No Coachella for me. Waited too long to buy a ticket, and then they mysteriously all sold out. Oh well. That’s money I can save for camera equipment. Or maybe to pay my bills.

What I do have is 4 shows in as many nights, starting tonight. I’m writing up reviews for 3 of them, and taking photos at all 4. God only knows when I’ll have time to edit the 500 or so photos I’ll probably end up with. Yikes. Anyway, here’s the lineup:

• April 26th – The Cinematics/Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin/Mute Math @ House of Blues. RIP Boris Yeltsin. And although I’m not really a fan or frequenter of the House of Blues, as a photographer I am looking forward to working with the lighting there. And I’ll have no problem with the “3 song no flash” rule. Don’t much like flash, and I rarely take pictures after the 3rd song anyway. What else is there to capture, unless the lighting changes or the band switches up instruments, or breaks out a keytar? (Thanks to Seth at Polyvinyl Records for the tix!)
• April 27th – Eluvium/Explosions in the Sky @ Epicenter. Epicenter wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when I saw Ted Leo there the other week. And at least the show will be done early enough to get up to some more shenanigans, it being a Friday night and all. I can’t really emphasize how excited I am about this show. (Thanks Sarah at Motormouth Media for the tix!)
• April 28th – Republic of Letters CD release party @ the Casbah with Dynamite Walls. Haven’t seen Nick from RoL in quite some time, so I’m looking forward to catching up. Same with the boys from Dynamite Walls, who I met when I photographed them opening for the Frames at the Belly Up a few weeks back. I’m already set up to take more photos when they headline the Belly Up May 12th. This is the only show I’m not reviewing this weekend. Breather!
• April 29th – MONO @ Casbah. Another group whose tour is being managed by Motormouth Media, so Sarah suggested that I do a review of this show in addition to the Twilight Sad review that I already did, and the forthcoming EITS review. It’s good to have contacts. We’re like, BFF, or something.

On a complete side note (and photographer’s rant), Casbah, I love you, but please do something about your lighting. Like maybe add a few lights, and position them so that they don’t all fall on the stomach of the person who’s at center stage. Maybe have them fall on their face. Or on those other people in the band. They’re important too. And the red filters on the lights? They’re a photographer’s nightmare. Blue is sooo the new red, and stuff. Please. I’m begging you.

Alright, it’s Thursday afternoon and there is no one in my lab. And I’m 5 minutes late for a talk by a Nobel Laureate. Crap. No chance there’s going to be any room in that lecture hall. I might just go home and take a nap before commencing this weekend’s activities. It’s nice when the boss is out of town. Even if he is scouting out other potential jobs that would require me moving to another city.