Category Archive:
Posted by admin on January 15, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Congratulations to Otherwise on their new deal with Century Media Records! These guys rock, and they work their tails off. I had the pleasure of shooting the concert last night at Ovation inside Green Valley Ranch, and the band was surprised to receive a visit from the label President, Don Robertson and a gift from the VP of Entertainment for Station Casinos, Judy Alberti.
Here’s a link to the announcement from Century Media Records.
Go pick up some Otherwise music from iTunes (my personal reco’s are Soldiers and I Don’t Apologize) and look for their videos on YouTube. If you like hard rock and heavy metal, you’ll thank me for it.
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Posted by Nate Ludens on June 20, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Saturday, June 18th was one of those nights where, although I worked by feet sore, I wore the same grin of me as an obnoxious 12 year old. I bought Theatre Of Pain and cranked Smokin’ In The Boys Room about 50 times in a row at night just to irk my parents, I guess. Below you’ll see me, 23 yrs later, 2nd from the left, in between Vince and Nikki from Motley Crue. Later, they signed my Dr. Feelgood LP. Nikki was rocking a sweet Leica camera. I gotta get one of those! I chatted briefly about LPs with Vince and with Nikki about his Heroin Diaries book. Go read that, if you haven’t. I read it in about 36 hours, and it stuck in my thoughts for weeks. He’s one of the most creative minds in entertainment, I think.
Poison went on immediately after the meet and greet session, so I had to haul ass to the photo area – conveniently located 100 ft from the stage. (Sarcasm). Using my Canon 70-200mm prime, I was able to get “in there” somewhat well. Hell, some of the photographers didn’t even sport a DSLR. Wonder how their stuff turned out. Sucks, because every 3rd person in the 100 ft ahead of us had a droid or an iPhone getting the same shots. Whatever. Rules are rules.
CC and Bobby Dall from Poison. Genuinely nice fellas who sounded great on stage.
Motley crashed the party at 9:30, and caught many off guard. No ringmaster-hype, no encores at the end. Just there to kick your ass, which is what they did. They rocked a mix of old and new stuff before settling into the classics for a 90-minute set.
How creepy does Mick Mars look right here? My favorite shot of the night, I think.
This session from Tommy Lee blew 9,000 minds. What else can I say?
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Posted by Nate Ludens on June 19, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Friday June 17th. I think this was the first Reggae show I have had the opportunity to shoot, and what a way to start: legendary, classic, icons, however you want to describe Steel Pulse, they live up to it. Absolutely awesome live set. Not a frown in the place.
How you feelin’?
Lead guitar, Donovan McKitty. The dude can shred. I bumped into him at the Grand Cafe after the show. What an awesome guy – he picked up our dinner check for us! We chatted about Hawaii, where they just returned from doing 4 shows. I hope he got the photos I sent over on Sunday.
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Posted by admin on June 5, 2011 at 10:37 pm
I shot the Goo Goo Dolls on June 3, 2011. Fun show for about 4000 great fans.
Here’s my favorite shots. Let me know what you think of them.
Stay tuned for one hell of a great music summer. On tap: Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, Weezer, BB King, OAR, and many more…
See you at the show!
Nate
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Posted by Nate Ludens on April 8, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Here’s a collection of shots from January through April 2, 2011. I have been fortunate enough to shoot some really fun shows so far in 2011. Some local musicians who always show their crowds a good time, and some who have sold millions and millions of records. I think my favorite night so far was last Saturday, April 2, where I started out the night shooting the Heart concert at Green Valley Ranch, then migrated to Ovation where Otherwise opened up for Steel Panther, who was visited by special guest, Vince Neil of Motley Crue. Heart sounded phenomenal, and Vince hit well, most of the high notes. It was cool seeing them all, and here’s some of the shots from the show. Enjoy!
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Posted by admin on January 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Here’s about 60 shots from Red Rock’s new Acoustic Jam night at Rocks Lounge with Peter Love, Dave Ritz and Jeremy Cornwell. I highly recommend this show. It’s good. It’s free. And, there’s beer.
Once again, Flickr is being a pain in the ass. If the full size images don’t load, visit my page on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nateludens/sets/72157625797411837/
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Posted by Nate Ludens on January 26, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Someone asked me that today and it really bummed me out. Not for me, but for them. I don’t believe that there’s better music available now than at any other given era, but it’s ridiculous to not know about it. What year is this, anyway? How do you NOT listen to music? It’s a very foreign concept to me.
