The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady

While I'm at it, here's the most recent: The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady playing at the courtyard cafe. Now I was warned that the lighting was awful, but... wow. Almost no light falls on the lead singer or anyone else standing up front. (As you can see in one of the photos, the only light on the keyboard was a very dim red light.)

To make matters worse- when the second band came on, the moshing began. Imagine trying to wield a 70-200 at settings below the bare minimum in a tightly packed crowd that constantly jumping up and down and will randomly slam to one side. Once I got close enough I tried switching over to the 35mm f/2, but its AF is to slow to find the subject and snap the photo before the the crowd sways back or someone steps in front of me and starts in with the jumping. The only photo I ended up getting with that lens was a spray and pray where I held the camera above the crowd and shot down- something I really, really hate to do. So even though size in the crowd was a problem, I mostly stuck with the 70-200.

Thank God (or Canon?) for Image Stabilization.

Images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini