Marty Friedman - ExMortus - Skull Vultures // Rickshaw Theatre

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September 26, 2015 - Well, a little backed up - partially due to fatigue, but I'll be honest - I've also been pretty lazy with updating this thing (let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like me to fix with my style of writing or blogging!)

Regardless, I had to hop on the train to shoot Marty Friedman, the former lead guitarist of Megadeth during the 90s and now solo musician residing in Tokyo, Japan.  

Anyway, to begin, we had local act Skull Vultures, a progressive metal act consisting of Jason Puder and Eli Slamang.  These guys tear it up on the guitar and bass respectively  - holding their own and lighting the way for how the rest of the night will go.  Unfortunately, it's been a while since the show but I would love to see these guys open up again for more of the technical bands that roll into town!

You can check out their music here.

Up next are Exmortus, a metal act from Whittier, California.  Oh my god, these guys literally gave me a guitar-gasm - the shredding was for real.  Constant neo-classical riffs including tapping, sweeping, arpeggios and a beautiful combination of both rhythmic and melodic bits made for music to my ears.  Unfortunately Jadran Gonzales, the vocalist was unable to show, but the instrumental setlist was more than adequate to win the crowd of headbangers over (myself included!)

Their newest 7", For The Horde, is now available!

Lastly; the man, the legend, Marty Friedman - internationally recognized guitar legend had finally set off for a North America tour.  Friedman is known for his improvisation on the 6-string and draws inspiration from a plethora of sources including but not limited to:  Eastern music, neo-classical, thrash and progressive rock.  

Complementing him for the show were his touring bandmates: Chargeeee, a drummer who draws his aesthetic inspiration from hair metal with drummer flair to boot; guitarist Jordan Ziff who held his own against Friedman both with stage presence and skill; and lastly, bassist Kiyoshi Manii.  I have no words for what I saw that night - one might have stereotypically labelled her as a timid Asian girl in a red dress but boy, was everyone wrong.  She probably had the most stage presence of all the whole band, running left, right and centre while keeping the fan morale up with crowd interaction.  The show also contained solos from each of the band members, and also a moment where a guitarist was called on stage to shred with the band...and the lucky member was Eli from earlier!  I've never seen someone so excited to jam with one of their heroes in my life - his glee was sky-high and boy did he ever shred.  All-in-all it was a very fun show and has definitely inspired me to keep playing the guitar (even if I'm not so great!)

Setlists

Unfortunately none for Skull Vultures.

Exmortus:

  1. Rising
  2. Immortality Made Flesh
  3. Slave to the Sword
  4. Foe Hammer
  5. For the Horde
  6. Moonlight Sonata (Act 3)
  7. Metal is King

 Marty Friedman:

  1. Hyper Doom
  2. Amagigoe
  3. Street Demon
  4. Elixir
  5. Stigmata Addiction
  6. Devil Take Tomorrow
  7. Tibet
  8. Angel
  9. Kyioshi Bass Solo
  10. Kyioshi Higher Ground Fragment
  11. Ashes to Ashes/Forbidden City/Tornado (Medley)
  12. Ripped
  13. Jordan Ziff Guitar Solo
  14. Inferno
  15. Undertow
  16. Dragon Mistress (with Eli Slamang of Skull Vultures)
  17. Thunder March/Ballad of the Barbie Bandits
  18. Kaeritakunattayo (Encore)

 

 

Quadra Island

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Hello all!  Thanks for bearing with no blog posts for a month as planning for Aaron & Kait's wedding has been absolutely craaaaaazy.  As per usual, us men were running around with our heads cut off last minute trying to get everything together from our clothing, our rides and our accommodations.  Aaron, if you're reading this, I'm sorry.

