Alice Cooper live at Sonisphere festival Basel, Switzerland

First, I thought I should post the super scary, theatralic photo first. You know, the ones that make Alice Cooper Alice Cooper. Dramatic light, dramatic costume, everything. But then I thought it probably would chase away all the folks that landed on this blog because I shot Justin Bieber. And we don’t want that happening, do we? So, hit the jump for the scary photo…

Alice Cooper at Sonisphere - with this lighting, he kind of reminds me of Catwoman!

Here it is! Scared? I guess we finally now have a new photo that shows you what happens if you light someone from undearneath. You know, instead of the one of Alfred Krupp that’s in all photo lighting books. I guess the red color helps too, but in the case of the Krupp photo, that would have been too obvious.

Alice Cooper in his spider costume (and in better light)

Here’s the same Alice in the same costume a couple of seconds later – in considerably better light. And you gotta say, for a photographer, a costume- and stage-prop loving, dramatic stage scene creating guy with makeup on in good light is pretty much like winning the lottery. You kinda can’t go wrong. Also, why aren’t my parents like Alice Cooper? I would guess they’re about the same age!

Alice Cooper - master of light, props, and makeup

German medieval metal band In Extremo live at Sonisphere festival 2011 in Basel, Switzerland

Bagpipes can only mean one thing. Bagpipes equals medieval metal, equals In Extremo. Ok, equals a lot of other bands, too, but In Extremo are undoubtedly something like the kings of that genre. That, and men in half-topless medieval-ish armor and their curious instruments (at last! no guitarists in the photo!) definitely count as eye candy…

More medieval stuff (and the band's logo in wood): In Extremo at Sonisphere festival 2011

German medieval metal band In Extremo live in concert at Sonisphere Festival 2011 in Basel

And honestly, I’m too scared to google for any bands that actually do that. The Klingon theme would make for great masks and stage props though – or maybe I got something wrong and that’s what Turisas were all about? Or GWAR. Though I heard GWAR don’t sing in Klingon (nor Elvish). Which leaves me with the question: Are there any bands that do this? Hit me with your YouTube links (only the ones which are safe to watch if you want to keep your hearing and seeing ability, please)!

Medieval harp solo with In Extremo at Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland.

Fred Durst enjoying the sunny weather at Sonisphere festival 2011

Yep, that’s how nice the weather was. And much as I described in my last post, the sunshine ain’t always the photographer’s friend. Like when suddenly, some Fred Durst decides to jump over to the fans and your lens is suddenly aimed at that giant fireball that’s illuminating our planet instead of black backdrops (and bored roadies who snooze on road cases… you should see some of the outtakes!)

Now there's rock photographer's delight - stage makeup!

So enough about me, how about Limp Bizkit? Their 2011 version looked more mature than before, even Fred Durst managed to look as if he didn’t only care about himself, but really the music. I mean not that he didn’t care about music before, I guess that would be totally wrong, but it just didn’t show that much. For some, really, getting a bit older and wiser is much for the better. And I have to say that, I recently turned 30 and feel like a freaking grandma. Three-O!

Fred Durst - older and better :)

PS: I almost, totally almost, resisted saying that Fred Durst looked hungry for more. But then, I couldn’t. If you don’t speak any German, you won’t get the pun anyway, so just forget about it :P

Slipknot, probably the most famous masks in metal, live at Sonisphere festival Switzerland, 2011

Survived the holidays alright? Well here goes your next dose of Sonisphere photos recently dusted off and released from their captivity on my hard drive. Lots could be said about feelings of Slipknot performing their first tour without their late member Paul Gray, and probably someone should and did.

