Mmmmm.....

Well...what's to say? I promised an update and then what did I do? I almost took three weeks off.

Well, let's just say that having a fever for most of a week and then still being sick for another week made doing anything a chore. But here I am. And I'm doing Warped Tour right now, almost a month after it happened.

Let's talk Warped: I'll come right out and say the best thing at this year's Warped Tour was Joan Jett. She had the most pure set of any of the bands that I at least caught. She played new songs off her new-ish album (it was released in Japan a good while ago) and she played her classics. She allowed all the photographers to shoot her whole set (you normally only get the first 3 songs and that's it). I can’t tell you what it was like to see her just serenade “Crimson & Clover” five or six feet away from me. Very surreal but cool moment. And of course…”I Love Rock & Roll”. How could I not talk about it? It was the end of her set and it really got however many people where there for her singing along. Doing a shoot with her actually gave me the first time where my Dad really knew an artist I shot. He was totally excited.

There were other great moments. Getting to see Jerra again was a nice surprise. Her band Ferus really caught my attention just like Jerra did the year before. Two years in a row is a big thing in my book.

I also met Brandon from Rise Against. A guy I know, who we’ll call…”Jon”. Oh wait, that’s his real name. Anywho, he was doing an interview with him and I told him I’d take a few pictures for him. Here’s one of them!

I caught both Senses Fail and AFI and both put on a decent shows. Davey Havok gave me a couple of good opportunities for good shots. I wish I would have gotten to talk to Jade Puget so we could have discussed The Static Age remix he did for Neon Nights Electric Lives.



Motion City Soundtrack of course put on a great little new-wave packed nugget of a show. Though, in all honesty, I really wish they would be on a smaller stage. I’m starting to see this way too much lately: bands that are used to playing smaller stages are all of a sudden foisted up to the big stages and they can’t…I’d hate to say it, but fill the state. That’s not to say MCS didn’t perform great, I really liked them, but they just seem better fit for a smaller stage, where you can feel the tension of having less space to move.

But the big band for all of us down there in my small group was of course those boys from Colorado…those boys from L.A….those boys from somewhere…Single File. When walking to their booth, I had on my red Saving Face shirt. And after a moment of talking to them, they noticed the shirt and smiled (the girl in the middle used to help “mentor” them and she is of course, Miss Sarah Saturday.) Sloan and the boys were playing only acoustic and man, did I feel bad for them. They got drowned out multiple times by all the stages surrounding them. But they stuck it out, moving their show to the grassy knoll, as far away from any stages they could. Makes me really want to see them soon, though the closest they play is Cleveland…and I fucking hate Cleveland.

Overall though, the show was much better than last year’s disaster. I saw many, many people I either work with in the photo lab or people I’ve seen at many shows. It was hotter than fuck, but well worth it. But it really became a precursor to Chicago and the hell that trip would bring. But that’s for my next entry. Anywho, enjoy!