Being part of the wedding party is kinda weird and not my usual schtick as I'm usually the one on the other side of the camera, but it was definitely nice to catch up on bro-time (sorry, Carmen!)  My dear brotographer and friend, Jesse Yuen, was shooting the wedding which I am more than stoked to see.  I'm sure he won't mind me posting a quick edit of one of shots solely for this blog post, so here it is:

The wedding itself went down at sunrise, so we were all up and about by 5 and at the beach for the ceremony at around 645 or so.  Although Starbucks has prepared me for mornings over the last month, it was still hard until we got to see the look on Aaron's and Kait's faces as they embraced just as the sun popped over the horizon.  The timing couldn't be more immaculate.  Following the ceremony, we embarked on a hike on the south peak of the Chinese Mountains where I did bring my camera for some pictures.  Unfortunately we were all busy partying and having a grand ol' time, so no other pictures of the wedding.  Regardless, enjoy! 

Vans Warped Tour // Auburn, WA [Pt. IV]

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My apologies everyone on the delayed post.  For those who have missed them, here are the prior parts: one, two, and three.

To begin, I personally did not see myself seeing PVRIS (pronounced Paris) as I had heard nothing about them, but I was recommended to them by both Tyler and Carmin.  Things had worked out since I also had a block in my schedule to shoot them.  Their style is something I haven't necessarily heard earlier but it's something electronic-y and alt/pop/rocky.  The band themselves are fairly new into the game, with only two prior EPs and one album, and I feel they do have a lot of growing up to do.  This aside; however, they do have a loyal fanbase and I do hope to hear them accelerate through the charts much like LIGHTS had since her debut.

So...if glam rock met post-hardcore, and had a baby, the result would be the Black Veil Brides.  Although I haven't heard too much of them, and wasn't necessarily drawn by their music - they put on a fun show!  Similar to many glam rock and hair metal bands of the 80s (I'm looking at you Poison and Motley Crue) BVB delivered the stage theatrics with the silly makeup, long hair, studded jackets, smoke and pyrotechnics.  I wish I could have stayed longer but I could never miss a chance to see...

...Beartooth!  Gone are Caleb Shomo's day of crabcore with Attack Attack! Instead comes a vicious post-hardcore/metalcore act where the crowds seem to grow every time I see them.  The fans were some of the rowdiest, despite being later in the day.  Crowdsurfers flew as the band tore up the stage, and even more so when the cover of Blitzkieg Bop came on.  Although some of the notes were missed, the intensity made up for it.  I would highly recommend any headbanger to join the pit and see them on tour.

Finally!  I have waited years to see I Killed the Prom Queen since the release of their album Music for the Recently Deceased came out in 2006 (which I'm still rocking out to, btw.)  I don't think they'd ever made their way to Vancouver and I was even more heartbroken when I heard of their breakup in 2008, but time had finally come when they reunited for their latest record Beloved (sans JJ Peters, however.)  For some reason, bassist Benjamin Coyte wasn't present but the show carried on with Jaime Hope (ex-The Red Shore) growling at the top (or bottom) of his lungs and Jona Weinhofen slaying it on the cleans.  Although the crowd (and set) was smaller than I expected, the pit was wild and I ended up getting kicked in the back once or twice (I thought it was just elbows!)  With Aussies Northlane, Parkway Drive and Deez Nuts hitting up Vancouver, I can only dream for a headlining Canada tour with IKTPQ.

 

Setlists

PVRIS

  1. Fire
  2. St. Patrick
  3. Mirrors
  4. Holy
  5. White Noise
  6. My House

Black Veil Brides

  1. Faithless
  2. Heart of Fire
  3. Coffin
  4. Wretched and Divine
  5. Kickstart My Heart (Motley Crue cover)
  6. The Legacy
  7. In The End

Beartooth

  1. The Lines
  2. Relapsing
  3. In Between
  4. I Have a Problem
  5. Beaten In Lips
  6. Dead
  7. Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover)
  8. Body Bag

I Killed The Prom Queen

  1. Your Shirt Would Look Better with a Colombian Necktie
  2. Thirty One & Sevens
  3. Calvert Street
  4. Sharks In Your Mouth
  5. Say Goodbye
  6. To the Wolves

 

Vans Warped Tour // Auburn, WA [Pt. III]

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Cheers to the weekend, everyone!  For those who missed out, you can find part one here and part two, here.

