Photo Reports

It has become a true tradition that DIE HAPPY plays some warm-up gigs at the end of December for the shows or tours of the following years. A fixed location in the program is Stuttgart, and this time again it’s to be taking place at Im Wizemann.

In this round, it’s the ‘Pre-Anniversary Shows 2023’, preparing for the upcoming anniversary tour in 2024. DIE HAPPY is celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band, and founding members Marta Jandova (vocals) and Thorsten Mewes (guitar) are still part of it. The quartet is complemented by Jürgen Stiehle (drums) and Ralph Rieker (bass).

On this evening, DIE HAPPY proves that they haven’t lost any of their drive and power. The quartet delivers an energy-loaded show that captivates the entire audience from the start. Even if the sound is not quite perfect yet and there’s a bit of a vocal hiccup, especially at the beginning, you can sense the professionalism of 30 years of stage experience and well over a thousand gigs. Marta has the audience in control from the first second, and everyone willingly follows her. The longer the show goes on, the better it gets. Light and sound fit perfectly with the arrangements of the songs.

One can definitely look forward to the upcoming tour and be curious about the surprises the band will bring to the stage. The only thing missing is a new album, considering that the last long player ‘Guess What’ was already released in 2020.

As support and opening act Templemind warmed up, the crowd. It is the new alternative rock project by Philipp Schardt. Combining alternative rock with healing frequencies to inspire people. His one-man show was undoubtedly something unusual to experience: in a good way.

This year saw my first shoot from a photo pit at Punk Rock Bowling, a huge learning curve for me, especially in regards to the lenses I was using. I have included shots of The Adolescents, The Interrupters, Fea, Sloppy Seconds, The Svetlanas, The Damned, L7, Madam Bombs, Roy Ellis & The Aggrolites, The Casualties, Surfbort and Suzi Moon to illustrate the varied acts who take part in the Festival.

The Darts I photographed in the smallest venue I have ever been in, The Hug & Pint in Glasgow, but what a night it was! All action from start to finish with a terrific soundtrack of fuzzy garage punk psychedelia! Another small venue is Bannermans in Edinburgh, where I saw The Soap Girls and Tokyo Honey Trap. Tokyo Honey Trap were unlike anything I have ever seen before, almost unbearably loud, in your face and their take on a 77 punk attitude, wonderful stuff! The Soap Girls are a real treat to see, they love talking to the audience, their music is hard edged, they are quite gymnastic, are very photogenic and their (male) drummer played absolutely stark naked!

I have included 2 bands from Rebellion, Rumkicks and Hi-Fi Spitfires. The Hi-Fi Spitfires seemed like a throw back to old style UK punk Rock and went down really well with the crowd. The Rumkicks went down an absolute storm at Rebellion. These 3 young women from South Korea won the hearts of everyone who saw them. Their obvious enthusiasm for all things punk rock and the thought of appearing on the boards of the main stage where many of their heroes had appeared was a very real thrill for them. They came, they saw and they definitely conquered!

Year 2023 is closing out and we at GRIMM have our sights set for next year and all the amazing shows and festivals coming up, but before that, let’s look into this past year in photos. It’s been a helluva year, I’ve shot some of my all-time favorite bands, new festivals and small club shows to massive arena shows. So here’s my selection of the best of the best live captures from this year. From incredible fun-to-shoot black metal shows from Steelfest, shooting household names at Rockfest, or legendary bands at Hellsinki Metal Festival, it was a hard one to choose only 25 since I’ve shot quite a few shows this year. Before we get into it, I have nominated my favorite photo of the year 2023, and quite possible my favorite photo of all time; Ville Valo at Rockfest. It’s a simple shot, but still cinematic and beautiful. Love that capture, would love to hear your favorite from my selection, sound off down below!

Here’s that “best of the year” time again… It’s always difficult to make a selection from your photos and then label them the ‘best of the year.’ What makes these photos better than others? Often it’s a matter of a certain feeling that an image gives you.

Sometimes it was because it was a beautiful moment, sometimes because of nice framing or the light that was just right (and you don’t get that very often).

Sometimes you see artists giving their best, and sometimes they just fully enjoy their own artistry themselves.

Regularly, they also grant the photographer a look straight into the lens.

I think these are the criteria I relied on to select the following images:

Ok. Tough task to pick out just 30 pictures reflecting a full year of concert photography. So here they are … 30 of my favourite pics. Most probably there are way more, but somehow I had to cut it down (editoral requirements). I have chosen the ones I love most out of the ones I love most. And there are some pics in that you haven’t seen on GRIMM.COM – since not all the stuff I do is linked to GRIMM.

