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rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
While talking about how the drat kids these days are getting hand tattoos in the tattoo thread over in YLLS and that when someone has neck tattoos and lower arm tattoos and nothing else it's called a "Warped Tour body suit" I mentioned that I've been going to the tour for 15 years and that I've been either photographing it or, for a few years, travelling on it for short bouts with friends playing on it and some people had interest in me starting a thread about it. My stints on the tour were never all that long, most of them about a week, but I've seen the tour from about every angle booking/planning to PR/press to day of events and tour managing. I've also had a lot of inside exposure to other tours and hundreds of concerts from private shows in parks to huge arena and festival shows.

Some quick background. I started getting more involved with the music industry when I was 17 when I was going to a meet and greet for the band AFI. During the meet and greet, their guitarist commented that I had a nice camera and I casually told him that I've love to shoot the concert that night. He told me to hang on a sec and went and got their tour manager and he handed me a photo pass. To this day it was one of the most exciting moments I've ever had. I'd been going to concerts regularly for a few years and had always taken disposable cameras with me and tried to shoot from the crowd and always got terrible grainy photos. To be able to get into the front barricade and use my SLR was a dream come true. Shooting that night was almost overwhelming and I couldn't even focus on what was going on. My photos were pretty awful, but leagues better than anything I'd taken prior and the experience just left me awe struck. Flash forward to later that fall when I applied to work for the college paper at the University of Michigan. I joined there in hopes that I'd eventually be able to use the job to be able to cover concerts. Shortly after starting, I was looking at a photo story my boss did that was on the wall of the Warped Tour. His photos really struck me as interesting because they weren't just of the bands, but of the whole experience. I'd gone to the tour a few times as a fan, but seeing it captured was really amazing. He later helped me get a pass to my first Warped Tour in the summer of 2004 and I've shot every year but one since. In the mid 2000's I began to shoot very regularly, upwards of a concert or more per week and I started my own website that eventually let me get passes to shows on my own. In that time I made a lot of friends and some of them I got pretty close to. One of those friends has now been on the tour around 10 times in 3 different bands and I've been out for stints with all three of those bands both on and off of the Warped Tour.

Over the years I've met a lot of amazing people from merch vendors to tour managers to random celebrities that have shown up at concerts and I've seen bands at their highs and bands at their lows. I've seen fights, drugs, sex, emotional breakdowns and even natural disasters. So go ahead and ask questions and I'd be glad to tell some stories!

I'll start with one from the Warped Tour since that was what this thread started about. Back in 2010, one of the years I actually didn't have any close friends on the tour, I was covering the tour for myself and wanted to try to focus on getting more behind the scenes photos and promo type photography. I booked shoots with five bands that day and had to wrangle together all of the tour managers to try to come up with a schedule to fit all of them in. The last one of the day was with the band The Word Alive. A friend of mine who was at the show that day working for her boss's screen printing company was supposed to help assist on the shoot, but got tied up with work so I had to set up everything on my own. The show was at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando which backs up to a lake at edge of the park. The sun was starting to set and the clouds looked sort of cool as summers in Orlando tend to get some late afternoon/evening storms and that can make for some cool photos. I set my lights up on the dock and got the band in place and seconds before I was about to start shooting, a big gust of wind picked up and flipped one of my studio lights over, right into the lake. Thankfully I had them connected to a battery backup and it detected a surge and shut power off immediately so no one got electrocuted. The entire strobe however was flooded with lake water and weeds. I finished out the shoot and got some cool photos out of it, but I was really bummed about my $300 light that was literally leaking nasty water out of every crack. I left it out to dry for a week while on vacation and to my surprise, with no real effort, it was completely functional when I got back. I had sort of forgotten about the whole story for a while until I was at a show just a couple months ago that The Word Alive was playing and I was shooting from the side stage during the opening band and ran into their singer and he said I looked familiar. I told him the story and he immediately remembered me and that incident. Here's the photo from that day for posterity.



Edit: Grammar.

rockcity fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Jan 9, 2016

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XIII
Feb 11, 2009


You better have at least one Every Time I Die story or I don't think we can be internet friends anymore.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

You better have at least one Every Time I Die story or I don't think we can be internet friends anymore.

Oh you mean ol' Keith and the boys.



Honestly I don't have any great stories with them. They're all super nice guys though and Andy is a ton of fun. I actually had the chance to spend an evening with them at a friend's house earlier in the year, but a work trip came up and I had to be out of town. I'm still pretty bummed about it, thanks for reminding me.

