The metalcore band Bleeding Through opened for HIM on Friday night, initially shocking a crowd unprepared for the brutal attack the band brought. Though the majority of the house had come for the more melodic stylings of Ville Valo and crew, many seemed to warm up to the unrelenting double bass and blast beats during the 40-minute set.
Photographer's notes:
Given the characteristic intensity of the music, the standard rules “first three no flash” brought a particularly interesting challenge to Bleeding Through's fierce and darkly lit set. Between singer Brandan Schieppati‘s constant thrashing and the set's fickle lighting, the first three songs were a continual battle against extreme conditions for concert photography.
Among the most challenging lighting for Schieppati was a wide use of underlighting, with only bursts of side and backlighting as the exception during the first three songs. Considering that he was either doubling over to howling into the mic or working the length of the stage, motion blur and clean shots of the frontman's face were prime problems. With a very dark start to the set, lighting did improve by the third song to a more appreciable degree; however, anticipating breakdowns in the songs and watching the singer's movements proved to be the two best approaches for securing shots.
Bassist Ryan Wombacher was easily the most well lit member of the band, by the simple virtue that he was content to play positioned over one of the lights on the stage for dramatic underlighting for most of the set.
Keyboardist Marta Peterson also had the benefit of an effectively-captive light source, a spot positioned just house-right of her, which proved perfect for lighting the musician's frequent hair whips while hammering away on her Korg.
As always, for the complete set from this show, hit the Flickr.
