The Iron Maidens

Venue: Shamrocks

City: Chino Hills, CA

Set length: About an hour

Tonight’s Lineup:

Lovedrive 9:00 PM (tribute to The Scorpions)
The Iron Maidens 11:00 PM (tribute to Iron Maiden)

Pre-show banter…
The Iron Maidens are playing Shamrocks in Chino Hills once again, which is just 10 minutes from my home – I am there! For those of you who don’t live in the LA area, it is a rare thing that a band plays so close to your home when you live so far away from the usual music venues in any of the main cities. Hell, it is so unusual in Chino Hills that we get live music out here that I would go see an Engelbert Humperdinck cover band if it happens to roll through town.

My gear for the night was:

Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Flash: None
Lenses: Canon 200mm f/2.8 and Canon’s 24-70mm f/2.8

Also, a big thanks one more time to Phantom for giving me permission to come down and shoot the gig tonight! Up the Irons!!

Venue Review…
The review doesn’t matter – I’m just happy there is some live music outside of the usual Christian rock bands and ultra-tame acoustic duos. Overcrowded stage front, bad lighting, really crappy sound? It doesn’t matter tonight.

Reviews, comments, and possible putdowns for The Iron Maidens…
This was a rough night to photograph the band, mostly because of the way the venue is set up. Definitely not my best work was done tonight but I still wanted to show where can I buy single golf irons and a few snapshots. Some venues have a layout that makes it hard to get up close to the band because they either don’t have a shooting pit or the walls are close to the stage – or both! Unless you get there early and wait the entire time up front, it might be tough to get close to the stage because the crowd fills it up really tight. The other venue that is like this is Brick by Brick in San Diego. So, unless you want to be “THAT guy/girl” and don’t mind pushing people out of the way, which I don’t, it is best to wait up front for the start of the show and then back out after a few songs to get different angles. This venue does not have a “high-ground” area so you have to get to the back and stand on chairs, which the staff doesn’t like. The crowds here typically pack in really tight, unlike other venues where they tend to spread out. Anyway, here are a few photos that I did manage to get this night.

And before that, here is tonight’s set-list: