2023 Louder Than Life
As promised, I bring you my third DBB update in less than a week! Recently I put up a round up from my two week trip to Louisville, Nashville and back to Louisville for Sailor Jerry which explained everything and gave some highlights. Then on Friday I dropped a ton of photos from Bourbon & Beyond and today I bring you a bunch of photos from the Louder Than Life Festival.
Louder Than Life is a (mostly) rock festival in Louisville, Kentucky that was thrown one week after Bourbon & Beyond. They both are thrown by the same company and take place at the Highland Festival Grounds. B&B is more about drinking and eating and the bands are super eclectic, while LTL featured mostly rock bands with a real nostalgia kick. I was photographing for Sailor Jerry during the day, but then I was shooting for Creem Magazine at night so this weekend I shot a ton of bands. I didn’t shoot a few of the headliners because of either restrictions (Either they wanted me to shoot from the soundboard or had contracts I didn’t want to sign) or because they played while I was still shooting for Sailor Jerry.
I did get to shoot a few bands during the day, like childhood favorite Rancid, L7 and my friends The Bronx. I got to shoot less than a song from Megadeth because I had to run back to the SJ booth, but it was still cool to see one of my favorite bands when I was in the 5th grade. Other daylight acts I got to shoot were the Viagra Boys who I kinda love now and Run The Jewels cause how could I not? I think my favorite headliner was Weezer cause pretty much every girl I dated before the year 2003 was obsessed with them and so I pretty much know every word to their first two albums. I loved Green Day when Dookie came out but a year later I was way too punk rock for those “sell outs”. As an adult that seems super silly, but they were great live. Usually when I see a punk band that is older than I am it’s really disappointing but Green Day felt like a Broadway show or something than an aging punk act. Headliners that I have never listened to but photographed anyway included Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens of the Stone Age and Tool. Queens of the Stone Age had us photograph them from a distance and I don’t like shooting with a long lens so those photos aren’t great, and same with the Tool photos because I got kicked out of the photo pit almost immediately because I forgot to pick up specific pass I needed after I was approved to shoot them. Whoops. Oh, and I shot Pantera too which was fun. Okay, I think that’s everyone.
Aside from bands, there are tons of crowd shots in the gallery. I may have doubled up a few from my SJ Trip recap post, but I tried my best. Whatever the case we have nearly 200 photos for you guys to click through. Fans of my juggalo photos should enjoy these since there’s a pretty good crossover audience. I actually saw a bunch of juggalos while I was there but only photographed a few of em. Two of the girls towards the end of the gallery I actually interviewed for my Daily Beast article on Gen Z juggalos. Wild. Anyway, go check out these photos and come back soon because I have two updates coming soonish.
Click here to see all my photos from the 2023 Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, KY.
