Leisure Cruise, Dry Ice and the Fuji X100

Fuji X100, f/2, 1/420

I've been covering the band Leisure Cruise since their inception, shooting in the studio, at various concert venues, and a little while ago, photographing a conceptual session in collaboration with The Windmill Factory. With art direction by founding Creative Director, Jon Morris, we played with some dry ice, a "Glam" light and the Fuji X100. In short, we had a blast.

This photo is currently featured over at Philthymag. Be sure to check out the band's website for their upcoming tour dates, and if you haven't seen their latest music video (also directed by Jon Morris of The Windmill Factory), you should do so right away:

One More Fight Before the Night Ends - Leisure Cruise at Cameo

Leisure Cruise playing at Cameo on February 28, 2014

Following on the heels of last month's debut at the Highline Ballroom, Leisure Cruise played an intimate, high-energy set at the Cameo Gallery on Friday night. Leah Siegel was in her element, belting out tunes from their upcoming album (check out the new single, Double Digit Love below), as the enthusiastic crowd got sweaty on the dance floor.

Leah Siegel and Dave Hodge of Leisure Cruise (Fuji X100, f/2, 1/60, ISO 3200)

Headlining the evening, Leisure Cruise came onstage after Clementine & The Galaxy and proceeded to set the tone for the concert with their opening number, Ragged Dawn, an immense synth-rock anthem with incredible energy and power, convincing the listener that there's "one more fight before the night ends."

Leah Siegel (Canon EOS-M, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/15, ISO 800)

As far as shooting this show, I found that the dark venue, along with the band's use of fog on stage proved to be pretty challenging. Armed with my Fuji X100 for the wide shots and my Canon EOS-M and a couple of longer lenses (Cameo is a smaller venue, so I didn't want to bring my full DSLR gear), I tried to just go with the slower shutter speeds for a few interesting motion shots, hoping to capture the energy of the concert. You can check out some more of the photos from the gig here.

Dave Hodge on the keyboard (Canon EOS-M, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/100, ISO 3200)

Check out the latest single from Leisure Cruise, Double Digit Love, along with the fabulous new artwork below:

Leisure Cruise at the Highline Ballroom

Leisure Cruise debut performance at the Highline Ballroom

Electronic synth-pop music is alive and well in NYC.  Leisure Cruise had their debut performance at the Highline Ballroom last night, playing a featured set before European pop sensation Gala, and they totally crushed it. I was there to catch all of the action, and you can check out the rest the photos from my gallery here.

A collaboration between Leah Siegel of Firehorse and Dave Hodge of Canada's Broken Social Scene, Leisure Cruise conjures, in their own words, "the music of a John Hughes film if it had been written by Bowie, remixed by Johnny Jewel, and fronted by a female Prince." Supporting them onstage were Aaron Kinsley-Brook on drums and Steven Elliot on guitar, and the four of them played an incredibly tight set, particularly for a band making it's debut performance.

Leah Siegel of Leisure Cruise performs at the Highline Ballroom

Jon Morris of The Windmill Factory provided the production design for the show, following a hectic week flying back and forth from LA as he was working with Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor for their Grammy performance (You can check out that performance here). I particularly enjoyed the stunning projections and video created by Matt O'Hare and Josh Higgason, which really matched each song well and took the production values of the show to another level. 

Dave Hodge

The performance was was a fast-paced, high-energy thirty-seven minutes that got the crowd the dancing and definitely wanting more from Leisure Cruise, who will release their debut album on May 6th. Until then, you can listen to their single, Sailing, right here:

You can check out the rest of my photos from the night by following this link: http://bit.ly/L7reB0