Little Victories

I fell in love with the Horrors when they released their brilliant debut ‘Strange Houses’ album in 2007. I must’ve played that sucker to the point of totally and utterly destroying every digital fibre on that disc. Just an amazing album that still gets regular spins today.

Blunt Force Trauma

I sat in the photo-pit about 20 minutes before Cavalera Conspiracy were due to hit the stage. I always find this to be a calm time before hell is unleashed. It gives me a chance to get a feel for things, check out the lights and prematurely plan my camera settings. Of course, those plans get thrown out of the window pretty damn quickly but you do need to keep your wits about you because your three song limit comes and goes in the blink of an eye.

Phantasmagoria

I have fond memories of the Damned’s heyday back in the day. They were clearly my sister’s fave band at the time and I distinctly remember her room plastered full of posters and pinups of Dave Vanian and crew. I also remember driving her to (the now long gone) Venue in St.Kilda to see the Damned on their first Australian tour many, many years ago. A veritable plethora of nostalgia when it comes to the Damned so that made for high anticipation before tonight’s shoot on the band’s return trip to Australia.

Conjure And Command

You know, you lose track of the amount of gigs one has photographed over the past few years. You lose track real fast. One gig bleeds into the next and for the most part, you can get a little complacent and find yourself in photographic auto-pilot. But… every so often, a classic falls your way and you’re left on such a high and infected with a restless, sleep interrupting buzz – well into the cool, dark confines of the AM digits on your clock!

Toxic Holocaust fucking blew me away tonight. I’m talking smithereens here! Kaboom!

Making Monsters

Honestly, I hadn’t heard too much of Combichrist’s catalogue but what I had heard, I did like. Add to the fact that they were a highly visual act, which would hopefully make for some cool shots, that left me in high anticipatory mode for the show! Oh yeah, I’m easily excitable!

A few days before the gig I prepared somewhat, looking over some YouTube videos of the band just to see exactly where they all stood and what sort of choreography I could expect. As far at YouTube clips go – yeah, they looked totally cool so I got a feel for what I would expect tonight.