Live Baby Live

March 15, 2009 @ The Phoenix

The first time I caught Mindless Self Indulgence was at Projekt Revolution in 2007. They were playing early in the day on the second stage and had a pretty decent sized crowd watching them, which intrigued me enough to pull the camera out . The singer, Little Jimmy Urine, had me running to keep up with him the entire time. He does not. stand. still. ever.

At least this somewhat prepared me for shooting the Phoenix show. The wild Jimmy chase was on from the second the band hit the stage, except this time I also had the challenge of complete back lighting on top of the ‘wtf is going on here?’ craziness, which meant that I had to pop the flash to get anything.

Two songs in and next thing you know the three of us who were shooting the show are being pulled on stage, with Jimmy shoving his face right in our lenses. It was kind of nuts…I didn’t know where to stand, so I kind of moved into the corner and shot from there for the next few minutes before being escorted from the stage.

Overall, it was a chaotic but fun shoot, and the crowd was great…I’ve never felt the floor of the Phoenix shake so much, to the point where the speaker stacks were swaying.

More photos after the break.

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Canadian metal underdogs Anvil were on hand at the CMW Indie Awards a few weeks back for a special performance of “Metal on Metal” and to accept induction into the Canadian Indies Hall of Fame.

The band has recently gained new found attention with the release of a documentary called Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which chronicles their 30+ year career of relative obscurity and the last ditch effort for revival. The doc has been receiving accolades worldwide and will be in limited release on April 10th. While I’ve had a few opportunities to view this, I’ve managed to miss it each time. Really looking forward to seeing the doc soon. If you are interested, here is the trailer.

From a photography point of view, Anvil are a ton of fun to shoot, particularly Steve “Lips” Kudlow. He makes a lot of eye contact and is incredibly expressive. Unfortunately, because we were forced to stay in one spot, I didn’t get any drum shots of Robb Reiner. Hopefully there will be another opportunity in the near future.

More photos after the jump.

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March 14, 2009 @ Indie Awards

Toronto-area band, The Midway State, performing at the Canadian Music Week Indie Awards, where they took home the prize for Favourite Pop Artist.

More photos after the jump.
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Gene Simmons @ CHUM Fan Fest

Another Canadian Music Fest/Week has come and gone and I’m just recovering from running around for 6 days straight. I shot 24 bands in that span and will have some new stuff up shortly! In the meantime, here’s a shot of Gene Simmons, CMW’s keynote speaker, who was pretty much everywhere the whole week.

More to come soon!

June 14, 2008 @ Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN

I know this is kind of a cop out, but seeing as I recently wrote about Mastodon in my Best of 2008 post, and it neatly summed up everything I feel about this band, I’m just going to copy it here:

Mastodon. Oh man. I’m not the biggest metal fan in the world, but seeing/shooting these guys will melt your face, kick up your adrenaline and then leave you completely exhausted, but in a totally exhilarating way. I LOVE shooting these guys almost more than any other band out there. I’ve never taken speed (or any other upper…or even drank coffee), but if I did, the feeling I get when shooting them is what I imagine it to be like. Even if you don’t really know Mastodon’s music, they are definitely worth seeing live. Run, don’t walk.

For this particular show, we were almost denied entry into the pit, as security feared the crowd was going to get rowdy. It was the middle of the afternoon and the place was full of stinky hippies, so I just kind of laughed and waited patiently. After security realized that people were pretty chill, we were allowed in in small groups for two songs only. It went by crazy fast, so I concentrated most of my shooting time on Troy Sanders (singer/bass). I love watching him. He’s the nicest guy off stage and then unleashes the beast when he’s playing. I can’t get enough.

Mastodon have a new album called Crack The Sky coming out on March 24th, and just released their first video for “Divinations” late last week, which can be seen on their site. But! Best news of all–they’ll be back in Toronto at the Opera House on May 5th. I can’t f’ing wait.

More photos after the break.

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