Digital Diversion

© 2011 Alan Snodgrass | www.digitaldiversion.net. Please do not use without express permission (contact). If you like what you see, leave a comment below and subscribe so you can be notified of new posts. You can also become a fan on Facebook for access to exclusive photos.

You never know with a week night how a show will turn out. Throw in a holiday, especially one focused almost entirely on the consumption of alcohol such as St. Patrick’s day and you can pretty much figure that all bets are off as far as how the night will end (or begin, for that matter).

A slow moving line that wrapped around the corner kept me from all but the last song of the openers (whose name I missed … sorry). Inside, I found a giant, largely empty pit with people smooshed against the walls. Not sure how things got that way but can only suspect that a few fans arrived already loosened up from some pre-show Saint Paddy’s festivities. As is sometimes the case when I find it hard to maneuver in a crowd, the claustrophobia kicks in and my mind starts wandering to the location of the nearest exit, wondering how combustible those 80 year old timber rafters are and doing a mental calculation on how long it will take to pack 600+ bodies through two standard doorways. At least they didn’t bring pyros.

After the Burial

And as is often the case when the evening escalates from the brink of chaos to absolute mayhem as the hours tick on, the best photos often come from the openers. That said, these guys kicked a lot of ass and I highly recommend checking out After The Burial when they pass through your town.

The good news is that somebody packed in some new lighting and sound gear into the normally dimly lit Oakland Metro that took this little space in Oakland warehouse district to a level that I haven’t seen in many visits over the last year.

Winds Of Plague

Despite the pumped up lighting it was still a challenging environment … no photo pit, plenty of stage divers, strobe lights, fists in the air and a giant mosh pit … you know, all that stuff that makes for a great show. The kind of show that pushes you to the point of, rather than trying to capture it, giving up on shooting around the raised cell phones (that will be shortly uploading their videos to YouTube) and put the camera away and just go with it.

As I Lay Dying

© 2011 Alan Snodgrass | www.digitaldiversion.net. Please do not use without express permission (contact). If you like what you see, leave a comment below and subscribe so you can be notified of new posts. You can also become a fan on Facebook for access to exclusive photos.

© 2010 Alan Snodgrass | www.digitaldiversion.net. Please do not use without express permission (contact). If you like what you see, leave a comment below and subscribe so you can be notified of new posts. You can also become a fan on Facebook for access to exclusive photos.