Bless The Fall put on an explosive set at House Of Blues.  Opening for Atreyu, these guys pulled all the rock star moves, including guitar whips, and climbing up on risers and cabinets for solos.  MORE AFTER THE JUMP »

When shooting concerts, I always try to get at least one good photo of the drummer.  Drummer’s need photo love, too, afterall. Catching Atreyu at House Of Blues on tour to support their latest album, I couldn’t help but be impressed by singer/drummer Brandon Saller’s custom triple-kick(!) drum set.

Naturally as a result, I felt inclined to get more than just one photo of the drummer. Even when I made sure to catch some shots of the other members, the giant set tended to dominate much of the background.

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GWAR brought another set of sci-fi horror metal to the House Of Blues the other night, and having photographed GWAR at House of Blues before, at first I was worried about the stage lighting treatment — excessive backlighting, billowing fog, rapid-fire strobes, and deep colored gels.  But after the first song, I realized my best bet was to embrace it as part of the “GWAR experience” and shoot accordingly.  Being that their show is pretty much a horror B-movie set to metal music, you can’t expect much more.  MORE AFTER THE JUMP »

It must be both exciting and daunting to open for a band such as GWAR, but The Casualties, a street punk band going 20 years strong, were pretty capable of rising to the challenge.  They weren’t timid in bringing the raucous to the crowd at House Of Blues.

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I wanted to post a quick shot from last night’s GWAR performance.  Full set coming soon within the week, but I just had to post a teaser photo, in anticipation for the Halloween weekend.

Hope everyone has fun!

Shooting As I Lay Dying helped me realize a new rule regarding rock photography: The size of the drum kit is directly proportional to how much you want to make sure to grab shots of the drummer. Some of my favorite shots from their stop at House Of Blues were of drummer Jordan Mancino, who on more than one occasion stole the spotlight with extended drum solos. That’s not to say the rest of the band didn’t do their best to keep up.

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Seattle metal band Demon Hunter stopped at Chicago’s House Of Blues on their tour supporting their new release The World Is A Thorn.

They put out a heavy set to prep the crowd for headlining act As I Lay Dying.

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Even though I wanted to see just how brutal a performance Cannibal Corpse would put on at House Of Blues, I was really interested to see opening thrash band Skeletonwitch.

Hailing from Athens, Ohio, I’ve seen these guys play a couple dive bars a few years ago in my hometown Columbus. They’ve since moved up to bigger touring acts, and are making headway in the “thrash metal revival” genre.

And dammit, their name alone kicks ass.

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DISCLAIMER: Photos contain inordinate amounts of hair.

I really tried to get more photos of faces, but it was really difficult. Cannibal Corpse literally let their hair down at House Of Blues, not to mention whipping it everywhere. In addition to hair, devil horns were flying all over the place during this brutal set.

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Ten years after the release of their self-titled sophomore album, New Found Glory decided to throw an anniversary tour. Stopping at Chicago’s House Of Blues, they surprisingly played like it was released yesterday. They played an energetic set comprised of every song from the album, plus a five-song encore. Hardly any time was wasted once they hit the stage to bust out dangerously infectious pogo riffs. NFG was running around the entire stage with so much intense energy I was surprised when my three-song limit was up. I tried my best to grab shots of the entire band, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to the sheer photogenic energy of frontman Jordan Pundik.

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