That photo was from the 2010 Warped Tour when I was trying to do all the posed, casual stuff backstage.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


Okay, biggest band douchebag you've encountered?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

Okay, biggest band douchebag you've encountered?

Biggest single douchebag? Probably the singer from Eighteen Visions, I don't even know his name. I met him at Taste of Chaos (also put on by Warped Tour founder and awesome dude, Kevin Lyman). I had just finished shooting whoever followed them on the lineup and at the venue they had the show at, you had to be escorted around by a liason and everyone was sort of gathered in a back tunnel that you could still see the show from between bands. It was also where they had all the merch stuff so band people tended to be walking around there after sets. I was watching the band that was on and James came up and stood right next to me, with no one else really around. For the next few minutes, I could tell he just really wanted me to look over and notice him. He just had an air about him that he craved attention way too god drat much. Finally I think I did say something, but it was something about the band that was on and he gave me some short and answer and said, something like "oh yeah, I just got off stage, you know who I am right?" gently caress off dude, have some modesty.

Biggest douchebag band? Black Tide. You might remember them as the band that stirred up a bunch of controversy when Ozzy (i.e. Sharon Osbourne) booked them on Ozzfest and Jagermeister wouldn't let them play their second stage because they were all like 14-15 years old at the time. They ended up moving them to the main stage because of it and everyone kind of gave them poo poo for it. Anyway, a few years after that happened, they were on the Warped Tour on one of the years that I was out with Chiodos. We were in West Palm Beach that night and it had been a long and ridiculously hot day and everyone was sort of in cool down mode around 10pm in the parking lot area where all the buses were. For some reason or another, their drum kit was still not packed up and was set up about 15 feet from the door of the Chiodos tour bus. Their drummer, who looks like a teenage version of Slash, started playing the drums to try to impress some young girls that the rest of the band was trying to hit on. It was loud as hell and super goddamn annoying. That sort of thing is really frowned upon on that tour as everyone is pretty tired of music by that time of night. Several people from the bus went out to tell them to stop and it was getting more and more heated. It got to a point where the Chiodos tour manager, who is a rather large dude went out and took his drum sticks and his stool when he got up to stop for a second and yelled something like "No one wants to suck your dicks you fucktards, shut the gently caress up and get on your bus!" There was a wall of us staring at them from in front of the bus and they all went quiet at once and looked like a bunch of dogs that knew they did something wrong. It got really tense and silent for a moment and then they just cowered back to their bus. I was pretty sure the tour manager would have broken one of them in half if they started back up again.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


My favorite Chiodos album is Illuminaudio. Are we now enemies?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

My favorite Chiodos album is Illuminaudio. Are we now enemies?

I have sort of mixed feelings about that record for a few different reasons. The first is that I heard demos of most of that album while Craig was still in the band, before it even had lyrics. He was the one who played them for me in fact, so it was sort of awkward watching that album come to fruition, wondering what it might have been had he still been in the band. The second is that I really like Brandon. He's a really nice guy and I wish I got to know him a little better during his short stint with the band. It was also a little awkward because I was kind of in an odd situation with the band because I wanted to remain friends with both Craig and the rest of the band. The last one is that I really wish they'd played songs from that album live after Craig came back. They all sort of wanted to, but for some reason it never really happened. I think they were all afraid to just sit down and have an open discussion about it. I think all of them individually told me they wanted to play Caves live, which would have been awesome. I'm pretty sure they're more or less done now though, so it's kind of a moot point, barring a reunion tour at some point.

I actually do like that album, but to me, it just didn't feel like a Chiodos record. If I think of it as a Chiodos record, it's not really up there for me, but if I think of it as a completely different band, I like it a lot more.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


Yeah, it has such a different sound that it's hard to call it a Chiodos album. That said, I dig their entire catalog. I'm not as big a fan as when I was younger, but I still listen from time to time

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

Yeah, it has such a different sound that it's hard to call it a Chiodos album. That said, I dig their entire catalog. I'm not as big a fan as when I was younger, but I still listen from time to time

Listening to bands that I get close with is always sort of odd to me. Because I know them so well, it's hard for me to take the music in for what it is. I'm almost more and less critical of it at the same time. I tend to listen to it a lot at first though because they always ask me for an honest opinion. It was like that a lot with the first band that I ever got close with which was Nonpoint. I actually influenced a song on one of their records which was really weird, especially because they didn't tell me at first. Their drummer and I were talking via AIM one day (wow, this was a long time ago) and he asked me what I'd name the record they were recording if I were in the band. I thought about it for a while and made a suggestion and then months later when the song list was released, the title I gave him was the name of a song.

