Guardians of the Jukebox
Snellville, GA Concert on the Lawn | September 27, 2025
Hello everyone, I had a great time covering the Night Market in Lawrenceville, where I first saw the amazing 80s cover band Guardians of the Jukebox (@guardiansofthejukebox)! (Highlights Here) They were playing again in Snellville this past Saturday, so I thought it would have been much more fun to experience some 80s classics instead of watching the sorry Bulldogs lose to Alabama. (which had been foretold by all…) 😉
I also thought it would have been most fitting to record the show with my ancient VHS-C camcorder! Totally completing the radical 80s vibes. Here’s my recap of the show. I also shot the GFX and GF 35-70mm in my main hand and had a miniDV Optura Pi (my orig vlogging camcorder) from 2000 as a backup. Hard to believe that camera is vintage as well.
Here it is the Panasonic VHS-C camcorder! Which I used at Lao New Year a few years back. I can’t believe the small battery I have lasted the whole 1 hr length of the tape. Shout outs to analog tech. In the words of Doc Brown, “…a portable television studio!”
After these super large festivals it was nice to have a cozy on the lawn type of show.
There was a Khmer vendor selling sour mangoes and coconuts!
And yes I do have a CRT TV and a working VCR in order to watch this time capsule!
The VHS-C tape goes into the larger VHS tape adapter (which in turn uses 1 AA battery to power it!) The small TV I have doesn’t have the remote, so I can’t switch it to Video Input, so I connected it via Coax from the VCR, which also doesn’t have a remote, so luckily it plays on Channel 3/4. Man, the mess of wires and workarounds we used to do back in the day! No one should really complain about modern tech in 2025.
So I shot these videos hastily in my retro tech room, also with the GFX 50S, which to be honest have never tried before. So the audio quality is quite hissy and bad since the sound is coming from that tiny CRT TV. When I get some time I’ll encode them through the desktop computer properly. The thing about old school tape based video tech, however much time you record is how much you must also devote in post to just ingesting. Video editing in general is just not as fun as still photography.
Short Clip: The Final Countdown
Hungry Like the Wolf
Let’s Go Crazy
Danger Zone
Take on Me
The VHS camcorder ran out of tape/juice but luckily I still had the Canon miniDV tape camcorder for the second half of the show. This technology is newer/”better” than the Panasonic because it’s digital and still has a charm about it. Back in the day it was the rare camera that shot video in progressive scan and had an optical stabilized zoom.
Africa
Don’t You Want Me
True
This VCR ejects the tape like the Decepticon Soundwave!
