Aiden The Last Sunrise Farewell Tour Atlanta, GA 11/9/15

Aiden's Farewell tour, where they played Nightmare Anatomy in its entirety. Shot from the top of the speaker stack in Hell at Masquerade in Atlanta, GA. Enjoy!

Hanson Roots of Rock and Roll Tour New Orleans, LA 10/22-23/15

My favorite band of all time, Hanson. Shot from the crowd over a two night period at the House of Blues in New Orleans on their 2015 Roots of Rock N Roll Tour. Enjoy!

Interview with Austin Carlile and Chester Bennington

I had the opportunity to be a part of a teleconference for The Hunting Party tour that is currently traveling around the world with Linkin Park, Rise Against and Of Mice & Men. During the call, I was able to ask a question to Austin Carlile from Of Mice & Men and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park chimed in as well. So, technically, I have semi-interviewed Chester Bennington. So here it is. Enjoy!

Operator: Our next question will come from Kinsey Haynes from WVUA-FM.

Kinsey Haynes:  My question is for Austin. I know someone touched on this earlier, but I want to know, what it's actually like touring with Linkin Park since they are one of your favorite bands.

Austin Carlile:  What is it like touring with Linkin Park? Wow! Super awesome. It's great.

Chester Bennington:  (overlapping) The most fun ever.

Austin Carlile:  Yeah. It's the most fun ever. We have a coffee meeting and there's a yoga room. No. It's great; it's cool to see it on both sides of it. It's cool to see it from a business aspect. Like Chester was talking about earlier and talking about, you know, bands taking control of their own bands and then, you know, people that work for them being employees for the bands, the management. And it's cool seeing the business side of it, just as well as the production side of it. And, you know, we get to the venues at, you know, 9:00AM, 10:00AM every  morning and we wake up, walk in, half dressed, half asleep, tired day at the studio, or at the venue, that Linkin Park comes in. You know, they're not there for sound check, a few hours before they play the show; they're rock stars. They come in and go, "Oh, we want to do that." We want to be able to come in and we want to get to a point where we can not have to set up the venue for literally 13 hours all day wondering what we're going to do, trying to figure out what to do in the middle of nowhere. And it inspires us, and it makes us want to work harder and it makes us want to work and create and become artists that can support themselves, like Linkin Park does. And, you know, we were going out and playing in Germany and even played 12 shows in Germany on our last tour and every night, just thousands of people singing and screaming, and it's unbelievable to me and it's something that we want to set our sights to to do as a band. And we see Linkin Park as a band like ourselves. And just like Chester was saying, with each of his albums, he feels like he's in a different band and feels like their songs change. That's what we do as  band and, you know, I think we're constantly evolving our sound and constantly evolving who we are as a band and who we want to be as a band, because at the end of the day, you know, I don't think with any kind of music you never really know, because it's always changing and you're always creating as a musician. And just the fact to be able to take notes and to be on tour with a bunch of really awesome guys; it's a blessing and it's a great experience. It's something I'll definitely never forget.

Chester Bennington: You know, it's interesting because in the same way, touring with Of Mice and Men, it's inspiring to me because here are these guys, like you said, they're at the venue 13 hours a day, you know? They're trying to figure out how to wash their clothes, to figure out what to do. They're around each other all the time. They also have lots of decisions to make. You know, these guys play something like fucking eight shows in a row, and I was like, "Dude, you're going to destroy yourselves. Please. Thank you." And, like, it's funny, because, like, a lot of bands would think their managers and a tour schedule and it says here eight shows in a row. You're like, "Okay. Let's hit the road." Like, it can kind of seem like you're working for somebody. It's important to know, like, you know, you don't have to do that. You can actually, like, put a limit on that stuff so that you don't have to wear yourself out. And you've got to think long term. And these are the things that, like, you know, I look and I go, "Wow! These guys actually are like really prepared to play eight shows in a row." Like, that is bad ass. I don't care who the fuck you are. That's insane, and especially the shows these guys do. It's not, like, you know, you're walking out, you know, whisper singing and folk songs for 30 minutes. It's, like, these guys are putting it out there. And so, it's inspiring. It's fun to be around a young band that loves playing music and will do anything, literally anything to do it and show up every day with a smile on their face and go out every night and crush it and come up and play songs with us when they should be, like, not playing music anymore; like, resting or whatever else they want to do. It's fun, you know? It's fun to be around guys that are so hungry, because it makes me want - I want our crowd to love these guys so that they go play arenas. I want these guys to go play arenas; I want them to play stadiums; I want them to have the same success that we have, because it's fun to watch them play. it's fun to see somebody want it so bad. And it's inspiring to me, you know? And it makes me go, "That's what I do this for." I love seeing bands that make me want to be in a band, you know? It's fun; it's fun to go out on the road with young people that when I watch them go, "John, I want to be in a band." And then I go, "Yes, I'm in one." And it's like "Woo hoo," you know? It gets me pumped up, you know? And that's what beautiful about music. It's, like, I love my life. Mike and I were laughing today, like, my girls were like running through the house just, like, literally screaming their brains out and I'm going, "Get it out. Get it out. Come on," you know? And everyone in the house, like, there were people who may not be used to seeing that, you know? It's just kind of funny, because this is the kind of, like, you know, living this lifestyle where you're around creative people and you're allowed to express yourself and it's fun to, you know, be creative and be different and it's a blessing. Like, every moment that we live is a blessing. It's fun to see that transcend into younger generations. It's fun to see my kids grow up in a home where they can, you know, express themselves and it's fun to be able to, you know, see all these things happening, not only from within our own band, but within, you know, other bands that we tour with and, you know, it truly is a blessed life that we live, you know, being musicians.

Parks & Devastation Tour Featuring A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, Chiodos, & Motionless In White Nashville, TN 10/6/14

It is not every day that you get to photograph a band that you love. It is also not every day you see a photographer rocking out in the photo pit to said favorite bands because it is usually deemed unprofessional. That is not the case for A Day To Remember.

I have listened to this band for a long time and I jumped at the chance to be in the photo pit. I call that going after your dreams.

The first band of the evening was Motionless In White. I've never been too keen on them, but they are definitely talented and they got the crowd moving, which is something I value in the bands I see.

They played

Immaculate Misconception

Devil's Night

Generation Lost

Reincarnate

Dark Passenger

Abigail

America

Quickly following them was Chiodos. This past April, I had the pleasure of interviewing their singer, Craig Owens. He is such a sassy, down to earth guy and I was so glad to see him again.

The band recently put out a new album, Devil, their first album with Owens back in the band after a few years break from the band.

They played

The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge Is Unquenchable. (The Final Battle)

Thermacare

Ole Fishlips is Dead Now

Two Birds Stoned at Once

The Words "Best Friend" Become Redefined

3 AM

Baby, You Wouldn't Last a Minute on the Creek

Bring Me The Horizon is a band I had not seen in several years and they are constantly growing and evolving their sound.

The most memorable part of their set, was watching this girl on the front row screaming her guts out because Oli Sykes walked on stage. She continued to scream and cry throughout their entire set and you could hear her over the music.

This is not an exaggeration.

They played

Shadow Moses

Go to Hell, for Heaven's Sake

The House of Wolves

Sleepwalking

Alligator Blood

And the Snakes Start to Sing

Chelsea Smile

Can You Feel My Heart

Antivist

 And finally, it was time for A Day To Remember. They always play every show like they are playing to the world. They have every person off their feet and they are great with crowd participation. To be able to say I have shot them makes me tear up every time.

The played

The Downfall of Us All

2nd Sucks

Right Back at It Again

City of Ocala

I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?

Monument

Violence (Enough Is Enough)

Best of Me

Mr. Highway's Thinking About the End

Macarena (Cover)

Homesick (Kevin on Vocals. Jeremy rolled over the crowd in a hamster ball)

You Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic

The Document Speaks for Itself

End of Me

Have Faith in Me

Sometimes You're the Hammer, Sometimes You're the Nail

All I Want

Encore:

If It Means a Lot to You (Prior to the song Jeremy and Kevin sang first verse and chorus of the Acceptance song "So Contagious")

All Signs Point to Lauderdale

The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle

I salute you, A Day To Remember. I salute you. 

We Came As Romans Tracing Back Roots Tour The 7 Venue Douglasville, GA 10/26/13

So one of my favorite bands is coming close on a weekend? I am so there. We Came As Romans is one of those bands that, if given the opportunity, I would follow around the world on every tour they go on. I had last seen them at Warped two days after their newest album, Tracing Back Roots, came out. This was a headlining show. The first time I had ever seen them headline too. I was so excited, I bought VIP. The show started really early because it was a festival. There were literally, over 20 bands there. At that point, I was more concerned with the current score of the Alabama vs. Tennessee football game that was going on. (Roll Tide)

The meet and greet was awesome. Even though I have met WCAR numerous times, this time was a lot better. There were only six of us, so we got more personal time with the members. I asked Josh if he would write out several of my favorite song lyrics for me. From Stay Inspired I got him to write "There are greater rewards in stepping outside of your own comfort than there are in never breaking down the walls that you've built," which was my senior quote and I got him to write out "Tonight, when I look into the sky, I know this is why I am alive" from Understanding What We've Grown To Be, which is my favorite song by them. I gave Josh a huge hug and thanked him profusely for taking the time to do that for me. One day, I will have those lyrics tattooed on me somewhere. While Josh was writing out the lyrics, Eric and I talked about football. (Roll Tide.) All of six of us thanked the guys and then we were escorted out.

I went outside and the band that was playing was called Erra. They were really good and the guy next to me was fan-boying the whole time. Following them was a band from Ohio called Danger Kids. Oh my gosh, they had a girl drummer!!! HELL YEAH! I really liked them too. They played

Countdown

We're All In Danger

Paper Thin

Hostage

Light Escapes

Waking Up

Following them was The Color Morale. I swear they had such a huge fan-base at this show. I had heard of them, but never thought to listen to them. Their singer has been through some shit in his life. He is homeless when he is not on tour and he has been through more stuff that I do not really want to go in to here. They played

Smoke and Mirrors

Demon Teeth

Burn Victims (The crowd freaked out)

Steadfast

Strange Comfort

Learned Behavior

Up next was Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! This was the third time I've seen them and they never disappoint. They are the cutest French band ever. Their accents are just.... AH! They played

Restart

Captain Blood

Taking Chances

I Am Nothing Like You

We R Who We R (Ke$ha cover) (Love this cover)

Haters Gonna Hate

In Friends We Trust

The last band before WCAR was Silverstein. Again, I had just seen them at Warped, but by the time they came on, I was ready for WCAR because the temperature had dropped almost 20 degrees since Erra started and I was in Capri's and a short sleeved shirt. But I am totally not complaining. :) They played

Teach (The Chariot cover) (Shane went into a speech about The Chariot and how they were breaking up. Douglasville is their hometown)

Your Sword Versus My Dagger

Massachusetts

Sacrifice

Vices

Stand Amid the Roar

I Will Illuminate

Smashed into Pieces

My Heroine

Smile in Your Sleep (My favorite)

Finally, it was time for We Came As Romans. I was front and center, and I was more than ready. They walked on stage and I melted from sheer happiness. They played

Tracing Back Roots (AH!)

Ghosts

Fade Away

Mis//Understanding

I Survive (Dave and Kyle stood side by side and sang this)

Never Let Me Go (My favorite song from TBR)

Glad You Came (The Wanted Cover) (Crowd dance party)

Roads That Don't End And Views That Never Cease (Crowd freakout)

Present, Future, and Past (My other favorite from TBR)

A Moment

I Will Not Reap Destruction/Beliefs/Intentions/Broken Statues/Stay Inspired/Just Keep Breathing/Understanding What We've Grown To Be (Medley) (This was the first time I had ever heard Stay Inspired, Just Keep Breathing, and UWWGTB live. Those three are my favorites and all could do was stand there, sing, and cry.)

Hope

To Plant A Seed (Featuring Hance Alligood from Woe, Is Me) (The jumps that they do at the beginning are freaking awesome, by the way)

This was by far the best We Came As Romans show I have been to and I have seen them five times. Like I said earlier, if I could follow them around the world on tour, I would because I love them that much. On another note, Alabama won that game. ROLL TIDE! :)