Vanquish at the National

May 2nd marked the last live show for a Richmond-based band called Separation. The Separation band members are close friends of my favorite local musicians, Vanquish so it was no surprise that Vanquish was one of the bands to open the show for them. I put together some awesome pictures taken by photographer (and fellow Vanquish fan) Dylan Patterson. With his Canon Rebel XS Digital SLR Camera, Dylan was able to capture a lot of great shots that my older model Sony Cybershot just can't quite do. (I'm hoping to be able to upgrade to a digital SLR model later this year but since I'm focused on my art and writing at this time, my photography ambitions can wait...)

Anyway, I used Scrapblog to make the following collages. Scrapblog is a fun (and free) way to put together scrapbook-like pages for your pictures. It even provides you with all the templates and add-ons you can imagine. You can even customize the premade layouts! My sister, Ophelia, introduced me to the free web-based service a couple of years ago. (Thank you, Ophelia!)

VanquishFanGraphics™ worships guitarist, Mark DiVito. He gets a scrapblog page of his own!

Vanquish, with Brian Berry (third pic) filling in for Nick Johnson on bass.

For more pictures and Vanquish graphics, please visit the VanquishFanGraphics™ Myspace Page. To learn more about Vanquish and hear their music, check out the Official Vanquish Band Myspace Page.

...and by the way, rock on!!!

White Knuckle Battery

Gil's Bar and Grill in Virginia Beach was rocking on Friday night, April the 10th. There were four bands playing, including my favorite local boys - Vanquish. Other bands included a progressive metal band, Scarz Within and a southern rock band, Steelshot. The headlining act was a band called White Knuckle Battery whom I got to see for the first time...and they were awesome! No wonder they're a very talked about band in Virginia. Every member of the band carried along a very high spirit of energy, especially their lead vocalist, Joey Mauceri (that's a picture I took of him on the left).

So I don't plagiarize a biography anyone else has written about this rising band, you can visit White Knuckle Battery's myspace page to learn more about them:

White Knuckle Battery Official Myspace

There's also a very cool article about them published in the March/April 2009 issue of Tool & Die Magazine. Here's a link below:

Tool & Die Magazine - Interview with White Knuckle Battery


Photo collage courtesy of Berserkerradio


By the way, here's a picture of me with Ed Savoy, White Knuckle Battery's very talented guitarist. If you think Eddie Van Halen rules the strings, you should check out Ed Savoy - he can really make those strings scream! On the right of this picture is Anita Ibanez, Scarz Within's hot female lead singer.


Have a rockin' week ahead, everyone! Support local music!!!

Vanquish Rules!

I will never get tired of this band - Vanquish! My friends and family went out to support them at the Battle of the Bands (round one) at Alley Katz in Richmond, Virginia on Sunday, July 27th and had an amazing time. For this competition, it was whoever had the loudest crowd wins. Vanquish tied for first place with another band called Colorful Schematic (I think that's their name but I can't be sure). In any case, I believe that if you had a team of professional judges and scored points for their music, showmanship, talent, originality, and energy, there's no doubt that Vanquish would have garnered first place by themselves.

I thought I'd post a slideshow of pics taken by the various fans that came to support Vanquish at this event. Trust me, every dollar you spend going to a Vanquish performance, no matter where it's at, is always a dollar worth spending.