I just saw my fifth Third Eye Blind show at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, and it was one of the best.

I must admit having low expectations initially, but in the last year, I’ve now been to five Mickey Hart Band shows. Live music has been a big part of my life forever, but it’s rare that a current band excites me this much.

This week, I went to two MHB shows at the Fox Theatre in Boulder and the Oriental Theater in Denver. They were excellent as always; it was also the first time to a show with my new camera, a Sony NEX-6. Concerts are some of the only events for which I take lots of photos, and I have a long history of struggling to get the right settings to capture good photos in a terrible lighting situation. I used these shows as an opportunity to acquaint myself with the new camera, and see how much quality I get compared to my old point-and-shoot cameras. The results are decent, but perhaps the biggest thing this shoot taught me was that I need to get a lens with a much wider aperture so I can shoot at higher speeds.

Third Eye Blind has written and released a free single about Occupy Wall Street:

Here’s the MP3 file if you want it: If There Ever Was A Time