Clutch @ The Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans
The universe has subtle ways of correcting imbalances upon its inhabitants from time to time. Some corrections are smooth and simple. Other corrections can be almost as ridiculous as the one wrong turn to Albuquerque to bring you back on track. Such a tale presented itself to me in the form of two different concerts. Each concert I was photographing Clutch, one of my favorite bands(if not my favorite) of all time!
This destructive and flooded storyline starts back in on a monsoon soaked City Park in New Orleans, LA. My good friend and stellar photographer Trent Spann,(and consistent beacon that keeps my ass out of trouble) had acquired me photo passes for The Voodoo Arts and Music Festival. Red Flags began to pop up all around me. The most significant being the first Friday, another of my all time favorite performers, Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls(keep clicking down the website for an epic blog on them) had contracted food poisoning while performing in Texas the day before and the man who is made of sterner stuff was brought down a peg or two and had to realize that he is in fact, human, after all!
So far my favorite festival of the year had started out with a big bang that had put me into in irritated mood at knowing what could've been. I awoke on day two with eyes aglow only to have a proverbial bucket of sand thrown in my eyes as a horrible horrible violent storm moved across the park and just as Clutch took the stage. I had the proper rain gear. And preventative measures were in place but alas it wasn't enough. During the the biblical hurricane I sustained irreplaceable damage to my camera and very costly repairs to several other. Also because of the water damage to the equipment I was unable to get the quality of photos for the following two acts. But alas true believers in every Louisiana swamp filled hole there in fact rests a silver lining. That was the images that I took of Clutch were some of my favorite photos I've ever taken. I pushed through the adversity of damaged equipment and produced good images and all equipment was either replaced or repaired. Why go through all of this yammering?
Well the reason for all the hot air is that my very good friend, DJ, entrepreneur, Scotty "Skyy" Howell, who loved the images that I captured from said show and then whilst working at his NuEra Cap store downtown, one Neil Fallon, Lead Singer of Clutch, enters the store for a new lid. Scotty had always been a fan of the images from the ill fated festival and he proceeded to use his Irish charm to lead Mr. Fallon on a trail to viewing said images. Neil was impressed. Scott then called me to tell me the news and before I knew it I was talking on the phone with Neil. He's not messiah but he holds a lot of weight in my world. He added me and Scotty to the guest list and me as a photographer and what you see here are my favorites from the show that my favorite band called me on the phone and asked to photograph their performance.
Check and Mate Universe! Advantage TCP!
Cheers,
Titus
