I get asked a lot of questions about concert photography, and one of the most common is “What is your favorite band to shoot?”

For me, it is all about the amount of fun the band is having on stage. If the band is having fun, then I want to shoot them. If the band just looks like it is going through the motions then I really don’t want to photograph them. The image will be boring. One band that always seem to be having fun is Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers. Rain or shine, indoors or out, intimate venue or large outdoor stage, it makes no difference to the band, they have fun.

Last night Bruce brought his merry band of musical pranksters to Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego. My history with the Noisemakers goes back quiet a few years to when I first met John “JT” Thomas and John Molo in a band called Jemimah Puddleduck. Jemimah Puddleduck consisted of Mark Karan, Bob Gross, JT and Molo. They didn’t get to play often since the members were all in other touring bands and schedules hardly ever matched. Back in 2005 Puddleduck and the John Ginty band managed to do a quick tour through the East Coast and I was along for the ride. I spent all day with these guys for the whole tour and ended up doing a lot of driving around. I am friends with these guys still and while John Molo doesn’t play in the Noisemakers anymore, JT is still a big part of that band and when they come to San Diego I never miss an opportunity to see him play and hopefully sit down for a few minutes and catch up. Last night was one of those nights.

There is one more special connection to Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers for me, it is the first concert that I went to with my wife when we first started dating. We will be married for 12 years on Monday. So it was great that she was there with me and even though I was off shooting for the first part of the set, it was still great to be back at a Bruce Hornsby show together.

Now, the “Noise of the Earth” tour is a combination of Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers and Railroad Earth. It was a great to see both bands mingled in the middle of Bruce’s set.

What a really great night of music. Thanks Bruce, JT and the rest of the band. You can find out where Bruce and the band will be next by checking HERE.

All images taken with Nikon D4 and Nikon D700 camera bodies with 70-200mm f/2.8,  24-70mm f/2.8 and 300mm f/4 Nikkor lenses.