Now this set of pics I had totally forgot about, the other day I was browsing around on my desktop, like you do, and I found an interesting folder tagged “Astrid Swan @ Tavastia 14th of October”, weird.. Haha. Well, I kinda remembered, but I just haven’t had the time to edit these shots.

A while back when I hung out at Tavastia to shoot Cats on Fire (it is a band, not actual burning cats), another band, not very familiar to me at the time, was to perform as the main act.. And these/she where called Astrid Swan and the Drunk Lovers. So that’s the story in short. The background facts for this insert that is..

They gave a good concert but unfortunately the lighting was not very optional for shooting the act with my cam, it was very dark.. It gave a certain feeling that very well worked for the music but not for my shooting.. But I seem to have, in some ways, managed to get at least a few good shots of her and the drunken lovers.

( The Drunk Lovers )

So, after their show I found out that I was kinda fond of their music.. Naturally.  So I went to my local record store and realized that I had to get one of her records. And let me tell you, she is very talented and the music is really good. If you have nothing to do right now, please do check out her website…

—>>> www.astridswan.com <<<—

If you are one of the Spotifiers, one of her records is also found over there. Spin it brothers and sisters!

Right now the girl and her crew is over in Germany on a tour of Europe, so she is really doing well out there, I suppose. One thing that I remember from this gig at Tavastia is that I lost my lens cap to my 50mm 1.8.. So if you where there, and you by accident have found a small piece of plastic with the text “Canon” on the front side, please return it.. Haha.. Like any of those who were present at the concert are reading this.. Well hey, it’s worth a shot isin’t it.

And what more?

Let me do some thinking and we’ll see where we end up, in the mean time I’ll post you guys another shot from the gig…

The next shot will be very very green! I mean, very very very green! I mean green ok! Ok, to be honest, this is just a phrase to get the layout lookin’ alright! Goddam, it is not working.. This text should me moved to the far left side, oh crap!

( The Green Astrid )

I still haven’t come up with anything else to say, so I’ll just post another one.. And you really seem to ask why I have to say shit since it hasn’t got the littlest bit of meaning. Well, only because of the layout, so that it looks good.. No one is probably reading this, but at least I make it look good.. If it were just pics the layout would’t work since I have so many vertical pics. What? Anyway, next one..

In some of these shots I’ve tried using some textures and different filters, I usually keep those kind of things to the promotional shots, but as of today I’ve started trying out new things with live shots.. A man’s gotta evolve right?

So on the very top picture, the first one that is, I’ve thrown in a layer with some damaged glass in black and white with a somewhat low opacity, and hey, at least I think it looks alright. All of this texture talk is really Ramedus fault, or his win.. I don’t know. It was he who encouraged me to start this texture shit..

And hey, it takes a shit load of more minutes per picture to do this, but hopefully it will get me better results in the future..

( Now this one has got a lot of texture )

The pic above has at least 5 layers of texture, a bit too much I feel.. But whaddamIgonnado? Not post it? I have so much posting energy, and since the bandwidth is nowadays unlimited, no one will mind.. Is this the place and time where I should tell you, again, that my site broke down last November for being to popular..? Haha.. I guess I’ve told you about that too many times.. But hey, a man has got to brag. Oh you don’t think so? Well I can’t promise anything for the future.

And the one to your left is the last pic of today.. And yes, I’m kinda running out on editable live shots for the moment.. So if you have a band located in Finland, please do call me, mail me, whatever me, and I’ll come to see your show with my camera. I want more shots and more blog posts!

And last but not least I should tell you that Astrid Swan & the Drunk Lovers is an awesome act and if you by any chance have an opportunity to see them perform, please do, you won’t regret it.

Fun fact – today myself and Ramedus will have our first sit-down, our first brainstorming session for the upcoming 4th music video. Wish us luck!

Take care now – bye bye then!

//Tage – The Drunk Lover

1. I’m heading to Tavastia tonight to shoot two gigs, those are the ones of CATS ON FIRE and ASTRID SWAN. I very much appreciate these artists and their music is great. If you haven’t heard of these guys, check out their myspace’s…

CATS ON FIRE ———————>>>>>>>>>>> http://www.myspace.com/catsonfiremusic

ASTRID SWAN ———————>>>>>>>>>> http://www.myspace.com/astridswan

I have been in contact with Cats on Fire, and that is mainly my goal this evening, to get some killer shots of those guys, haven’t talked to Astrid Swan, but I bet she won’t say no to the wrath of my 5D… That sounded weird, oh well, stop smiling fuckface.

And the other thing..

2. I’m on TV tonight! If you live in Finland you have access to the channel FST5. YesBox – Digibox. Put on your telly at 22.30 to watch a shortfilm called “The Cleaner 2″, I posses the lead role as an action hero.. You wouldn’t wanna miss this! 5 minutes well spent!

The shortfilm is thrown together by Joakim Levälampi and Sebastian Barner-Rasmussen in the middle of 2008, great guys! This is the sequel to an even shorter film that was more of a “övningsarbete i ljussättning”.. Try translating it yourself! The film is shot in Sipoo. The other star of this movie is Matias Nystedt, the dude who designed my website, how weird is that?

So, check the movie out everyone! The film will also be avaliable on the internet the following day at Yle Areena… I’ll post some pics from the making of The Cleaner 2. Hope your interested, otherwise, close your browser…