Live Shows

This show was memorable from start to finish. First of all, there were only 20-30 people in attendance, so I was able to move freely. I was grateful. Then, A Burden to Bear started off the show, & I found myself in a pickle because there were no front lights.  I thought, "Okay, so the opening band is trying to be edgy and play with minimal lighting. Thanks guys." Turns out, the venue had some kind of a power outage & only one extension cord. This meant they could either have sound or they could have all the lights. The choice was obvious. So I had to try to get decent photos with minimal lights, which led to either silhouettes or noise/grain.  The bands were struggling as well, because they apparently couldn't even see while they were onstage. Despite that, every single one of them killed their set & were trying to get the small crowd involved. Thousand Below was after local support, followed by Vesta Collide, Light Up The Sky, & Youth in Revolt.

Before The Streetlights & some guy named Kenny (his last name was strange & I cannot remember it for the life of me) were the local support for this show, and both of them were amazing. It was an acoustic show for every act, so the crowd was not at all rowdy or obnoxious (except for one drunk guy that the whole crowd was getting fed up with, & Hawthorne Heights even told to "shut up").  Ronnie Winter, the vocalist for The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, started his set with his band's most renowned song, "Face Down." Of course everyone knew it & was singing along. He also played "Your Guardian Angel" & caused a lot of fans to tear up. Hawthorne Heights played songs like their hits "Ohio is For Lovers" & "Saying Sorry." Everyone in attendance knew those as well. It was amazing to go to a show where no one was getting beat up in a mosh pit & simply singing along & enjoying songs from their youth. I d

Flip the Switch, No Home, & The Earth Laid Bare were the three opening bands for Madison MetalFest this year. All of them were energetic & you could tell that they love performing for any audience by the way they instantly got the crowd hyped up for what was to come. The Artisan & You Won't Feel A Thing were up next. Both bands were just as energetic as the ones before them. I believe this was actually one of You Won't Feel A Thing's first shows, & they definitely made quite the impression on the crowd. Then came Grave Friends & Gallifrey Falls. As I've said before, Gallifrey's set was as wild as could be. My friend even got thrown halfway across the floor, along with my camera bag, due to an intense mosh pit just behind us. However, Grave Friends probably had the most powerful set that night. They played a cover of "Helena" by My Chemical Romance, so of course the whole crowd was screaming along the whole time; I even

Warped Tour 2016 was, I believe, my second time photographing Ice Nine Kills. The boys in this band always put on a phenomenal show with so much crowd interaction, so these shows always feel more intimate than most. I have never been disappointed with one that I've attended, and I have seen INK way more times than I can count. Ice Nine Kills is one of the most energetic bands you will ever see, and have never failed to interact with their audience, as displayed by the last photo above.  I had never seen Good Charlotte perform before Warped Tour. I'd always heard good things about them, but never cared to listen. I do now, on occasion. Not only did they open me up to new music, but I also got one of my favorite shots ever from their set, he second image above. Crown The Empire has been one of my favorite bands on the planet since 2013. They were even the first band I EVER photographed, and it was bad. I had very little knowledge of photography at the time, so every s

This day in the summer of 2016 was the first time I had ever gotten involved in my local music scene.  I went to the show because my friends in Gallifrey Falls, who had played on the Dying Things Tour, were also playing that night. I made many more friends between this show & the most recent one that I will discuss later.  Pictured above is Closure, a band who decided to call it quits after this show. While their set suffered many technical glitches, they made the best out of it & still managed to put on a great & memorable last show.  A Rumor of War and Illustrator both showcased a lot of energy in their performance, despite the small crowd and minimal participation from the crowd. Their sets didn't endure any of the difficulties that Closure's did, so they went a lot more smoothly and the crowd didn't get to see quite as much of them, sadly. These photos are from the second Madison date, though Gallifrey Falls did play both.  Every time I ha