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Anguish Of Youth

After the plethora of gigs that hit these shores last month due to the Soundwave Festival and all the off-shoots, it was kinda cool to have some downtime between shows. So much so, I didn’t even feel in the mood to go and shoot tonight’s Iced Earth gig.

The Heretic Anthem

I started shooting live music in 2009. You start off small in dimly lit venues with bands no one has ever heard of – or is likely to ever hear of. But you need to learn and refine your skills and you need to push yourself and your camera to the extreme to get a hang of this beast. It isn’t easy but if there is a burning passion and drive, you’ll learn and you will continue to learn with each and every single shoot you do.

The Ugly World Tour

Can’t say I have ever been to a gig at Melbourne’s Palace that I haven’t enjoyed. Whether there as a punter or a photographer, each and every show has been nothing short of kick ass. Totally! The vibe is always blistering, the lighting is just perfect and more often than not – every band that plays there seems to regularly deliver the goods!

It was a veritable who’s who in the photo pit with plenty of familiar faces tho for some inexplicable reason, there was a dude amongst us shooting the gig in the pit with an iPhone. Ummm, yeah ok dude. ‘Scuse me whilst I try to get a decent shot or two!

Visceral Industry III

Believe me when I say, the absolutely last thing I wanted to do was to implement a new design/theme for Visceral Industry. Especially when I spent months on the prior version.

After releasing Version II to the wild, I began to notice it was awfully clunky and slow and just was not performing how I wanted it to.

Back to the drawing board.

Raise The Flag

With Rose Tattoo tunes blasting through the PA, and a packed house at the Palace chanting ‘Airbourne! Airbourne! Airbourne!’ long before the band was scheduled to hit the stage… you just knew then and there you were about to witness something special! You can feel it in the pit of your stomach as the rowdy crowd ascends to a blistering fever-pitch and your adrenaline kicks in to overdrive.

Images & Words

With the past couple of gigs I have shot being two of the most rewarding experiences in the fledgling attempt at a career – a bad night was just around the corner.

I had never shot at the Palais before. This was to be my first night so I knew not what to expect. Although she is a gorgeous, classic venue and pretty much right in my own neighbourhood, I didn’t know what would be in store for me photographically.

Booneville Stomp

I was running so late tonight, that I thought I would miss the start of the show and of course, my allotted shooting in the first three songs. I barely made it by the skin of my teeth and by the time I got into the photo-pit – the lights had dimmed and Les Claypool and his masked cohorts had hit the stage.

Guardians Of Asgaard

I’ve lost track of the number of gigs I have seen throughout the course of 2009. Trust me, there has been a few. One of the perks of shooting live music is that you get to see the gig for free so with that in mind, one does become a little complacent. It seems, at times, that one gig just rolls into the other and at the end of the day – it can get all rather stale.

Not tonight. Not tonight boys and girls. Amon Amarth were simply fucking phenomenal. For me, this was the gig of the year such was the power and ferocity that these guys utterly impressed and blew me away!

Damnation And Deliverance

I had never shot at the Palace before so it was to be a night of firsts. I made my way to the front of the stage 20 minutes before Opeth were to kick off their set. I wanted to familiarise myself with the front of the venue and get a feel for the place – as you do.

With 10 minutes to show time, I made my way into the designated photo-pit and sternly checked my gear again and waited for the band. Several other photogs made their way to the pit.

Anthems Of Rebellion

I heard about Arch Enemy’s tour of Australia back in June. I’ve been a fan of the band for a while and last saw them at Festival Hall a few years ago in support of Megadeth. I definitely wanted the opportunity to photograph them so I decided to email the band via their website. When the promoter all but ignores you – cut out the middle man and go straight to the source.

Pop Crimes

Bit of an impromptu gig tonight. My girlfriend happens to be a very big fan of Rowland S. Howard. So much so when we bumped into Rowland at the Nick Cave exhibition a year or so ago, he knew her by name. I recently bought her Rowland’s new album Pop Crimes for her birthday – but tonight, she bought us tickets for tonight’s album launch gig at the Prince Bandroom.

Core Meltdown

I’m not usually a fan of the Metalcore genre. For the most part, it’s raucous nature and somewhat pretentious technical stylings leaves me scratching my head. It sounds like each individual band member is playing a different song.

But I wanted to photograph such a gig and in the end, I was pleasantly surprised with Poison The Well’s set which was injected with melody throughout. I will definitely be checking out some of their discography as frankly, I really liked what I heard tonight.