A few photos from tour

As you know, my band's on tour. Tomorrow, we fly to Malawi to play the Moon Rock Festival and then on Tuesday, we drive up the East Coast of SA to play a bunch of shows. I'm hoping to do a tour diary of the East Coast trip that I'll post either during or after that leg, depending on connectivity. For now, here are a few photos from the current tour that I snatched up from our manager's Instagram account. (Thanks Nicci!)*

Live on stage at Die Boer Theatre - We played 2 nights there to kick off the tour.

Bjorn on the way to a show.

Me laying on the cheese during sound check.

Finalising stage setup before sound check.

Brian "slappin da BASS". He says that's his setlist on his iPad, but he's actually just reading comics.

We had a great crowd at this show.

So happy to have my Yamaha kit on the road with me.

I'm surprised no one tried to swing from the chandelier above the crowd.

Bjorn rocking out.

Mark can sing with his eyes closed. Legend!

Quite a trippy photo of us on stage.

Band and crew (minus Philip, our sound engineer) hanging out at the merch table after a show.

*All photos taken by Nicci Hayden

Photo Challenge! - "Cruising"

I've always had an interest in photography, so for my birthday in March, my wife along with a few members of our family chipped in to buy me a decent camera. After buying a book on photography and practicing a bit, she's decided I need a challenge. So, every now and then she thinks up a different style of photo that I should take.

Quite a while back, she suggested I take a photo that shows motion. Although it is long overdue, I finally managed. Yesterday, as it was such a nice day, I took a walk through town at around lunch time and snapped a few photos, amongst which I got this one entitled "Cruising" (Click to enlarge the photo).

I managed to take a few other nice ones, which I'll add soon.

My next photo challenge is to create an interesting landscape/cityscape photo. It should be fun. :)

Blogging like it's going on Twitter

Hi!

Yes, I'm still here.

I've decided as of today to update my blog more frequently, but with shorter posts and hopefully more photos.

I have a decent camera now, so I therefore have no excuse not to take cool photos and share them with the world.

My blog is basically going to be like a Twitter account. Short, to-the-point, and hopefully interesting.

Thanks for your patience during my 6+ months of inactivity.

For your patience, and as part of my promise, here's a photo I took a while back of a rainbow on Table Mountain from my apartment window. No editing done on it as of yet. :)

Backstage passes

Continuing in showing off my collection of partially focused cellphone photography, I snapped a few pics of some backstage passes I've collected from various shows I've played or been involved in somehow. Check it out!

 

 

Hard Rock Cafe - Cape Town - 1999

I was only 11 when this show happened, but I got this backstage pass when I went to the soundcheck with my uncle, whose band headlined the event. It was the New Year's Eve/Millennium Party and it was also my first visit to the Hard Rock Cafe. 

 

 

 

Lanners Landing - Klapmuts - 2002 or 2003

One of the most intense shows I've been to. This took place before I joined 12th Avenue. I was working as a roadie/lighting technician (underage labour) for the band at the time. The crowd was so crazy that someone picked up a monitor from the front of the stage and passed it around the crowd!

 

 

 

 

 

Southern Exposure Festival - Observatory - 2003

 My first (unofficial) show with 12th Avenue. Their drummer at the time had hurt his hand and I filled in for him.

"Crazy" EP Launch - Mercury Live - Cape Town - 2005

Our first EP launch was a major DIY effort. We had these passes made for the band and crew and spent the entire night before the show inserting the CD sleeves into the cases, as we printed the first set of discs ourselves.

"Crazy" Tour - 2006

My second tour with 12th Avenue, which included my first trip up the Garden Route.

RAMFest - Rawsonville - 2007

We played the opening night of the inaugural RAMFest outdoor festival. It rained really hard for most of the night, but stopped when we hit the stage, and we got the funniest stares ever from the late night staff at the local KFC. I suppose we asked for it showing up in our stage clothes...

"Rock N Roll Circus" Tour - 2007

Much of this tour is a blur to me. I do, however, remember falling asleep for a few seconds on stage in Durban, due to pure exhaustion,  as well as Mark and I having to ice our feet after walking on hot tarmac to the beach.

Seether SA Tour - 2008

Nights 1 & 2 of Seether's "Homecoming" tour. Good times!

Seether SA Tour - 2008

The venue for the Durban show didn't have enough space for dressing rooms for the support acts, so Shaun from Seether was cool enough to share their room (and their food) with everyone. 

Seether SA Tour - 2008

Final night of the Seether tour. What a party!

FIFA World Cup FanFest - 2010

 We were selected to play four shows at the various Cape Town FIFA FanFests. We met some fun football fanatics (alliteration...nice) at those shows.

Random Festival - 2010 or 2011

I don't actually remember what show this is from, but I thought it was cool that the promoter made custom passes for each band.

Photo fun!

Since I haven't had (and still don't have) much to say lately, I thought I'd share a few interesting photos that I found when browsing through the pictures folder on my phone.

Enjoy!

Venue marquee from tour earlier this year. All cool venues have marquee signage.

My view during soundcheck. This show was set up in a warehouse. Very underground...

Static electricity! Bzzzt!

Awesome Halloween Cake

My mediocre attempt at making a smiley in my coffee.

Having sponsors is awesome.

I promise I'll actually write something soon. :)