Side story about Nonpoint, they're actually how my wife and I met. We were both friends with the band and on their message board and had talked for a while online and decided to finally meet up one summer after asking the band if the other person was an ax murder or not. This was over 10 years ago now. We started dating the next year and will have been together 10 years in March. Their ex bass player actually came to our wedding and lives near me in Orlando now. I lost touch with the rest of the band after he left back in 2011. We finally went and saw them live at a festival earlier this year and ran into their drummer who I used to be pretty close with. He had no idea my wife and I had stayed together all these years so that was sort of a cool moment.

rockcity fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jan 9, 2016

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


Holy poo poo, I haven't even thought about Nonpoint in forever. That's really cool though. Also, I like how this is basically just you and I chatting. This has reminded me, there a picture I meant to forward you on IG. Standby.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


I'm reading the thread and I find it interesting, but I can't think of a good question.

Uhh... Clutch?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

CommonShore posted:

I'm reading the thread and I find it interesting, but I can't think of a good question.

Uhh... Clutch?

Sadly I have no real stories about Clutch. I've actually only seen them one time and it was at a festival 10 years ago. I actually like Clutch, but for some reason, they're not a band I could really get into live. They're more of a chill and get some work done around the house kind of band for me. Here, have a photo from that show though!




XIII posted:

Holy poo poo, I haven't even thought about Nonpoint in forever. That's really cool though. Also, I like how this is basically just you and I chatting. This has reminded me, there a picture I meant to forward you on IG. Standby.

Yeah, I don't really think about them much anymore either to be honest. I haven't listened to the two albums at all outside of what I've heard on XM radio. I'm not really sure why, I still like Elias, their singer, a lot. He's a really good dude. Haven't talked to him in probably 5 years though. Here's one of the photos I took of them that first got me some pseudo notoriety. This was a promo shot I did for them just over 10 years ago. I actually really like that I took this photo because it's behind what is my favorite venue in the county, The Machine Shop, in Flint, MI and that graffiti wall was painted over a little while after this was taken. Kevin, the owner of the venue has a print of this hanging up in the venue now.

ceebee
Feb 12, 2004
Any good fight stories between bands? Also what's your favorite photo you've ever taken?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

ceebee posted:

Any good fight stories between bands? Also what's your favorite photo you've ever taken?

I really haven't seen a whole lot of fighting between bands, at least not physical fighting. Most of the fights I've seen have been internal fights between band members, both physical and emotional. I was there for one of the super emotional ones with Chiodos when some things blew up in regards to their guitarist at the time, Thomas, formally of Fall of Troy. Thomas was a fun dude and a genuinely nice guy, but had a lot of issues with drinking. Tour dates had been cancelled on more than one occasion because of this, including a few international ones so he could go to rehab. He'd long been telling everyone that he was keeping things in control, but it was clear he really wasn't. It definitely wasn't the best time to bring a lot of this up as it was something like 3AM at the time and everyone had been drinking themselves, so no one was exactly in the right frame of mind to have a discussion about not being hammered. Nothing came to blows, but I'm not sure I've ever been apart of a more real discussion with any other group of people in my life, let alone any other band.

One of the other bands I've become close with over the years however I've definitely seen physical fights and that's Mushroomhead. Just a couple years ago there was a huge altercation between the singer, who my wife and I have known for a decade and their drummer and merch guy. They were out on tour with ICP (I know...) and their singer was outside after the show signing some things for fans near their merch table when their merch guy came up and told him that Skinny (their drummer and manager) didn't want the band signing anything if it wasn't merch purchased that night. Their drummer has a huge ego and god complex and thinks their band is way bigger than they are and has always been super controlling over everything in the band. My friend lost it and flipped the entire merch table over and ran to the bus and started screaming and punching him until he was dragged off the bus. He spent the night at our house to cool off and regain his composure before going back in the morning. He left the band, or was kicked out rather, a few months ago after he got in another fight with a different band member while he was drunk. He was planning on leaving the band anyway, but it was in the middle of the tour and about a week before he was coming to our town, so we were kind of bummed.

As for my favorite photo, it's probably this one of Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. Their stage setup was super cool and industrial looking and I wanted something really intense and abstract to get the feel of it. I actually have this photo in part of a larger collage tattoo on my arm that has to do with my time in college. It was to represent my time working at the newspaper.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


Wait, YOU'RE the photo collage tattoo person?! I remember that tattoo. Did Pepper do it? Repost it in the thread.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

Wait, YOU'RE the photo collage tattoo person?! I remember that tattoo. Did Pepper do it? Repost it in the thread.

