What type of flash to get for shooting a band?

[bizoey]

I am fairly new with photography but have been experimenting and have purchased my own Olympus E-410 around last january and have been snapping away like crazy ever since.
My friend's band is going to be playing july 18th at around 9 and I don't want the pictures to be absolute crap, seeing as how the pop-up flash is wretched.
I plan to use my 40-150 mm lens but I want to invest in a particularly good flash, seeing as how I think I will be providing other photos for a while.....
Enough with the background stories and rambling - what type of flash should I get for this type of venue (small club, dim lighting) that would also be good for other things? Any tips, products I should stay away from?
My budget is not that large at the moment, but I am 100% willing to invest.
My flash right now makes people look pale and greasy.
I doubt that's the look he wants his band to have.

 

[Garbz]

Personally I doubt a flash photo is the look any band wants to have unless it's mounted on a stand somewhere off camera.

If you get the chance I recommend going to either your friends gig or another with similar lighting and experimenting to see what kind of shutter speeds you get. Your money may be better invested in a lens with a wide aperture and some excellent noise reduction software like Noise Ninja. I'm sure Olympus have a prime f/1.8 lens in their collection somewhere.

Live performances are made of the music and the stage act, a large part of the latter is the lighting on the stage. It would be a shame to lose both in the picture and I'm sure some people here would agree that a partially noisy image preserving the wonderful colours of the performance will be far more appealing than a crisp clean noise free shot with flat white lights.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10090242@N03/1395949290/sizes/o/ <- an example of what I'm talking about. ISO640, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/80th of a second.

 

[bizoey]

Personally I doubt a flash photo is the look any band wants to have unless it's mounted on a stand somewhere off camera.

Yes, I see what you're talking about. I took some pictures for a similar event once but it was hard to get them without blur.
Thank you very much for your advice, that's exactly what I am looking for.
woo! :thumbup:

 

[Garbz]

If you are interested in exploring off camera flashing a bit more I should have linked you to http://strobist.blogspot.com

They cover all off camera flashing including hardware. Just note some of their recommended flash units are getting hard to find since those guys have such a large following.