N 43° 9’14.23″ W 77°36’39.52″ Google Earth location.
This is Nancy Wilson with the band Heart performing at the Rochester War Memorial, the first concert that I ever attended, and because of an open audience area, no seating whatsoever, I was able to get fairly close to the stage so that my pathetic little Wittnauer Challenger and its 50mm lens could actually achieve a halfway-decent concert photo. This took some effort, because of course everyone was crowding the stage, and the press of bodies was damn near the same as if we’d been stacked horizontally instead of standing (mostly) upright. They largely don’t do that now, because it’s ripe conditions for accidents, not to mention groping and all that (though somehow I remained free of molestation myself, probably because no one then knew how famous a nature photographer I’d become.)
It was almost entirely luck that this image came out as well as it did, though I made the effort to frame it as well as conditions allowed and certainly sweated out a couple liters in the exertion necessary, but having enough light and no noticeable motion blur was pure chance. Cameras were even disallowed in the arena, but we didn’t know that until we arrived (there being no internet and no word about this when we purchased the tickets,) but the bouncers at the gate took a look in the backpack we had and let us pass through, more likely watching for ‘professional’ rigs with longer lenses, or perhaps not giving a damn anyway.
This one bumped slightly ahead in the lineup while I was doing a little research. It could have been posted very close to exactly 36 years after it was taken, since I know the date: October 17, 1987, during the Bad Animals Tour. However, Ann Wilson, Nancy’s sister and thus co-founder of Heart, is presently touring with her band Tripsitter and will be playing in Syracuse at the NY State Fairgrounds just three days from now – that’s as close as they’ll come to this tripod holes location. The two had actually planned to reunite Heart for a 50th anniversary (!!) tour this year, but apparently couldn’t agree on the lineup, and so Ann is touring with her own band and Nancy may yet appear with Heart sometime next year. If you’re as old as I am, you may want to keep checking the music news.