Yeah, that was me and yes, that was also Pepper. She did both of my half sleeves. For some reason or another I can't seem to find a finished photo of it. This was a healed photo after the third session.

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?
Did you know THE Craig or just a Craig?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

goodness posted:

Did you know THE Craig or just a Craig?

Not sure if he is THE Craig, but the Craig that I and XIII were talking about is Craig Owens. He's become a really close friend over the years. I just went to a Pistons game with him the other week when I was back in Michigan visiting family.

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?

rockcity posted:

Not sure if he is THE Craig, but the Craig that I and XIII were talking about is Craig Owens. He's become a really close friend over the years. I just went to a Pistons game with him the other week when I was back in Michigan visiting family.

Whoa that is pretty rad. My partner grew up going to warped tour and she is obsessed with Craig Owens. Got to meet him once 8+ years ago and she still talks about it!

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

goodness posted:

Whoa that is pretty rad. My partner grew up going to warped tour and she is obsessed with Craig Owens. Got to meet him once 8+ years ago and she still talks about it!

Yeah, he tends to have that sort of effect on people at meet and greets. I've gone to sit with them at meet and greets and take photos a lot and I've seen some pretty crazy fan interactions, including one girl who literally couldn't speak and was practically convulsing she was happy sobbing so hard. My best meet and greet story with him however wasn't a girl. It was back on Warped Tour 2009 in Orlando. The band is doing the meet and greet and Brad, their keyboard player leans over to me and says "Hey, is that huge dude back there Kevin Nash (former WWE Wrestler)??" I look back 40 people or so in line and holy poo poo, that's Kevin Nash, towering over everyone else in line. He gets up to the front and was extremely nice. He was there with his 14 year old son and his son's friend and they loved the band. We all talked for a quick bit, trying to not really hold up the meet and greet line and then they left and the band finished the meet and greet session and we went backstage. The band and I were talking and realized, gently caress, why they hell didn't we ask them all to come hang out? So Brad and I went on an hour long excursion through the crowd of 10,000+ kids trying to find them. Shouldn't have been that hard since Kevin is a legit 6'11", but for some reason it took quite a while. We finally found them in the middle of the pit for The Devil Wears Prada and then escorted them to the back. We hung out back there the entire rest of the day, talking about wrestling, acting and all the stuff he's done over the years. He was super friendly and had some really cool stories. Craig and I have both kept in touch with him over the years. He lives only about an hour from me and I've spent some time at their place with his family. I'm actually supposed to do family photos with them sometime in the near future. I also went to his WWE Hall of Fame induction party in San Jose back in March because I was out that way visiting a friend to go to Wrestlemania and we found out he was getting inducted so I let him know I was out there.

Here's a photo from that day 6 years ago.

Not Today Satan
Apr 18, 2007

This is awesome, thanks for starting this thread. Few questions for you.

Did you ever have a squee-esque moment shooting or meeting any particular band or person that you didn't know?

Do you have any stories involving Fletcher? I've heard that guy gets into some poo poo.

Is there a lot of downtime each day? Or is it a constant rush until the moment you fall asleep?

Also, any particular cities or spots that you absolutely loved seeing during your traveling? What's the food and amenities situation like?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Not Today Satan posted:

This is awesome, thanks for starting this thread. Few questions for you.

Did you ever have a squee-esque moment shooting or meeting any particular band or person that you didn't know?

Do you have any stories involving Fletcher? I've heard that guy gets into some poo poo.

Is there a lot of downtime each day? Or is it a constant rush until the moment you fall asleep?

Also, any particular cities or spots that you absolutely loved seeing during your traveling? What's the food and amenities situation like?

Squee moments: I've had a couple squee-esque or just emotional moments over the years. Most of the time I have no problem keeping it cool around band guys or celebrities so it's been more about shooting than just being around them. The first one was definitely the AFI moment I talked about earlier. It wasn't so much meeting them, it was more of just the pure overwhelming sense of being in the photo barricade, in front of every fan. Having that space to move around and watch and take photos from feet, if not inches away from a band you love is almost incomprehensible the first time. Here's a photo from that day. It was almost 13 years ago now. This was shot on my film SLR. I had to change rolls during the three songs you're allowed to shoot also which was super nerve racking.



