I first photographed NOFX in 2012 when I was focusing more on writing than photography. It's not my best work (again, it was 2012 and I was still pretty new to the game), but what was most memorable about this show is that Fat Mike granted me a rare interview.

My favorite part was asking why he took the interview.

I took your interview because our show in Phoenix is selling like shit. It's like, the worst city in the country. It's got such a depressed economy...fuck. I see Phoenix as being the next Detroit. If you're a college student or retired, it's a pretty good city.

A quote like this would get fans in some other circle's riled up, but the bottom line is it's punk rock and a very Fat Mike thing to do.

NOFX performed at Tempe Beach Park 4/6/15.

To that end, the recent photos in this post are from NOFX's performance at this huge punk/screamo music festival last year. Fat Mike made fun of bands like A Day to Remember while he was on stage. Their fans weren't happy, but the audience standing before NOFX loved it.

Bonus, here's Fat Mike holding up some Preparation H.

See you in the photo pit.

2016 is off to a rocky start. The Eagles' Glenn Frey is the latest addition to recent celebrity deaths, along the ranks of David Bowie and Alan Rickman.

I photographed The Eagles at Gila River Arena in 2014. Most big arena shows like that allow the photographers to shoot from the soundboard for the first three songs. This was a rare exception where we were granted four songs. The songs were all pretty long since the musicians loved what they were doing. You can see that in Glenn's face here.

Here's a link to the full slideshow if you would like to see more.

If there is one thing I've learned over the last couple of years, it's to see the bands you love live. I have a good recent example of this-- a friend and I went to Yucca Tap Room a couple of years ago to see Iron Chic. We didn't feel like watching the openers (yeah, I know, faux pas), so we snuck some rum into Robocop instead. We got back to Yucca just as the concert let out. Now Rob McAllister is dead and Iron Chic is no more, all at the expense of watching a mediocre movie.

Don't do what I did. Get off your butt and go to a concert. You won't regret it, unless of course, you're seeing the revamped "Dead Kennedys" or "Black Flag."

See you in the photo pit.

Happy 49th Birthday, Fat Mike!

R.I.P. Glenn Frey