Ah, Satans Hollow - I stayed in a hotel in Manchester a couple of years ago and my room was overlooking the alleyway where that club is - didn't get a wink of sleep......
Anyway, the photo you've posted has used flash, hence it's sharp and eyecatching and the ambient light has been caught because of a relatively slow shutter speed (dragging the shutter). If you intend (and are allowed) to use flash you'll need to adopt a similar technique otherwise you'll have a bleached out person and a dark background.
Usually for gigs flash isn't allowed or is even not desirable. However, a fast lens is very handy or even essential in this environment. It's an ideal situation to use a nifty fifty if you can get one (about £110 new for a f1.8 or cheaper
second hand - there are some on sale on this forum for Nikon at about £65).
I usually shoot gigs between 1.8 and 3.5 at the most as the shutter speed at higher apertures results in blurry photos (and VR or IS is of no use here because it's the subject thats moving, not the 'tog or camera). Here's a one shot without flash at 2.8 in a similar environment to the example you have used:
That said, it is possible to get lucky with the kit lens and I have shot with one before. The difference is that you leave with far fewer usable photo's due to the limitations of the light. Here's an example caught with the 18-55 Canon kit lens:
A further point to note is that the lights at every venue will be red, green and blue and usually never throw all colours out at once, rather just one at a time! This can make some cool effects but can get tiring viewing the same band member lit entirely in green in every picture. It's often best to convert to B+W to overcome the really strong colour casts.
If you can't get your hands on a fast lens yet still go along and get stuck in. You will get good pics as long as you take LOADS and you will learn lots anyway by just being around the band and venue (get there for soundcheck if you can, they usually use the house lights so they will be white and constant and will give you a head start in getting some pics in the can).
Best of luck, don't forget to post some results!
Steven.
