The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless, and Royal Thunder Zydeco Birmingham, AL 5/26/13

Dillinger Escape Plan is coming to Birmingham two days after I graduate high school? Happy graduation gift from me to me! I have listened to DEP for a long time and I was super stoked to finally have an opportunity to see them. They had not been in Alabama since 2002 either so this show was pretty special. The first band was a local band called Of Men And Angel Flesh or OMAAF. They did not win me over, but they did have short songs with funny titles, such as “I Forgot To Put The Cheese On My GD Nachos” which maxed out at about 10 seconds. The band that followed them was called Royal Thunder from Atlanta. They were awesome. Their singer reminded me of Lzzy Hale from Halestorm and Renee Phoenix from Fit For Rivals. She had a very raspy voice and I really liked it. I really hope they come back to the area because I would totally go see them again. The next band was The Faceless. They reminded me of a grungy-metal-hardcore band. Their singer looked like he stepped straight out of the 90s and played like it too. They did not win me over too much either. But then it was time for Dillinger so I was excited. Prior to this show, I heard that DEP was an extremely hard band to photograph and boy, is that accurate. Not only did they have fog machines and strobe lights, they moved around faster than the speed of light (this is the only comparison I could think of and I have no interest in how fast the speed of light really is. I just know that it is fast.) I was more than willing to accept this challenge. (I like to think it was successful.) They played

Prancer

Farewell, Mona Lisa

Milk Lizard (yes!!!)

Sugar Coated Sour

Panasonic Youth (MY FAVORITE!!!)

Room Full of Eyes

Gold Teeth on a Bum

When Good Dogs Do Bad Things

The Mullet Burden

Calculating Infinity

Dead as History

Good Neighbor

When I Lost My Bet

Sunshine the Werewolf (My other favorite!)

43% Burnt

I really cannot wait to see Dillinger again because they were awesome, energetic, entertaining, and just flat out amazing. And I was also pleased with how my pictures turned out. :)

Interview with TJ Bell from Escape The Fate

Last week, I got an email that would officially confirm that I am doing what I love and that I am going into the right career. The email said that I had an opportunity to interview (on the phone) TJ from Escape The Fate. Having just seen them the weekend before, I was stoked and I immediately accepted. The interview was at 7:00 pm CST and I was more than ready. Now, it is with my pleasure and excitement that I give you my Interview with TJ Bell from Escape The Fate. 

Hi TJ, how are you today?

Good, how’s it going?

It’s going. This is actually my first interview, so I’m just going to wing it.

Ok that’s good. I’m not that good at interviews but I’ll wing it

Well I guess I'll start now. How is the tour going to far?

This tour is going great it’s a mix between our tour with Papa Roach so we have some days that their headlining, some days we’re doing headliners just on our own with Glamour Of The Kill, big festival days like Carolina Rebellion and Rocklahoma so its just a mix of a lot of different shit going on. But it’s exciting. It’s good to be back on the road. We haven’t been on tour since June. Our last legit tour was in South America in June, so it’s good to be back. 

I understand. I saw y’all last week in Mobile. It was great. 

Oh, nice. Nice. 

How is it touring with Papa Roach?

It’s fun. The rest of the band knows them really well. They toured a lot back in the day before I was a member of the band. But, I’m getting along with the dudes. Me and Craig are always getting wild after the shows and we always end up drunk and invading their bus and just acting stupid but it’s hilarious.

That’s cool. How have the fans of Escape The Fate responded to you being in the band?

They actually took it really well. And I think it’s just because people knew what Max [Green] was going through and everyone just knew that it was his time. Life on the road wasn’t meant for that dude. He needed to be home and get his life back together and I hope he does, you know? I love that dude. 

I do too. Are you excited for the new album? 

Oh my God. I can’t wait. It comes out two days before my birthday, too. 

Oh, really? That’s cool!

Yeah, May 16th so that will be the best birthday present that I’ve ever had.

I loved the new songs that y’all played last week.

Oh, that’s not even half of the record. Wait ‘til you hear the rest of it. 

