@HOKOofficial recorded live in Hamden, CT at the Space Ballroom on November 19, 2023
Recently I went down to the Space Ballroom in Hamden to see Ripe with family (hey Herb, John, and Gavin), and HOKO opened the show for them. It's always a welcome surprise when an opener is this good!
This was my first time at the venue and there was a post directly in the middle of the room in front of the stage, so I set up my camera house left in order to have an unobstructed view of the entire stage. There wasn't much (or really any) key light so I had to run exposure a bit low to avoid this one hot spot right in the middle of the stage from blowing up - lesser of two evils.
I stayed with my mic array in the center during the set because I figured for music it's more important to make 100% sure you have quality audio. It wasn't until until importing the footage that I learned the tripod was bumped pretty badly a couple times during the set, messing up the framing of the shot. You'll notice I cropped in a bit at those times in an attempt to keep things centered, but especially later in the set we begin to lose stage left. Life goes on, I guess.
The room was way too loud (like sustained 108dB+) but I'm still pretty happy with how the audio recording came out. I think I may have had a better in-person auditory experience listening to my pair of mics through IEMs than the rest of the crowd did with the house mix.
All in all, HOKO was great and I would absolutely catch them again!
hokomusic.com
@HOKOofficial
Video: Sony FX30 with 35mm f/1.8 lens
Audio: pair Telefunken M60 FET to Zoom H6
