Music Blog

The Tin Man and I rolled out and into the upstate tundra Friday night to a gallery downtown, to give thanks and praise to the sensational photographer Aaron Winters. He shoots wildlife in the Serengeti region in Africa, risking life and limb; he also shoots wildlife on stage at concerts in Rochester, where there isn’t as great a risk of getting trampled in a stampede or becoming someone’s lunch. This photography show was for his African material, and I’ve got to say there’s two things that have me in awe: Winters’s precision shots, and the access the beasts afford him.

Later the same night, The Iron Maidens entertained a sold-out audience at Montage Music Hall, playing all of the IM hits, like “Run to the Hills” and “2 Minutes to Midnight.” The Los Angeles-based band was polished and impressively tight. But it must be tough defining yourself with someone else's catalogue, especially in a genre in which pulchritude is not necessarily on-brand. I’m just saying, a lot of us are used to getting our metal from gargoyles like Dio or Ozzy. Elvis and Dean Martin impersonators have been trying to live up to similarly high standards for years. But can you imagine Eddie officiating a wedding in a little chapel off the Vegas strip? Hell, I’d go.

Frank De Blase is CITY’s music writer. He can be reached at [email protected].