Behind the Lens: 6 Degrees of Anthrax

Inspiration when you least expect it

If you take a glance at the Artist Waves “About Page” you’ll see it begins with: To inspire through the arts. From time to time I force myself to go back and re-read those words, just to get my head straight.

So what does it mean? It simply means we don’t do the average cookie cutter kiss ass Super EASY review articles, (Insert Band Name here) They Rocked, Great, Amazing, So Good! It kinda starts sounding like the Timberlake Jimmy Fallon impersonation, “So Good, Soo Awesome! Soooo Sooooooo Great!. The point is? If it doesn’t strive to inspire or come from inspriation then don’t bother.

One of my favorite things about working with Artist Waves is the opportunity to meet, chat with, and photograph a variety of inspirational and creative people. Especially those willing to share their adventures and those valuable little nuggets of experience they’ve picked up along their path. These are the artists and friends that inspire me to push on.

“OKAY, WTF does this have to do with Anthrax?”

**The offfice of Anthrax’s Charlie Benante**

Okay, Okay I hear you!!!

It all started with some recent conversations I had with fellow photographer Ignacio Galvez (@xignaciox ). (See “Behind the Lens: Going South American on You” ) As we discussed various experiences and photographs from the South American music festival circuit. Ignacio kept referring back to his Anthrax photos, recalling fond memories of each shot. His enthusiastic and passonate stories behind his experiences photographing the band were contagious.

Ignacio Galvez’s inspiring photo and caption —**Anthrax in Bogota, Colombia. Biggest festival in Colombia! . That was the final shot of the night, with 140.000 people behind. such a good time. Love those guys.- Ignacio Galvez”**

Shortly after one of our conversations, I searched the 2018 Anthrax tour and found our paths would cross in Oklahoma City, my first thought was, “I need to go check these guys out and see WTF Ignacio is talking about”.

I must confess, I haven’t listened to Anthrax in several years, however I’m not a complete Anthrax newbie. I do own a couple of their albums and attended a festival they played at longer ago than I want to admit.

So going into this one I wasn’t sure what to expect. A bunch of middle aged guys “like myself”, playing power cords and screaming at the top of their lungs? Low Energy stage? Phoning it in? After all their debut album “Fistful of Metal” was released in 1984! That’s 34 years ago!

Anthrax Debut Album — Fistful of Metal — 1984

I mean come’on its one thing to get pumped up in front of 140,000 + screaming fans at one of the huge South American summer music festivals, but this was a freezing winter night in Oklahoma City with only a few thousand in attendance. Gonna be a let down, right?

Scott Ian running back and forth across stage in OKC

Not !!! To be completely honest, Hell No! Ignacio was right!

The guys from Anthrax bring an amazing amount of enthusiasm, energy, and showmanship to the stage. Obviously it doesn’t matter to them if there are 140,000 or 4,000 fans in attendance. From start to finish these guys were at level 10 Heavy Metal Energizer Bunny setting!

**Fans in OKC respond to Anthrax’s high energy show**

**Joey Belladonna’s powerful heavy metal vocals gets the crowd going**

**Scott Ian and Joey Belladonna on Heavy Metal Energizer Bunny Level 10!**

**Lead Guitarist Jonathan Donais shredding**

**Charlie Benante — Considered by many to be at the top of the short list for all-time best heavy metal drummers**

**Bass player Frank Bello’s energy is off the charts!**

Consider yourself warned, If you like bands that hang around the mic stands on their “marks”, then Anthrax is not the band for you. If you like showmanship and super high energy Rock & Roll, then Anthrax 2018 is for you!

Trying to track these guy’s across the stage with the camera was almost impossible. “Got the shot, get the shot, where the hell’d he go?”, Add in a light show that is simply killer and you get this ultra high energy show that leaves you pysically buzzed afterwards.

**Scott Ian — The Heavy Metal Energizer Bunny**

**Scott Ian — This may be my favorite image of the evening… yeah I like different!**

Okay this is the part of the “cookie cutter” article where they tell you Anthrax is the Greatest, soooo soooo goood and go see them! Then two paragraphs of wiki-pedia history… yawnnnnnnnn..I’m not going to do that.

I would like to thank Igancio Galvez and the guys from Anthrax for helping me strive to be a better photographer.

Moral to this story? If you happen to meet a guy from Santiago, Chile, take a second and listen when he tells you that you NEED to go see this band.

It might even inspire you to push harder at whatever it is you love to do.

No really that could happen! It really could…