Chris Cornell - San Francisco, CA

Thanks to some swift-moving folks, I ended up with a couple of tickets and media passes to shoot a sold-out Chris Cornell show at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Tuesday night (May 3rd).

With Soundgarden announcing their first tour in 13 years yesterday, it was no wonder the Fillmore was packed to the brim to see Mr. Cornell strum through his vast library of music-altering songs. I was surprised... a fair amount of the selections were from his solo records, but he threw in quite a handful of Soundgarden tunes, topped off with a couple from Audioslave and even the Beatles and Michael Jackson.

All in all, my teenage self was completely satisfied. But I'm dying for the full band to make it through.

The night was also a lot of fun for me socially, as I got to shoot alongside my good friends Jen & Mike Cash of Calibree Photography, with my buddy JC from theFIVE10.com on my left gathering material for a show review, and my pals Jeff Campbell and Andy Weller (of the San Francisco band Pine and Battery) performing an acoustic set upstairs in the Poster Room in between acts.

Enjoy a couple of shots from Tuesday night!

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Weezer - Memories Tour (San Francisco, CA)

My birthday was Sunday (yay), the 28th. So as a present to myself, I bought tickets to see Weezer on the 29th and 30th at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco. I already had photo passes for both nights, but I wanted to stay and enjoy the whole thing (rather than the 3 songs that press is allowed).

Monday night was show #1, The Blue Album. This was my first attempt at shooting from the back of a room (normally I'm up front in the pit), so it's also my first attempt with a 200mm lens. The benefit from being in the back, however, was the nice little high-five that Rivers slapped me as he ran toward us and up to the balcony.

Here's a few photos from night #1 (The Blue Album):

Night #2 was the Pinkerton night. The energy was crazy again, and although Rivers didn't run around quite as much, he sure gave us something to shoot. Rather than a high-five this time, he ran straight up to my lens and sang into it for a bit. Unfortunately I couldn't use a flash.

Photos from night #2 (Pinkerton):