Showing posts with label The Robots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Robots. Show all posts

Saturday, March 2, 2024

The Robots - at The Track

 


Went to The Track Lounge this evening for a listening of The Robots (see last thumbnail strip), the first venue where I photographed a band at, and the the first band that I had ever photographed. A 2-for-1 deal as it were.

This place and this band do mean a lot to me. Good memories. Patrons come and go over time, a changing of the guard. Yet the atmosphere is still genuine and friendly every time I have been there (since 2012). The staff is great, they serve food, and the proprietor, Richard, always greets me when I come in.

This evening I was sporting my new replacement lens. The one I used to photograph back in 2012 is a bit worn now, causing focusing issues. The manufacturer no longer supports the lens that age, so being It could not be repaired, I bought the new model replacement at a discount they offered me. Glad I did. I never realized how much a camera lens can degrade. Just not become loose, but fog the glass and perhaps not adjusting well to the camera body signals for the f-stop. Yes, for this large investment I could have taken it apart myself to fix, or taken it to a local camera shop to have it gone through. The lens was refurbished by the manufacturer 5-years ago or so. You cannot just keep doing this without having to replace parts, and parts are now scarce.

So, the photograph at the top of the blog, and this next photograph were taken right out of the box as my first shots. What a difference. This new lens brought me back to the quality when I first started photographing with my 2012 lens. Afterward the lights were killed over the band, which made it difficult to photograph. I did not make enough adjustment to the camera (I photograph in full manual mode) to overcome it. My fault. Still, here are some photographs for you to enjoy!

























The Track Lounge
318 N. Jackson St.
Crown Point, IN 46307
(219) 663-9838
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Saturday, April 29, 2023

The Robots at Austin


The Loyal Plastic Robots, or just The Robots, were the very first band I had the pleasure of photographing at The Track Lounge, February 4th, 2012. They are also my most photographed band, though admittedly the last few years I have not seen them, until now at the Austin Community Tavern.

You will find a lot of photographs of Pete Calacci in this blog. Since day one he's been like a brother. Family. Perhaps because his girlfriend Rene is my sis (self adopted). Ya, that is probably why.

Pete can be a perfectionist, and he still has room to grow. When he played with his Robots this night it seemed to be for fun, and for hanging out with the guys of the band who he considers family. Well, maybe add in practice time. Every musician needs time playing with other musicians. He can take the time to have fun because he is kicking some ass playing for our other local band Marrakesh Express — a CSNY Experience, which gives him a challenge. Both he and Joe Baranowski (playing with The Robots tonight) play for Marrakesh. Their skill so different, so brilliant at times (yes guys I know you can do more, I am challenging you), and are as cool calm and collect as you would want them to be. Joe (the kid) has grown so fast in his musical talent, taking it everywhere that he can. You can see that everyone is proud of him.

Bob Sherman played base tonight. When I photographed The Robots before, Danny Mac played base and Bob would play guitar and and lead VOX. He enjoys entertaining. It runs in the family. He will switch lyrics up for a small shock factor. This tells you if the audience is listening. I know I caught the change ups this evening.

Eddy Fell is their drummer. He sings and can play anything, so it seems. A depth of musical play. He sort of reminds me of The Wrecking Crew. I believe he would have fit right in, playing anything on a first read. He is sought after too, playing in many other local bands besides The Robots. One hell of a guy who is well respected.

Here are some photographs of the evening. Enjoy!













































Austin Community Tavern
81 East 34th St.
(on Steger Road, 1 mile West of I-394)
Steger, IL
708.248.6791

________________________________________________________________________________
You can see a categorized thumbnail of all my blogs by going to StreetPhoto.ME.

At the bottom of this blog post are five buttons to click on: E-mail this, Blog this, Share to Twitter, Share to Facebook, and Share to Pinterest. Please take advantage of them and share this blog post with your friends.

The "219 Music" and "219 Artare owned trademarks of Wes Bushby.