Shooting on a Concert Stage in Front of 115,000 Fans
Vintage Trouble recently played their biggest gig in front of 115,000 people as the support act of AC/DCs “Rock or Bust” Tour 2015 at the Red Bull Ring in Zeltweg, Austria.
I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to join the band and work with them directly on stage. It was life changing for me and this experience once again showed me that being a concert photographer is the best job in the world!
I thought to myself, “Those guys look pretty awesome, I’ve got to get a portrait of them!” So I walked over to one of them and started chatting. He told me that he was originally from Sweden, but had been living in LA for quite a long time. He was the guitarist of the band Vintage Trouble and they said they’d be happy to pose for a portrait photo. 2 minutes later, the portrait shot was done and I went to the photo pit to take some stage shots. They blew me away with their energetic stage performance and the photos turned out great. When I was back from the tour, some weeks later, I got in touch with them again and sent them my photos.
Fast forward 2 years and I read that Vintage trouble would be the support band on AC/DC’s “Rock or Bust” tour. Actually, I read it 2 days before they were going to play in Austria! I thought, why not ask the guys from Vintage Trouble if I could work with them again? I got in contact and 12 hours later, I got a “Yes, let’s do this, we can get you on-stage!”
This was one day before the biggest concert in Austria, with more than 100,000 people attending!
First of all, I had to figure out how to reach the festival area. It was already too late to get a parking ticket and taking the train and bus route with thousands of AC/DC fans wasn’t really an option either. So I decided to drive my car to the next village and take a taxi from there to reach the concert venue.
Although I was there 5 hours before the show started, there was already a traffic jam on the highway where shuttle busses were ferrying AC/DC fans to the venue. I set up a time and a meeting point with their tour manager and we agreed I would give him a call when I arrived. This time, it seemed as if everything was going to work out well, but, all of a sudden, I realized that the cell phone signal in the area was non-existent. Too many people were using or trying to use their cell phones, so there was no chance of reaching him.
As I didn’t have backstage access, I had to find a way of solving this problem — and quickly!
These are the challenges you will face as a music photographer when working with bands. Learn to work with what you’ve got, because it’s already a huge privilege that bands allow you to shoot and work directly with them. A couple of minutes later, I was in the backstage area and finally met up with the guys.
The great thing about Vintage Trouble is that they are the friendliest guys I’ve ever met. I have a feeling that they are totally grateful for everything they get from life and love what they do, namely play awesome shows and make music. I was able to shoot in their backstage container and to shoot on-stage with them in front of 115,000 people!
I had already shot on-stage for The Prodigy and Shantel in front of 50,000 people, but this was an unreal situation and I guess the guys from Vintage Trouble were also a bit overwhelmed, playing such a large crowd. When I walked on-stage during the first song, I was blown away.
The funny thing is, when you’re working for bands on-stage, time flies and you just have to concentrate and do the best job you can. I wasn’t frightened or worried, but the adrenaline kick was a biggy, that’s for sure! Everything worked out (almost) perfectly and I’m quite proud of myself for accepting this challenge and getting some awesome shots.
About the author: Matthias Hombauer is a photographer of rockstars who is currently based in Vienna, Austria. He writes about photography at How to Become a Rockstar Photographer, where this article originally appeared.
Image credits: Photographs by Matthias Hombauer and used with permission