Pantera Pays Homage to the Abbott Brothers in Grand Rapids Alongside Lamb of God and Child Bite

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Written By Sherburt

The Cowboys From Hell in Grand Rapids

I have to preface this with; it meant a lot to me to do this because the 3 guys I grew up listening to this band with in high school are all dead.
RIP Joey Bags, Hansen, and Dolsen.

 

Pantera brought their headlining tour to Michigan and I drove my ass almost 3 hours to Grand Rapids to photograph it. I was 1 of only 6 photographers approved for this show and it was my 2nd arena gig ever. It felt like a hometown show right off the bat with a couple of photographers from Detroit being in the media pool, but the main reason was because Detroit’s Child Bite opened the gig. It was a helluva warm-up show for their appearance at the Garden this past weekend in New York City. Gimme some salsa ya weird metal cowboys. Anyway, the direct support for the show was Lamb of God and despite having to share the pit with 30+ VIPs, I still had no issue photographing them. I always found it weird that bands do this, and also making us sign a photo release just sends a pretty wild message. I think this might’ve been my last time photographing LOG tbh.

PANTERA NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

PANTERA

LAMB OF GOD

CHILD BITE

Rad to see Child Bite go from small Detroit shows to playing the Garden a few days after I took these. That was a big deal for me when I signed up to potentially do this show. Considering Phil has not one but multiple bands from Detroit on his Housecore Records label, it’s no surprise he would be sidestage for their set in Grand Rapids.

Everyone takes pride in their city’s culture, or at least in my head, everyone does. Detroit is incredibly tight-knit and supportive of one another, even outside of our genre lines. Escaping this city is no easy task, even nowadays when things are perceived to be much better than it used to be. Woof, that is for an entirely different conversation and I am not doing that again here today. Instead let’s just check out the galleries below from the show!

PANTERA

LAMB OF GOD

CHILD BITE

Sherburt

β€œSEASONED MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS β€œSHERBURT” SMITH IS ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER PHOTOGRAPHERS IN PUNK, HARDCORE, AND METAL MUSIC” - Chat GPT After Being Forced to Say Good Things About Sherburt

I currently work for and am not limited to: the NOFX archive, The Crofoot, Tied Down Detroit, Edgemen Shows, PUG Fest, Bloodlined Calligraphy, and more.

In the past, I have worked with or collaborated with Small’s Bar, Converge, Dropkick Murphys, Mustard Plug, Black Iris Booking, Cold As Life, Less Than Jake, Suicide Machines, Negative Approach, A Wilhelm Scream, Colin Of Arabia, American Nightmare, Off With Their Heads, Sinnistar, See You Next Tuesday, Everything Evil, Ante Up, Armor For Sleep, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Dieselboy, DJ Dara, AK1200, Messinian, Rituals of Mine, Clipboards, Kickstand Michigan, and many more.

I have had my work used in or for Knotfest, For The Love Of Punk, Metal Sucks, Lambgoat, DEQ Magazine, No Echo, and more!

I was also an active photo contributor to the revived and iconic Anti-Matter Zine run by Norman Brannon of Texas Is The Reason, New End Original, and Thursday. I even got to have the only photo used for the last article before the Zine went on hiatus again.

I am currently working in and around Detroit. I am currently working on multiple photo books and zines, while also helping local artists manage their visual needs and navigate the music industry.

https://instagram.com/sherburtphoto
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