The first band for this post goes to Memphis May Fire, a metalcore act from Dallas, Texas.  Despite having many lineup changes, their sound has undergone a fairly natural progression with their latest record, Unconditional, feeling very theatrical.  Although I haven't tuned into much of their discography, their performance was fun, jumpy and I'd say the instrumentalists outdid Matt Mullins in terms of stage presence.  All-in-all, nothing that stands out from the crowd but a otherwise very solid performance.

Up next is currently one of my favourite bands currently on repeat, The Amity Affliction.  These Brisbane natives came by Vancouver not too long ago, and although I love their studio albums, I felt their live mixing was a little on the weaker side both then and now.  In particular, I felt that Ahren Stringer couldn't quite nail some of the higher notes - but then again, I could be a little harsh assuming that it was the last day on the tour.  Regardless, Joel Birch's screams were heavy and the crowd participation, particularly during the breakdowns and refrains were excellent.  

Oh, I'm going to get a LOT of flack for this, but I actually can't stand the music from Pierce the Veil.  But then again, I'm also known for my brutal honesty - so here it goes.  Firstly, the security had held us back due to the abundance of CO2 canisters by the stage which started their set with a fuck-load of confetti.  After that, we all rushed in a single file line and were unable to really navigate the stage due to the onslaught of crowd-surfing fan girls (hence the same angle shots in most of the pictures.)  Regardless of my disdain for their "whiny" vocals, they definitely had the energy, stage presence and theatrics that I wish many of the bands I loved would show more often.  Even seeing these guys open for A Day to Remember, they definitely competed in terms of confetti, explosions and pyrotechnics.

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start with While She Sleeps.  They were definitely in the top 3 performances of the day, the other two going to Blessthefall and Senses Fail.  The boys from Sheffield, and in particular, front-man Lawrence Taylor just tore the crowd a new one.  These guys are absolutely bat-shit crazy and I love it.  The aggression in the lyrics really comes out in their actions, they're jumping, head-banging, hanging off of shit, tearing shirts off - the list goes on.  All I'm going to say here is that if you can, see these guys live.  You won't regret it.

August Burns Red.  This band from Manheim, Pennsylvania is probably one of the most progressive bands in the metalcore genre and are ALWAYS pushing the agenda in terms of technical prowess and introducing their influences into their music.  Be it little country-esque riffs to jazzy/bluesy outros, this band has it all.  What I can really respect about these guys is that, despite being an all-Christian band, they're not there to shove it down your throats, and would rather the metaphoric lyricism be interpreted as you wish.  It was awesome to see JB shred through all those solos and for Jake Luhrs to let out his extremely heavy screams, but also to see his passion and dancing (cue Internal Cannon).  I'm so sad that I missed them when they were last in Vancouver, but given the chance, I would find a way to see them again. 

Setlists

Memphis May Fire

  1. My Generation
  2. Prove Me Right
  3. Beneath the Skin
  4. No Ordinary Love
  5. Stay the Course
  6. The Sinner 
  7. Vices

The Amity Affliction

  1. Pittsburgh
  2. Never Alone
  3. Death's Hand
  4. Open Letter
  5. Chasing Ghosts
  6. Don't Lean On Me

Pierce the Veil

  1. The Divine Zero
  2. May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight
  3. Hell Above
  4. Bulls in the Bronx
  5. Yeah Boy and Doll Face
  6. Caraphernelia (ft. Jake Luhrs of August Burns Red)
  7. King for a Day

While She Sleeps

  1. Death Toll
  2. New World Torture
  3. Brainwashed
  4. Trophies of Violence
  5. This is the Six
  6. Seven Hills

August Burns Red

  1. Fault Line
  2. The Wake
  3. Provision
  4. Identity
  5. Composure
  6. Internal Cannon
  7. Back Burner
  8. Empire
  9. White Washed