Pushing Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 at 1600

In early December I thought that I'd have an opportunity to photograph a community band concert, and so I decided to try pushing Kodak Tri-X 400--that is, I'd set it so that it could in theory be used with less light for this indoor band concert.  Unfortunately I was unable to take many photos in this lighting, so then I had to find a chance to use the film.  Thus I took the next day and went to a local park to use up that roll and a roll I had found in my old point-and-shoot camera from high school.

The only indoor photo from the roll.  A horse head makes playing Sleigh Ride vastly funnier.

I was rather surprised at the results.  Shooting the film at 1600 and having it pushed two stops in development caused a significant boost in contrast, making the dark parts of the images insanely dark.  To be honest I didn't particularly care for the results.  Instead I decided that I would use Tri-X at box speed from now on, unless I specifically desire particularly strong contrast.

I also noticed that my K1000 hung up on one of the frames.  Afterward I saw that the negative was scratched oddly.  It has happened once more since then, but I don't know what causes it.  See the image below to see what I mean.

Anyway, here's another example of the absurd boost in contrast.  The dark parts of the image are almost completely black.