Now it's sort of old hat for me, even for big acts, so it takes some special things for me to feel anything while shooting. There have been two other moments that I can remember off hand that got me excited or emotional. The first of those was when I hired to shoot two sold out Kid Rock shows at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. I wasn't all that excited to shoot Kid Rock, but I was given free reign of the venue, which was amazing. I got to get escorted up into the catwalks during the show which is mind blowing. They're not allowed to turn on any lighting up there during the show so it doesn't bring any attention up there, so you're walking on a grate floored catwalk, with the crowd lit up. It's like you're walking on nothing, a hundred feet above a sea of people. Just that experience was super cool. This photo kind of gives you an idea of it. You can see the grated floor below me if you look carefully. You can also see the Red Wings championship banners below my feet too.



The other moment was a year ago when I shot Anberlin's final performance. Emotions were beyond high that night. Crying everywhere you looked. The band, the crew, their families, the fans. I've never been to a show where so few words were said, but so many feelings were expressed. This is immediately after the last song ended.



Fletcher: I've actually never shot Pennywise oddly enough. I saw them a few times back when I was a teenager before I started shoot. I'm honestly not sure why I never shot them though. Sometimes it's hard to shoot every band you want to on Warped Tour because there are just so many acts and a lot of them overlap. That whole band is supposed to be pretty crazy though.

Downtime: There is a ton of downtime. For band members themselves, I'd say their day is maybe occupied for maybe 3 hours a day. One hour for setup and performing, one hour for meet and greet and one hour for interviews. The rest is down time. The downfall to Warped Tour vs. regular touring is that you're sort of stuck there. A lot of the venues are in areas where there isn't a lot of close things to walk to like it would be if you were at a normal venue in a city, so unless you have a friend with a car at the show, you're probably going to be at the venue the entire time you're in town. A couple times that I've gone out, I've purposely driven for the dates so that we had a car we could go places with. Craig Owens and I went and saw one of the Harry Potter movies for instance. Come to think of it, I've seen a few movies with him on tours. Generally on Warped Tour though bands are hanging out on the bus, or watching other bands play. Sometimes it depends on the weather. Every time I've been out on it, it's been in the southeast when it's hot as poo poo out and no one really wants to be outside unless they have to. That's if it's not raining like crazy. I've been to three dates that were shut down by weather, including one where a crew member was struck by lightning in West Palm Beach.

Travel: I really haven't gotten to do any of the really fun travelling. I've had a lot of opportunities to, but I'm an engineer by day and I don't get a whole lot of vacation time so I have to limit my photography related travel. Some of my fun moments were the more simple ones. I helped Craig plan and put on some private shows in Florida about a year ago and we both did all of the planning essentially day of. We'd drive to the city that the show was going to be in and we'd be scouting public areas that we could hold the show on the phone while driving. My favorite one was that we found a little park down near Tampa that had a little pier right at the south end of a peninsula. The weather was outstanding that day and during the last song, dolphins showed up and were jumping out of the water. It was a really cool moment. One of the other fun travel related things I did was also covering the New England Hardcore and Metal Fest back in 2006 I believe. I was doing some shooting for the metal news website Metal Injection and flew out to shoot it for them. One of the things we did that was a lot of dumb fun was we put on a Guitar Hero tournament with some of the band members and filmed it. It came out pretty funny. I should see if I can find the edited video of it.

Haha found it. It's just as good as I remember. I believe it was also the debut of one of my favorite characters "Thor Shredsteen".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vMAEV5Yjnk

Food: Warped Tour photo is actually pretty good. They have a full time catering staff that serves meals every day for the bands and crew. Some days are better than others, but I don't think I've ever had a particularly bad meal there. The barbecue/grill days were probably the best though.

Edit: Added photos.

rockcity fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jan 11, 2016

Not Today Satan
Apr 18, 2007

You kind of have the best of both worlds here; a steady job and the rock star lifestyle for a few weeks out of the year. I'm also loving all the photos you've added, too. A lot of us rarely are privy to this kind of access so it's so cool hearing your stories and see some of the rarer moments caught on film. Are there any bands you would prefer to never work with again? You touched on a few douchey moments but was just curious if anyone one act or person was just appalling to work with?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Not Today Satan posted:

You kind of have the best of both worlds here; a steady job and the rock star lifestyle for a few weeks out of the year. I'm also loving all the photos you've added, too. A lot of us rarely are privy to this kind of access so it's so cool hearing your stories and see some of the rarer moments caught on film. Are there any bands you would prefer to never work with again? You touched on a few douchey moments but was just curious if anyone one act or person was just appalling to work with?

