Yonder Mountain String Band - Review + Photo Focus (Salvage Station)

Yonder Mountain String Band

Insight & Photos: David Simchock

Venue: Salvage Station - Asheville, North Carolina

A few thoughts on the show...

It had been a few years since I had seen Yonder Mountain perform (the Marcus King Family Reunion back in late 2019 at Pisgah Brewing to be exact), and if I'm not mistaken that was one of their first shows with multi-instrumentalist (primarily mandolin), Nick Piccininni. At that time, Allie Kral was holding down the fiddle, and doing it quite well. Despite all of the talent that Yonder Mountain brought to the stage, it was the sit-in by Marcus King that made the show memorable, which isn't too surprising.

Fast-forward to this past Saturday night in Asheville, I went into this weekend wondering how anyone would be able to follow the high-energy sold-out show last Saturday with Dangermuffin and Fireside Collective (especially FC, being of a similar music genre to Yonder Mountain). It was a good sign that both the Friday and Saturday night YMSB shows at the Salvage Station were sold-out, so the band had to be hyped-up about that going into the weekend, as were many others, including me. That said, my expectations, still buzzing from a week ago, were in check. What would YMSB bring to the inside stage at the Salvage Station?

Well, the three "original" band members, Dave Johnston (banjo/vocals), Adam Aijala (guitarist/vocals), and Ben Kaufmann (bass / vocals) brought the aforementioned Nick Piccininni (mandolin/fiddle/vocals) with them (now a permanent member), as well as a new fiddle player, Coleman Smith, and whatever expectations I had for the show were vastly exceeded. Not only has Piccininni confidently stepped into his role since 2019, but the addition of Smith on fiddle brought an energy that I didn't see coming once I had heard about the departure of Allie Kral.

I'm not sure if Coleman, whose graceful style and understanding of classical violin (as noted in his bio on the YMSB website) shined through to me, is simply passing through as a journeyman for YMSB, or if this is a permanent post, but there was certainly some magical chemistry between the five fellas on stage that I hope carries the band into the future.

I left the venue more than happy about the show, and I even managed to captured a few choice photos (read on).

Photo Focus

Adam Aijala (guitar) & Coleman Smith (fiddle)

A few thoughts about photographing the show...

I'm about a half-dozen photo shoots into the new year at the "re-arranged" Salvage Station inside stage, and I'm still getting used to the lower stage and tighter photo pit. I guess you can say that I'm spoiled with covering so many gigs on the immense outdoor stage at the venue. But, the new inside set-up, although better for the crowd / fan experience (the priority, of course), has presented its challenges to me -- the house photographer. Not to worry as it's comes with the job, and I do my best to adapt in any environment, and to make the best of where I'm at.

When I arrived at the venue on Saturday and saw five microphone stands on stage -- one for each band member, as they are all vocalists -- I thought to myself, "Oh no. This is going to be nearly impossible to pull off unobstructed photos." And, those that know me (hopefully) know how picky I am about presenting "clean" images for my clients, and I most definitely avoid the dreaded "mic mouth" composition as I believe it is not a very flattering view of the artists that I photograph, nor is there a reason why, with patience, I can't capture images where there is separation between the mic and the singer's mouth. But, I digress, sort of...

On the plus side, as I surveyed the stage, I was pleased to see that there was an absence of monitors ("wedges") at the front of the stage that band members often use to hear themselves. Nowadays, "in-ear" monitors are more popular, and every music photographer out there is grateful for this technological development as it's one less thing to clutter the stage, and subsequently clutter our images. The fans on the rail also benefit from a clearer view of the performers.

Whether I'm shooting music gigs or mountain sunsets, I always strive to learn something new from a shoot, or at least work on an area that I am either weak in, or haven't explored as much as I'd like. On this night, once I saw the set-up, before the band even took the stage, I knew that I was going to work with "layers" in my composition, basically taking advantage of side-stage access and shooting across the stage, creating a layering effect with the band members by setting a wide aperture on my camera (which is typical for low-light shooting anyway), and utilizing a shallow depth-of-field to isolate one band member from those in the foreground and/or background. You'll see that in a handful of photos in the gallery below, and also in the lead photo to this Photo Focus segment. Most of these "layered" shots were captured with my 70-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens, opened up to f/2.8 on the aperture.

Of course, I also wanted to get some straight-on shots of the band, but I was worried about all of the microphones on stage getting in my way. To my pleasant surprise, there were plenty of opportunities to capture each band member, or even a couple of them together, without having to worry about the mics. It was as if everyone in Yonder Mountain String Band telepathically knew that I was asking them to step away from their mics if they weren't singing such that I can get a clear angle of them performing.

Sounds like a logical thing to do, no?, whether for the photographer's benefit or, more importantly, for the crowd's benefit. But, of course, I like to think that it's all about me and my photography. Ha! On a serious note, if a band hires me to shoot a gig (not the case here when I am shooting for the house), I would specifically ask them to do whatever they can give me a clearer shot at them, whether that is stepping away, strategically position microphones and other gear, or simply keep the stage void of distracting elements like water bottles and towels.

All that said, this practice of stepping away from mics seems to be the exception and not the norm. Kudos to the Yonder Mountain fellas for appearing to have an awareness of how they can visually optimize the concert experience for their fans. I can't help but think this is intentional on their part, and I believe a lot of other bands could learn from seeing how they positioned themselves on stage. It made the show an absolute pleasure for me to photograph. And, it didn't hurt that I was totally diggin' the music along the way.

Moral of the story: If you're photographing a bluegrass show where each band member has a mic in front of them, don't give up. I'm fairly critical of my own work, but on this night I came away with far more "keepers" than I had anticipated, and I owe much of my gratitude to the band and to the Salvage Station production crew for making my job easier on this night.

MAIN LEAD IMAGE EXIF DATA:

Camera: Nikon D5

Lens: 14-24 f/2.8 @ 14mm

ISO: 4000

Aperture: f/3.5

Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec

PHOTO FOCUS LEAD IMAGE EXIF DATA:

Camera: Nikon D5

Lens: 70-200 f/2.8 @ 140mm

ISO: 6400

Aperture: f/3.2

Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec