The last days of 2017 are counting down! Hence, this week’s photo challenge of the Daily Post are a throwback to the favourite moments in 2017 – ‘Best of 2017’.
It was an amazing year with many great moments, that gave me a special time! Especially all the concerts I was able to go to, have been amazing. Highlights definitely have been Slaves (US), The Word Alive, Northlane, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Mallory Knox at Rock am Ring, and many more. Here are some of the highlights in pictures!
I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a successful New Year 2018 🙂
Favourite place – Camden, London
Lovely sunset – London
Concert venue – Underworld, London
The Word Alive
Mallory Knox – Rock Am Ring
Blessthefall
Slaves (US)
Sleeping With Sirens
Rise Against
Holding Absence
Our Last Night
Northlane
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Silverstein
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To continue the catch-up, last week’s photo challenge of the Daily Post had the topic ‘ascend’. Hence, I thought it might be quite a good idea to take it literally.
The first time I visited the green island – Ireland – one of my trips was to the Croagh Patrick which is a 764 metres pilgrim mountain in County Mayo and the third highest mountain in the region. It was a special time ascending the path to the peak of the mountain. Unfortunately, the weather changed halfway through from sunny and nice to cold, rainy and dark. However, that didn’t stop me from getting to the top.
View back on the path to the top of Croagh Patrick – Ireland
Stony path with a beautiful view
View up the hill
The path is getting steeper and the weather changed
The top of Croagh Patrick – Ireland
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Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep up with the weekly photo challenges lately… However, I still want to post all the challenges I missed – so here we go 🙂
The first one has the topic ‘cheeky’. People are seen as cheeky if they act in a slightly rude or not respectful but funny way. Especially children are showing their cheeky grin when they are up to something rather forbitten. However, not only humans can have this cheeky facial expression. Sometimes some animals show this kind of expression as well which looks really funny.
Capturing these cheeky moments is definitely always a special time!
Cheeky seagull
Cheeky horse
Cheeky toad
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This week’s photo challenge of the Daily Post has a very lovely topic, as I think – it is about something ‘serene’, or more exactly, something that reminds you of breathing and relaxing.
Cities and the daily life can be very stressful, especially when the end of the year is coming closer! Time runs and wins pace with each second and the days are flying by. Hence, being captured in the daily groove, we try to keep up with the pace and forget to take a moment to breath, relax and appreciate what we have. Unfortunately, it is not possible for everyone to just pack a bag and escape. Hence, other alternatives, such as music and pictures could help to escape for just a few minutes. For me these escapes are concerts or the sea. I always have a special time around these places, and the pictures remind me of that!
Take a deep breath – Northern Irish Coast
Mallory Knox – Rock Am Ring
Fresh air – Northern Irish coast
Silence – Northern Ireland
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Another amazing concert I lately went to, was Our Last Night 🙂
The American post-hardcore band from Hollis, New Hampshire (USA) was formed in 2004 and currently consists of the brothers Trevor (vocals) and Matt (guitar, vocals) Wentworth, as well as Alex Woodrow (bass) and Tim Molly (drums).
So far, the band released four EP’s and five full-length albums. In 2004 and 2005 they released their first EP’s ‘We’ve Been Holding Back EP’ (2004, self-released) and ‘Building Cities from Scratch EP’ (2005, self-released) on their own. The band’s debut album ‘The Ghosts Among Us’ was released 2008 via Epitaph Records, followed by ‘We Will All Evolve’ (Epitaph Records) in 2010 and their first headlining tour in the US. After their fourth studio album ‘Age Of Ignorance’ (2012, Epitaph Records), Our Last night again release their music independently and started a crowdfunding campaign to support their work. Furthermore, the band released many different cover versions of songs such as Adel’s Skyfall or Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive as part of ‘A Summer Of Covers’. In 2013 their EP ‘Oak Island’ (self-released) was released, followed by their fourth studio album ‘Young Dreamers’ in 2014. Before the release of their fifth studio album ‘Selective Hearing’ (self-released) in 2017, Our Last Night covered some more songs from bands such as U2 or the Beatles. They, already archived chart listings with some of their albums and toured through many parts of Europe, USA and Asia.
