Tyga at Indig02, London
Dominus Vobiscum!
Call me old fashioned or just strait laced, but it’s a damn shame when you go to a gig and the first words that dribbles out from the mouth of the performer is “Make some m********ing noise!!, and the whole auditorium, average age 16, laps it up! Said performer is a chap called ‘Tyga’, and I just cannot, for the life of me, see what the appeal for this guy is, considering it was a sold out gig. Then again, when you hear the lyrics to all his songs, you wonder why you’re even suprised. It’s also inevitable that at said gig, palaver ensues. So, it’s no revelation when security has to come out in full force in case of trouble, which did occur, but only isolated cases that were immediately put down. This here, though, is the nature of live music photography, and you shoot the gigs that come up. Thank you, Lord, for the power of industrial strength ear-plugs!
The show was supposed to start at 9.30 pm. By 9.45, and the performer yet to come out, I had the following conversation with a fan, half breathing due to being squashed against the barriers:
Excited Fan: Excuse me, but is there a support act?
Me: Well, if it’s already 9.45, and your guy is yet to come on stage, I hardly think so.
EF: What time will the show end?
Me: Curfew kicks in at 11pm…
EF (with sad eyes): ‘So, he’s only going to be on for about an hour?’
Me: I guess so….
EF: But I’ve been here since morning, just to get to the front…
Me: You’ve been here the whole day, just to be at the front to see him?
EF (eyes lighting up): Oh, yea! I love him!
Me: His songs must be very inspirational & edifying. Could you share with some some of his lyrics?
EF: Well, I don’t think…you know…(sounding sheepish) don’t think you’d subscribe to his kind of music….and he (she starts screaming)
I turned around to see the lights changing colour, my cue telling me that Tyga was about to come on, hence Eager Fan going crazy. Security give me the heads up that I have 3 songs, no flash. Curtains are drawn, and said ‘Tyga’ is bouncing up and down the stage like a squash ball. All my presets to the camera were thrown right out the window; I just had to improvise. Close up shots? Forget about it. You trying to get a shot without his mic to his mouth: Not going to happen within the now ordered ’1 ½ songs, no flash’ time-slot, compliments of one of his ‘management’ in the pit. Hey, no biggie. It is what it is when coming to shoot said shows.
Anyway, some shots from the night:
Food for Thought & Soul:’There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health’. —Proverbs 12:18
© 2012 – 2013, Akin Aworan. All rights reserved.