The ACL Music Festival 2014 in Austin Texas last month was a big success again, drawing
over 210,000 to see 130+ performers on the weekend I photographed it.
Performances are fun and exhilarating for sure, but nailing a good band portrait is very
rewarding. I've photographed the irrepressible Fitz & and The Tantrums five times over the
years (Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Austin) but this was my first portrait opportunity, made possible by the band's helpful publicist Peter Quinn of BB Gun and tour manager
Aaron Glas.
Fitz & The Tantrums at ACL Music Festival 2014. Band members are left to right
Noelle Scaggs (vocals), Joe Karnes (bass guitar), Michael Fitzpatrick (lead vocals),
Jeremy Ruzumna (keyboards), John Wicks (drummer) and James King (saxophone,
flute, keyboard, percussion and guitar).
Mac DeMarco delivers jizz-jazz mellow rock with a goofball raunchy style, including
crowd-surfing and guest impromptu singers from the crowd. One of his lovable traits is the
way he goes out of his way to spend time with waiting fans after a performance – signing,
selfie-posing or just hanging and sharing a smoke – instead of escaping the Austin heat for
the peaceful artist lounge and dressing room with A/C. Special thanks to manager and booking agent, Michelle Cable of Panache Booking.
Mac DeMarco and fan shoot a duet selfie after his performance at ACL Music Festival.
Now here's a different kind of band portrait. After every show, The Glitch Mob takes
the ultimate selfie with a most interesting background - the entire audience! Thanks to
publicist Courtney Ridgway of Magnum PR and tour manager Justin Basch for inviting
me in for the fun.
The Glitch Mob's signature end-of-show selfie at ACL Music Festival. Left-to-right are
Ed Ma, Justin Boreta and Josh Mayer.
Like a rare animal in the wild, catching the guitar-jump on film requires luck and timing.
Here are two fliers from this year's festival.
Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers gets some banjo air at ACL Music Festival 2014. Don't worry ma ... I'm tethered.
Upper tent stratosphere exploration by My Brightest Diamond.
Three days of ACL Festival is good, but enough. It ended well with Pearl Jam, which started
like this for us photographers walking into the photo pit before their show.
The show before the Pearl Jam show.
Was there more to ACL Music Festival 2014 than just portraits, selfies and guitar-jumps?
Yep.
Enjoy here.