That's a tough question. I've dealt with some individual people who have been pretty dick-ish. The bass player for Cannibal Corpse was definitely a dick when I was doing the Guitar Hero tournament shoot. He just wasn't into it the whole time and rather than being a sport about it, he was uppity the whole time and even quit mid-game, which you can see in the video. They made him quitting sort of work in the video so it ended up fine, but he basically walked out on us, which I've never had happen. The one band I had sort of a tough time with and it wasn't really them personally was Tool. I got to shoot them back in 2006 and was ecstatic that I got approved to shoot. Almost all of my photographer friends got denied a photo pass, but I got approved because I was working for the newspaper at the time. I was the only photographer on the list which I was really excited about at first. Normally the standard rules for shooting a concert are "First three songs, no flash." I've heard that phrase hundreds of times. The liason at the venue said it would just be one song tonight. Ok, it's Tool, it's probably 8 minutes long so I'm good. It was indeed a long song, but the entire song was sort of a stage build-up. The stage was almost entirely in darkness for the entirety of the song, minus some LED boards in the back that would dimly glow every now and then. Maynard stayed all the way in the back the whole song. My photos were barely usable and unless I told you who the band was, you'd probably have a hard time figuring it out. The part that made me made was as soon as I left after the first song, the rest of their set was a goddamn light show. I would have killed to have gotten the lighting for one of those songs. It made me way more upset just how incredible it was visually.

There are also two venues I'd rather not ever go back to, but those were both security related. The first is The Covelli Center in Youngstown, OH. Nice venue, but it's clear their security doesn't deal with a lot of metal acts. I road tripped with two other photographers four hours to go shoot Korn and Mudvayne there back in 2006. We got to the venue and got our passes and got ready to shoot Mudvayne. Their venue liason however said we weren't allowed to shoot them. It's pretty much accepted that if you have approval and a pass from the headliner that you're approved to shoot all the bands on the show. They've been the only venue to give me a problem with this. Whatever we think, we'll still shoot Korn. Korn goes on and not even a full song in, the security said the crowd is getting too rough and we need to leave the barricade. I've never had this happen before, even at the wildest of shows. There are times where security will warn you and tell you to keep an open eye and watch out for crowd surfers, but I've never had them practically drag us out like that. It was clear they just weren't used to having people crowd surf and didn't know how to handle it. The other venue I'd rather not go back to is Brewster's Megaplex in Jacksonville, FL. I was there with Chiodos two years ago now and it was a packed show. The crowd was getting pretty crazy and the side of the stage just had a small few steps to get up on and several people kept running up them and stage diving. Normally if it's just one or two times, no one really cares and it's not a big deal. But it happened probably 10 times and a couple of the times it was a pretty big dude, maybe 200+ lbs and a lot of the kids he's flying off the stage at are young and not exactly ready to catch a guy of that size. Craig ran over to me and yelled to me to get the security guard's attention to tell him to do his job. He was maybe a few feet away from those steps and not stopping anyone. He was also on his phone a few of the times I looked over at him during the how. He looked at me and kind of rolled his eyes and turned around back to doing nothing. Craig ran over and yelled at him himself and he still gave us that same gently caress off attitude. It happened one more time and finally the band called the show quits a few songs early because it was getting reckless. It's the only time I've ever seen a show stopped early, for any reason.

Not Today Satan
Apr 18, 2007

rockcity posted:

Normally the standard rules for shooting a concert are "First three songs, no flash."

I had completely forgotten about this rule! What sucks is that you hardly ever get a chance to shoot the finale of a show or the encore, but I guess it makes sense. By that time the crowd and the band are worn out.


rockcity posted:

Craig ran over and yelled at him himself and he still gave us that same gently caress off attitude. It happened one more time and finally the band called the show quits a few songs early because it was getting reckless. It's the only time I've ever seen a show stopped early, for any reason.

This is quite possibly one of the most irritating things I could think of to happen at a show; it just throws everything off and the people who really miss out are the fans.

Probably an obvious question but, do you have specific non-camera gear you never leave the house without? Like earplugs, steel-toed boots, etc? Or is it just get in, get the shots, and enjoy the rest from a distance?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Not Today Satan posted:

I had completely forgotten about this rule! What sucks is that you hardly ever get a chance to shoot the finale of a show or the encore, but I guess it makes sense. By that time the crowd and the band are worn out.


This is quite possibly one of the most irritating things I could think of to happen at a show; it just throws everything off and the people who really miss out are the fans.

Probably an obvious question but, do you have specific non-camera gear you never leave the house without? Like earplugs, steel-toed boots, etc? Or is it just get in, get the shots, and enjoy the rest from a distance?

Some bands also set up CO2 canons and confetti guns to go off after the third song as well and they don't want you leaning over the stage when those fire.

