Rock Fanatic Is Really Out There
Darren Balch knows precisely where he was the moment fate - impersonating a blazing guitar riff - slapped him between the eyes and seared into his soul.
Seat 13. Section 19. Three rows down from the top.
May 31, 1981.
The battle-scarred Spokane Coliseum chair is now a sacred object in Balch’s North Side apartment. He smuggled it out of the cavernous concrete concert hall a few weeks before the city reduced the old barn to rubble and stuck up a spiffy new arena.
Balch’s old wood chair reminds him where he was when, in a flash of inspiration that would alter the course of his life, he vowed to become a rock ‘n’ roll photographer.
He was 17 at the time, watching his favorite band, Van Halen, wail away.
“It was unforgettable. The largest sound I’d ever heard. The biggest visual I’d ever seen,” says Balch. “I never wanted to go home.
“I realized photography could be my way to get to the stage. I knew I’d never get there as a player.”
Fifteen years later, Balch has more than realized his dream. He’s snapped 40,000 frames of 350-some rockers from Aerosmith to ZZ Top in concerts all over the Northwest.
Ringo Starr, Smashing Pumpkins, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Doobie Brothers, Metallica, Tom Petty, the Grateful Dead, Janet Jackson, B.B. King …
Balch photographed Alice in Chains back when the band played Washington State University’s student union building and later when it hit the big time, headlining the Lollapalooza tour.
In 1993, his picture of Black Happy’s leaping Mark Hemenway was reproduced on 75 Seattle billboards advertising the Post-Intelligencer newspaper.
You can’t buy a Pepsi this summer at the Gorge without noticing Balch’s work.
An impressive aerial shot of central Washington’s uniquely beautiful outdoor amphitheater - packed with thousands of Crosby Stills & Nash fans - adorns every plastic beverage cup.
But if you think Balch’s obsession (compulsion, addiction …) has brought him wealth, well, think again.
This guy’s in it for love, not loot. Balch, 32, has given away more photographs than he’s sold. He figures he’s dumped maybe $100,000 into camera gear, travel, tickets, film and printing costs. Not to mention beer and cigars.
Last year, his financial situation grew so bleak he declared bankruptcy.
He doesn’t care.
“I don’t ever want to be thought of as a professional photographer,” says Balch, whose day job is overseeing inventory for the Itron computer manufacturing company.
“What I am is a fan with a camera.”
For three seasons, Balch was commissioned by MCA Concerts to photograph all acts appearing at the Gorge. Now shooting independently, he was back at the Gorge on Sunday, photographing Blues Traveler, Lenny Kravitz and other acts appearing at the HORDE festival.
Balch doesn’t work like a conventional photographer. He often stands in front of the stage, grooving to the music. Sometimes he puts his camera down until he feels the right “vibes” to pick it up again.
“It’s being a fan that keeps me going,” he says. “I still get tweaked by the excitement of live rock ‘n’ roll.”
Last September, Van Halen played the Gorge.
Balch took his camera. And his chair. Backstage, he asked guitar gods Eddy Van Halen and Sammy Hagar to autograph his coliseum seat. They did.
Balch told them his tale of what their band did to an impressionable young lad. He showed them the ticket stubs from all eight Van Halen concerts he has attended. He showed them a fist-sized Van Halen logo tattooed on his left shoulder.
Laughing hard, Hagar suddenly had his own flash of inspiration.
“You know, we’ve seen a lot of weird (bleep) all these years,” said the rocker to the fan with the camera. “But this is really out there.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo