photography

07-29-2010

Heavy MTL – Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montréal, Québec, Canada July 25th, 2010

www.heavymtl.com

The single greatest two-day metal festival I have (or will) ever attend, Heavy MTL 2010 did nothing shy of blow my mind (along with my ears) over this past weekend.

Megadeth and Slayer, Korn and Rob Zombie along with a literal who’s who of both modern and retro metal turned up in full force to represent the genre at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montréal, Québec. Both Megadeth and Slayer committed to playing their seminal ‘Seasons In The Abyss’ and ‘Rust In Peace’ albums in their entirety on Saturday the 24th. Rob Zombie and Korn (both bands recently signed to Roadrunner Records) brought their A-game in a dual headlining evening on July 25th that was rife with pyrotechincs and magical lighting.

If you add in the phenomenal performances from Alice Cooper, Anvil, Lamb Of God, Rob Halford, Mastodon, Testament, Fear Factory, Airbourne and High On Fire, the weekend really shows off why Heavy MTL is THE North American metal festival any fan of the genre simply HAS to attend. Adding in Avenged Sevenfold, Alexisonfire, Five Finger Death Punch, Melissa Auf der Maur, Despised Icon, Hatebreed, 3 Inches of Blood, Winds of Plague, Chimaira, Kataklysm, Atreyu, In This Moment, Norma Jean, Shadows Fall, 36 Crazy Fists, Les Ékorchés, Baptized In Blood, Skeletonwitch, Deadly Apples, Hail The Villain and Beneath The Massacre… well, you have a jam packed two days of metal.

These are some of my photos from the second day – Sunday July 25th. This was the Mayhem Festival Montreal tour date, with some added zest from additional heavyweight bands.

There is a full review of the full festival on Lithium Magazine

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Jacob - For the band “Hail The Villain” what shirt is the singer wearing? If you know and could tell me I would appreciate that. Thank You

07-28-2010

Heavy MTL – Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montréal, Québec, Canada July 24th, 2010

www.heavymtl.com

The single greatest two-day metal festival I have (or will) ever attend, Heavy MTL 2010 did nothing shy of blow my mind (along with my ears) over this past weekend.

These are some of my photos from the first day – Saturday July 24th. This was really the Canadian Carnage Montreal tour date, with some added zest from additional heavyweight bands.

There is a full review of the full festival on Lithium Magazine

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Celine Noel - Mike, these photos are amazing!

Ryan - Nice work Mike! As always, love the Zombie pics. I missed Mayhem Festival but will be catching Megadeth/Slayer in a few weeks!

07-14-2010

Rush – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto – July 13th, 2010

www.rush.com

This evening’s musical performance by Rush was a testament to their longevity, both in years and their stamina on stage. Celebrating 30 years since Moving Pictures was released, that album was integrated in it’s entirety during their current live set. Moving pictures was Rush’s eighth studio album at the time of it’s release in 1980 – and the Willowdale, Toronto band has been around for well over 40 years making their signature brand of progressive music.

The fact that Rush delivered a set of music this evening that was close to three hours long is a testament to both the band, and their fanatical audience. I cannot believe Rush played such a lengthy set of music when most bands touring today cannot even hit the two hour mark on stage.

The last time I saw Rush play live was in Hamilton for the Roll The Bones tour – almost twenty years ago. To say I was a little under the influence for that show would be a gross understatement – as I can barely remember the performance at all… but I WAS there. And I have not purchased an album of music from Rush since. I almost went to see the Snakes and Arrows tour when it played at Molson Amphitheatre three years ago – but my fear of not knowing enough of their recent material kept me away. When I heard that this current Time Machine tour would encapsulate the entire Moving Pictures album – I was immediately interested.

After twenty minutes, video showing a dial with 1974 on it started slowing rolling up in years until cresting at 1980, when the opening notes of ‘Tom Sawyer’ were met with another standing ovation from the audience and a renewed interest in the evening. For fourty odd minutes I felt quite literally transported back in years – hearing an album I played the hell out of as a thirteen year old boy delivered live on stage by the very band that crafted the material. The entire Moving Pictures album is special to me – and this evening I found it wasn’t the obvious material that stood out for me as it was performed live. It was ‘The Camera Eye’ and ‘Witch Hunt’ from side two (yeah, that’s right, I’m talking vinyl here) that really stood out for me. ‘The Camera Eye’ in particular made me aware of just how far ahead of their time Rush were, when I compare them to a band like Tool riffing in similar song structures to a much younger audience.

