Makin' Progress!

First off (it was finally announced, so I can talk about it now) one of my favorite bands of all time, Ben Folds Five, is releasing Ben Folds Five Live... their first-ever live album on June 4th. The coolest part (for me) is that they got a hold of me to license one of my photos from their tour this past January, so now my work is featured on the album cover:

Ben Folds Five Live. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

Secondly, filming has been extremely successful so far. Some long days in there... lots and lots of walking & train-hopping around Paris, lugging video & audio equipment everywhere we go, shooting in the rain, etc. But last night we managed to wrap all scenes that involve our lead actress, Ms. Barbara Probst (good luck trying to read her wiki if you don't speak French). We've lovingly renamed her to "Blahblah".

After filming all day yesterday, we celebrated with a large dinner for cast/crew/friends and a lot of wine. Like, a lot. Some of us are hurtin' a little this morning.

Enjoy some candids from filming so far!

Kevin discussing a character with one of our actors

Filming on the Metro with Barbara Probst and Kevin Clark

Heated discussion in the studio with Barbara Probst and Kevin Clark

Yours truly monitoring some dialogue audio

I look thrilled to be a part of this scene.

Left to Right: Keith (cameras), Barbara (lead actress),  me (sound), and Nadia (script supervisor)

Notre Dame evening.

Clay Lancaster, Kevin Clark, and Barbara Probst

Lancaster brothers on the train after a day of shooting

The Gracious Few - San Francisco, CA

Remember the 90's alternative bands Live or Candlebox? I certainly do. In fact, the band Live was my absolute favorite for almost a decade. And yes, they were very much still around until officially dis-banding in late 2009 (their last record was 2006). Candlebox, on the other hand, reformed after a few years off and had their most recent record in 2008.

Why am I telling you all this? Because three of the four members of Live formed a new band, and enlisted Kevin Martin (the singer of Candlebox) to front the new group. He also brought with him Sean Hennesy, who has been with Candlebox since 2006. The new collaboration was later dubbed The Gracious Few.

Their debut record hit in Fall of 2010, and was produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads (who had also produced for Live in the past).

Tuesday night the band made it to San Francisco on its last leg of the tour, and performed at The Independent with Jerry Harrison as a special guest on a few songs. Not only was I asked to shoot that night, but we also landed a pre-show interview for theFIVE10.com. Needless to say, this was one of the most important projects I've worked on (for me personally) and they certainly did not disappoint.

Here's a couple of shots from the interview backstage:

 

Kevin Martin and Pat Dahlheimer

Sean Hennesy

Chad Gracey and Kevin Martin

Catch the interview soon on theFIVE10.com. It's quite entertaining, and oddly informative.

The show was just straight energetic rock and roll. The band was exceptional (to be expected I suppose... they're all seasoned players) and Kevin's vocals were spot-on, despite his being "under the weather".

One of the highlights of the evening was a guest appearance by legendary musician and producer Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads and Modern Lovers fame). Jerry jumped on stage with The Gracious Few to jam along for two Modern Lovers tracks.

Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads performs with The Gracious Few.

The Gracious Few is comprised of: Kevin Martin, Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey, Sean Hennesy, and Patrick Dahlheimer.