So Rocknation now has some of the issues I’ve contributed to online if you want to check out a few of my past interviews.  Not all the issues are up yet but you can check out my interviews with:  3 Doors Down, Shinedown, Puddle of Mudd, Finger Eleven, Seether, and more.

To check them out, go to the Rocknation website and from the menu click on Newspaper Online.  It will provide you with a virtual edition of each issue!  Good stuff.  I’ve also included them in my links section.

In the next issue you can check out my interviews with Buckcherry, Papa Roach, along with some live shots!

Hometown rockers Boys Like Girls rolled into town in mid August on a co-headlining tour with Good Charlotte.  It’s amazing to see how far BLG has come since my days of watching them open for Butch Walker when they weren’t even old enough to drink. 

 Since the show was in MA, BLG had the honor of headlining to the hometown sold out crowd and I don’t think the fans would have had it any other way.  Opening the show were The Maine and Metro Station, then it was time for Good Charlotte.  I’ve never shot or seen Good Charlotte live so it was nice to do both.  The lighting had small moments of greatness enveloped between a lot of not so greatness so I did what I could.

The Madden brothers bring a lot of energy to the stage, that’s for sure.  Fist pumping, booty shakin’ choruses that the predominantly female crowd was eating up by the spoonfuls.

Click on the photo below to view a slideshow of the Good Charlotte photos:

 For full galleries of both bands visit the TheyWillRockYou Photo Gallery.

Mayhem Festival rolled into the Comcast Center on August 5th unleashing a lethal amount of metal for one day.  With three stages and upwards of ten bands, I wasn’t sure I would survive. 

The day stages started out with an assault to the senses.  I was able to capture 36CrazyFists, 5 Finger Death Punch, Walls of Jericho, Suicide Silence and Black Tide before I had to haul ass to the mainstage to catch Mastadon, Dragonforce, Disturbed and the main draw of the night - Slipknot.

In between I managed to run back to the day stage to catch the last song of Airborne and Underoath.  As much as I tried to catch every band that played, I did miss a few. 

The full galleries will be up on TheyWillRockYou.com just as soon as I finish going through the edit process with them but I’ve included a few to tease you metalheads.

On August 2nd I had the extreme pleasure of shooting The Counting Crows and Maroon 5 (As well as opener Sara Bareilles).  The two bands each have their own hardcore following but the co-headlining tour seemed to make sense.  Counting Crows started off the night and I didn’t think there was any way Maroon 5 was going to be able to follow up Adam Duritz’s energy and stage presence…the guy is a madman.  I have a friend who has loved this band for years and I never really got it, but after seeing them live, I think I finally get it.  They were amazing.  They definitely left it all out on the stage.  Here are a few of my shots to prove it:

Next up was Adam Levine and Maroon 5.  The lighting was spectacular washing them in beautiful shades of pink, green and blue.  Levine marched across the stage constantly but managed to stop and pose a few times which helped me out a bit.  They played hit after hit and the crowd really couldn’t get enough of him.  I think he gave Duritz a run for his money but I don’t know, I think the score remains:  Duritz: 1/Levine: .5 in the head to head Battle of the Adams.  Don’t get me wrong, Levine sounded Ah-MAZE-ing….but..Duritz was unstoppable. I’m pretty sure they’d both blow say…Adam Ant out of the water though.

Full sets from both bands are available on www.theywillrockyou.com (Click on photos from the menu.)
 

So, the summer is in full swing and the shows are plentiful.  Last night I shot Elvis Costello and The Police.  Strange to see them together but pretty epic nonetheless.  My sister thinks Sting is a God so I got some God-like poses for her.  It was definitely a cool experience. 

Elvis Costello really is just one of the coolest guys on the planet.  I want to be him when I grow up.  I haven’t gone through the photos yet but here’s a quick preview.

This weekend I’ve got two shows:  Maroon 5, Counting Crows and Sara Bareilles and then Boston and Styx.  No rest for the wicked. 

A gallery of my photos from the Warped stop in Mansfield, MA on July 23 is now posted on the Alternative Press website.  You can click on the image below to check them out.   It was an interesting day.  About halfway through the sky got dark and there were tornado warnings….then, the rain and wind started.  The covered pavillion was full of people and flooded in minutes.  About 30 minutes later, the sun returned, and everything went back to normal…until it started raining again in a few hours.  Rinse, wash, repeat.  Highlights for me were of course my guys in Cinder Road, Family Force 5, The Academy Is… and Cobra Starship.

