Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Concert Review: A Photographer’s First Taste of Vans Warped Tour



When I heard that Black Veil Brides were coming to town, I thought to myself, “I must cover this for Helping Hands Rock Reviews!!”  I did a little further research about the show and I learned that they would be coming to town on the Vans Warped Tour.  Despite it being around for 19 years, I never actually attended it.  Nor did I know much about it.  I honestly thought that it was just another tour with 5 or 6 bands of the same genre touring together.  Ha!  Was I ever wrong!  

Once I got approval to cover the show I knew it was time to do some research.  I obtained my copy of Vans Warped Tour ’13 compilation CD and went to work.  I made a healthy sized list of all of the bands that stood out to me and decided that those were the bands that I would focus on.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, not quite….

I arrived at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA a little before noon.  This is much later than I had planned as I hit some heavy traffic on our unpredictable highways here in Western Pennsylvania.  As I am waiting in line I become aware that one of the bands on my list, Hawthorne Heights, is nearly finished playing!  Wow, I haven’t even gotten through the gate and that’s one band that I already missed!

I walk in and feel something dripping on me and I realize that it’s my own sweat.  I haven’t even been here but 2 minutes and I am already melting under the 90+ degree direct sunlight.  

One of the things that I learned about Vans Warped during my research is that they have a large inflatable sign with all of the bands playing and at what time and what stage.  Finding that was my first mission.  An interesting fact about Vans Warped Tour is that the bands do not play at the same time at every show.  So there was no way to know ahead of time when any of the bands would be playing.
The Big Red Sign

After trekking though thousands of people and hundreds of vendor and band tents, I see the big red sign. I am feeling relived until I look up and see all 90+ bands on 8 different stages listed on this giant red balloon.  I’m pretty sure that everyone around me could hear the little voice inside my head screaming in panic.  For a moment I feel as though I have just opened up an extra-large box of Whitman’s Sampler candies and there are so many new and somewhat familiar flavors to try!  I take a snapshot on my phone and bust out my old school notebook and pen.  I know that I absolutely cannot miss Black Veil Brides so I seek them out first.  After feeling like I was playing one of those word search puzzle book games, I finally found them and I let out a big sigh of relief as I learned that they would not be going on until 5:55.  This would give me plenty of time to get my bearings straight and figure out my way around this musical maze.   

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Album Review: Butcher Babies' Goliath...Legit Metal Performance or Merely Playmates With Microphones?


If you’ve been keeping up on hard rock and metal, you have had to notice the Butcher Babies somewhere along the line.  Maybe it was paging through Revolver magazine.  Or seeing your friends’ Instagram feeds on the days when they went to this year’s Mayhem Fest.  Or passing by posters at your favorite metal club.

Somewhere in their travels, every metal fan has had their attention distracted by the four nicely-presented breastages of Butcher Babies’ frontwomen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey-Coates.  The question on the mind of many, though, was:  Are these girls musically legit or are they just Playboy models with microphones?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Concert Review: Fools For Rowan Says Farewell, Offers Glimpse of Future

Fools For Rowan, an independent hard rock band that steadily built a passionate fan base since its inception in 2009, bid adieu to their fans with a farewell show this past Saturday at the Rutledge concert hall in their hometown of Nashville.  Supporters from states as far as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and South Dakota to name a few, packed the venue to rock out one last time to the band that brought them memorable anthems like "Dead," "Burnt Around The Edges," and "Killed A Man Today."

The band certainly made an effort to ensure that every single fan got their fill of FFR goodness:  they played every song from their two albums except for "Leave," a death-themed song that would have been inappropriate for this night.  In addition, the band played a couple of heavied-up medleys that included pop tunes from the likes of Katy Perry and Ke$ha, a slamming cover of Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and some solo acoustic tunes from guitarists Rachel Brandsness and Ryan Nanney.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Concert Photos: Juliet Simms Performing With Vans Warped Tour at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on July 17, 2013

'The Voice' season 2 runner-up, Juliet Simms, wows the crowd with her amazing vocals as her Black Veil Brides boyfriend, Andy Biersack, lovingly watches from the side of the stage.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Concert Photos: Black Veil Brides Performing With Vans Warped Tour at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on July 17, 2013

We are so excited to share these photos of Black Veil Brides tearing up Pittsburgh on the Vans Warped Tour with you!  

First up, we have Andy Biersack singing his heart out!  If you take a close look, you can see his dad in the background singing along.




We hope that you enjoy the following shots of Andy Biersack, Jinxx, Jake Pitts, Ashley Purdy and Christian Coma rocking the faces off their Pittsburgh fans!  See if you can find yourself in the crowd shot.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Album Review: We As Human (self-titled)

Out of seemingly nowhere comes a hard-hitting, Christian modern rock band, We As Human, with their major label full-length self-titled album.  Despite the difficulty in finding bio information on them, it appears that they've been around a little while - jesusfreakhideout.com indicates that the band was founded in 2005 and issued an independent release the next year.

But, to many, We As Human is a new band.  And, judging by the quality of material on their latest album, will be a band loved by many very, very soon.