Musically, Our Last Night shows influences of post-hardcore, metalcore and alternative rock, mixing clean and screamed vocals with heavy guitar sounds. On the latest release, the songs are more melodic and contain more clean vocals than the older releases.
Our Last Night enjoying their music
Our Last Night
Our Last Night enjoying the stage
Matt and Trevor during the acoustic set
Trevor having a blast on stage
Great vibes during the acoustic set
Matt and Trevor of Our Last Night
Our Last Night having fun on stage
Great lights
Trevor dancing on the stage
Trevor and Matt during the acoustic set
Trevor living his songs
Our Last Night
Great lights
Trevor and Matt having fun on stage
Following their latest release, the band toured to many different places. One of these concerts was in London, which I luckily was able to go to!
The Garage, known as London’s finest indie and rock venue, opened its doors at around 6pm for a capacity of around 600 people. Established in 1993, many bands such as Muse or Arctic Monkeys and Green Day played at the venue before.
The first band for the Our Last Night show was the South Africa-born and London-based alternative rock trio New Volume, who formed in 2013. Tyron Layley (vocals, guitar), Ryan Morris (lead guitar, vocals) and Adam Jenkins (drums) released their debut album ‘Envy’ in 2016 via Sumerian Records. Their sound is a mix rock guitar sounds and electric synths showing influences of bands such as Depeche Mode. The vibe-ish mix of the synths and guitars worked great in the venue and the fans had a great time during their performance.
New Volume
New Volumes enjoying their performance
The second band of the evening was Holding Absence, who was really amazing! The band was formed in 2016 and shows a unique blend of emotive post-hardcore with influences of a variety of bands from The Offspring to Thy Art Is Murder. Musically, they try to blend in some alternative and pop influences while the lyrics are about loss, who they are and where they want to be. So far, Lucas Woodland (vocals), Feisal El-Khatzragi (guitar), Giorgio Cantarutti (guitar), James Joseph (bass) and Ashley Green (drums) released four songs via SharpTone Records which are ‘Heaven Knows’ (2017), ‘Penance’ (2017), ‘Permanent’ (2017) and ‘Dream Of Me’ (2017). The mix of the rough sometimes screamed and sometimes clean vocals, underlined with the heavy guitar sound and emotional synthesiser vibes created an amazing dark and magical atmosphere. I am definitely looking forward to new creations in the future.
Holding Absence
The crowd was quite young but very engaging. Everyone enjoyed the bands, sung along, jumped and did some crowd surfing. Even Alex Woodrow jumped into the crowd with his bass, got carried to the bar and back to the stage, while the rest of the Our Last Night members played ‘Dark Storms’. All three bands seemed to have an amazing time and delivered a great performance. Tim Molly (drums for Our Last Night) played the whole set with his broken ankle perfectly. In the middle of the set Trevor and Matt (both vocals and acoustic guitar) played a few acoustic songs which showed their great voices even better, followed by the cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’ with the rest of the members. The sound and lighting were great as well and suited each band perfectly. While Holding Absence kept the light simple and rather dark to create that amazing mystic atmosphere, New Volume had more colourful lights and Our Last Night had an amazing colourful and energetic light show with confetti in the end. The sound was neither too loud, nor too messy, but quite clear so the vocals could be heard perfectly which made it a pleasant listening experience.
Trevor smashing the drums
Great vibes
Trevor playing the acoustic guitar
Amazing lights
Our Last Night animating the crowd
The show was on fire
Our Last Night thanking the crowd
This sold out concert was absolutely amazing, and I definitely had a special time. Everybody seemed to have a great time, all three bands on the stage included.
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Especially at this time of the year, nature is undergoing many different transformations. This could be the leaves turning into beautiful golden and colourful shades before they fall off, or water drops that freeze, and the sparkling ice crystals around the leaves of the flowers.
It’s always a special time of the year to see the world transform from a vivid colourful place in a beautiful frozen winter wonderland 🙂
Frozen water drop
Ice crystals
Fallen leaves
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A little while ago I went to see the US post-hardcore band Sleeping With Sirens who toured as special guests with Rise Against through Europe.
