Sevendust at Welcome to Rockville 2016 | Live Photos

It has been a slow month in my pursuit of music photography. I’m wishing I was at Louder Than Life or Sonic Boom, but since I’m not, I figured I’d take the time to go through some older festival galleries. I saw a post in a group by fellow concert photographer Mike Savoia (who I haven’t met in person yet, but really hope to one of these days!). He posed the topic of, “What’s one of the funniest or weirdest things to happen to you with band interaction as you were in the photo pit shooting?” Although it’s not exactly funny or weird, the first band that came to mind was Sevendust, hence the choice of gallery today.

Back in 2013, I shot Sevendust at The Fillmore in Charlotte, NC. I’d been a fan for around 10 years by then, so needless to say, I knew the majority of the words. Although I had seen them before, it was on festival lineups rather than in an intimate venue. I was in the photo pit when they played one of my favorites “Praise” as the second song. My energy was pumping and I was pretty blatantly getting into it and mouthing the words while shooting. I was on the far right side of the stage focused on guitarist John Connolly when suddenly Lajon Witherspoon walked into frame. He was making pretty blatant eye contact and smiling at me, so I snapped for a moment until I suddenly realized his hand was extending toward me. I snapped one more photo, then put my camera down and placed my hand in his. He proceeded to stare me straight in the eyes and sing a solid 30 seconds of “Praise” to (or rather with) me – a moment of pure euphoria that I will never forget any detail of.

Although I met LJ on Shiprocked earlier this year, it completely slipped my mind to relive and thank him for this memory. I will say that he is every bit as kind and genuine in person as he comes across on stage… he’ll also be on Shiprocked 2018, and I’m going to try and remember to share the story with him this time.

I do have a set of photos from that particular story, BUT, my intentions were to edit some photos I’ve never touched/shared before so instead these photos are from Sevendust at Welcome to Rockville 2016.

What is your most memorable concert experience, in or out of the photo pit?! Share in the comments below!