GWAR/Battlecross 12/27/13

When you do something you’re passionate about, time is one of the last things on your mind. 2013 was an amazing adventure for Sinestra. Closing out the year with 54 different concerts and choosing to get back on the journey on my own was NOT an easy decision. I pushed myself further than I thought I could. That was my personal BIGGEST highlight of this 2013, Especially from October to this current day. At least 20 different bands have used some type of material to promote themselves along with myself personally AND having BOTH To The End Records & RoadRunner Records publish some of my work were some of the major highlights of this year. Many bad things have happened as good and bad are part of life. But, the lessons learned are taken to make sure the same mistakes are NEVER done twice. My biggest achievement were meeting the people who are making quite a name for themselves in this current time frame of their career. That band is “Battlecross”, a band  who has had a very promising 2013. Their sophomore album “War of Will” was released under the Metal Blade Records banner and was highly praised throughout the metal community. Top that release with appearances in the biggest tours this side of North America (The 4th Annual GWARBQ, Orion Festival in Detroit, Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival and New England Metal & Hardcore Festival), you got yourself quite a distinguished resume to add to these fine gentlemen right here. TAP Shannon Lucas (Ex-The Black Dahlia Murder and All That Remains) as their session drummer on “War of Will” and my goodness, you now have the cherry on the thrash metal cake.

My 2013 year was supposedly ending with Veil of Maya’s SOLD OUT onslaught at Gramercy Theatre in New York City back on December 7th, my devastating conclusion that I would not make this show was halted by a last minute addition of my services as a journalist. I was elated to close out my year with people and bands I truly care about. I also had an itch to photography GWAR. Being that this was my first time seeing and shooting them live, I could not refuse the offer.

Richmond, Virginia’s own “Iron Reagan” opened the nights affair. Lights of clear white filled the stage, as Ryan Parrish (drummer) was close to the stage. Drummers are tough to shoot for my focal lengths. The distance between he and I was too close and my drum shots came out perfect. That was a positive start. The Hardcore Punk group were thrilling. Circle pits and early crowd-surfing were very noticeable. Opening bands do not have much force as these guys did and they played a 45 minute set with about 14 songs. Tony Foresta, their lead singer, was full of life. His humor on stage was satirical to what the audience’s perspective of the band was. A band isn’t just a “Band” without personality. Managing to make fun of themselves (like writing your set-list on paper plates) felt natural to the band members. They welcomed new fans and audience members alike by being the people they are. Their set was very fast however, as punk music goes with rare three minute songs and everything else under 2 minutes or less. They got a undeniable vibe which can only be led by example. Maybe we will see others follow in their footsteps soon enough. Their set-list is incomplete but as follows: “T.O.W”, “Pay Check”, “Insanity”, “Bet on Black”, “Debt Collector”, “Slightly Out of Focus”, “Cycle of Vio”, “Mini Lites”, “Snake Chop”, “Instrumental” into “Rats” and several more including a Slayer cover. Unfortunately the photo I snapped was damaged so I could not get the bottom half of the set-list.

Battlecross was next. The MAIN ATTRACTION and literally the last North American tour before they head out to Europe with a slew of bands such as “Killswitch Engage” (as direct support for a few nights), “Trivium”, and “Miss May I”. The band will embark for a month with Trivium’s “Vengeance Falls over Europe 2014” tour after playing with Killswitch Engage. Hopefully, the band will return in April/May unless they hit the studio. The set-list was refined this time, opening with “War of Will” song “Force Fed Lies”. Seven of the eight songs on that set-list were all from their second album. This came as a surprise as the band mainly focused on combining both albums together, playing songs from their debut album “Pursuit of Honor” such as: “Man of Stone”, “Breaking You” and “Kaleb”. Shannon Lucas on drums was just superb. Drummers are constantly here and gone, starting with Kevin Talley during Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival in the summer and then Adam Pierce of Oakland, California’s own “All Shall Perish” during “The Dream Calls For Blood” North American tour with Bay Area’s own “Death Angel”. My point that I am trying to make is that once the second album was released, it took until December to actually have the album lineup properly coordinated with Shannon drumming for this mini-tour with GWAR. It was by far the most accurately sounding show they have had in the couple of shows I have watched them perform. Another note to mention, Battlecross in NYC has not performed on big stages this year. The two shows I have watched them in however, Saint Vitus and The Marlin Room at Webster Hall, were not as big in scale compared to Irving Plaza. Everything was amazing from sound to lighting. No harsh colors and shadows were almost inconspicuous. Very clean blues and greens were mixed in with bright white lights, giving off colorful vibes. Coming off the third song, I managed to stay on the side and shoot from afar. I borrowed a Canon 70-200 F2.8 which I call “Lucille” from fellow photographer Rodrigo “Terco” Fredes and began snapping away of the entire band. It was then I managed to snap lead singer Kyle Gunther A.K.A “Gumby” jump off the stage and into the crowd as he crowd-surfed across the front right side of the stage. The photos were by far the best I have shot since Mayhem Festival in Hartford, CT. It took a while, but my goodness this was the show they deserved to get. The band hung out after the show and took photos with fans and chatted with people. Jose Mangin of Sirius XM was also on hand to see the band perform with his wife Melissa. It was a good family oriented time. Their set-list is as follows: “Force Fed Lies”, “My Vaccine”, “Ghost Alive”, “Never Coming Back”, “Flesh & Bone”, “Beast”, “Get Over It” and “Push Pull Destroy”.