Pictures are showing the following bands

• Butcher Babies
• Fateful Finality
• Fear Factory
• Thundermother
• Hypocrisy
• Spiritbox
• Behemoth
• Dog Eat Dog
• The Cult
• Skillet
• Agnostic Front
• Scorpions
• May The Silence Fail
• Cannibal Corpse
• Ataraxy
• Dark Funeral
• Goldmann
• Solstafir
• Ingested
• Antiheld
• Lansdowne
• Völkerball (Rammstein Tribute)
• Fettes Brot
• Danko Jones
• Royal Republic
• Team Tot
• Mindead

Hope you’ll enjoy my selection! Thank you for watching!

Close to Christmas 2023 all fans of good rock music in Germany got an early present: Gluecifer – the self-called ‘Kings Of Rock’ from Norway played 3 shows in Germany.
We had the opportunity to see their live performance at the LKA Longhorn in Stuttgart.

After the band broke up in 2005 there was no sign of life for 12 years. Announcing in 2017 that they will play together again, a number of shows and festivals have been played in 2018.
Ever since it got silent again and their last music release was in 2004. Despite all that, a pretty well filled venue had a fantastic pre-xmas rock-party, since these guys still know how to rock.

Support was given by The Demtones a Swedish power rock trio who delivered a solid warm up

The year stared off with Pain, who had a really fun and energetic show at Olympia-Kortelli in Tampere. Next up, still in January, was Sólstafir as Support for Katatonia, with a very moody gig. In March Kamelot came back into town and with them came Eleine and Myrath. While I’ve been waiting to see Myrath for a while now, Eleine isn’t exactly my cup of tea. Still, Madeleine Liljestam managed to capture me with her energy. In late April, Battle Beast rocked Kerhola in Nokia. In my opinion, you can never go wrong with this band, as they always give 100 percent and are always a lot of fun. In May, it was time for one of many Brymir gigs I had this year. And just a few days later, Sabatons ‘The Tour To End All Tours’ came to Finland. The stage production for this tour was absolutely grand. It also was very clear that Sabaton really appreciates the work we concert photographers do, which is unfortunately not always the case.

Summer season is festival season, and the line-up of Tuhdimmat Tahdit was just too good to pass on. Photography wise, Mors Subita were especially fun, as the sun hit the stage at just the right time and angle to paint everything in a golden light. But they weren’t the only band I enjoyed at this festival. Lordi, Metalite, Shereign, Diablo and Battle Beast were also a lot of fun to shoot. In July, I went on a little trip to Turku to see Amorphis and Lost Society at Logomos Terassikesä. And then ended the summer with Raskasta Iskelmää at Hönö, with a small and intimate gig.

But there were also still a lot of really great shows during the autumn, one of them Before the Dawn, Wolfheart and Brymir at Pakkahuone, Tampere. Another one was Sonata Arctica, who also stopped by Pakkahuone on their ‘Arctic Storm’ tour. My absolute highlight of the year was although Deathstars at Olympia-Kortelli. Guitarist Cat Casino engaged a lot with the audience as well as my camera, which made up for a lot of cool shots. In November I went to my first show at G Livelab Tampere, for Brother Firetribes ‘Man on a Mission’ Tour, which had fantastic light. Still in November I also saw Psychework at Hönö and one of Apocalypticas church shows for their ‘Matka Mieleen – Kaamoksen Sellot’ tour and finished it off with Melancoly Mass Festival in Tampere. Where I had a good time capturing Voidfallens performance. Of course, December also still held some highlights. First Poets of the Fall stopped at Pakkahuone for their 20th anniversary tour. Then it was time for another show of Amorphis, also at Pakkahuone. And then lastly, I had a lot of fun with Everwave and Shereign at YO-Talo.

Amorphis is one of those bands you can always sure about to be delivering a stellar show live, and since I moved to Finland, a band that we see performing at least once every year. While we already managed to see them at a couple of festivals (Alcatraz and John Smith Rock Frozen) earlier this year, there is something special still about a show of just Amorphis with a crowd that showed up just for this band. And seeing them at an excellent venue like Helsinki’s Culture House wasn’t something we’d be skipping on!

Finland is a great country to be at for metal concerts and events, though if we’re being completely honest, sometimes it feels a bit too “safe”, sticking to the same old bands and concepts over and over again. Luckily there are some booking agencies that try to bring a fresh wind in the Finnish event industry. That’s how we got the 2-day club festival Hellsinki Techfest, bringing together some of the most mindboggling bands for some extreme, and often experimental music! We went to the second night with Sirkuit Preiker, Khroma, Balance Breach and the UK masters of “grime metal” Hacktivist as the headliners!

It’s not a secret the Lord of the Lost are big fans of Finland. For that reason it’s very fitting, that not only their first gig of the year was in Finland, but also their last. They finished their gig year with a sold out show at Tampere’s Olympia-kortteli.

Of course, they didn’t come alone. The evening started with the locals of Rain Diary. After that, the direct support Gothminister, took over the stage with Zombies and Werewolf. And in the end they had a little reunion with Mr. King Satan when he joined them on stage for one song.