I’m so excited to hear it. 

There’s a teaser up on YouTube somewhere that has like choruses to each one of the songs.

I think Alternative press is streaming it on Monday so I’m kinda excited for that.

Oh yeah! Cool!

What is the most challenging song on the album? 

The most challenging song? I don’t know. I guess, maybe it’s the funnest song that we play, we play that song called “Fire It Up” Did you hear that one? 

Yes, I did. 

Yeah, that’s my favorite song to play just because the bass is just holding it down that whole song and it’s just, it has that funky beat to it. You know what I mean? Through the whole song it’s just non-stop energy. I enjoy that one a lot. 

I enjoyed it too. How have your fans responded to the new songs?

They are going off. That’s why we weren’t sure, like we didn’t want to play “Fire It Up” in the beginning and then one day we were like fuck it, let’s give it a try and see how the fans react to it. The first time we played it, people were going off, like more than songs that we’ve been playing for the past two years. As soon as we saw that, we were like yeah! We’ve been playing it now every day and people love it. 

Well I loved it. 

Hell yeah. Glad you liked it

So, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done on tour? 

Well, the stupidest thing I’ve ever done on tour was last year. It was Craig’s birthday and we were in Minneapolis. We went out to a strip club and went to a few bars and I got really really drunk and I ended up going back, I don’t know if they were strippers or just girls who were hanging out but, I went back to their hotel with them and still I realized in my drunken state, I was like “Damn, I shouldn’t be here. I need to go back to the bus because our it’s leaving soon.” And they were like “O.K. That’s fine we’ll pay for your cab back, we’re just gonna go out for a cigarette real quick. Just stay in the hotel room until we get back.” Literally, they went outside for a cigarette for like five minutes. They came back up and I was dead ass asleep and they didn’t bother to wake me up and take me back to my bus. They ended up going to sleep as well and I woke up at fucking seven o’ clock in the morning and I freaked out and I ran to the venue. The bus was gone. My phone was dead. The bus drove; they just left without me, because they couldn’t get a hold of me because my phone was dead. They were already in the next city, they were in Chicago, which is a nine hour drive. So, I freaked out. I ran to the bus station. I was going to take care of it myself. I was like “Alright, I fucked up but I’m going to take care of this” and then I went to the bus station and our tour manager called me and he was like “Dude, you’re an idiot. Don’t risk it going on a bus. Just go to the airport and we’ll pay for your flight to get out here.” That was the dumbest thing that has happened to me on the road was I got left in another city. 

Well that’s actually kinda funny!

It is, yeah. But that’s when they finally decided to make me an official member of the band and then they’re like “Aww Fuck. Max fucked up and now look at this new guy that we got.” You know? So it just kinda made me look pretty bad.

But you can laugh about it now.

Yeah, we all laugh about it. Even when I got there, they weren’t too pissed off at me. They made jokes and everything. [laughs]

If you weren’t in music what would you be doing? 

Nothing. This is it for me. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. I was born for this. That’s it. You just know when it’s for you. It’s my calling. 

I understand that completely. Which bands inspired you the most? 

Growing up, I was a punk rock kid. My favorite band is The Misfits so obviously, those dudes: Danzig, Iron Maiden. Yeah, just punk and some 80s Metal, pretty much.

Rock and Roll 

And HIM. HIM is my second favorite band. 

I love them. I actually saw them several years ago. 

Aww man, I’m jealous.

You haven’t seen them?

Nope!

Oh my gosh, they are amazing! 

Yeah, I would love love love to see them. So hopefully I do soon. 

What is the first song you learned to play?

Actually, the first song that I learned was on bass and it was a song called Chick Magnet from MxPx. Do you listen to MxPx at all? 

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, that was the first song. I can’t remember what my first song was on guitar though. Because I played bass for like a year, then I kinda got tired of it and then I ended up picking up a guitar and eventually playing guitar for Motionless In White, since I was 16 and on. 

What’s been the coolest part of your music career so far?

