Switchblade Suicide Takes On The Big Stage!

Recently, my good friends in Switchblade Suicide won the Guitar Center contest to open for KISS on their "Hottest Show On Earth" Tour. An online contest was held where voters chose their top 5 favorites. Those 5 bands were reviewed by KISS and then a winner was chosen. I'm sure many of the bands in the contest were deserving of the opportunity to open for KISS but in my mind, none of them are as deserving as SS. These guys have pushed hard and endured a lot to get where they are today. Over the course of the past 5 or 6 years, they have played countless shows, lost members, added members, recorded 2 albums and have marketed themselves to a wide audience, all on their own dollar. It seems as if all of their hard work is starting to pay off...and I couldn't be happier for them!

For the KISS show, I was able to spend the day with SS, from loading in to hanging out backstage, watching all of the insane KISS fans practically throw themselves at the band when given the opportunity to meet them.. The experience was, for lack of a better word, EPIC!

Before the set, Barry and I headed out to the lawn to get some shots of him for his new endorsement by Silverfox Drumsticks. We tossed around a few different ideas as to what we wanted to portray in these shots and then we got started. Barry isn't what I would consider to be a serious person. He's always smiling and laughing when I see him and has a genuine love for life. This is something that we wanted to portray in his shots. Originally I had thought that shooting him on the grass with a pretty blue sky would be nice, but once we got up there and I saw the texture of the fence behind him, my mind was made up! We shot these with ambient light as I had no lighting setup with me.

After Barry's shoot it was time for the show! I was only able to shoot the Switchblade set, as I was denied a pass for the rest of the bands. I was pretty bummed but sometimes these things happen and you just can't take it personal. I heard from a photographer friend that KISS only gave out 3 passes for this particular show. But even though I wasn't able to shoot the entire show, I didn't let it get me down. I made the best of it and shot the guys in SS with a smile on my face. For once, I was able to shoot them under some awesome lighting! In my previous post, I discussed how I'm not a fan of using a flash and thankfully, at the Comcast Center, there is a no flash rule...and there's no shortage of good lighting! SS was given a 20 minute set which consisted of 4 songs. This day was probably the best I've ever seen them play. They really delivered on this huge opportunity! If you live in the Boston area and you haven't had a chance to see them yet, I suggest you find when they are playing near you and go check them out!
Switchblade Suicide <----click the link to visit their myspace page.
After their set wrapped up, we wanted to get a shot commemorating their opportunity to open for KISS. We decided to shoot near the stockade of 18-wheelers, all adorned with the KISS/Dr. Pepper advertisements. Again, I shot this with ambient light as the sun started falling behind the trees, before it ran out on us! Congrats guys! And thank you for making me a part of your day! I had a blast!!