Well first off I do apologise for the lack of blog activity over the last couple months but I’ve been busy working away as usual. Anyway once again it’s been another good year snapping away in the world of live music photography and this year has had some special moments and I got to photograph a band I’d never would have the opportunity in doing in my lifetime.

Anyway let’s get into it and I present my favourite moments of 2014:

This Other Eden at Rosemount Hotel, January 2014

This Other Eden @ Rosemount Hotel, January 2014

10. This Other Eden EP Launch
This Other Eden
is one of only a few bands I’ve followed from the start of their existence in the Perth music scene in 2012 and during that time they’ve turned into a very solid live act. I was asked by them to photograph their EP launch in January, it was a good night of fun and the band put on a good performance. The EP launch was at one of my favourite venues in Perth which is the Rosemount Hotel and I’d managed to get some good photos from the night.

Mason @ Civic Hotel

Mason @ Civic Hotel, May 2014

9. Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival
If you’re a fan of local or Australian Metal, then this event would of suited you. A whole afternoon and evening at the Civic Hotel dedicated to Thrash and Power Metal. Most of them local with a few bands coming in from the East Coast but I was suprised the quality and muscianship of these bands on the day as most them actually put on good sets and you felt a sense of happiness witnessing them play live as most them were enjoyable to photograph.

Some of the bands I’d caught on the day were Silent Knight, Mason, Darker Half, Black MajestyPsychonaut and Gorefield.

Violent Soho @ Metropolis Fremantle

Violent Soho @ Metropolis Fremantle, November 2014

8. Violent Soho
This show was a bit of stressful affair as sometimes when you rock up to a venue and there is confusion because the bouncers didn’t know you were suppose to be there to photograph the bands because someone on tour crew didn’t do their job properly and allocate the appropriate number of photo passes required (Note to future tour managers/promoters, get your shit together!).

Anyway with that rant over the main band on this occasion was Violent Soho are they’re peaking at the right time. The energy these guys have onstage was infectious, you couldn’t help but admire how good these guys really are and the crowd at the venue were so insane give credit to the bouncers for doing a good job keeping things together.

They also know how to rock which makes a job for us photographers easier as there was a a lot of action on stage and the lights were perfect, so apart from the early stress in the night, the end result was good and I got to go home with a collection of good rock shots. Watch out for this band in the future, they’re going to go somewhere!

Biffy Clyro @ Metro City

Biffy Clyro @ Metro City, September 2014

7. Biffy Clyro
Think a Scottish version of Nirvana but without any shirts on, you get Biffy Clyro. I photographed these guys at Soundwave earlier this year, but this was a better show as you got the full effects of their lights and you could feel the energy on stage. One of the best British rock bands I’ve seen in a while and they only know one way to rock and that is hard. I would recommend anyone to go and see their show the next time they tour.

The photo you see here was my favourite from the night, it was taken while strobe lights were going off and sometimes capturing photos while the strobes are going off can be quite challenging as the light conditions change so suddenly most of the time you’ll end up with a pitch black shot, but if you can time perfectly like I did on this occasion you can get a killer photo!

Flume @ Ozone Reserve

Flume @ Ozone Reserve, September 2014

6. Listen Out Festival
The second Listen Out Festival took place at Ozone Reserve in Perth, Western Australia and its becoming very popular with the dance scene in Australia. It’s run by Fuzzy Events who were the same crew who brought us the Parklife Festival in years past and I’d always liked festivals put on by these guys, they’ve always managed to put on a well run event.

It was a muddy day due to the rain but that didn’t stop everyone having fun and everyone was in a friendly vibe which makes these events easy to photograph. My favourite sets from the day were Chet Faker, Ta-ku, Flume, Young Fathers, Slumberjack and Kilter.

Testament @ Joondalup Arena,

Testament @ Joondalup Arena, March 2014

5. Soundwave Festival
Well this was supposedly the last Soundwave Festival to be staged in Perth as the promoter decided it was too hard to stage the event in Perth (check out some my previous blogs on this subject).

Anyway this was my 3rd time I’d photographed this festival and this was the most busiest one I’d had to do as I had to cover around 10-13 bands on the day but it was worth it as I shot some of the bands on the day I’ve been following since high school.

Some of the bands I’d covered on the day included Green Day (for 1 song only), Korn, Placebo, Mastodon, Testament, Alice In Chains, AFI and Five Finger Death Punch. My favourite photo from the day is Testament’s Chuck Billy going mental at the mic.

King Onion @ Rocket Room

King Onion @ Rocket Room, December 2014

4. King Onion
I’d usually don’t follow cover bands as I prefer following original artists in the local scene but a few of my friends formed a 80/90’s/2000’s metal cover band. They called it King Onion and the purpose was to stage nights where they and a few bands from the local scene get together and do a covers night and get punters interested in the local scene.

This photo is from one of their glam rock/metal sets at a recent show at the Rocket Room, all dressed up in the 80’s Hair Metal style and it was fun and hilarious at the same time photographing this set. Check out these guys the next time they play as they’re a good band and they’re a good bunch of guys.

Dead Letter Circus @ Club Capitol

Dead Letter Circus @ Club Capitol, December 2014

3. Dead Letter Circus
These guys are one of my favourite Australian rock bands going around and I’ve photographed them twice before, so it was a pleasure getting these guys on camera again. The venue for ths show was at Capitol (or Club Capitol) and usually this venue is not a favorable one for photographers however on this occasion the lighting reasonable but there was no barrier so that meant I had to be right at the front and be in a good spot for the first couple of songs.

I couldn’t move around as I would be battling the mosh pit which never is a good idea for a photographer so I’d pretty much stayed in one spot, get the shots and got out. However I’d managed to sneak a photo of vocalist Kim Benzie interacting with the crowd during one of the songs and that shot ended up coming good, so I was happy with that.

The Rolling Stones @ Perth Arena

The Rolling Stones @ Perth Arena, October 2014

2. The Rolling Stones
I never thought that I would never have an opportunity to photograph The Rolling Stones in my lifetime as a music photographer but I was suprised to get a phone call from The AU Review asking me if I wanted to photograph the Perth show, I said yes without any hesitation and the rest was history,

For this show I had to shoot from the back of the tongue pit which was a fair distance from the stage, that meant I had to use my 70-200mm zoom lens with a tele-converter attached and I had to make some configuration changes to my camera but I’d ended up getting some good shots of the band performing and boy those guys can still rock out and put on a brillant show. This was going to be my top moment of 2014 but……….

Voyager @ Club Capitol

Voyager @ Club Capitol, December 2014

1. Voyager
In the corrensponding blog post last year I’d mentioned the photo I’d took of Chaos Divine’s David Anderton was one of my best live music photos I’ve ever taken. Well I like to say I went one better with capturing this beauty from Perth progressive metal band Voyager. 

I love this band because they have a massive stage presence, they’ve got some great songs and they do like to have fun onstage and you can see that they’re enjoying every minute and that is a huge plus when you’re a live music photographer, because capturing these type bands make a lot of difference on how your photos will turn out.

This moment is when I’d captured Voyager’s guitarist Simone Dow pointing at the camera during the song Stare Into The Night,  I shot a 4 to 5 photos of her doing that action and I was stoked that I’d managed to capture it and I was happy to find out that she actually love that photo she ended up using as her FaceBook profile pic for a while, so in the end, a great result all around.

 

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