Rise Against is an American punk hardcore band, founded in 1999 under the name ‘Transistor Revolt’. After a few changes in their line-up, they now consist of Tim McIlrath (vocals), Zach Blair (guitar), Joe Principe (bass) and Brandon Barnes (drums). So far, the band released eight studio records, a few EP’s and live DVD’s which are ‘Transistor Revolt EP’ (2000, self-released), their debut album ‘The Unraveling’ (2001, Fat Wreck Records), ‘Revolutions per Minute’ (2003, Fat Wreck Records), ‘Siren Song of the Counter Culture’ (2004, Dreamwork Records/Geffen) which includes their break through singles ‘Swing Life Away’ and ‘Give It All’, ‘The Sufferer & The Witness’ (2006, Geffen) which reached number ten on Billboard’s 200 (USA), ‘This is Noise EP’ (2007, Geffen), ‘Appeal to Reason’ (2009, Geffen) which reached number three of the Billboard 200 charts in the USA, ‘Endgame’ (2011, Geffen), ‘Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 2000-2013’ (2013, Geffen), ‘The Black Market’ (2014, Interscope Records) and ‘Wolves’ (2017, Capitol Records). With their extensive touring after each album released they were able to establish a strong fan base right from the beginning. They also used some of the footage, recorded during their live performances, together with fan interviews, to create ‘Generation Lost’ (DVD) which was released at the end of 2006. ‘Another Station: Another Mile’ was the second live DVD of the band, released in 2010, but this time with the focus on unreleased live footage. Musically, they offer a mix of melodic hardcore, punk rock and hardcore punk mixing rough vocals with heavy and fast guitars. With their lyrics they address different topics such as social problems, animal rights, environmental issues and politics. The band also supports organisations such as PETA.
Tim McIlrath living his music
Rise Against
Rise Against
Great vibes and lights
Rise Against having fun on stage
Tim McIlrath joining the crowd
Little acoustic session with Tim McIlrath
The sold-out show took place at the o2 Academy Brixton, a Grade II listed concert venue with a capacity of around 4900 people. The normally host events such as live music concerts, club nights or comedy shows, attracting music fans from all over the world. A special feature of the venue itself is the sloping floor that offers a great view even from the back. The stage is one of Europe’s biggest fixed stages with its design based on Venice’s Rialto bridge frame, the Art Deco interior and the distinctive 140-foot dome, making the venue a very special and atmospheric location.
The Venue opened its doors around 7pm and the huge crowd entered with lots of excitement. There were many young adults, but also some younger as well as older people.
The first band on the stage was the melodic hardcore punk band Pears from New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). Founded in 2014 by Zach Quinn (vocals) and Brian Pretus (guitar), they released their debut album ‘Go To Prison’ (self-release) in 2014 and their second album ‘Green Star’ (Fat Wreck Records) in 2016. After a slight change in their line-up, Erich Goodyear joined the band playing the bass and Jarret Nathan sits behind the drums. Musically, Pears mixing rough vocals with their guitar based sound. They had a lot of energy and fun on stage. However, the crowd wasn’t that engaging, even though, the band showed their comedy skills, joking the other bands would have cancelled and they would play all sets themselves instead…
Pears
The next band on the stage was the American post-hardcore band Sleeping With Sirens which was the actual reason I wanted to go to the concert 🙂 I saw them before during their ‘World Tour’ with Pierce The Veil. Hence, as I heard they would play some concerts with Rise Against I was absolutely excited.
The band from Orlando, Florida (USA) was founded in 2009 and currently consist of Kellin Quinn (vocals), Justin Hills (bass), Nick Martin (lead guitar), Jack Fowler (rhythm guitar) and Gabe Barham (drums). They just released their fifth studio album ‘Gossip’ (2017, Warner Bros.) which opens up to a broader audience through its rather pop-influenced sound. With their last albums, the band already tried to use as little breakdowns as possible and saw themselves more as a Rock band than within the post-hardcore scene. However, Kellin Quinn’s outstanding and unique sounding voice makes the band even more special and unique, using an incredible range within his high pitched clear vocals and screamed vocals. The main part of the songs is sung with clear vocals. The influences and crossovers of genres such as pop-punk or pop-rock, combined with the unique voice and their talent, makes them a very outstanding band. The band writes the lyrics themselves. Most of the topics are about things that bother the band members or situations and feelings they had to deal with at that point of time.
