It's been 3 years since Slipknot we're in town & once again they came, and destroyed the stage.

This time around they had the full production show & a setlist which had a lot of Self Titled tracks, despite releasing the new album only weeks ago.

Earlier in the afternoon I made my way to Utopia with a decent sized print of my Machine Head shot of Adam/Rob for the band to sign & Adam was definitely impressed with the shot, he requested a copy for himself....we'll see if he gets in contact with me in the next couple of weeks.

Sydonia opened the show with their revised & heavier set list, carving up the stage for about 20-25 minutes before the first interval which brought on Machine Head, chants of "Machine Fuckin Head" started straight away & the band (as usual) brought a mass amount of energy to the table with Rob Flynn getting the circle pits going every chance he could

Unfortunately a plague of power outages (first of which happened in the opening song) wreaked havoc on their set & Rob ended up storming off stage with a dictionary of expletives towards Acer Arena....

After our 3 song limit for MH, we were escorted back stage to leave our camera gear in a secured room much to our displeasure, instead Jessica & I remained in the back carpark area where my good friend Dana (Sydonia's Guitarist/Vocals) was talking with Jim Root (Guitarist of Slipknot/Stone Sour) & I had great pleasure in discussing random things with him such as their first tour right through to the smell you get from earrings which is now known as "Schmebob" - I chose not to bother him asking for a fan photo, figure he would sick of that shit by now.

By the time Slipknot were ready to come on, the crowd were going nuts...perfect choice of opening songs - Surfacing & Get This

Crowd pleasers: Liberate, Psychosocial, Spit It Out & of course Joey's Solo on the hydraulic lifted Drum Kit

Dan

Well it's been over a month since my last show (Trivium) and I was keen to bring out the camera from under the dust & what better time than for the current pop rock 'it' band which are currently hogging up the radio waves - Metro Station.

The crowd was as I expected, packed to the rims with sweaty 15-16yo girls in black, there to see there hardcore looking but fairy music playing idols....no more than 1 minute in the venue & I was called a gangster for being in a hoodie from an MCR shirt wearing girly - seems like I was in for a good night

The lack of shooting shows in my results, my reaction times were slow and I couldn't nail 1 jump shot of Miley Cyrus's brother 'Trace Cyrus' (the dude who ends up in the b/w singlet) - I won't mention that he gave me like 8 chances to do so...being off the drummer or keyboardists platform

However given my latest break, I am looking forward to getting some cracker shots in a few weeks when Slipknot @ Acer Arena comes around at the end of October.

Dan

The boys from Florida flew in to Australia for press & thought to put on a one date show in Sydney considering they flew 13+ hours to be here.

Once again they put on a tight set, which has come to be one of their strengths....

Daysend were their supports for the night - this was the first time I had seen them live & I must say they put on a great show...catchy tunes mixed with a great stage presence, I'll definitely have to catch them again in the near future

Come 9:30 Trivium took to the stage to the delight of the near capacity crowd in Enmore Theatre, mixing things up with old & new material from their upcoming album 'Shogun' which is due for release in late September this year.

Towards the end of their set, the sense of humour broke through from the band - playing various covers from bands such as Blink 182, Nirvana, AC/DC & even Tim Fogerty's Midnight Train To Nowhere before ending their set with Anthem & Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr.

Apparently they are due back for their Shogun tour mid 2009, so I'll be keen to shoot them again.

Dan