katrin bretscher | rock photographer

Michael Schenker Group

katrin — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:18:00 +0000

Michael Schenker and his band live at Plaza Zurich, Switzerland

Have I mentioned that I was on vacation and it was 32 °C (air) and 25 °C (water) where I was while you were here watching soccer at 1 °C? I tell you, soccer is the wrong sport ;-) . But I do blame my vacation for the delay in posting these photos, which I took just before I hopped on the plane.

A guitar god: Michael Schenker live at Plaza Zurich, Switzerland

Plaza is a small club in a former cinema (I’m so old, I even remember having watched movies there). I love their decoration, which is mostly huge birds like the ones you see on their website. Unfortunately, it was way too dark to take a decent photo of that. It was way too dark for just about anything, I haven’t set my D3 to an ISO that high in ages! Thankfully, it handles such crazyness with a non-noisy grace that keeps astonishing me:

Michael Schenker Group live in Zurich, Switzerland

Michael Schenker and his group of excellent musicians were awesome – spot on, and enjoyed being on stage. It was refreshing to see that “old” people don’t only go on tour to make money, but to see some who are actually enjoying themselves! Watching their show: Recommended!

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter

katrin — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:06:33 +0000

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter live at Komplex457 in Zurich, Switzerland

My second shoot for MetalInside.ch, a metal platform built and maintained by my friend Pam. Pam’s not only a metalhead (he’s got the Metal(-lica) “M” tattooed on his right hand), he’s also a guy. And at least 6 feet tall, which gives him the advantage of seeing everything at any show even if he stands in the back. And he’s the one that writes. I’m the one that takes photos.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter tear it up in Zurich

The venue wasn’t all that full, which was a shame, because the show was awesome. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter understand how to entertain, not only by sound, but also by stage props (yet another let’s-drop-the-curtain-during-the-first-song band), and light. It doesn’t take all that much, but that light from below really does it for me (if you’re a metal band and not a beauty model, probably):

Shining bright: Die Apokalyptischen Reiter at Komplex 457 in Zurich

Because while I love spots (no spot – no shot, hehe), haven’t we kinda seen the light-from-wherever-we-manage-to-hang-our-grip? Unless you wear a shirt that conveniently contrasts with the background light, in which case I totally dig the spotlight, too:

Swiss show by Die Apokalyptischen Reiter at Komplex 457 in Zurich

For more photo awesomeness, check out the gallery :-)

Nightwish

katrin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:51:25 +0000

Nightwish live in Zurich at Hallenstadion

I’ve been kicking and screaming for the past few weeks – or I would have been, had I been able to move my right foot more than a couple of inches above ground. The reason? I threw out my back doing some very simple exercise for my abs. Because I obviously need my bikini shape to shoot photos. And no, I don’t know how I managed to walk away from all the crazy stuff I’ve done on snowboards and bicycles only to make a disc in my back suicidal while laying on the floor. But it’s over, and since I’m back in the saddle, I figured it wouldn’t be the worst idea to go and shoot Nightwish at Hallenstadion.

Marco Hietala, The Wizard of Nightwish

Hallenstadion is quite big, so it does require some sort of stage design if you don’t wanna look all lonely on such a big stage. Nightwish jumped on the we-have-a-curtain-that-falls-during-the-first-song bandwagon, but at least they had a very beautiful shredded white one that blew in the wind like the sails of a ghost pirate ship. Which reminds me that I need to go watch Pirates of the Caribbean again…. and I’m out ;-)

Anette Olzon live at Hallenstadion Zurich

Guess That Song!

katrin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:26:08 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been that long since my last Guess That Song riddle, which a lot of you guessed right as “Madonna / Frozen”. So, on to this one:

Guess That Song: Which band and song by that band do you see in this photo?

I got the idea for this riddle when I received the “white stuff” you see in the photo as a freebie with some props I bought for another GTS photo I’m working on. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? It’s one of the songs I love the most, off of an album that basically lives in my stereo!

Well, probably “why” is because whenever I think about my Guess That Song project, I start working on about ten photos at once, and they’re all a bit more complicated than this one. We’re talking SFX and pyrotech here. Though not in the same photo (yet?). But until I get there, why don’t you guess which song/band this is? Post your best guess on my Facebook Page – first to guess correctly wins a “like” click by me! ;-)

Sonisphere: Alice Cooper

katrin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:11:22 +0000

Alice Cooper live at Sonisphere festival Basel, Switzerland

First, I thought I should post the super scary, theatralic photo first. You know, the ones that make Alice Cooper Alice Cooper. Dramatic light, dramatic costume, everything. But then I thought it probably would chase away all the folks that landed on this blog because I shot Justin Bieber. And we don’t want that happening, do we? So, hit the jump for the scary photo…

Alice Cooper at Sonisphere - with this lighting, he kind of reminds me of Catwoman!

Here it is! Scared? I guess we finally now have a new photo that shows you what happens if you light someone from undearneath. You know, instead of the one of Alfred Krupp that’s in all photo lighting books. I guess the red color helps too, but in the case of the Krupp photo, that would have been too obvious.

Alice Cooper in his spider costume (and in better light)

Here’s the same Alice in the same costume a couple of seconds later – in considerably better light. And you gotta say, for a photographer, a costume- and stage-prop loving, dramatic stage scene creating guy with makeup on in good light is pretty much like winning the lottery. You kinda can’t go wrong. Also, why aren’t my parents like Alice Cooper? I would guess they’re about the same age!

