Soon, there will be a completely unique second set of photos i took, on Gasolinemagazine.com
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I raced over as early as possible to open the day with long time local friends and favorites, the Postage Stamps and DDMMYYYY. It was a nice relaxing experience seeing familiar faces as other people trickled in for the main acts. Both sets had a decent crowd turn out and I hope the exposure helps them out.

Maybe it’s being in the photo pit and being the closest possible to the bands, or that I haven’t even been to a big festival in years, that made every set today completely EPIC. Explosions in the sky, Blond redhead and the Pumpkins all (for different reasons) completely blew me away. I’ve thought this before, that after months of exclusively low key indie shows, sometimes it’s a thrill to see everything as larger than life, ware I don’t mind standing below a 6 foot high stage with 35,000 other people.

It’s going to sound clichéd but Explosions in the sky were emotionally forceful. Blond redhead took eerie vocals and artistic underground and made a grassy field sound moving.  I've been a huge fan of both bands and this was my first time, so i can't compare, but i really loved it.

The Smashing Pumpkins set simply made my life complete. This needs some context, and I know I know, it wasn’t even the original band but … They were basically the first rock band (or tied with Nirvana) that really made me understand, appreciate and question mainstream and 'alternative' music, and all culture and artistically produced media.  This was back in middle school. It was the first time I believed and started to understand why people took music so seriously and how my mood could be so influenced by music. I couldn’t even guess how many times I played my tape of Siamese Dream, until it was ruined for sure. I’ve actually seen them twice before, but neither were as close to this situation. To see Billy Corgan’s face so close, even at this state in his life and all, was really a surreal feeling. Being able to take photos at the same time was also something I’ve wanted to get to do all my life, or at least since I started shooting concerts – now over 7 years ago.

After the three songs of shooting I walked alone, way to the back of the crowd, found some grassy clear area with a few people dancing on their own and just slowly moved to the music, eyes closed and mildly thinking about show amazing this whole weekend was.