See this Time Machine tour. it will utterly blow you away.

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07-14-2010

Hole – Sound Academy, Toronto – July 10th, 2010

www.holerock.net | www.myspace.com/hole

Hole made it onto the Sound Academy stage in Toronto on Saturday night, to play a live set rife with cover versions to a screaming crowd of fans. In true diva fashion, Ms. Love wasn’t in the venue ten minutes before her scheduled start time. And she blew off her sound check. Alan Cross got to sit down with her after her performance. That interview w Alan / Courtney is right HERE. With Love at centre stage under heavily gelled yellow and orange lighting, and everyone else in the band lit under aquamarine tones, Hole went right into ‘Pretty on the Inside / Sympathy for the Devil’. Love kept it close to the mic for most of the evening’s set, but ventured from side to side of the stage to wave at fans and give them a chance to get a good look at her up close. What I’ll remember most from the evening is the wonderful version of ‘Miss World’ (covered recently by Neverending White Lights) that Hole played. Even while the band was playing the song, I KNEW I owned it, but just couldn’t place what it was. It didn’t hit me until I was halfway home what the track was, and why I knew the song. And, smoothie that I am, I thought the song was by Neverending White Lights originally. I thought this performance was quite entertaining. Hole put on a good show overall. Love engaged her audience quite well, keeping the banter up until the final song of the evening. And I felt like I got to hear some quality songs; new and old originals along with some cool covers.

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07-14-2010

Vans Warped Tour Toronto – Flats At Arrow Hall – July 9th, 2010

www.vanswarpedtour.com

I walked around from photo pit to photo pit for most of Warped taking in bands I knew not a whole lot about. And while I don’t feel like I can honestly contribute entire reviews of some of these performances (seeing as I only saw two to three songs per band), I do have a few things of note to say about the festival.

If one band captured the ‘spirit’ of Warped on this current round of dates, it was Britain’s Bring Me The Horizon. They walked on stage, went right over the front of the stage to the rail and sung their first song directly to the crowd. I should add in here, that the ENTIRE front row in the crowd for Bring Me The Horizon was entirely composed of dreamy eyed girls all swooning over the band-members looming over them. Once BMTH got back on the stage, the crowd surfing ensued in earnest. Security guards present for this performance earned their keep for the day – as flailing body after body was launched on top of the crowd half way between the soundboard and the stage to begin their swim to the stage. I say ‘swim’ because that’s literally what the crowd looked like from the side after I cleared the photo pit – a swimming mass of bodies in motion – all heading on the eventual trajectory of the half dozen sweating security guards up front. I haven’t seen a pit like that in years.

Kudos must also go out to Dillinger Escape Plan, for playing a set so rife with their signature pandemonium (both in music and stage presence) that the crowd literally didn’t know what to do. I saw a few requisite fans surfing, and a lot of devil forks in the air – but for the most part… the crowd in front of the main stage at 5:45pm for Dillinger’s live performance were simply humbled. Band members jumped around the stage like beads of water hitting a hot pan of grease. Photographers didn’t know where to look – as Dillinger band members launched themselves from speakers and drum kit towards the edge of the stage to sneer at the audience. It was like a crescendo of some twisted dance movement, as band members seemed to outdo each other for chaotic stage maneuvers song by passing song. The pinnacle was the guitarist flipping onto his back after leaping from the highest set of amplifiers and lifting himself up backwards by the feed and head, to howl at the audience while playing his guitar. If I hadn’t seen it first hand, I wouldn’t have thought it even possible.

I saw great performances from bands like Andrew WK, Whitechapel, We The Kings, Parkway Drive, Eyes Set To Kill and Breath Carolina as well – all fun for their own unique reasons.

I also caught Enter Shikari and loved them. Shikari are pretty much a band built on techno and chaos. They were kind of messy on stage, but that’s how they play. It’s also how they craft their music. Even as they were playing the build-up to ‘Mothership’ and the guitarist buggered up his guitar causing everyone in the band to start laughing as they played the same sequence of notes repeatedly to try and camouflage the fact that they were minus a guitar… the band managed to make it somehow worth seeing.

All in all, a fun day out.