Rock Sound

Attack! Vipers!/Circa Survive/Thursday

I shot these three bands for Rock Sound on Wednesday:

Attack! Vipers!

Circa Survive

Thursday

It wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be, but that was probably because most of the styoodents have buggered off home for the Easter holidays.

End of a Year – Rock Sound Magazine

This was a mission. Originally, this gig was supposed to happen at Kro Bar. Easy enough, I thought. I phoned up to check the stage times and they had no idea what I was going on about. Much Googling later, I found that the gig had been moved to a place called Gullivers. Pirates, parrots and eye patches sprung to mind. It took me the best part of an hour to find a working telephone number, let alone an address for the place, but I got it in the end.

Anyway, I’d almost lost the will to live by that point, unlike End of a Year’s Patrick Kindlon, who looked like he was actively fighting off sure death in the form of a particularly bad case of the lurgy – for someone so ill, he had bags of energy.

Kids in Glass Houses – Manchester Academy

Kids in Glass Houses played the Academy back in November. Everything was very dark and very purple, which made things a little difficult to shoot. What little light there was came from the back, naturally!

I first shot this band at the Star and Garter, about 5 years ago – a pokey hole of a venue, nut one that lets you get up close and personal with the bands. This has changed over time, as the venues they play have increased in size and the distance from the crowd has widened, but their energy has remained.

Aled seems to look ill all of the time these days – too many late nights have given him dark eyes like mine. Oh dear.

Set Your Goals – Rock Sound January ’10

Mid-air geetar shredding: frozen. I was getting the crap kicked out of me at the front, so I set up on the side of the stage for a couple of minutes and got this.

Sick Of It All/AFI in Rock Sound – May ’10

I’m pretty happy with this.

FYI, AFAIK, it was AFI at Manchester Academy

I think I have owned one track by this band for about 10 years – Girls Not Grey. I thought they’d disappeared, but I think it’s more to do with the fact I’m no longer ‘down with the kids’…!

AFI at Manchester Academy

Anyway, not knowing much of their other back catalogue wasn’t an issue – still a pretty enjoyable show.

Karnivool at Manchester Roadhouse

Karnivool circumnavigated the globe in March to play at Manchester Roadhouse:

Karnivool at Manchester Roadhouse

I love how low the ceiling is there. I remember when I photographed Pitchshifter there in 1997 and they ended up paying for new ceiling tiles after the surfers and jumpers kicked through half of them!

Set Your Goals at Academy 3

I’m all about the last shot in this set – it took a while to get it. If only I hadn’t got motion blur on the band in the background, but still, I’ll take this.

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