Photos By Boris Kramaric

THE Foals

When a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the FOALS show the other night, I have to admit, I didn't even know who or what they were. After short research on the internet, I assumed they were one of the 20 billion indie bands from the UK making it over to Europe after being hyped for half the year. Two guitars, a bass, a synthesizer, fancy haircuts, and the typical british indie rock sound. That's what I expected to see and hear later that night. Boy was I wrong.

It was the first time for me shooting in the "59:1" as it's a fairly new but tiny club in central Munich with a - why doesn't it surprise anyone? - poorly lit stage. The only good thing is that entering the side-stage isn't a problem which allows you to get some uncommon angles as a photographer.

Even though the line-up matched my expectations, all my other predictions were dead wrong. After the first song, the five slightly drunk and disheveled guys showed what was clear to me that they were different from all the other indie pop bands I've shot so far. No posing, no "please check out our myspace" breaks. It was one hour of pure passion for their music that won over the crowd.

I can imagine it being quite extraordinary for a band that toured with Bloc Party last year to be playing a show in such a small club with a poor sound-system in front of maybe a hundred fans. But seeing how much creativity and power they put into their show, I decided to try to capture the roughness and the imperfection of the gig in my photographs by turning up my ISO to the max, over/underexposing the images on purpose.

If the FOALS concert taught me one thing as a photographer, it would be that it's not always about the "perfect" shot or great lighting - capturing the atmosphere and the feeling of a show is what really makes a photo, a night worth remembering.