As for non-camera gear, earplugs are an absolute must. I bring them to shows even if I'm not shooting. Back when I started shooting I didn't even think to wear them, but after a few months I finally realized I really should have been. I have a pair from a company called Earlove that I've had for about 8 years now. They work great and don't really degrade sound quality. I also keep a thin roll of gaffer tape in my bag. There are a lot of time when I come up with a random idea and I could make it happen with gaffer tape. Like using a remote trigger to fire my flash. I can go and tape the flash to a speaker or something like that so I can fire a flash from 20 feet away. Of course that kind of stuff I'm only doing when I have a laminate and the band doesn't care what I do. The Chiodos guys basically gave me free reign to do what I want. I've crowd walked with Craig to get shots before. I'll see if I can dig one of those up. One of my crowd walk shots of when he was in DRUGS was a 2-page pull out poster in Alternative Press.

Edit: Here's one where I actually crowd walked with him.


rockcity fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jan 12, 2016

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?
You should come shoot some electronic space jam festivals. Sonic bloom, full moon gathering at Suwannee, Shambhala, etc.

Even single shows. Come out to Colorado for Papadosio and OTT and Red Rocks and have your mind blown.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

goodness posted:

You should come shoot some electronic space jam festivals. Sonic bloom, full moon gathering at Suwannee, Shambhala, etc.

Even single shows. Come out to Colorado for Papadosio and OTT and Red Rocks and have your mind blown.

I've thought about it. Electric Daisy Carnival has been here in Orlando and Ultra is down in Miami. It's really just not my type of photography. It's really only shooting two things. The crowd, which can get super annoying because as soon as concert goers see you taking photos of the crowd, everyone becomes an attention whore and wants their photo taken. Hell, they often act like that even if you're not taking crowd shots. I can't tell you how many times drunk people have made a dumb face at me and yelled something like "Take my photo camera guy!" The other is shooting the DJ's which is pretty much heavily lighting dependant. To get decent photos you need to be pretty well connected too I think. To the point where you could shoot from right behind them. Those shows are fun though, I used to go to the Detroit Electronic Music Fest when I was in high school, just because it was good people watching and they'd usually get some random cool acts to play. My favorite was far and away George Clinton and P-Funk.

Red Rocks looks like a super cool venue though. I definitely want to shoot there sometime.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


I just bought two tickets to see Chromeo at Red Rocks in June. You could be my +1

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?

rockcity posted:

I've thought about it. Electric Daisy Carnival has been here in Orlando and Ultra is down in Miami. It's really just not my type of photography. It's really only shooting two things. The crowd, which can get super annoying because as soon as concert goers see you taking photos of the crowd, everyone becomes an attention whore and wants their photo taken. Hell, they often act like that even if you're not taking crowd shots. I can't tell you how many times drunk people have made a dumb face at me and yelled something like "Take my photo camera guy!" The other is shooting the DJ's which is pretty much heavily lighting dependant. To get decent photos you need to be pretty well connected too I think. To the point where you could shoot from right behind them. Those shows are fun though, I used to go to the Detroit Electronic Music Fest when I was in high school, just because it was good people watching and they'd usually get some random cool acts to play. My favorite was far and away George Clinton and P-Funk.

Red Rocks looks like a super cool venue though. I definitely want to shoot there sometime.

I agree the crowd at ultra and edc is ridiculous and something you don't want to be a part of. The shows I mentioned are nothing like that :) totally down to earth, relaxed, not Molly Monsters.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

I just bought two tickets to see Chromeo at Red Rocks in June. You could be my +1

Don't you start, haha. My wife already yells at me for traveling so much for my day job and tattoos. I actually did a mileage run a few weeks ago to hit Platinum status on Delta.

Good to know on those other festivals. I'll have to look into it more. That's never really been my scene so I know very little about it. I'm excited for Welcome to Rockville in April. Good lineup this year and Sevendust is playing and they're another band I go way back with. Their ex-guitarist, Sonny Mayo, actually reached out to me back in 2005 I think because he liked my photos and wanted to use them. Cut to 2010 and I was shooting his wedding. Great dude, haven't seem him in a couple years though. He's playing in Ugly Kid Joe now and has been touring Europe a ton. He's one of my favorite guitarists to shoot, total camera ham. I'll dig up a good photo of him tomorrow morning.

Glamorama26
Sep 14, 2011

All it comes down to is this: I feel like shit, but look great.
Great thread op and you do some wonderful looking work.