Alice Cooper - master of light, props, and makeup

Sonisphere: In Extremo

katrin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:16:26 +0000

German medieval metal band In Extremo live at Sonisphere festival 2011 in Basel, Switzerland

Bagpipes can only mean one thing. Bagpipes equals medieval metal, equals In Extremo. Ok, equals a lot of other bands, too, but In Extremo are undoubtedly something like the kings of that genre. That, and men in half-topless medieval-ish armor and their curious instruments (at last! no guitarists in the photo!) definitely count as eye candy…

More medieval stuff (and the band's logo in wood): In Extremo at Sonisphere festival 2011

Whenever I hear or see In Extremo, I wonder whether I should admire them for learning to play those instruments and learning medieval freaking languages (for their texts) or just simply declare them crazy. I guess I’ll go with admiring (hell I had to study Latin for 6 and a half years and I’ve forgotten most of it – sadly), and I’ll save the “you guys are just plain and simply nuts” for bands who write their lyrics in Elvish or Klingon.

German medieval metal band In Extremo live in concert at Sonisphere Festival 2011 in Basel

And honestly, I’m too scared to google for any bands that actually do that. The Klingon theme would make for great masks and stage props though – or maybe I got something wrong and that’s what Turisas were all about? Or GWAR. Though I heard GWAR don’t sing in Klingon (nor Elvish). Which leaves me with the question: Are there any bands that do this? Hit me with your YouTube links (only the ones which are safe to watch if you want to keep your hearing and seeing ability, please)!

Medieval harp solo with In Extremo at Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland.

Sonisphere: Iron Maiden

katrin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:46:04 +0000

Iron Maiden, this Sonisphere's headliners

This Sonisphere’s headliners came with a tag line that fit the festival’s theme: The Final Frontier. In true 80ies manner, the stage was a complex thing of what appeared to be a lunar or general space station – complete with rockets and a star-filled dark sky. Which you couldn’t say of the surroundings of the stage – in July, the sun sets like never here. And it hurts my eyes when I get up in the morning, so July is evil. Except it’s warmer than the darned weather we have right now, and it was actually quite pleasantly warm even at that time of the night. Which probably couldn’t be said about the moon or wherever the Iron Maiden spaceship was supposedly standing (I heard it’s a bit chilly out in space).

Bruce Dickinson about to conquer The Final Frontier - live at Sonisphere Festival

Main front settler Bruce Dickinson was aptly dressed up to the waist in some sort of soldier-ish stuff, and then a shirt that said “Psych Ward”. Now whether that was referring to his band, the audience, or some other experience I can’t say, but I sure found it hard to figure out what the heck it had to do with the Final Frontier.

Janick Gers on guitar for Iron Maiden at Sonisphere 2011

The rest of the band (as far as they were visible to us photographers – the stage was about twice as tall as I am) settled for true 80ies hair metal clothes which I’m still debating whether I like it or not. It definitely goes well with the whole colorfully lit space station thing on stage – why do I have the strange urge to go watch 80ies videoclips now?

Dave Murray of Iron Maiden - live at Sonisphere festival 2011 in Basel, Switzerland

Sonisphere: Limp Bizkit

katrin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:09:37 +0000

Fred Durst enjoying the sunny weather at Sonisphere festival 2011

Yep, that’s how nice the weather was. And much as I described in my last post, the sunshine ain’t always the photographer’s friend. Like when suddenly, some Fred Durst decides to jump over to the fans and your lens is suddenly aimed at that giant fireball that’s illuminating our planet instead of black backdrops (and bored roadies who snooze on road cases… you should see some of the outtakes!)

Now there's rock photographer's delight - stage makeup!

So enough about me, how about Limp Bizkit? Their 2011 version looked more mature than before, even Fred Durst managed to look as if he didn’t only care about himself, but really the music. I mean not that he didn’t care about music before, I guess that would be totally wrong, but it just didn’t show that much. For some, really, getting a bit older and wiser is much for the better. And I have to say that, I recently turned 30 and feel like a freaking grandma. Three-O!

Fred Durst - older and better :)

PS: I almost, totally almost, resisted saying that Fred Durst looked hungry for more. But then, I couldn’t. If you don’t speak any German, you won’t get the pun anyway, so just forget about it :P

Sonisphere: Mr. Big

katrin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:11:46 +0000

Eric Martin of Mr. Big - still big after all these years!

“When you’re this big, they call you Mister” – one of my co-photographers at Sonisphere wore a shirt with that slogan, and I wasn’t sure if it would’ve been rude or a compliment to ask if he’d gotten it back when, well, maybe he wasn’t big enough to have been called “Mister”.

Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big as a good example for all of us: Protect your ears if you love music!

Mr. Big were unusually early on the bill and played in broad daylight, which posed its own challenges for us photographers: The main stage presented itself in said friendly hot sunlight – so much different from last year, where it rained so hard that people left a day early, missing the entire Big 4 . From there, we’d run over to one of the other stages (inside), which probably, following the festival’s theme, shouldn’t have been named after space rockets but black holes. Trying not to forget to adjust any and all knobs you can find on your camera while on the way is a plus :)

Billy Sheehan shows the metal heads at Sonisphere how it's done!

Sonisphere: Slipknot

katrin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:04:48 +0000

Slipknot, probably the most famous masks in metal, live at Sonisphere festival Switzerland, 2011

Survived the holidays alright? Well here goes your next dose of Sonisphere photos recently dusted off and released from their captivity on my hard drive. Lots could be said about feelings of Slipknot performing their first tour without their late member Paul Gray, and probably someone should and did.

Slipknot on their first tour without Paul Gray at Sonisphere festival in Switzerland, 2011

2011 has been a year of all sorts of things changing, people dying (others being born – welcome to the World, nephew Julian!), and in general leaving a feeling of world, and things, literally or metaphorically, being in a state of being swept away and tumbling over. “Interesting times” for sure…

Slipknot live at Sonisphere festival 2011 in Basel, Switzerland