Rick Brantley was one of the two artists that opened for Shirock last weekend at 12th and Porter. Often performing acoustically, he chose to plug it in this time to present his softer blend of southern rock. Combine that with the close quarters atmosphere of 12th and Porter and it was a really fun way to kick off the evening.

The trouble with solo artists, especially those that don’t move around a lot on stage, is that the lighting director may keep things a bit too simple. In this case, it was all red back-lighting, or all blue back-lighting without much transition in between. For a photographer, that makes the task a little bit more difficult since every photo starts to look exactly the same under the same lighting. I’ve played around with tones a where I could to spice it up, so let me know what you think of these and if it’s a good direction for other future concert shots.

This past weekend Shirock kicked off their Everything Burns tour. More than just a great way to launch their new debut album of the same name, Everything Burns is also the non-profit charity started by the band. 100% of the proceeds from each event will go to their charity, or to another local organization which the band is partnering with in the 14 cities which they will visit this month.

I caught up with the guys on Saturday for the tour’s second stop here in Nashville at 12th and Porter. Opening for them was solo artist Rick Brantley, followed by rock group The Elms. Both were a lot of fun, and I think the Elms will be making a few more stops on the same tour, so if Shirock wasn’t enough of a reason to get out to one of these great concerts, now you’ll have two. Visit each of the artists websites to learn more and view upcoming dates to mark your calendar with.

Shirock’s new CD is showing my audio system some loving, and I’ve got somewhere around 1000 photos to go through from the warm Februrary night (no sarcasm, it was in the 60s this weekend). Should be another busy week – scenes from each performance on the way soon.