I’ve been a fan of Luna since the early 90s. Their albums and performances over the years have become perennial favourites for a legion of fans that never quite grew large enough to propel them to arena stages and platinum sales. And while that meant an endless road of playing mid-size halls and small clubs, it also made for more satisfying live experiences. They were not made for coliseums! But the lack of “next level” success tired in 2005 and they called it a day.
When they reformed and returned to Vancouver in 2015 I was thrilled to be able to design a concert poster collectable for the band that was signed and sold at the merch table. I posted about it here https://markmushetphotography.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/tell-me-did-you-miss-me/ . I thought that was likely going to be it for any future concerts though. But then they did a west coast tour again in 2018 and I went to Seattle to see them at The Neptune Theater. It was a cold January night but they were, as always, very warmly received. This is a band people really love. And they’re a real treat as people. Funny, warm and generous with their time. We reconnected and stayed in touch.
And then they came back for more, only this time it was a tour of their classic 1995 Penthouse album which Rolling Stone called “The 99th Greatest album of the 1990s” or some such. Thankfully they played the Venue rather than the Biltmore. It is lovely to see the fan base still holding and even growing and it’s obvious how much fun they have on stage. An added bonus was that we decided to do another collectable poster. Instead of something I cooked up, it was necessary to reference the artwork from the LP. Dean forwarded me the original art files from the LP, a set of images by legendary New York photographer Ted Croner whose mid-century B&W images of the city are now iconic. I chose the image they’d used on the back cover, a slightly shaky winter night’s view of buildings on the upper west side as seen from Central Park, and adapted Gotham to imitate the original font. I snuck Ted’s credit in the lower right, kept the gig info minimal, and the band signed in white ink.
I’m going to trust that after the Covid-19 pandemic is done, Luna will be back and we’ll have another poster for you!