A collection of my rarely seen live event photography!

Coming to you live from @caffetto coffee shop in uptown Minneapolis, and earlier than usual! @guthrie had a sleep over with some friends and I’ve been able to work most of the evening. I say “most” because I took a break for a few hours to flex my new and improved Torrential Gearhulk deck. Did you catch @tarotbyfergus’ recent post titled “My Magic: The Gathering campion deck”? Well, it went 0 - 3 tonight. After losing the first time, @tarotbyfergus said “…that’s not going to happen again.”. It did. Then again. To be fair, my Gearhulk deck lost quite a bit to the other decks, but beating Saheeli Rai three times, unanswered, was glorious!

I mentioned last night that myself, @vermillionfox and @boxcar made it out to the Turf Club to see Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. It had me thinking about some of my favorite bands, shows I’ve been luckily enough to see, and photograph. I thought it would be cool to do a post featuring some of the live entertainment photography I’ve done over the last few years. Without further adieu.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is my favorite band. I’ve been going to shows since 1996 and I’ve never seen a better live performance than SCAC! Their shows are so dark and theatrical, especially the interactions between Slim and Munly, it’s a photographers dream. I actually sat this recent show out simply because I wanted to experience as a straight up fan, not worrying about how I was going to get a good exposure in a dark room while Slim’s arms are swingy wildly. No regrets! Thanks to many years and past shows, I have a great collection of photos I’ve taken at SCAC shows.

Motionless In White is a band right out of my hometown of Scranton, PA. The former keyboard player, @joshbalz […yes, already on Steemit, just waiting to make his first post] is a close friends of mine and fiancé to @ryanashley […one of my best friends and winner of last season’s Inkmaster on Spike]. As such, @joshbalz hooks me up with photo passes to shoot super close and get images like these, while they headlined Warped Tour.

DeVotchKa is one of my favorite bands, and they hail from Denver, CO, same as Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. They don’t have the same “Denver Sound” […that’s actually considered a genre], but they’re brilliant and emotionally captivating to see live. They opened for one of my favorite bands and completely stole my heart. I had a chance to shoot them here at the Trocadero in Philadelphia.

Bad Relgion is another one of favorites and was the band that introduced me to punk rock. They’ll forever have a special place in my heart. They’re consistently great, even putting out albums 30’s years after “How Could Hell Be Any Worse”. They played in Philadelphia and I wrote their management an email requesting a photo pass with some recent photography. It was a career milestone when they accepted. Just seeing your favorite band live is an incredible feeling, but getting to photograph them is an entirely different level of satisfaction.

Norma Jean was one of my favorite bands when the Christian metal scene gained traction in the early 2000’s. Quite a few bands like them rounded out my playlist. I loved that bands like Norma Jean, Underoath and August Burns Red rejected much of the same things I hated about Christianity, while just sounded so fucking badass! I’ve seen Norma Jean a few times since this show in 2009 in Easton, PA. Small clubs are fun to shoot. The rules for photographers are typically relaxed and I was able to get some great captures. 

Thanks for viewing these. Again, the beauty of Steemit for me personally is having a medium to share work like this. Otherwise, it would get filed away on a hard drive without seeing the light of day. I’m still really proud of it, but there’s rarely an opportunity to showcase like this. I post every day. For more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me at @kommienezuspadt!