Another year of concerts done, my last media show for 2018 has been shot and posted. I can’t believe it has been almost 10 years of covering major shows in Montreal, and each year, I add some bands I have never shot, make images I consider better than the last, meet amazing people, and still totally love the job I managed to make for myself.
It has been a busy year to say the least. Festivals aside, I covered a total of 93 bands during the 12 months of 2018. That’s 20 more than last year. Huge shout out to CHOM 97.7, Virgin Radio and iHeartradio who keep me busy during the year, who make me feel like family, and who for the 4th year, keep putting their trust in the work that I do.
And what to say about the festivals this year? It was the first year I covered every major Evenko summer festival… 77 Montreal, Heavy Montreal, Osheaga and IleSoniq. 3 full weekends of back to back shooting, often times on multiple stages, live uploads and loads of kilometers walked. The Evenko teams are such a blast to work with and it is incredible how hard these people work to put on these summer festivals. The photo crew covering these festivals are mostly all over the place, and it is amazing how the team is solid and everyone backs each other up.
The classics
Highlights of the year? So many to write about. Being able make images of legends like Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bon Jovi and Santana. Even though major acts often restrict our image use, being able to see someone like Sir Paul up on stage, or up close to Sir Elton while he works his piano magic is awe inspiring.
Discoveries
The reason that got me into concert photos way back when is that I am a huge fan of live music and love discovering new bands. The Lazys (who I photographed twice!) and Black Pistol Fire are two standouts that put on a high energy show. And who can forget the intensity of Jonny Hawkins, front man for Nothing More?
A bit of nostalgia
My personal nostalgia was also well filled during 2018. Some mainstays that were often in my earphones when I was a kid like Our Lady Peace, Anthrax, Smashing Pumpkins, Matthew Good and Social Distortion.
Festival faves
And what to say about the photo marathon of the festivals? You can image it is intense, sometimes having to cover bands on 2 stages that can be 15 minutes apart. Just the chance to photograph punk legends DOA was enough to make the entire 77 Montreal festival worth it for me. Seeing the crazy adulation fans have for people like Bhad Bhabie at IleSoniq was a bit disturbing, hip hop pioneers De La Soul at Osheaga were sublime and throw in some good old Heavy Mania wrestling at Heavy Montreal… you have one happy photographer.
Everything else
I could go on and on about other bands, special moments and intense fans that I saw during the year… there were plenty !! I’ll just leave it to the rest of some of my fave 2018 images.
You would think after doing this for a while, things would get repetitive and stale. But really, each year seems different than the last, each show has a little something extra, and the joy of shooting shows is to find a way to make everything different and not just shoot the same old each time.
Can’t wait for 2019 !!
…. and I can’t do a yearly recap photo without the new additions to the shoe collection !!!
