REVIEW: Caligula’s Horse, Earthside at Gramercy Theatre | 02.03.2024

Show Reviews

Feb 9

Written By

Fresh on the heels of the release of their excellent sixth studio album, Charcoal Grace, Caligula's Horse are in the midst of a North American tour in support. The Australian prog outfit, who are joined on the 20-date trek by cinematic rock act Earthside, packed out Manhattan's Gramercy Theatre last Saturday for an epic evening of rock anthems.

THE SHOW

The night began with Earthside who delivered a performance nine years in the making. A missed opportunity to perform at Gramercy Theatre nearly a decade ago turned into a goal performance for the band; a dream that was realized the moment that they walked onto the stage. Opening with "We Who Lament," Earthside was mesmerizing from the start – I knew as soon as I saw the keytar that they meant business.

Earthside's songs were beautiful and swirling; the layers and sonic chapters invite your ears on a cinematic adventure that is impossible to resist. The band was supported by vocal tracks featuring a variety of singers, all whom delivered passionate performances that enhanced in the intensity of the songs. Here's holding out hope for a future set with these vocalists performing live with the band; considering how moving it was for them to play with tracks, having live vocals would be on another level.

The crowd was entranced and impressively polite during Earthside's performance. They were quiet when the songs were quiet and loud when the songs were loud, if not by their cheers then by the banging of their heads in smiling satisfaction. Earthside may have had to wait nine years for this show to happen, but they gave fantastic performance to a crowd that loved every minute; I'd say it was worth the wait.

And just like that, it was time for the headliners of the evening. Caligula's Horse's highly anticipated set opened with "The World Breathes with Me," the second single from and the opening track to their new album. Ethereal in its start, the distorted guitars come in heavy and powerful, unlocking a new realm of soaring contemporary epicness.

The band mixed new material with old, covering selections from the last four albums of their catalogue over the course of the set. Caligula's Horse's song "Rust" was met with particularly heavy fanfare, but then again so were all of the other songs – the crowd was thrilled just to hear the band play. I was eagerly anticipating their single, "The Stormchaser", which to my excitement made its appearance toward the end of the set.

"There's a big part of me that doesn't want this to end," vocalist Jim Grey said to the crowd whose cheers certainly reciprocated the comment. Caligula's Horse played "Mute" to close out their set before returning to the stage amidst raucous demand for an encore to play "Graves" from the band's 2017 release, In Contact.

The tour for Caligula's Horse and Earthside heads down south then out west and up north before coming to a close in Vancouver at the end of February. If they're coming to your town, do yourself a favor and grab a ticket.

THE SHOOT

I went into this show with the intention of it being the first galleries that I would edit in color for Dangit Bee!. I shot it with that intention, and I started the edits with that intention. Then I puked for twelve hours and I changed my mind.

Not because of the stress of editing in color – though I wouldn't put it past me to be so dramatic.

No, the culprit was a stomach virus that my daughter brought home as a keepsake from her daycare. The virus spared me for the show but went all in the day after, and the resulting illness kept me away from my computer until the past day or two. That shit was brutal.

Anyway – I pulled the photos into Lightroom and went to work on Earthside and did a round of edits in color. Then I made a change here or there that turned into an entirely new edit, followed by another, then another, and I suddenly remembered why I've been editing in black and white: I just don't know what I want to say when it comes to color. Does that make sense?

The color grade of a photo can change the vibe in the same way the vibe is changed when color is removed entirely. The color or lack thereof can be a critical part of the story that is being told by the image. For whatever reason, editing in color sends me spiraling in indecision; editing in black and white removes the indecision from the equation.

It's not just me catering to my anxiety that's kept things monochromatic – I genuinely love the way that black and white photos make me feel. Editing in black and white has helped me appreciate and better understand the way light shapes things. I feel the passion more when a shot is in black and white.

But with that said, a good color grade can make a huge impact. There is a near infinite mix of colors and styles to shape the intent of your narrative, and the only way to truly dial it in is to fully understand the knobs that you're turning, so to speak.

This is a long winded way of saying that I'm going to challenge myself to start throwing a color edit in here or there. I'm going to open myself up to learning color with you in real time through these posts and hope that you'll follow along and learn with me – and share your tips and feedback!

I'll start with the next show... Probably. And you know what, I just rambled this whole time and didn't even talk about shooting this show. Let me run through that quickly – sorry.

The stage lighting was low and dark for Earthside and their projected visuals weren't compensating enough to give any addition light with which to work. What the band lacked in lighting they made up for in passion – they were great to photograph. I just wish the images were a bit sharper.

Caligula's Horse had better lighting that was much brighter and more varied. The band put a great deal of passion into their performance as well and that, combined with the lighting, translated into some solid captures. I played with double exposures toward the end of the set and got some cool ones of vocalist Jim Grey that I shot with some out of focus stage lights as the second image:

I'm happy with how these shots came out. They look great in black and white. I'm sure they look fine in color too – time will tell. Until then, I'll catch you at the next one!