"Everyone I ever loved
Went down in history...
The blue eyes came
The brown eyes left...
And the rest is misery
Dreams are trash
On the side of the road"

AN

And with that outburst American Nightmare attacked Saint Vitus as though it were still 2000. The band remains angry and fresh and as tight as ever. The audience never stopped singing the lyrics or diving from the low stage. Down to a four piece at this show the band didn't seem to miss a beat and it was certainly nothing that the crowd noticed. Song after song during the 45 minutes plus set took on a sense of group catharsis as attendees young and old sang along to singer Wesley Eisold's lyrics of lost love, desperation, anger, and redemption. Gone are the old sweaters that used to adorn Wesley replaced with black leather but that change has not affected the passion of his delivery as he mixes a prancing coolness with moments of crazed movements that make him one of my favorite frontmen to shoot. The rest of the band is tight and engaged stirring the audience and never letting the frenzy stop. 

Viva Love - Viva American Nightmare

Shooting heavy music concerts with a fisheye and a flash off your camera from the dance floor with random fists and feet and people jumping off the stage is not easy on your gear or your head. It's also amazingly fun. When I get to combine two of my favorite things in the world I always leave with that feeling that I used to have when I first started going to shows in 1988. The rush of adrenaline, trying to figure out where the action is going to be as well as dealing with where it is coming from and trying to put interesting light where it needs to be while keeping the performers in focus - I love it.

I shot these images with a Nikon D750 that has become over the past few weeks my go to camera for concert work as it's fast in frame rate as well as focus speed and has amazing ISO and dynamic range. The last one is important for when i miss with the flash and I need to salvage a solid image without a proper exposure. Combined with a Nikon SB-Flash (in this case the 700) and more often than not a Nikkor 16 2.8 fisheye i feel as though i capture an intimate perspective that is two things at once: a representation of the show experience due to the immediacy and me shooting from the pit while at the same time capturing far more than our eyes see at any one time and giving a surreal look.