Seattle to Los Angeles on tour with Mastodon & Converge (non-live photographs)
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Mastodon is:
Troy Sanders (bass/vocals)
Bill 'bilbo baggins' Kelliher (guitar/vocals)
Brent Hinds (guitar/vocals)
Brann Dailor (drums)

Converge is:
Jacob Bannon (vocals)
Kurt Ballou (guitar/vocals)
Nate Newton (bass/vocals)
Ben Koeller (drums)

Day 1: Birmingham, Ala. to Seattle, Wash.

The flight from Birmingham to Seatte wasn't very fun. It was a packed flight and I don't do well sitting in a seat for very long unless I'm driving. There was a line of thunderstorms coming towards the Nashville airport as we were leaving (had a stop between Birmingham and Seattle in Nashville), so we had to fly all the way to upper Illinois to bypass the weather front. I had never been farther west than Chicago, so seeing tall mountains with snow on top was very amazing. Besides, I have always wanted to go to Seattle, and even if it was only for a few hours it was worth it.

Nick Harmer

Most people that know me well knows that Death Cab for Cutie is my favorite band. Nick Harmer plays bass in Death Cab for Cutie and likes Mastodon a lot, so I invited him to the show (he ended being on the house list anyways) and also offered to pick me up from the airport. It was rad to see him again since this April when we did photos over two days in Atlanta, GA with Death Cab (thanks again to Henry for that). He and everyone in Death Cab for Cutie were/are some of the nicest people I've ever shot photographs of. They deserve every bit of success they've achieved. Hopefully I'll be making one of these tour photographs pages in November with photographs of them. Maybe? I hope.

Nick dropped me off at the Showbox to meet up with the guys, they were in the middle of soundcheck. Afterwards, we went to this rad place called Lowell's I think.
There was an amazing view of the harbor from Lowell's.

Mastodon

Ben Verellen of Harkonen, Roy, and These Arms Are Snakes

There were a ton of people in bands I like and people I've wanted to meet that came out to the Showbox show. A few dudes from Minus the Bear, Matt Bayles and the golden locked Ben Verellen were a few. Ben plays in 2 amazing bands you should already know about called Harkonen and Roy. He used to play drums in These Arms Are Snakes as well. It was sad not getting to see Brian Cook or These Arms Are Snakes play, and if anyone from Playing Enemy came to the show and I missed getting to meet any of you in person... that sucks.

Troy

Brent

After the Showbox show we cleared out a bunk that had some luggage in it on the bus for me and watched Grandma's Boy. There were 12 bunks and 13 people. The bus drove thru the night to Medford, Ore.

Day 2: Medford, Ore.


Bill, Brann, Scott Kelly, and Troy

After the Seattle show the tour had a day off. We arrived pretty early in the day and just slept showered. Scott Kelly from Neuorsis lives in Medford and came down to visit Mastodon. Converge came later on to the hotel and an indepth dice/poker came began. Ben basically destroyed everyone in both games.

Day 3 and Day 4: San Francisco, Cali.


Oakland to San Francisco

San Francisco was pretty interesting. There were two sold out shows at Slim's. Everyone always says San Francisco is awesome and I think the area were I went really was not. So as of right now I wasn't a big fan of the city, but I need to go back when I have a car of sorts and see how I like it. So if you're from there please don't stab for me saying I don't like it, ha. I basically sat on the bus and hung out in the venue all day till late and then went the Phoenix Hotel after the first show. Matt and Des from High on Fire came to both show and I shot photographs of them but they were horrible, well more horrible than these photos already are.
The Phoenix Hotel is amazing though.

Brent, (don't recall the girls name)

Darren Sanders (troy's brother)

Brann, pre-show

Room 59 at the Phoenix Hotel

the Phoenix Hotel

Day 5: Valencia, Cali.

We went to Valencia to go to Magic Mountain on the off day, it was closed.
We went to see Jackass 2 and the Olive Garden instead. no photographs.

Day 6: Tempe, Ariz.

Tempe... it was over 100 degrees. So I stayed inside.
I shot this walking from the bus to the venue though.

This is Big E, Converge's tour manager.

Jake

Kurt

Nate

Ben

Troy

Brent

Bill

Brann

Darren

Day 7: Los Angeles, Cali.

I've never really wanted to go to Los Angeles. Besides going to Seattle and maybe seeing like the Redwood trees I haven't had any care to see anything on the west coast for that matter. Los Angeles turned out to be pretty fun though. It's just like any other large suburbed city just waaaay more dense with people and places.

A friend that is an A&R at Capital, Ms. LS, invited me to come to the building just to talk and hang out. She gave me an amazing amount of free cds and a lot of Beatles albums I had traded in back in high school. Thanks again for the hangout!

Mastodon called Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age to come sing a song at their show that night. Josh sang on 'Colony of Birchmen' on Mastodon's new album 'Blood Mountain'. It's pretty amazing for everyone at the Henry Fonda that got to see this happen. Anna and everyone at TV Eye filmed it so hopefully there will be some live videos floating around.

Bill and Josh

Bill, Josh, and Troy

Day 8: Los Angeles, Cali. to Birmingham, Ala.

After the show was over there was an afterparty on the roof of the Henry Fonda for all the people at Warner Bros and Epitaph and everyone else who thought they were important for being at such events. I skipped this and went straight to the motel instead. The next morning a good friend, Mr. Tom B., who moved to Birmingham a few years ago, lived here for a couple of years, and then moved back to Los Angeles picked me up and we went to In 'n Out Burger next to LAX.

The airplane had one stopped between Los Angeles and Birmingham in Phoenix but I didn't have to change planes. Shortly after take off a woman was having medical problems and when we got over Texas they told us we would make a stop in Dallas so she could be taken to a hospital.
I think it was diabetic related, I hope she is alright.

the end. thank you for actually looking at all of these.