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Last Saturday we had a whole bunch of performers and speakers come through Lethbridge for the Ignition event at the ENMAX Centre. The performances were organised by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada and as well as a line-up of great bands and illusionist Brock Gill, Will Graham was there to talk about the gospel.

First onto the stage to open the night was Eyes of Isis, the only non-christian band of the night. Then another local act, Phao took the stage. They were followed by illusionist Brock Gill and then rock band Stellar Kart. After an inspiring message by Will Graham, the headlining band, Kutless, played their set.

There was such a positive atmosphere during the night it’s awesome to see larger Christian rock acts coming through Lethbridge. Last year saw a real growth in the Lethbridge music scene, thanks to smaller venues such as Henotic, The Slice, and others, and hopefully this is also a sign of more good things to come for Lethbridge’s Christian music scene.

As well as this quick blog post I wrote an article for the Lethbridge Living Magazine blog—which will launch later this week—to compliment their printed article on Eyes Of Isis in their current magazine issue. In my article is a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes info and more photos of Eye Of Isis. When their blog goes live I’ll come back and update this post with a link to it for you to check out. Meanwhile, here are a handful of very hastily-edited images from the concerts, posted in the order of how they appeared. I have a ton of images from this event, so if any of the bands want to see more, please Contact Me. Also, a personal thanks to the film crew from Miracle Channel and to Romi from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada for being so easy to work with. There’s not a lot of room up front!

EYES OF ISIS:

Last Friday I went along to check out Eyes of Isis playing live at Lethbridge’s Moose Hall. The band had invited me to come by and hang out, but I brought my camera just for kicks. These guys put on a really good show! I’ve been to quite a few concerts and at most of them I’ve been kinda bored, because the band didn’t get into it or develop any rapport with the crowd. Live playing is a skill that not a lot of studio bands have. It takes a lot of on-stage energy to keep a crowd pumped up past the first three songs. What I really liked about the Eyes of Isis performance was that they really had fun on stage. I’ve seen too many bands spend all their time trying to look cool and just end up being boring. Even though the images I chose for the blog are the more rockin’ out kinda shots, there were lots of times when the guys were smiling and just enjoying themselves. I think that’s pretty cool, especially for a band that plays fairly heavy rock. These days hardly any rock bands know how to have fun on stage anymore, but I remember way back (showing my age now) when Van Halen, for example, would be running around the stage and having tons of fun. Of course, they also wore spandex, and we really don’t want to see that again.

Here are a handful of images from the concert.

Recently I had the pleasure of doing some band photography for local Alberta band Eyes Of Isis. I love working with other creative people! Even if we aren’t in exactly the same field there is often a kind of understanding between us. Plus, creative people are always willing to go the extra mile to get the best results. These guys were certainly up for anything I threw at them and they endured the cold so that I could get my ideas. You’ll see what I mean when you scroll down. That beach scene? Yeah, they’re lying on snow in sub-zero temperatures with their shirts open. And, yes, we did that particular image fast.

Actually, while we were out there getting that shot another local photographer, Ian from the Lethbridge Herald, happened to pass by and wondered what the heck we were doing. I’ve met him before and he came up to say hello and then tagged along for a bit, getting some photos of the session. If only I’d had one of my assistants with me, then I could have got photos of Ian taking photos of me taking photos of the band!

Speaking of the band, let me introduce them:

Jordan – Lead vocals and guitar
Chase – Lead guitar
Aaron – Drums
Joey – Bass

They were a really fun bunch to get photos of and I think they’ll go far. You can tell that they’re committed to their music and, listening to their songs, they’re very mature for a debut album from such a young band. There are a range of influences you can hear, with nods to the 70s as well as more modern bands, such as Nickleback, but they definitely have their own sound and vision. You can check out their music and see when they are performing by going to their MySpace page. They have CDs for sale there, too, and I recommend them to anyone who is looking for some new rock.