I think just traveling and meeting new people. And everyday is just something completely random and crazy is going to happen. I never know what is going to happen the next day so that’s kinda exciting. 

Yeah, I like that mindset. Well, is there anything else you want to add because, I think I’m done!

[Laughs] Our album comes out May 14th and just tell everyone to pick that up and thank you to everyone for being patient because we have been gone for a long fucking time. Oh, and be excellent to each other. Bill and Ted. I don’t know if you watch Bill and Ted’s show, but that’s the best one. 

That’s funny! Well, thank you for your time. 

Yeah, it was nice talking to you. 

I’ll see you soon on tour! 

Hell yeah! 

The new Escape The Fate Album “Ungrateful” will be released on Tuesday, May 14th. 

You can pre-order it now from the band’s Website or you can stream it Here.

Catch them on tour all summer with Papa Roach and Hollywood Undead. 

Asking Alexandria, Whitechapel, Motionless In White, Chimaira, and I Killed The Prom Queen Birmingham, AL 4/30/13

Asking Alexandria is finally coming back to Birmingham? Yep, I am there. I was somewhat anxious to see them because the last time they were in Birmingham, they ripped out the ceiling. The band and fans alike still talk about that show because of all of the controversy it caused. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend that show but I found it humorous that the venue this time had very high ceilings. The first band was some local band named Deleo. They were not very good and I would not go see them again unless I had to. The second band was called I Killed The Prom Queen. They are from Australia and one of the first things they said was “Roll Tide” They know us so well over here. I cannot tell you any songs that they played but I really enjoyed the energy that they had. After Deleo was Chimaira. I did not like their studio stuff that much but their live shows are something to see. The singer, Mark, took a picture and posted it on Instagram during the show and the caption read “Alabama right now” I am in the back of the picture somewhere. Ha! I do not know all of the songs that they played but they played Coming Alive and several new songs. I would go see them again because I really enjoyed their set. After Chimaira, was Motionless In White. I will admit that they really freaked me out for a while and I never really listened to them much. But I thoroughly enjoyed them. Chris had to think back to if they had ever played Alabama before. The answer was no, so he thanked us for being there and he wondered why they had never been here until now. They played

Black Damask (The Fog)

Devil's Night

Underdog

If It's Dead, We'll Kill It

Abigail (“We are gonna go old school with this next song. It’s called Abigail”)

Synthetic Love

A-M-E-R-I-C-A

Immaculate Misconception

That band is probably one of the most photogenic bands I have taken pictures of in a while. They had great lighting. After MIW, Whitechapel went on stage. They are one of those bands that I have heard about for years but never really listened to or went to see until now. They were decent. They played

I, Dementia

Section 8

Possibilities of an Impossible Existence

The Darkest Day of Man

Possession

Vicer Exciser

This Is Exile (My song!)

Then, it was finally time for Asking Alexandria. The crowd was really hyped and the venue was great. I do not know why more bands do not play there. The sound is great. Anyway, Danny Worsnop walked out with stage presence for days and he and Ben Bruce have one of the cutest bromances in the music industry. They could be comedians. That made for some good pictures. J They played

Welcome

Closure

A Lesson Never Learned

Breathless

Not The American Average

A Prophecy

I You Can’t Ride Two Horses At Once Then You Should Get Out Of The Circus

Dedication

Someone, Somewhere (YES!!!)

Another Battle Down

Reckless and Relentless

To The Stage

Dear Insanity

Run Free

Death Of Me

Morte et Dabo

Alerion

Final Episode

During the show someone asked Danny about the ceiling. His response was, “We don’t need a fucking repeat of that again. We don’t need to talk about that.” I laughed for the longest time and I am still chuckling as I write this. Towards the end of their set, their sound got cut off and Danny was looking at the soundboard guys. The sound guy whispered into his mic and said “Curfew.” Danny came back and said “We have a fucking curfew so this will be our last song and he apologized profusely. I will admit, I was a little bit bummed out because it was not even 11:00 yet. Overall, though, the show was great and they could not have picked a better venue. I hope more shows come there in the near future.