Wednesday night I was fortunate enough to grab a press pass for the Dethklok, Machine Head, All That Remains & Black Dahlia Murder show going on at The Sound Academy. After a few pints with a family member (from out of town), I hustled my way down to the club with my camera, pen and paper in my bag. Going solo to concerts isn't usually my thing either, but I made myself the exception when I saw "approved" for the photo pass. As an avid music lover and fan of the bands performing, I was simply drooling at the chance to shoot for a few songs.
Got down to the club, got the pass, escorted to the pit JUST in time for All That Remains hitting the stage (sorry BDM, appreciate/respect you as musicians, just for some reason the music not my thing. No harm, no foul.). I could hear the drum sound checks outside which somehow translated it to be colder outside, probably from the anticipation. And I already assumed, I was a little out of my league when it came to equipment. Got myself a gorgeous new 16MP Nikon with tons of features, but it still looked quite dingy compared to the equipment the other pro photographers had. The great part about it was that I seemed to be the only one who gave a shit about it. Management, security and fellow photographers were all equally hospitable and a pleasure to work with. No one power tripping, no attitudes...just METAL!
ATR hits to the stage with full force. I don't know if it was the fact that I was less than 3 feet from ATR at any given time but I have never heard ATR perform this well. Their set was hard hitting, fast and to the point. The band wasted no time ripping through song after song and kudos to the sound tech for tweaking it juuuust right that evening. ATR pounded out all of their well respected hits such as "This Calling", "Six", "Hold On" and even threw some new material in there such as "Stand Up". I still have to hold to my opinion that "Becoming The Catalyst" was probably their best song up there, as Phil's vocals resonated throughout the entire building, almost giving you chills when hitting those extreme high and low screams. Overall, great times.
Next we had my favourite of the evening (sorry fellas)... MACHINE F**KIN HEAD! You could tell it was going to be a rough night, as the security team informed us that we would have to be moved if the crowd got too out of hand. I remember the other photographers being weary of the flying scissor kicks to the head from crowd surfers, but did their best to make sure their cameras weren't in harms way. Me being a regular mosher myself at these kind of shindigs, I didn't see a problem going into the pits in the event we got kicked out of the photo pit. But then again, I also had the smallest camera there, which others were probably not willing to risk damaging their material (understandable).
So what is there to say about Machine Head? Covering tunes from the last few albums, I was singing along even when snapping photos of Rob, Adam and the rest of the gang. "Imperium", "Aesthetics of Hate" and "Halo" were still my favourite songs, as I was a HUGE fan of both "Through The Ashes of Empires" and "The Blackening." There were a few points I noticed while watching the remainder of Machine Head's set. The first (and funny one) was the fact that MH was rattling debris from the rafters in the building...something I have yet to see a metal band do, so fuckin eh guys!
The second was a more sentimental note but equally worthy of attention. Rob and his fellow band mates toured extensively and were on a good working relationship with the boys from Suicide Silence. Now for those who are not aware, their main man, Mitch Lucker, was recently involved in a major motorcycle accident, resulting in his death 8 hours later in the hospital. It was a tragic situation and a hard blow to the music world, as we all mourn the death of a fellow musician and lover of metal. Rob asked for the entire crowd to give a moment of silence in honour of Mitch. I HAVE NEVER seen something to this extent, as (literally) EVERYONE shut up! There was not a peep in the place, other than the hissback coming from the speakers. Kudos to all the fans who showed enough respect to shut their traps for the few moments in honour of the fallen comrade.
Now as luck would have it, my camera battery died RIGHT after Machine Head finished their set, which left me empty handed for the headliner of the night. Dethklok was superb as everyone assumed it would be. Brendan Small and his band of fellow metal heads were in full force. With Hoglan being the beast he is behind the kit, the group ripped through amazing songs such as the ever classic "Deththeme", new material "I Ejaculate Fire" and one of my personal favs... "Hatredcopter". This was my first time seeing Dethklok, as I unfortunately missed them at this year's Heavy T.O. It was quite the eye opener and can see why both fans of the show and the music enjoyed their performance. I'm sure if you scour through the net you can find some photos and video of their performance.
All in all, it was a great show and a great first time for me snapping photos of these bands. I got to say that in the future if I want to keep doing this, I'm gonna have to invest in some other lenses and such (coughkickstartercough). But anyways, if you like hard rock/heavy metal, then you should be checking out these bands if you haven't already. The night was totally worth getting my ass up at 6am the next day for work, even if I was flying solo that night. And since I always like to support the bands, you can grab any of their albums at local record shops, online and can sample their tunes from their social media sites, including Facebook and YouTube. Well played gentlemen (and Jeanne)...well played.
No comments:
Post a Comment