Drunk with raw emotion – Photo of the Day #46

January 30th, 2010 • photography
Tags: black weather shaman, boardriders, concert, photo of the day, photography, project365

This was taken at the Haiti benefit show at Boardriders Boca Raton. This is my buddy Cecil, who plays in Black Weather Shaman, along with two girls from the audience. After knowing Cecil for a few years, I had no idea he had this much energy, it was like a kid hopped up sugar that looks like GG Allin. The show was fantastic and we raised something like $500.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 @ f/4
ISO1600 @ 1/15s
Spot metering with WB set to Tungsten B1

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 James Westfall

IT’S OPETH TIME!!!

October 20th, 2008 • 1 comment metal, music
Tags: concert

Tonight we’re going to see Opeth for like the 8th time. This is the first time we’ll be seeing them at The Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale and it’s an inside show so it’ll be interesting. Unfortunately, no pictures unlike the last few times we’ve seen them, Revolution has a “strict” no camera policy. I haven’t listened to Watershed enough to really enjoy it but I know it’s a stark departure from last year’s The Ghost Reveries in tonality and lyrics. It’s a much darker album, especially lyrically, but it’ll be awesome to hear live. I also heard that Candelight Records has released a limited edition digipak of Opeth’s first three albums, which were also released on Candlelight. It’s supposed to be the Japanese editions of these albums with extra tracks. I need to track one down! I’ve had a hell of a time trying to find a decent copy of Orchid, their first album.

I can’t wait for this concert to start, I’m so anxious to see Opeth again.

I thought cowboy boots were supposed to be super comfy

August 7th, 2008 • music
Tags: concert

I can tell you they were at the beginning of the Coheed & Cambria show, when we arrived around 6:15PM to The Revolution. About 45 minutes later, we were inside. We haven’t been there in over a year, since we saw Gojira (that was a helluva show too). But tonight was special, tonight was a concert my girlfriend had been waiting months for and at the end of the night, she was majorly not disappointed. There were three bands on the bill total, including Coheed. First up was Russian Circles. These guys are phenoms of instrumetal (sic). They do not fuck around with their music and have toured with the likes of Daughters and Red Sparowes. I don’t know, or care, what they put in the water in Chicago to churn out quality instrumental bands like this but they have an amazing scene.

After that was The Secret Machines, who ended up getting booed half the time. They were forgettable in my book but they weren’t bad (an eclectic mix of shoegaze/crust with some drone-fuzz and their “space rock” along with “heavy” influences from other bands). Apparently, no one there even liked them but had to tolerate them anyway.

Eventually Coheed and Cambria came on and truth be told, they can rival Opeth in sheer set length; one Opeth show ended up running nearly 3 hours for them alone. The show was great, played like their studio recordings but completely upscaled with Claudio Sanchez’s showmanship. The man knows how to get a rise out of the fans. It was a great show even though I looked mad the whole time — standing around for 5+ hours in one spot sucks for sure but I was busy concentrating. The night ended with, I swear, a near 30 minute rendition of Welcome Home (which I think it was, I actually forgot what song it was once the solos ensued). Simply amazing. Their prog rock influences were blazing through during the solos. Travis Stever was simply shredding for a good 6-7 minutes with a voicebox while Claudio Sanchez ripped the stage apart before firing up….a THEREMIN. I posted this on Twitter but really, who the hell plays a Mellotron these days?! There’s a slow revival of theremin playing these days but you’d think Sanchez was an old hat at it, blazing through his own solo with it. It was a mix of guitar (and pedal malfunctions/overheating), theremin (played with hands, guitar, and hair), and shredding around on the stage. Very excellent. Then came Chris Pennie’s drum solo, I swear he was channeling Neil Pert. I’m glad he left Dillinger Escape Plan, Coheed fits his playing style much more closely. His solo was ripping about the 25 minute mark (yeah, I timed it) when he was the only one left on stage and the other members came back on to finish the song. Sanchez had donned an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet, I want to know how he fit it over all of his hair.

This was by far one of the best concerts we’ve ever witnessed in terms of musicality (ok, that’s just me) and enjoyment. I’m keeping my eye out for when Russian Circles come back down, they have most definitely piqued my interest in more Chi-town instrumental metal.

(Yeah, I’m now a fanboy)

Just got back from Orlando

July 1st, 2008 • chatter
Tags: concert, dethklok, metal, orlando

We just got back in town from the DETHTOUR in Orlando. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and seen some extraordinary bands but this was something else. For a “fake” metal band, these guys shredded pretty hard. Brendan Small did an EXCELLENT job of picking a session bassist and guitarist for the tour (since he plays all instruments on the show and Gene Hogland, best known from Death and being one of the most technical drummers around, already plays the drums on the show and the CD).

I can’t even begin to describe the show aside from the fact that it was like the Dethalbum CD but on 11 — to quip from Spinal Tap, the first great fake metal band of all time. Everyone that went to the show did not leave unimpressed whatsoever. It was just awesome, plainly put.

Now I’m going to bed.