! So I backed off a bit, but still stayed close. Probably too close for his comfort. Perhaps he had the promoter drag me off the stage? Who knows?! But whenever I think back I cringe at how I could have almost, ALMOST pushed the needle off the record, causing a massive SSCCCRRRAAATTTTCCCCHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! and dead air as a shocked Benny, promoter, and packed audience looked on! Jeeze, it just doesn't bear thinking about!

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