I’ve been a fan of The Kooks since their first album “Inside In/Inside Out” was released back in 2006. They are popular over in the UK but now they are just as popular over here in America. They have a new album out now called “Konk” and one of their stops on their tour were two nights in New York. Originally, the band was only going to play on June 11th (today) but they added another date when the concert sold out quickly. When that concert was added, I decided to get tickets & try to score a photo pass. I did get a pass and manged to get some great photos of the band!

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The Morning Benders were the opening band for The Kooks at Terminal 5 last night in New York City. They are an indie/pop rock from Berkley, California and really warmed up the young crowd. I wasn’t familiar with the band beforehand but was impressed with their music. I’ll probably check out Morning Benders now that I saw them live. They played for at least a half hour and I shot the first third songs.

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Drunk In Public is an acoustic side band featuring members of the Levellers, and they play smaller venues & pubs. Usually the band consists of Mark, Simon and Jon of the Levellers and Rev Hammer. Mark Chadwick and Jon Sevink of the Levellers came over to the United States last weekend to go to Irish musician Dan Donnelly’s wedding. The next night, they decided to play a small, drunken show at the Red Lion in New York City. They played with Dan Donnelly, Roy Harter of Sonovagun and 2 other unknown gents. It was an amusing, chaotic show but I had blast watching it unfold before my eyes.

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I’ve shot Pennywise a few times on the Warped Tour but I never got the chance to shoot photos of them in a venue. While I like shooting outside in the daytime; the photos can be boring after awhile. But I had feeling I was going to prefer going back to shooting punk bands during the day because this set was hard! Members of the band were moving around the stage a lot, wearing hats, mics in their faces, and it was just hard to get some crisp photos of Pennywise. But I did get an awesome & hilarious photo of Jim Lindberg, which you can see above. But I’ll talk to you about that photo in a bit.

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Strung Out have been around since 1992 but I haven’t really listened to their music all that much. Not for any reason except I just never got any of their albums. Usually when I got Fat Wreck music, I’d hand it off to my friend Paul to review. I saw Strung Out last year at the Warped Tour and thought they were good. On the Pennywise tour, they were awesome and got the crowd in a near riot frenzy.

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Authority Zero were up next and I was really looking forward to their set. I’ve been a fan of AZ for a few years now but only saw them last year for the first time. It was at the Knitting Factory, and now they were playing at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza with Pennywise. They brought their energetic ska punk to a sold out crowd that I’m sure guaranteed them more fans. They played some of my favorites like “One More Minute,” “Find Your Way,” “Revolution” and the amazing rendition of “Rattlin’ Bog.”

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Capital were the opening band at the Pennywise show at The Fillmore last night. When the band performed, the club was already 75 percent filled up and it continued to grow throughout their set. I never heard of Capital before but they are on Revelation Records and are from the Long Island area. Their style is old school hardcore/punk and I thought they were pretty good.

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It’s been about 2 or 3 years now since the last time I saw the mighty Gwar. This was my third Gwar show and each time, it’s been such an entertaining night! Gwar put on one of the best live shows out there, and most creative might I add. The band always seem to stop by at the Chance on their tours, and the staff always seem to love the band. The bouncers were all prepared with garbage bags wrapped around their heads & bodies, and the fans were prepared as well. About 50 percent of the crowd had white shirts, ready to get bloody and get peed on. The other half either didn’t care what shirt they wore or didn’t know what was gonna happen. I certainly wasn’t going to get anywhere near the stage.
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Mensrea features members of Gwar, and that’s who they opened up for at the Chance last night. I never heard of them but they hail from Richmond area, just like Gwar (even though they claim they are from Antarctica). The band plays metal/hardcore and I really liked these guys. It’s been ages since I’ve been to a metal or hardcore show so it was nice change-up to hear these guys at the Chance.
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The Vans Warped Tour is coming up this summer and more & more photographers are getting access to shoot the tour. I have been covering the Warped Tour on and off for 10 years now and tend to get my best shots at this tour. This article is for the newbie photographer that’s just starting out and needs some type of advice on what to do on the concert. I have been asked from time to time on how to get a pass, advice, etc. So here’s a list of things you need to know before shooting the Warped Tour:

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