The full galleries will be posted on TheyWillRockYou.com later this week but here are a few quick favorites:

Mike Ruocco of Cinder Road

Chapstique of Family Force 5 melting faces

Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship getting some air

So I shot the 3 Doors Down, Hinder and Staind show the other day.  Unfortunately, you won’t be finding the photos online…for several reasons, none of which I have the energy to go into right now.  I did however spend eight hours in tornados, torrential downpours, lightning and flying flip flops at Warped Tour yesterday so those photos are forthcoming….stay tuned.

I think all of the bigger stage, well lit shows I’ve been shooting lately have taken me a bit out of my game and have made me a tad spoiled.  I didn’t realize this fact until I went to shoot Shinedown last night at The Palladium om Worcester and was challenged beyond belief by the lights.

I suppose it didn’t help that the entire first song was one big strobe light…and the next two songs the band was pretty much in the dark save for a few spot lights from behind and then those pesky strobes again.

I’m sure for the audience it was a cool ass light show, I however did not enjoy them as much.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  This reminded me of one thing, don’t forget your roots….I need to shoot more club shows to keep myself primed and ready for challenging shows like this. 

On a sidenote, the band sounded AMAZING!  Theory of a Deadman opened for them and they were great as well.  The club was packed and it was a hot sweaty mess.  Gotta love it.

The summer concert season is in full swing which means I am a very busy girl! On July 16th the Projekt Revolution started it’s annual tour at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA.  Projekt Revolution is a music festival headlined by Linkin Park and brings along a cast of bands that are handpicked by Linkin Park. Being the first date of the tour, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the entire line up definitely brought the rock.

This year the line up was:  (On the second stage):  Armor for Sleep, Hawthorne Heights, 10 Years, Atreyu, Street Drum Corps and (On the main stage): ASHES diVIDE, Busta Rhymes, The Bravery, Chris Cornell and Linkin Park.

Since we’re deep into July it was about as hot of a day as you can imagine.  Luckily, once the Main stage bands started we were covered.  (Because this pasty faced white girl and the sun don’t get along very well.)  It was a long day of rocking and rolling. Highlights for me included shooting Chris Cornell for the first time. The show rocked from start to finish but I think my favorite sets were Atreyu from the second stage and Linkin Park from the mainstage. Linkin Park know how to put on a rock show of the grandest scale.  

My photos are slowly making their way up into the TheyWillRockYou.com photo gallery so you can check them out here.

 
Shooting shows during the day can often leave nothing but flat boring photos so thanks to all the bands for bringing the rock and making even the day shots look like a party.  Can’t wait until next year!

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve attended a concert as simply a spectator. I should try to remind myself more often that being a fan of the music is what started this all for me in the first place. Generally, if I’m not shooting a show I’m usually interviewing the band or covering some angle of it for one of the websites or print publications that I work with.  However, Bon Jovi has been one of my favorite bands since I was a wee lad-ette.  It’s sort of tradition to go and see Bon Jovi with my best friend every time they roll through town (or…somewhat adjacent, or not so adjacent towns) so this tour was no different.

The band rolled into Boston for two sold out shows, and I attended the latter with Missy.  Missy’s level of dedication to the band far surpasses mine and in what I call a true karma effect moment, she ended up getting to meet him the first of the two nights by being the lucky recipient in the front row of one of Jon’s very important shirts.  The wardrobe chick made her a deal she couldn’t refuse - if she gave the shirt back, she could meet Jon after the show.  For someone who’s been pining after Jon since she was in grade school, this was one of those life-affirming moments for both Missy and her mother, so, she was already on a pretty big Jovi high going into show two.

Now, I’d hardly be the photographer I am today had I not snuck my camera into camera free concerts in the past so why stop now?  It wasn’t actually as stealthy as I made it sound, I walked right in with my 40D with 50mm fixed lens attached - no questions asked.  We didn’t know where we’d be sitting until we picked up our tickets that night so I was just hoping we’d be close enough for me to catch a few shots.

Again due to Missy’s allegiance to the band, we had fan club tickets and were able to partake in the pit on the side of the stage for three songs (Richie’s side!) so I was indeed able to snap a few keepers.  (And by keepers I mean the one of Jon pointing at Missy in the pit and smiling in that “hey I know you!” sort of way.)  Who would have thought that two shows in Boston would turn my best friend into a recognizable face to Jon Bon Jovi. It’s nice to know that sometimes the good guy (or GAL as the case may be) DO sometimes win in the end. Keep the faith.