Gojira At Centre Bell

We're a little bit backed up on getting my concert photographs up here on The Old Blog.  I suppose we will catch up at some point, but this would be a good time to remind you that my concert photographs can be seen in a much more timely manner by visiting V13Media, which you can do by following the link.  If you'd like an even more direct route to my photographs, you can visit my personal page over there but using the following link.  One of the heaviest musical shows to hit Montreal arrived at the Centre Bell in late September.  Opening up the evening was France’s gift to the world of Heavy Metal, Gojira.  Their performance during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games last Summer was arguable one of the biggest moments for Metal in years.  They certainly brought some of their experience from that event on tour with them.  Their pyro featured Olympic sized flames that dominated the stage.  They also had a very cool stage set-up with drummer Mario Duplantier on a riser about the rest of the band.  He would stick his head out from behind his kit from time to time in order to get the crowd going.  In addition to the flames, a video wall behind the group displayed all kinds of creative images, mixed in with shots of the band and the crowd.  We haven’t even discussed the music yet.  Gojira opened their set with “Only Pain” and it didn’t take very long for the stage to be engulfed in flames.  Singer Joe Duplantier was a stoic presence behind his mic stand.  Barely flinching as the towers of flame erupted around him.  The band did their best to steal the show, and there might even be some out there who would say that they did.  The roar from the crowd for “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça Ira!)” was unbelievable.  The old song from the French Revolution, and their explosive performance of it from La Conciergerie has propelled Gojira to another level.  Riding that wave, Gojira came to kick some serious butt, and that is what they did.  Their most recent album was 2021's Fortitude.  That was a fairly long time ago, so hopefully they'll be delivering some new music soon, and then returning on another tour to play it for us.  I know that I would certainly enjoy that.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Gojira while they were performing on the Centre Bell stage.

 

If you would like to find out more about Gojira and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Korn, who performed later that night, you can do so by following the link.  To borrow a phrase from them film Almost Famous, Gojira's performance was simply incendiary.  Their next tour will see them spending some time in Europe, but they are sure to return.  Don't you dare miss it when Gojira plays in a town near you.