Any stories/interactions with the following artists:

- Glassjaw
- Deftones
- Mike Patton

Some of my absolute favorites personally and I've heard they can be salty as hell. Never had that experience with them personally, just curious of how they handle themselves on the whole.

I was talking with some guys from Horse the Band and they were opening for Fall of Troy. He said they were all nice enough until booze gets involved then the rear end in a top hat nature of 2 of them starts flowing. Seems like alot of people have similar stories unfortunately.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Glamorama26 posted:

Great thread op and you do some wonderful looking work.

Any stories/interactions with the following artists:

- Glassjaw
- Deftones
- Mike Patton

Some of my absolute favorites personally and I've heard they can be salty as hell. Never had that experience with them personally, just curious of how they handle themselves on the whole.

I was talking with some guys from Horse the Band and they were opening for Fall of Troy. He said they were all nice enough until booze gets involved then the rear end in a top hat nature of 2 of them starts flowing. Seems like alot of people have similar stories unfortunately.

I met Daryl from Glassjaw once in passing when I was shooting a Head Automatica show, but it was pretty casual. I still haven't had the chance to shoot Glassjaw. I saw them a few times growing up and they were really good. I haven't met anyone from the Deftones, but I've shot them a few times. I'll dig up a photo when I get back to my desktop computer. As for Mike Patton, Faith No More is another band that is definitely on my list of bands to get to photograph. I was really hoping they were going to come to FL on their tour last year but they didn't get anywhere close. Fingers crossed for some more dates this year.

Not a Children
Oct 9, 2012

Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

Ever met the guys from 3PM? I grew up knowing 'em (my brother is super close friends with two of them and played with them for a short span) and apparently they made a splash on the tour last year. Would like to get the scoop on how they're doing and what your impression was, if you know anything.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Not a Children posted:

Ever met the guys from 3PM? I grew up knowing 'em (my brother is super close friends with two of them and played with them for a short span) and apparently they made a splash on the tour last year. Would like to get the scoop on how they're doing and what your impression was, if you know anything.

I've actually never heard of them. I got a bit short changed last year because I was only able to fit in the Orlando date last year and that show got cut short with about 4 hours left in the show because of a huge thunderstorm system that rolled in. I was sitting behind the August Burns Red drummer doing some shots from the stage when the stage manager told them they had to cut it immediately because of lightning. This photo was about 10 seconds before they were told to shut it down.

XIII
Feb 11, 2009


Their drummer's name is Matt Greiner and he's a loving animal. He's probably 90% of the reason I listen to them.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

XIII posted:

Their drummer's name is Matt Greiner and he's a loving animal. He's probably 90% of the reason I listen to them.

No kidding, dude's a beast on the kit. I could watch his playthrough videos on Youtube all day long...maybe I already have. That whole band is super nice too, especially JB.

Edit: Bonus August Burns Red shot because those dudes rule and this was one of my favorite photos from this past Warped Tour.

rockcity fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jan 12, 2016

Glamorama26
Sep 14, 2011

All it comes down to is this: I feel like shit, but look great.
Favorite harmless weirdos you've met? Anthony Green was delightfully strange in my encounter with him. He seemed like he was having an anxiety attack but still was trying to be polite and social with everyone.

Thanks for the earlier response and I'd love to see some of your Tones shots.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Glamorama26 posted:

Favorite harmless weirdos you've met? Anthony Green was delightfully strange in my encounter with him. He seemed like he was having an anxiety attack but still was trying to be polite and social with everyone.

Thanks for the earlier response and I'd love to see some of your Tones shots.

Weirdo is not the word I'd used to describe him, Andrew WK is absolutely delightfully strange and one of my favorite people I've met doing this. He's such an awesome mix of maniac, utter kindness and insight. I could talk to him all day long. I did a super quick posed shoot with him and told him to have fun with it. He essentially just started making faces, but rather than just busting out a new face, he would slowly evolve from the prior face into the next. It was something otherworldly and highly entertaining. Here is one of my favorites and also one of the shots I decided to try to do some digital art with. Gallery link to some of the shots as well.


http://imgur.com/a/udhiT

Also, here is a 10 year old Deftones shots that I didn't end up having time to post this morning. Man, high ISO digital has come a long way in a decade.

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deadwing
Mar 5, 2007

Not a Children posted:

Ever met the guys from 3PM? I grew up knowing 'em (my brother is super close friends with two of them and played with them for a short span) and apparently they made a splash on the tour last year. Would like to get the scoop on how they're doing and what your impression was, if you know anything.

slow me down is a banger of a song but I haven't listened to anything else of their, probably should

so op, I'll just come out swinging on this one

chiodos: still a band?

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