The Red Hot Chili Peppers Return to San Diego

The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform in San Diego for another sold out performance at The Valley View Casino Center. The band was up to their usual antics of jumping around the stage and getting great crowd interaction. I got to interview Flea pre-show and I must say his brand of sarcasm is right up my alley. It turns out we were both surfing the same beach before the show. This show was re-scheduled from several months ago as Anthony Kiedis broke his leg. The setlist was great as they played a little bit off every one of their albums including the songs "Otherside, Under the Bridge, Around the World, Sir Psycho Sexy, By the Way." The sound quality was very good for an arena show and their stage setup was impeccable with several large monitors playing real time band videos.

Images by Doug Siegel
www.dougsiegelphotography.carbonmade.com

My Morning Jacket Three Night Run in Los Angeles

My Morning Jacket played three nights in a row in Los Angeles, CA at The Wiltern Theater. They played no repeats and rocked almost every song in their catalog plus covers such as "Rocket Man" and "Rock the Casbah." After photographing over 300 bands this year (mostly at Festivals), MMJ is one of my top 5 live bands. They only seem to be getting better and more dynamic with their live performances. I met people from all over the country who came to this three night run for some live MMJ. Good times were had by all.

Images by Doug Siegel

Farm Aid 2012

The 27th annual Farm Aid took place in Hershey Pa. this year. A full day of music that started around 2:30 pm and went till close to midnight. Scaled back some from the first Farm Aid that had 54 bands and 78,000 fans. The Hershey show had 12 bands, 30,000 fans (sold out). Still they have brought in just  over 40 million dollars over the years to help the small farmer.

Elton John: Greatest Hits Tour

Elton John returned to perform at Johnson City's Freedom Hall on September 16th after a 12 year hiatus. Freedom Hall has had its share of big acts (Aerosmith, The Eagles, Elvis Presley) but Elton John was the biggest act to perform there in quite some time. Needless to say the show sold out in a matter of hours.  The crowd was certainly appreciative of having a performer of that magnitude come to their small town and they showed it! 

My Darkest Days with Otherwise, Surrender The Fall and Deadwood Stone

My Darkest Days
Otherwise
Surrender The Fall
Deadwood Stone
At
The Intersection, Grand Rapids, Michigan
09-17-2012


On Monday we decided to go to the Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  If you have never been to the Intersection you’re missing out on seeing your favourite bands perform up close.  This was the third time we covered shows at the Intersection for that reason.

Before seeing the show we viewed all of the bands on youtube to listen to their music.  Videos and sound tracks don’t do any of the bands justice after hearing them live.  All four bands sounded great live.

RockStar Energy Upraor Festival Noblesville, Indiana Sept 8th 2012 at Klipsch Music Center

Despite being over and hour late to the venue thanks to construction traffic, we managed to see most of the bands and get all of our interviews done. Walking in, Klipsch is packed like I’ve never seen. People milling around between the vendors and stages all seem to be in good spirits as everyone shares the same motive for the day: enjoy some bad ass music. Squeezing all those people into that small of a space may seem like it would be a problem but the combined excitement and anticipation of everyone there kinda makes you overlook the drunken douchebags walking around spilling beer on everything and slurring all their words. All in all it’s a great atmosphere to be a part of.

Gwar and Devildriver with the Cancer Bats On the Fate or Chaos Tour 2012

           Check Back For Photos From the Novmber 23rd Show at Harpos in Detroit Michigan. 
California metal rockers DEVILDRIVER are preparing to hit the road one final time in North America in support of their latest release Beast.  The tour is scheduled to kick off October 7^th in Grand Junction, Colorado with a string of headlining dates before the band meets up with GWAR on October 12^th in Philadelphia, PA to start the “Fate or Chaos” tour.  DEVILDRIVER will also play select headline dates during off days of the tour with GWAR.  A complete list of tour dates can be found below.