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.