Jeff Scott Soto and The Nelson Brothers

To follow up on an interview that I had conducted with Gunnar Nelson, I headed out to Mohegan Sun to shoot the Scrap Metal show.  For those of you unfamiliar with Scrap Metal, here’s a little snippet that I wrote about them awhile back that they now use as part of their bio on their MySpace page:

Back in the late 80s and throughout 90s Kelly Keagy, Mark Slaughter, Eric Martin, and the brothers Nelson were all fronting their own hugely successful rock acts - Night Ranger, Slaughter, Mr. Big and Nelson.  You may recall a few of their mega hits that are still in regular rotation in most rock radio stations - Sister Christian, Fly To The Angels, To Be With You and After the Rain, just to name a few.  Well, the decade may have changed but the music hasn’t, they are just bringing it to us a little differently these days.  Scrap Metal started years ago when the boys were asked to perform at the annual National Songwriter’s Association meeting, what started as a friendly jam session turned into a fortified band consisting of a potluck of musicians who have one main goal - to bring the fun.

While the nature of the music industry is constantly changing, and arguably not for the better, these guys have definitely found their niche.  There will always be a loyal fanbase who will turn out to see this band because of the love they have for that genre of music, and the time and place it takes us all back to, mix that with musicians who love what they are doing and you’ve got a recipe for success.  There is something to be said for songs that stand the test of time and can still bring people back to the first time they heard it over twenty years later.

 
C.J. Snare

The show I attended in April was made up of the all star cast of Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, Mark Slaughter, Jeff Scott Soto, C.J. Snare, Jimi Jamison and more.  You can check out the full photo gallery of the show here.

You can read my full interview with Gunnar Nelson here.

Jeff Scott Soto

On April 25th, Gigantour 2008 thrashed its way into The Palladium in Worcester, MA. On the bill: Megadeth, In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job for a Cowboy and High on Fire.

After some miscommunication at the front door, I ended up missing High on Fire and was unable to shoot them. After that, I settled into the photo pit with about 20+ other photographers. At first this was pretty surprising because I had heard that they weren’t allowing a lot of photographers access to the tour but then I realized that they had coupled Gigantour with this years New England Hardcore and Metalfest so there were several photographers from all over there to cover that.

Megadeth

Job for a Cowboy

Children of Bodom

You can read my review of the show here on TheyWillRockYou.com and check out my photos from the show in the TheyWillRockYou.com photo galleries here.

On April 11 I headed on out to the lovely state of Connecti-suck to interview Anton Yurak of The Last Goodnight at their show at The Webster Theater in Hartford.  If you are not familiar with The Last Goodnight they currently have a video eating it’s way up the charts on VH1 and their debut album Poison Kiss is a pop smash hit.  While I had enjoyed their cd for awhile, I didn’t know much about the band personally so it was awesome to meet up with guitarist Anton and find him watching Cash Cab on tv.  (I love Cash Cab!)  He was very welcoming and a fun interview, so thanks to Anton for being soo cool.  You can read the full interview here on TheyWillRockYou.com.  I shot their set as well and you can find the full gallery here.

I was also excited to find out that I Nine was on the bill that night as well because I had interviewed lead singer Carmen Keigans a few months earlier and she was a really fun person to chat with. She was walking through WalMart and singing me songs during the interview. Have to love a free spirit. You can check out the interview with Carmen on TheyWillRockYou.com here and my live photos from I Nine’s set here.

And of course I have to mention that Matt White was on the bill as well! He played two shows that day and had to race from Pennsylvania to make his set in CT but he managed to pull it off! Photos of his set can be found here.

On April 8th the Alternative Press tour featuring All Time Low, The Matches, The Rocket Summer, Sonny and Forever The Sickest Kids rolled into The Palladium in Worcester, MA.  I was in attendance to shoot the show for Alternative Press, you can check out some of my photos online by clicking on the image below.

You can also check out the full galleries posted on TheyWillRockYou.com here.

The Matches

The Rocket Summer

You can check out the April issue of The Pulse magazine for a few things I wrote that were published.

You can also find them online here:

Up & Comers: Danny Pease and the Regulators (DPR)
Up & Comers: Art Beatz – Producer/DJ