The Descendents @ Roseland, NYC – 9.23.11

I have been waiting to see the Descendents for at least 15 years now. I almost got the chance to when they played the Warped Tour ’97 in Asbury Park but then couldn’t get to the stage in time for their set since things were setup so poorly at Beirut, I mean Asbury Park. So I finally got the chance to see The Descendents and it was great! Of course the night had to be filled with unnecessary drama from not getting a photo pass. But thankfully Chris Roque came to the rescue and gave me a pass to shoot the Descendents!!

The photos are below but first, time for some bitching:

I arrived at the venue when the doors were opened and of course, I wasn’t on the guest list to receive a photo pass. It seems like just about every show I shoot there’s an issue with the photo pass or tickets. It seems like it happens at Roseland just about every time too. Not to say the venue is at fault but seems to happen there the most. I already bought tickets so I was good with that, but I lugged my camera equipment all the way there and then find out my name isn’t on the list. I called Live Nation who were in charge of tickets for some reason, and got no answer. My contact wasn’t there and didn’t answer emails/calls. The people at Roseland pretty much said I was shit out of luck since this person never sent the request to the band for approval. So the band wasn’t going to approve me to shoot since this person at Live Nation messed up. I still managed to get inside and met up with some people I knew, including fellow photographers Nathan Blaney and Chris Roque. Chris was there shooting as well, to see his friends H2O but he was trying to get me a pass through Toby and H20. He managed to hook me up for the Descendents, which I’m really grateful for! It stinks I missed out on shooting for the Suicide Machines and H2O because they both were excellent but I was lucky to shoot anything at this point.

The night wasn’t a total bummer because Chris came to the rescue but man, I was pissed. It’s times like this that makes me question whether or not shooting shows is worth it. Show after show, and not being on the list really takes a toll on you. I don’t know why I continue to get screwed over; I wasn’t even on the list when I shoot 2 shows for NME! I wonder what it’s gonna take for me to get my damn name on that list. Shooting for Rolling Stone? I’m sure it will happen to me then too. I’m 33 years old, I just don’t need this crap but it happens to a lot of photographers. It just seems like it happens to me the most. Sigh.

Anyway, so back to the The Descendents set. There were 14 other photographers in the pit, two or three of which practically did Hail Marys the entire set. That’s another thing that drives me crazy but that’s another rant another time. My advice to photographers doing it is STOP!!! The Descendents came on and did a lot of the classics (“Hope,” “Clean Sheets,” “Sour Grapes,” etc. etc.) , plus some of their newer material (“I’m The One,” “Nothing With You”) as well. The lighting was really bright, mixed in with reds and blues. There was plenty of white front lighting which I wish was at every show I shot. It was tough to move around since there were so many photographers in the pit. It’s been awhile shooting a punk show so had to watch out from bouncers getting crowd surfers as well. I think I did a good job with what I got, but was wished I got this one shot of Bill shooting up water into the air and getting more of his face in the shot. I was also sitting on the side afterwards and trying to get Bill since he seemed like a great drummer to photograph. But unfortunately there were people on the stage in the way.

I’m happy I got to finally see the Descendents, and got to see H2O and Suicide Machines again but very bummed about the whole photo pass thing. Thanks again to Chris Roque for hooking me up! Appreciate it brother!

The Entire Gallery

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Tags: 24-70mm f2.8, Bill Stevenson, Descendents photos, Karl Alvarez, Milo Aukerman, new york city, nikon d300, punk rock, roseland, Stephen Egerton, the descendents