Tien and I checked out the Careless Lovers in Kirkland (just outside of Seattle) for a weekday showing and took a couple of pictures and shot this impromptu vid:

They were missing their trombone player but they were still super fun to dance to and really interacted with the audience throughout their sets. I’m sure we all know this to be true it it’s still worth mentioning – it really does make a difference when musicians are also dancers!

You know what’s neat in VanCity? Neat jazz music at an even neater indie-hipster venue!

On Wednesday, I stopped by Guilt & Co. and listened in on the Jen Hodge All Stars band in a venue that looks straight from prohibition-era Chicago. All that was missing was a bouncer in front asking for a password before letting you in. Having learned my early swing dancing in Vancouver, I was pleasantly surprised that the dance scene came out to support live jazz even though it’s not really a dance venue. I was also pleasantly surprised that at least more than half of the dancers who came to listen actually took the time to get dressed up, like you know, what normal people do when they go out. I remember the times when “lindy-bombing” in Vancouver was a bit of an embarrassing affair – a bunch of poor university students in tshirts and jeans not buying drinks and blocking the for the rest of public.

The word on the street is that the lindy hop scene in Vancouver is in a bit of recession, with Jungle Swing doing less and less events. However, it might be a worthwhile trade-off if there are neat places like Guilt & Co hiring awesome jazz bands to listen to and there’s just enough space to dance a few jigs. What do I know though, I’m only here every couple of months ;-)

Check out when the phrase in the music changes and how the rest of the crowd gets into the groove. Really fun night at our last blues dance with a fantasmical band as always led by Patrick Tevlin.

Some more clips (but this time on vimeo):

• http://vimeo.com/22774873
• http://vimeo.com/22773750
• http://vimeo.com/22772391

Every two to three weeks, my life transforms into a TLC reality show episode – if I had to pick, probably most like DC Cupcakes. There is usually a seemingly easy enough challenge that I tackle head on with enthusiasm, the moment of anticipated shock when that challenge is… well a challenge, the crisis that usually involves some sort of comedic mishap and eventually a resolution with a bow of a life lesson learned to top it off.

In this episode, my partner in crime, Kevin Sue, went to some random event called “Boston Tea Party” (heh) leaving me to run the blues dance solo. Sounds easy enough right, I’ve run this event a bunch of times now that it’s pretty self sufficient… bzzzzt wrong. No cashbox, no cooler, no water, no car, and no emergency engineer to fix things that break. I found out that I had an alarming lack of knowledge of how audio equipment actually works (I’m good at plugging in my iphone to DJ, that’s about it) and I’m pretty sure that the Hobos outside of Habeebas Dance Studio were multiplying in real time as they smelled my stress level increasing.

Unfortunately, that’s just my personality – I sweat the big stuff, the small stuff, and even the non-stuff stuff (don’t ask). Fortunately, my girl Genevieve (who also taught the lesson last night with me) kept me sane behind the scenes by basically running around town with me doing errands hours before the event and reminding me to chill the eff out. This definitely rings true to me one day after the event as I reckon that even if all the big/small/non-stuff stuff didn’t work out, most likely people would still had had a kick-ass time dancing and partying.

I didn’t need an awesome check-in system form (google docs does rock though) that time stamps when dancers arrive, a piece of scrap paper and pen was more than adequate. Ditto for the cashbox (replacement: plastic tupperware), drinks to sell (replacement: “here’s a cup and a pen to write your name on it”), basic knowledge of audio tech (replacement: “plug in everything until it works”) or even drop-in teachers (replacement: me). Those are just nice to have features at a dance but sometimes you gotta just head back to the essentials. And sometimes, you just need a good old TLC episode to bring it back to what’s important.

Lesson 1 – Watch out for flailing limbs/Let dancers know you are there. As photographers, we often do not have hulking gear as videographers do to warn dancers flailing dancers. When you see me from the back when I’m filming, I’m pretty sure I just look like my ordinary self schmuck self standing awkwardly (not unusual in my day to day habitat). In actuality, I’m trying to hold a very expensive but fragile camera very, very still WHILE keeping my peripheral vision aware of incoming bodies and arms.

What I’ve learned from those first wallet-defying experience is that instead of starting your recording then moving out of the way of dancers while filming, I now try to stake claim to a piece of dance floor real-state and making eye contact with the dancers around me. This let’s them know that, “hey i’m here”, and that I’m attempting to film around them. Doing this the hope is that dancers make a conscience effort of not crashing on top of me. Most of the time this is just enough to start filming without having to move so much.

The following video of Patrick Tevlin starts off with me tilting my head and torso (and therefore my arms which is attached to my camera) trying to avoid a not one but two couples.

Patrick Tevlin – Toronto Blues Dance – Blueberry Hill from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

Don’t stand so close to the speakers. Unless you have a directional microphone attached to your DSLR, more than likely you are just using your on camera mic. Here’s a very easy lesson that I seem to have a hard time remembering – don’t stand right next to the speakers. :( Just don’t do it.

Tyler @ Dovercourt Blues from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

Ginger St. James @ Cadillac Lounge

Ginger St. James @ Cadillac Lounge from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

Take some time and frame the shot. This is my curse and dilemma – I want to dance AND take photos AND take videos. Sometimes you have to sacrifice some time away from one of those activities so that you come out with something of quality.

The following video is of one of my favorite bands of all time – the Asylum Street Spankers. I was so AMPED just to hear them live that I just kind of ran up and pressed record on my camera without even thinking of what I was filming. This could have been a really great video memory of a memorable weekend experience but instead it’s below mediocre in terms of quality.

BluesShout 2010 – The Asylum Street Spankers from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

The right lens. Most dance venues are badly lit. Because of this, you need some great lens which will allow in some light without a direct source on the subject. Your best bet really are prime lens such as 35mm or 50mm in the 1.4/1.8 variety. I have not use a super wide angle lens but I assume they would be just as great (24mm 1.4). Trust me, your zoom lens will not cut it for most dance venues for video.

Guitar Playing @ Cadillac Lounge from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

The first blues dance in Toronto went pretty well, thanks to our good ol’buddy Patrick Tevlin playing some sweet sweet tunes for us. For the dance, we brought in a live band to play the equivalent of one DJ set (1 hour’ish) just to mix things up. The responses from the community have been pretty positive so far and we’ll definitely be integrating Toronto’s great blues musicians into the scene as much as possible :)

Patrick Tevlin – Toronto Blues Dance – Blueberry Hill from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

Patrick Tevlin, Suitcase Sam, Robin Hatch
January 14, 2010

Heard at Toronto’s Saturday night lindy hop dance at the Dovercourt House. Yeahhhhhhh.

The company line in Toronto has always been, “we are lucky to have so many great live bands”. Well, truth be told, I was not a company man for a very long time. Things are starting to change though and I’m slowly starting to see the light. I just need to look in different avenues and directions.

Two bands that really stand out are Patrick Tevlin & His New Orleans Rhythm and Up Jumped Swing. Both bands will be playing at Toronto’s main lindy dance (Dovercourt @ Saturday nights) in the upcoming month. Check out a clip of Patrick Tevlin and his happy pals playing at Grossmans this holiday weekend: