Lighting info: one 600EX Speedlite as backlight, 1/2 power, two more camera left and right at 1/8 and 1/16 respectively. 35mm, f/4.0 at 1/125. Ambient light: zero.
I love Iced Earth. I really do. So I was quite a happy chappy when I saw they would be in Vienna again and supporting Volbeat on a huge tour which meant they would be getting to use the big stage they deserve. In addition, my friend Jon Dette is playing drums for them now, so I got to see him too! I met up with him a bit earlier as he is wearing a load of Archetype Apparel gear at the moment - so we got a few shots of him in one of his new shirts just before soundcheck. Before the show I did a bit of promo with Iced Earth while the first band of the night was playing. It was done behind the stage and unfortunately it was completely dark down there so I had to use my phone to shine some light into Stu's face in order to get a focus point. I messed it up on the first couple of shots where I tried to focus one and then set to manual focus and keep shooting - that wasn't a good idea as it turned out since I must have moved a bit and the first shots were out of focus. The next set of pics worked though as I just kept my phone up with one hand and shot with the other - it also gave the band something to look at in the dark. Here's one that didn't make the final cut - the final pics will be used in press and marketing material. Lighting info: one 600EX Speedlite as backlight, 1/2 power, two more camera left and right at 1/8 and 1/16 respectively. 35mm, f/4.0 at 1/125. Ambient light: zero. The show itself was awesome. Iced Earth was really appreciated by the Vienna crowd and played a wonderful set which also included some new stuff from the upcoming album. Of course I didn't actually get to see too much of it because I was running around the venue! I have posted only 10 pictures as the rest may be used in material as preparation for their headlining tour in 2014. Of course, Volbeat also produced a great show! They started off with a banjo player right at the front of the stage and I was just getting really close with a wide angle lens when the first set of explosives went off right in front of me. I had seen "fire" written on the setlist but I didn't realize where it was going to be! The other photographers in the pit, the security guys and the first five rows of the audience all had a "whoa" look on their face which must have mirrored mine! Full set of the gig here. Michael from Volbeat is a huge Iced Earth fan (and personally asked Jon Schaffer to do this tour with them) and so it is particularly cool that he plays the song Iced Earth with them every night and then Jon comes on to do Pool of Booze during the Volbeat set. They have great chemistry on stage. All in all a fantastic evening which I thoroughly enjoyed!
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Last night finally brought Tracer to Austria - I have seen them a couple of times now but have always had to travel to see them. They have developed incredibly since I first saw them in 2011 and now have such a tight and energetic performance that they really gained a bunch of new fans here in Vienna. Rarely does a support band get as much attention as Tracer did last night. The Answer is an incredibly good live band but I will admit to having seen only the first couple of songs as I went to have a chat with the guys from Tracer afterwards. Full sets here: Tracer / The Answer
Running order: Earthrotten, Time For Pride, In The Cage, Endiryah, Cadaveres Burnside Records brought in 5 bands to play at ((szene)) to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of supporting Austrian music. The show was very entertaining - I know Time For Pride and Endiryah well, but hadn't seen the other bands before. In The Cage have been around for a while so it really has just been bad luck that I haven't seen them before. They play a cool hardcore style and had a couple of followers with them who unfortunately didn't stay for the rest of the show. Earthrotten had a difficult slot starting up the night but did really well to warm up the crowd. They play a great mix of technical / death metal and were quite good on stage - definitely a surprise for me and well worth a listen! Cadaveres were the highlight of the night for me. They drove up from Hungary to play and gave it all on stage. Their brand of metal really appeals to me and I was surprised at the quality of the vocalist, he certainly didn't look like he was going to be able to push out the actual singing that he did in addition to the screams and growls of heavier music. All in all a great night! Discure. Wow. Like being hit over the head. With a truck. That is loaded with freight trains. That are full of steel weights. You get the picture. The Rhiz is a small place which probably takes about 60 people in the gig area and the stage is just big enough to house a drum kit so the band needs to perform on the floor and the audience just has to give the band a few centimetres to move in. The set itself was powerful - loads of energy and aggression and heaps and heaps of fun! This is the way music should be performed. Full picture set here. I was asked to take a few behind the scenes shots and then to create dirty and different shots of the show. For the stuff before the gig I used the little EOS M again, no editing, providing them just a few hours later. It's a pre-defined picture style and I love the 16:9 format and the 35mm focal length. For the show itself I used my 5DIII and the Sigma 15mm fisheye. I am also using an external battery pack now for the flash since I really really really want to reduce my consumption of AA batteries significantly. I have found rechargeable AAs to be very weak overall and the 600EX flashes eat through their power so quickly that they are effectively unusable. Anyway, dragged the shutter to get plenty of ambient light in (not that there was much!!!) and then processed in Nik Color Efex Pro.
A quick excursion into my metal history: I believe it was 1989 or 1990: my Dad took me to visit friends (of his) and they lived in a small apartment. There was an older kid there (he must have been about 16 and I was 13) and as we arrived he was just putting down the headphones and removing an LP from the only stereo in the place which was in the living room - I guess his parents had told him to clear up. So I asked what he was listening to only to get a disdainful "you wouldn't like it" from him. I pressed on. Eventually he told me it was "speed metal" and it's not for me. One more push and he said he would let me listen, obviously hoping for a reaction of horror and disgust. It was Annihilator's Alice in Hell. And it blew me away. I sat there and listened to the whole record while the social call happened around me. My love for this kind of music was born! On the 20th February 1991 I went to see Judas Priest at the Bank Austria Zelt in Vienna, the only reason being that Annihilator was opening for them. (On a side note: the other opening band was someone completely unknown... Pantera... they dominated that night, I can tell you that!) Annihilator were awesome - and really I can't believe I haven't gone to see them again since then. I didn't miss the chance to revisit memory lane last night and it was certainly worth it. Only one original member of Annihilator remains, the rest of the guys could be his sons. A great set of old songs mixed with the ones off the new album provided a filled ((szene)) with some great tunes to thrash to. It really was like the old days, the place was filled with long hair and jeans jackets with patches on them (I wish I could find my jacket, I believe my Mum destroyed it at some point and is now claiming she doesn't know where it is). Oh, and I got a couple of shots as well. Full set here. I had been looking forward to seeing Baroness live for quite some time and so with much anticipation I got to Arena quite early last night. I had listened to about 30 seconds of one song of the opening band Royal Thunder so I wasn't really sure what was awaiting me. Well, with a perfect combination of heavy guitar and bass, hard drums and a mix of melodic and haunting vocals, Royal Thunder certainly has a new fan. I listened to their recent album CVI four times in a row today and can really recommend them! Unfortunately the lighting was not really up to much for the first couple of songs so I didn't get the best set of pictures - but I resisted the temptation to convert them to black and white because there's a couple of nice ones in there. Full set here. Baroness themselves opened with the awesome "Take My Bones Away" and brought a set that just blew me and about 500 others away. They play with such vigour and joy and the energy really explodes off the stage so that everyone, even right at the back, is fully immersed. Their live sound is superb, the songs sounding just as good as on the album and they add enough movement to make it a full-on show, although I would say it is mostly the guitarists John Baizley and Peter Adams doing the heavy lifting there. I was beginning to think they were a little quiet when it came to talking to the crowd just when they started interacting more about halfway through the set. Some nice, personalized comments about Vienna and their experiences here made everyone feel like they were friends - and that continued after the gig when they walked around in the crowd and merch area. What was really great was the thought they had put into the encore: playing 3 songs off their old albums which complemented all the newer stuff they had played during the main set. I had some fun processing the pictures, hope you like them! Full set here. |
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