Last night Billy Idol kicked off his 2013 tour with a show at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, CA and I was there. I have been able to photograph Billy and his band for a few years now and its always a great show. The band puts everything into entertaining the audience. There is no “just going through the motions” with these guys. Every night is THE show. Now, there are some downside to shooting the same band a lot, and for me, it’s finding the “new” shot. The image that I don’t already have. Problem is that the venue is really not very photographer friendly. There is no photo pit and they ask the photographers to stay to the sides. Challenges just make it all more interesting, right?

So I shot from the sides, mostly across the center. This made it easy to get Billy Idol, but much tougher to get anyone else. Luckily I was allowed to shoot all night, so I went further back and shot over the heads of the audience. This allowed me to not only get photos of the rest of the band but of the whole band.

It was great to see these guys perform again. The show is really solid with a mix of the classic Billy Idol songs plus a new one or two mixed in. The band consists of Billy Idol, Steve Stevens (lead guitar), Billy Morrison (rhythm guitar), Derek Sherinian (keys), Erik Eldenius (drums), and Evil McG (bass).

My friend Charles is the tour photographer for Billy Idol. So last night was a great opportunity for us to catch up. It was great to see him before the show and to catch him working during the show. He is off to the right in the following photo, which is the reason that Billy Morrison is off looking that way.

You can check Charles Jischke fantastic concert shots on his website HERE.

Here are a few more of my favorites from the evening.

All images taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikon D700 with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8