For seven out of the past 10 years I have photographed Warped Tour. I have been to 11 Warped tours with the first one I went to was in 1998. Even though the bands have changed the core of what makes Warped tour keep going strong is still there. This year was the 21st installment of the tour.
Every year I look at the line up and find a few bands that I really want to see and then spend the rest of the time looking at what kind of stage presence the rest of the bands on the tour have. Sometimes if I have some downtime I will see if any bands are about to start and snap a few pics. This year, unlike most years, I had only one band overlap with another band that I wanted to shoot and had some down time to fit in another four bands that I had not planned on covering.
I am only going to talk about a few of the stand out bands I covered over the long day.
I had never heard of Mother Feather before but had seen a few pics of the band and was intrigued. The New York City who formed in 2009 by vocalist Ann Courtney has a strong cult following. Ann Courtney knows how to work the stage and keep the crowds attention. The band is defiantly not to be missed if you get the chance to see them or photograph them. I ended up buying their debut album ‘Mother Feather’ and have had it on solid rotation in my car for over a week.
Palaye Royale is another band that caught my attention when looking over pictures of the band. The fashion-art rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada mixes gritty guitar with a touch of glam. Remington Leith (lead vocalist), Sebastian Danzig (guitarist, organist), and Emerson Barrett (drummer) all have great presence on stage and were a blast to photograph. They are another band that I would not pass up on.
Less Than Jake is a band that I never miss. whether it is a headline show or Warped Tour I try and see them. This time around the Gainesville, Florida ska punk band had a bit of “Presidential Election” flare to their set. Lead singer/guitarist Chris DeMakes came out dressed in red pants, blue suit jacket with white stars on it, and an American flag bow-tie. The mascot of Less Than Jake came out with a ‘Less Than Jake 2016 Make Warped Tour Great Again” shirt on and shoot T-shirts out of an air cannon.
Full list of bands in order:
New Found Glory
Against The Current
Masked Intruder
Bad Seed Rising
Mother Feather
Tonight Alive
Set It Off
Whitechapel
Chunk! No, Captain Chunk
Falling in Reverse
Waterparks
Palaye Royale
Reel Big Fish
Sleeping With Sirens
Less Than Jake
Ballyhoo!
Sum 41
Motionless In White
With it being a festival and most bands playing in daylight settings ranged from ISO – 800 to 1600 and f2.8 – 6.3. The higher ISO and lower f-stop was mostly for bands that played on the main stage and had lower light conditions.
Cameras Used:
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 20D
Lens Used:
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
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