Shades of Gray

Let's face it, when at a live concert most people prefer to listen to songs they know and grew up with as opposed to new songs no matter how talented the band. Songs you recognize just bring out that extra bit of energy. It's also great to hear bands cover songs and not change them so they sound as close to the original as possible. This brings me to Shades of Gray, a New York City - Manhattan based cover band in which my friend Matt is the bassist. They are a talented group of musicians who most likely could write and perform their own material easily, but choose to play great rock hits of the last decades. They cover rock bands of all genres - classic rock, alternative, indie, grudge, retro, etc. They play songs we've all heard on the radio across many different stations at different points in our lives whether it's hanging out in friends' basements in middle school, driving around with our buddies in high school, going to house, frat, and dorm parties in college, staying up late and studying in grad school, and whatever events dominate our free time beyond. Shades of Gray play great music and are a blast to see live. This time, I decided to go and bring my camera. I know it would be a very low light situation with always moving musicians, I realized I didn't have an appropriate lens to take with me. The only lens I have faster than f/4 is my 100mm f/2.8 macro, which is supposed to be a great portrait lens in addition a razor sharp macro lens. I figured it was my only choice and would be an interesting test. I think a lot of shots turned out great with this lens, but the music turned out much better!