As a concert photographer, I usually don't spend a lot of time at a concert. Every show I do, I get a press pass and a ticket into the event. But usually, I leave after the three-song industry standard for major music acts. There have only been a few concerts I have ever stayed, usually because they are like not the greatest seat location. Not complaining, it is a business after all and I am getting in for free to cover the band, the venue, who has bills to pay, needs to sell tickets and fill seats.
This week there was a concert in Albuquerque, NM, that I really wanted to go to, I was not selected to cover the concert and due to my busy schedule didn't have the money to go to the concert, so I had decided I would miss it again for the sixth time in my life for this band. I had even cancelled plans to even go to Albuquerque altogether that day to just relax at home.
Then, while on social media, a friend announced she had an extra ticket; it had been posted an hour before I saw it. I thought there is no way that ticket was still available but I replied and then wrote her a direct message. She shortly replied and said it was since available and told me when she would be at the Amphitheater that evening and to meet her there.
As I was driving to the venue, I realized it had been over 10 years since I had actually gone to a concert where I was not carrying my camera and covering the event. I have been doing concert photography for 25 years, so I am always shooting concerts. I got to the venue and waited for my friend, something I normally don't do as well; I usually get my ticket at the box office and get escorted in. I went through the long security line no special line or bypassing that, but it went pretty quickly actually. I join the thousands of fans that were already there, fighting for a spot on the grass. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you these were the grass section of the amphitheater, but grass seating was fine, usually, at a concert, I am lucky if I get to sit down. I found a location dead center, threw my blanket on the ground and opened the beer I had just got, hoping it tasted like gold as it was the most expensive beer I had ever bought. As a concert photographer, I usually don't drink as I am there to do a job. The two guys next to me and in front of me were already drunk, so it was fun before the music entertainment for the night began.
Oh, I haven't even told you who was preforming that night! I am admittedly a super fan of the headliner and the opening bands were the chocolate syrup on top of the ice cream. The first band up, a band I had never heard of but they were really good, Filter. Then, they announced who was coming up after them, me not reading the poster for the event almost dropped my beer. Ministry, the iconic band of the 80’s and 90’s, was hitting the stage. I had never seen them live so it was great. They didn't disappoint me either, I enjoyed their whole set, totally bring out the old school goth in me out.
By now my grass mates were into their four or fifth beer and offered to buy me one, so we sat there talking about previous concerts and they were excited to find out I was a concert photographer and they were sad I had not been given access to this concert. As soon as the music started, a person, I never thought I would see live ever in my lifetime, the legend and master of rock, Alice Cooper steps out on stage. He looked so small all the way back in the grass seating but I could zoom him in on my cell phone, and took the worst pictures of any concert but I didn't care, it was the Alice Cooper. He played all the classic Alice Cooper songs ending his set with “Schools Out for the Summer” The packed crowd went wild, including me, who normally would be getting ready to line up at the pit to get ready for the next band.
Then, there was a long pause. The headliner in their usual style waited until the audience was chanting their name. There I was with thousands of hungry fans pumping my fist and screaming for the moment we had been waiting for on the hill side grassy area of the amphitheater. Beer was spilling from the cans as guys fist bumped each other and screamed, the energy was electrifying. Then the moment had arrived the house music stopped, it was silent, then the crowds impatient noises seized. The drums started playing the curtain was dropped and the legend and iconic Rob Zombie on a tall platform starts to sing, the noise from the crowd was deafening, the music was loud, and the lighted panels behind Rob Zombie were flashing images and designs in reds, yellows, and white. The crowd joined in and sang the part of the song they could remember in their drunken daze, cellphones and horns or fist pumping was done by all.
At the end of the concert everyone was breathless and in shock that over an hour of Rob Zombie on stage was over, he had put us in a trance, clearly, as we walked dazed from the venue like cattle being herded to our cars. He had performed every one of our favorite songs. From that moment it ended we realized we had just seen and heard the most iconic concert in our history. After this tour we will never see Ministry, Alice Cooper, and Rob Zombie like that again. This was the 10-year anniversary of Rob Zombie staring a tour in Albuquerque. It was so fun to sit in the audience on the hard, damp ground and watch history unfold in front of me. These are some of the reasons I became a concert photographer; to capture history and stand in that pit sweating, legs sore, shoulders in pain so that, you, the fans can see what really is happening on stage. Oh, the pictures from my cell phone are memories I will never erase but will always cherish. The ones I shoot from the pit are even more special. I have a great time watching a concert from start to finish instead of waiting to capture the perfect moment. But the passion to capture the right shot in the pit is now more cherished and truly a privilege than just shooting pictures from the grassy section of the amphitheater.
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