Slipknot on their first tour without Paul Gray at Sonisphere festival in Switzerland, 2011

2011 has been a year of all sorts of things changing, people dying (others being born – welcome to the World, nephew Julian!), and in general leaving a feeling of world, and things, literally or metaphorically, being in a state of being swept away and tumbling over. “Interesting times” for sure…

Slipknot live at Sonisphere festival 2011 in Basel, Switzerland

Turisas live at Sonisphere 2011

I’m glad I got talked out of taking photos at Gwar‘s concert – but you got to have your share of silicone masks and corpse/anything paint (though honestly, I’m happy if they keep it on their own faces, other than Gwar would have done ;-)

Battle Metal with Turisas at Sonisphere festival Switzerland, 2011

So Turisas behaved on stage. A stage that, by the way, seems to have been in a gym from what I was able to make out in the dark. I’ve wondered about this before: How the heck do they get the “metalfest” stain and smell outta there? People wearing studs of all sizes and pointyness moshing (and inevitably, falling) does nothing to the floor? If such a surface exists, I want it for my studio! Minus the lines painted for volleyball and stuff, I could live without those.

Turisas - warrior facepaint only mandatory for boys, it seems

Rob Halford of Judas Priest at Sonisphere festival Switzerland, 2011

The Metal God! In the early days before Satan created bittorrent, I curiously searched around, errr, technically, the Internet, and upon inquiry, found Judas Priest’s entire discography. Yes, I was a Downloading Motherfucker™. And I found out that Judas Priest were very, very, indeed VERY much to my taste. I’d always thought they would be too hardcore for me. Though seriously, is that even possible?

The Metal God, Rob Halford, live in concert with Judas Priest at Sonisphere 2011 in Switzerland

Well as long as I can hear fine vocals such as The Metal God’s, I’ll listen to just about anything! Sad thing is, there aren’t many people able to sing like Rob Halford. And no, personally I don’t count Bruce Dickinson to the same league as Rob Halford – personal taste. So to make up for my downloading mother-trucking behavior, I went and bought their entire freaking catalogue. Because, man, who really can live without it?

Judas Priest's Rob Halford live at Sonisphere Switzerland 2011

David Coverdale of Whitesnake at Sonisphere Switzerland 2011

Unbelievable, but true: I still have all these great concert photos from Sonisphere on my hard drive and haven’t shared them yet. Shocking. Well at least I have the best intentions to *do* post them, and still in 2011. Well, who knows if there will be a Sonisphere 2012, anyway – …

Whitesnake live in concert at Sonisphere 2011 in Basel, Switzerland

… 2011 already saw a bill with everybody who’s somebody in the rock/metal scene, so I would guess they’d have a really hard time putting together a Sonisphere worthy bill this year. That, and cheaper beer prices, people were really complaining about that a lot. I heard. I still don’t drink… but sometimes, I really wish I did. Like when I was made to pay over 180 bucks for parking. For like, 12 hours. Seriously. They had an extremely super long list of prices out there, that frankly, if I have three honking cars behind me when I enter the parking, I can’t be bothered to read. Needless to say it was the parking that was recommended to me by the promoter – and I gotta say, that’s the least of the headaches I had during those days…

Whitesnake's David Coverdale during the band's concert at Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland, 2011

Another was to figure out which bands we’d even be able to shoot. As I said, the bill was packed and would have been enough for three days, but it was all crammed together into two days and up to five stages – simultaneously. Even as a photographer (that most of the time doesn’t have to plough through the crowd), it was even theoretically impossible to shoot all bands. Add to that the walk from stage to stage, which at a stage count of five, can be considerable. So, sadly, I only got what I got – Whitesnake’s one of them, and thankfully, one of the very photogenic ones!

Incubus at Hallenstadion Zurich, Switzerland

What to write? I went to take photos at Incubus’s concert at Hallenstadion. Other than that, my brain is still in “vacation – watch fishies, eat, sleep” mode after one week in Egypt. My brain did notice that it’s a tad colder here though. Approximately 23 °C colder, to be more exact. My brain has even come to the conclusion that it doesn’t like this very much… but:

Brandon Boyd of Californian rockers Incubus

Cold weather definitely means that all the cool bands are coming through town for a swing before Christmas. So my brain (and the rest of me) should actually be excited! If every band brings a big video wall like Incubus did, I’m going to be extremely happy:

Incubus bass player Ben Kenney

Incubus live at Hallenstadion Zurich, Switzerland