This would be my third time seeing Dir En Grey on this tour and my second time photographing them. For their show in Dallas I had shot them from the crowd and there wasn’t even a photo pit set up. For this show I was on the press list and there was a photo pit.

I had been to this venue before. The Gothic Theater in Denver is a nice multi-level club with numerous great vantage points for photography.

I made my way to the pit which I would end up sharing with only one other person. She was shooting the show with a point and shoot camera but she was very polite and professional acting.

When the band hit the stage they were instantly on fire. At the Houston show they had taken a while to hit their stride but here they were instantly on top of their game. I guess that shows the difference between the first night of a tour and a tour that has been going for a few weeks.

The lead singer, Kyo, has one of the strongest stage presences I have come across with any band. He always seems to just pour emotion into every song and if I could capture any of that in my images I knew they would turn out good.

Again the only disappointment was the lighting. Just as with the previous shows they continued to have very little lighting. The main lighting was dim and stark white. I shot with a 50mm f1.8 full open. I kept it on manual and did my best to keep the shutter as fast as possible without making the images too dark.

I had not been told that there would be any limit on shooting so I started by shooting the band members I hadn’t been able to in Dallas and was working my way across the pit to the others. Unfortunately I shortly felt a hand on my shoulder and it was security telling me that the third song was over and I would need to leave the pit.

It is really hit or miss with Japanese bands and whether or not they will enforce the typical three song limit. I only wish that I had known from the beginning so that I could have planned my shooting appropriately. The main difference it would have made would have been that I would have spent more time focusing on trying to get some good shots of the drummer.

I left the pit but continued to shoot from the crowd. As I mentioned this venue has many wonderful spots for photography the main downside was that the poor lighting combined with the distance made it even more difficult to get good shots.

Above is a fan video from the show where these shots were taken.