Headlining this night was GWAR. Upon entering the photo pit I was ill equipped with two things, a Pancho and a zip-lock bag to protect my camera. The term “ballsy” was placed unto my head as I was insane enough to enter the extreme front row for three songs knowing what this band was about. There was no set-list on the stage, but there were two nice little statues with nozzles in the mouth. I’m not stupid, those two statues became my “Danger Zones”. My camera and clothing were more important to me at this point in time, or ANY point in time. As I inspected the stage area, the lights went dead and Black Sabbath began to play. The entire ballroom was singing “War Pigs” in unison. I couldn’t see anything in the dark, but I was awe-inspired at how we continue to prove that the metal community is one of unity. My ears rung as I screamed the chorus with people I barely knew as we all wondered what would happen when the lights came on. Halfway through the song, GWAR came on stage. The nozzle began to spit out red fluid (I guess to resemble blood of course) and the entire front row was doused in this product. I stayed on the sides and shot from far, switching from left to right as songs changed. Between dodging crowd-surfers, the venue security who closed off half the width of the photo pit and all the projectiles from the band, this one was a panic attack waiting to happen. The lights were very bright blues, greens mixed with yellows and crushed shadows. The costumes were not as vivid as I expected them to be due to the lighting. Not to mention, there were at least six different bodies on the stage. So creating framed photos with proper constraints and proportions was a very bad uphill battle. I am satisfied with my work, I just know as a photographer I survived shooting GWAR, as many of my peers in the photo pit already stated before the show started. 2013 held a lot of different backdrops and performances of high caliber. Rob Zombie was clearly my favorite as he knows how to put on one hell of a show. In my opinion, GWAR’s performance was like watching Eli Roth and Rob Zombie take on Alice in Wonderland IF IT FOLLOWED DANTE ALIGHIERI’S “The Divine Comedy”. I was perplexed and smiling at the same time to bear witness to the levels of creativity musicians can have. I have known about GWAR for years but, have never been up close to them until this night. The band went on to kill off a puppet pop-star replica of Justin Bieber, bring out a replica of current Vatican Pope Francis XVI, Queen Elizabeth replica also and cover songs from The Who and Billy Ocean. The fans were loving every minute of it. Each person came out the venue covered in some sort of GWAR goo and sweat to boot. Talk about an amazing set. The set-list is as follows: “Madness at the Core of Time”, “The Salaminizer”, “Hate Love Songs”, “Hail, Genocide!”, “Metal Metal Land”, “Bring Back The Bomb”, “Pre-Skool Prostitute”, “They Swallowed The Sun”, “Ham On The Bone”, “Jack The World”,  “Bloodbath”,  “Let Us Slay”, “Torture”, “Battle Maximus”, “Happy Death-Day” with encore songs as follows: “Sick of You”, Billy Ocean’s “Get out of my Dreams and Into my Car” and finally “Baba O’Riley” by The Who.

I wrap up my 2013 by posting this article in 2014. Nothing but a bit of Irony to prove how much time I take to get this completed. Throw the holidays and New Year’s together and you wonder why it took so long. All of the photos are down below and the link to the Flickr page is together as well. Thank you for reading and a prosperous 2014 to each and every one of you that reads and supports my crusade. All the best as this is “how the event is snapped”.

Flickr Photo Gallery!!! Click Here.

Iron Reagan Photo Gallery

Battlecross Photo Gallery

GWAR Photo Gallery