Every day, I listen to Pandora, SIRIUS, Grooveshark and YouTube. Every. Freakin. Day. I can’t imagine not knowing there’s great music to discover. Just in the last few weeks, I have learned of new – and old – bands to appreciate and spend a little time with.
In the last 72 hours I enjoyed music by The Gaslight Anthem, Hugo, Train, Taddy Porter, Jay-Z and Juliette Lewis. All are very, very good and most of the music was released in the last year or two. Of course, I also revisited classic Pink Floyd, Metallica, some of Rise Against’s older stuff, and a hybrid of old and new: Guitar Classics by Santana. Freaking GREAT. I love the tracks that I was convinced I’d hate when I bought it. Saw Santana’s show at the Joint here in Vegas and it’s so good. His newest album is a combo of signature Carlos and contemporary singers (except Joe Cocker – wth?)
Is there good music out there anymore? Listen to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the Black Keys and follow it with Deep Purple and Eric Clapton. Pssh. No new music. Ridiculous. Recorded music doesn’t expire, it’s lives forever.
Turn off Glee and American Idol! In the name of Joe Strummer, go discover something and be inspired.
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Posted by Nate Ludens on December 2, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I recently discovered Serj Tankian’s Elect The Dead Symphony Album and I’m thinking of buying the movie and/or LP. I’m super impressed when a band busts out of a mold like this. Serj did it big time by going from System Of A Down to a solo gig with a 70-pc orchestra. I commented to my wife that I was blown away when I heard Sky Is Over on SIRIUS the other day.
My wife asks: “Why does this one impress you so much?” and “What’s so different from what Serj did and what Metallica did?” [S&M was a similar project a few years ago: Symphonic Metallica, or something like that. I didn't jive with it much, but my wife liked it].
Here’s what I said, pretty much:
“Serj and System get to you. They irritate and pry into you with crazy heavy rock and random melodies, but they do it with a silly top coat and scathing ferocious humanitarian undertones. Metallica does one thing, whether they admit it or not: kick the world in the balls as the best damn metal band on the planet. Every time they try to break that mold, I usually hate it. Dude, when the black album came out, I liked it – but only a tenth of the way I liked the other Metallica records. I absolutely hated St. Anger. Still do. Lars sounds like he’s beating on pans on that record. (Bought it and sold it back a few days later. I think I traded it in for some punk records in Laramie, Wyoming. Anyway – back to the comparison and why I love symphonic Serj and not symphonic Metallica.) Serj and System have the versatility and the creativity to chant, sing, dance and goof off. They’re unpredictable. Metallica – nope. Just kick our asses. I think they’re back on track with that when they hired Rick Rubin, the baddest producer on the planet, to do Death Magnetic. Holy crap. That record is phenomenal. There are original riffs on a new tune like I had’t heard in a decade. I credit Rubin for identifying the strengths and weaknesses. Still, I hope they stay away from the Symphony and the other experiments. There’s nothing wrong with being the best damn metal band on the planet, ya know?”
Ended that conversation, for sure. I don’t think she wanted all that, but I think she got her answer… I think.
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Posted by admin on November 23, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Super-mega-creative friends of mine in the Las Vegas-based band, Slow To Surface, released their newest EP today on iTunes. Once again, I had the fortune of being the guy they called for album art. I’m a fan, for sure. Have been since the first weekend I moved to Vegas in 2001. When you get to be, in a small part, a piece of the puzzle of a new release – it’s a pretty cool honor. Here’s a post with the album art and a logo concept we worked on last year.
Here’s a look at the digital version of the album cover. Promise me you’ll check it out on iTunes. They’re a damn good rock group and they deserve a couple spins on your iPod, dammit. I think you’ll like what you hear and go for more.
 Slow To Surface - Body Archery - Released Nov. 23, 2010 |
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Posted by admin on October 17, 2010 at 10:35 am
Here’s a few shots of rock legends, Great White. I shot these from the edge of the stage at the outdoor amphitheater at Sunset Station in July 2010. True story: In image 212, I had just turned to shoot the crowd, when I spun around to catch up with the onstage action, I had the neck of a guitar about 6 inches from my lens. It seemed like guitarist Mark Kendall was mocking me a touch, perhaps for not paying attention to one of his kick ass solos. I wish someone would have shot a photo of the grin I had from ear to ear the whole time I was shooting this show.
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