Kellin Quinn living the songs
Justin Hills and Kellin Quinn on the stage
Great vibes
Sleeping With Sirens animating the crowd
Kellin Quinn giving his best
Nick Martin and Kellin Quinn
Sleeping With Sirens creating great vibes
Kellin Quinn and Jack Fowler
Sleeping With Sirens having fun on stage
Amazing atmosphere
With each band the crowd got more hyped and the energy level rose. Sleeping With Sirens had an amazing time on stage and animated the crowd to sing along and to enjoy themselves while moshing in their circle pits. Kellin joined the fans at the barrier singing with them together. They played a good mix of their older and new songs which was highly appreciated by the audience.
With Rise Against on the stage, the crowd went mental. They had many circle pits, crowd surfers and everyone enjoyed the show. The band was highly motivated and played many of their new, but also a lot of their older songs. The fans sung along and had a great time. With some of their most famous songs as acoustic versions, the atmosphere was incredible.
Especially the sound and lighting system supported the atmosphere. They had additional screens and a great light show. However, for the acoustic songs they kept it very minimalistic, having only one spot which definitely added to the atmosphere! The sound was on point, not too loud and well mixed – for all of the bands.
Rise Against enjoying the stage
Filled with energy
Great energy on stage
Tim McIlrath thanking the crowd
Great lights and vibes
It was an amazing night, a special time and a great show with very talented bands. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them the next time they are on tour 😉
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This week’s photo challenge of the Daily Post is about being or trying something ‘experimental’. It might be the decision of changing the route some one took every day, new food somebody tried, or other creative experiments that lead to something new for someone.
As many of you already might know – I love music 🙂 Especially guitar-based music. However, I started playing the piano with classical music. Hence, I always try to play the rock songs I love listening to as acoustic versions… But not only music can be experimental, traveling around trying specific food of a place I visit or just taking a different road to get to places can be experimental and brings a special time. Here are my pictures for the challenge 😉
Music can be very experimental
Trying Cornish Scones, a special baked pasty, served with clotted cream and jam – Cornwall, UK
Exploring the nature and taking different routes – Dortmund, Germany
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Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to upload last weeks photo challenge. However, I still wanted to upload it and share it with you.
The topic provided by the Daily Post was ‘temporary’. Quite a nice and philosophic topic. Thinking about photography as something that captures a glimpse of a moment – of something that might not be existed any more seconds after the picture was taken. However, it also could be something that lasts for a while or a limited period before it slowly changes or fades…
I wanted to focus on temporary situations that change in a blink of an eye. Nature is always full of unexpected and surprising moments. It is always a special time exploring them 🙂
Beautiful sunlight shining through a window before it fades with the position of the sun – Cornwall, UK
Capture of a seagull right at its take-off – Cornwall, UK
Splashing water just before it vanishes into dust – Cornwall, UK
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This week’s photo challenge of the daily post was ‘peek’ – showing a glimpse of something that might awake curiosity.
A very different way to approach this photo challenge is showing smaller parts of a bigger building as I learned a while ago in my art class at school. Very often, architecture and buildings are shown in their whole appearance. But what about the details? The things that make them special? Or different perspectives? The viewer gets a sneak peek looking through a window of a building, only seeing a small part of what awaits on the outside.
I took pictures of different perspectives exploring Raglan Castle in Wales.
The castle, which is traditionally called Castell Rhaglan, is a late medieval ruin in the south east of Wales. It was built around the 15th century and is known for the hexagonal keep which is also called Great Tower or Yellow Tower of Gwent. After offering a home for different inhabitants, the romantic ruin is now a modern tourist attraction.
Walking through such resilient places and exploring history is always a special time 😉
Raglan Castle – Wales, UK
View through the window
The remainings of the castle
Overview of the ruins and land sourrounding the castle
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A Special Time Creative 