My Adventure with Philswitch Engage featuring Jesse Leach

So as soon as I heard one of my best buds; Phil Labonte was filling in for Howard Jones on the current Killswitch Engage tour… I knew I had to be there to see it.

Luckily I was able to schedule a House of Pain (jump around!) photo shoot a day early, so I could free myself up to go to Clifton Park, NY, as I wanted to shoot this more then once.

Because it was a home show, some of the dudes drove from home, so I ended up driving/carpooling w/ Phil and Adam D. And let me say this… spending an hour and a half both to and from a venue with Adam D next to you, is sure to provide a lot of me laughing way too much while trying to drive. If music wasn’t so massive for him, he could probably do stand up, which he sort of does during live shows anyway. Among these anecdotes, was an amaaazing plan to take over a certain western mass town and become an emperor… I will not go into details as I don’t want to ruin the surprise for when it eventually happens, but I will say.. All Hail Lord Emperor Dutkiewicz & Vice President of FUGOV! (not sure if I spelled the new province correctly, but, maybe!

So during the drive, I find out that The Devil Wears Prada wasn’t playing the show that night (bummer) but CRO-MAGS would be taking their place (ANTIBUMMER!). So that was a bit of added excitement to an already awesome show.

We get there about 10-15 mins before Dark Tranquility go on, so I jump into the photo pit, and start shooting right away, I took enough shots to know I had a few solid ones for the band, but more so, had solid settings for shooting that night.

Next up were the CRO-MAGS! Now… with the Cro-Mags – everyone was super super stoked on them playing. The Killswitch dudes all bought merch and were side stage to watch their set. I’m pretty sure Mike D has a Cro-Mags tattoo as well.

They played a ton of classics as well as a Bad Brains cover, but their set seemed to have a better reception with the bands and crew then the audience… oh well… their loss… Cro-Mags killed it.

Next up was Killswitch (or Philswitch) Engage!
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