My Botch Adventure

     My Botch adventure started well over a year ago.  It all began when the label Sargent House took over the rights to the band’s catalog and, in their very capable hands, remastered and reissued Botch’s albums on the many digital platforms.

Botch had completely slipped my mind since they were last active in the early 2000s but since I pay attention to all things Sargent House, I was given a swift kick in the brain when they announced the digital reissues and subsequent vinyl pressings.  I had a very “Oh shit, that’s right,” moment when I started listening to the records again and remembering how great the band was.

For all intents and purposes, the reissues were supposed to be the end of it.  No new music, no reunion tour.  We were all told to be satisfied with what we got and move on with our lives.  And then something wonderful happened.

There was suddenly a new Botch song put out into the world with the release of “One Twenty-two.”  The release of the song coincided with the preorder announcement for the We Are The Romans vinyl and the song was tacked onto the end of the record.  “One Twenty-two” was a short blast of fury that could level cities if played at the correct volume.  Again, we were told that that was it.  There would be no tour and there was no other new music.

And then there was a tour announced.  Two of the guys in the band had said they were done with the music of Botch but decided to go ahead with the tour as an act of friendship to the other two guys in the band who were not done with the music.

After mainlining their discography into my frontal lobe for the past several months, I figured that I’d try to get myself to at least one of the shows.  Of course, there was no show in Pittsburgh which was not surprising in the least.  But there were no shows scheduled anywhere between Chicago and Philadelphia either.

The choice was either driving eight hours west or five hours east.  Tickets went on sale in February for a show in November so I bought a ticket for the Philadelphia show knowing that it was a real possibility that I would end up eating the ticket.  Given the expense of gas, tolls and the possibility of a hotel, the likelihood of me getting to the show was not looking that great.  I had several months to get my act together so I had a very wait and see attitude about it.

It was late September/early October when I decided to start sniffing around for a photo pass for the show.  After hearing the tales and seeing the footage from earlier parts of the tour, I really wanted to be in the same room as Botch at some point.  I came to the conclusion that I’d make my way to Philadelphia if I ended up with press approval for the show.

I reached out to Sunny from Hate5Six and Pittsburgh/Philly punk legend Chubb Rock to find an inroad to the Union Transfer.  Sunny got back to me with email addresses for the promoter/venue management and an interesting story about being banned from the venue.  Chubb reached out to a few people he knew and started asking around for me.  The response was the usual line of the band’s management being the only one authorized to grant passes or there was no response at all.

Aside from Sargent House being one of the best labels around, they also have a management/PR wing that just happened to be handling Botch.  I sent a shot in the dark email to the label to see what would happen.  After about a week, I heard nothing back and thought that was it.  Another week went by and I received an email from the label with my approval for a photo pass.  My first thought was, “Shit, now I have to drive to Philadelphia.”  I will always find the rain cloud in the silver lining.

I don’t know if I’m getting soft or wise in my old age but I actually booked a room for the trip instead of driving the ten hours back and forth across the state of Pennsylvania like a lunatic.  I am a freshly minted member of the Best Western Rewards Club and proud of it.  It was a shitty, noise filled hotel but it was walking distance from Union Transfer so it was good enough for me.

I picked up a refurbished 24/70 lens with the sole intent of using it for this show.  The lens that I normally use does not work so well in large venues under the constraints of “first three songs, no flash” because drummers are usually very far away and in the dark.  I was in serious need of an upgrade anyway so what better occasion to do it than a road trip to a large venue.

Check in time at the hotel was 3pm so I planned to get there shortly thereafter but was completely kneecapped by construction getting out of Pittsburgh and rush hour traffic getting into Philly.  I didn’t get into my room until 5:30pm and needed an hour’s rest more than I needed to eat so I skipped dinner.  There was a mission and a show at hand so food was not a priority.

I made my way to the venue and discovered that there was in fact a pass with my name on it.  It still surprises me when that happens because who the hell am I and I always expect some sort of issue because of my cheerful disposition of “why would anything work out, ever.”

Getting through security was surprisingly painless.  Unlike a large amount of Pittsburgh venues, there was no anal probing or having to turn my backpack inside out to appease the ego of a failed high school football player.  The security guards understood that I was at work, much like they were, and they treated me as if I were a human being.  They gave me the rundown for the rules of the evening and sent me on my way.

Botch was only giving photographers the first two songs in the photo pit which was something that I completely understood.  After doing my homework and watching videos from the previous shows, I was not concerned about being shorted a song.  The crowds had been going nuts and for the safety of everyone involved, photographers would need to get the hell out of the way as soon as possible so there would be fewer people behind the barrier.

I have gotten into the habit of shooting as quickly as possible in those situations.  Not only to get out of the way but also because I’d like to watch the bands play.  I will always be a fan first and “photographer” second.  I try to use the monitors and the corners of the stage as pivot points and fill up an SD card as quickly as I can and try to make something out of nothing while editing.

Uniform, from New York, was the opening band.  They make a punk/industrial/noise style racket reminiscent of Unsane.  I don’t remember how Uniform got on my radar but I had first heard them a few years ago and had been waiting to have a chance to see them play.  They have recently done some split releases and collaborations with other bands.  One of those releases was with Boris so right then and there my interest was piqued.

Uniform did not disappoint.  The singer had a very Ian Curtis, from Joy Division, meets the singer from Eyehategod approach and the rest of the band was equally as blazing.  Lucky for me I already had an introduction to their music because whoever was running sound did not do the band any favors or justice.  I had the impression that the sound engineer was used to straight forward rock bands and not accustomed to having to contain mayhem spilling over the stage.

It was incredibly difficult to take pictures of Uniform.  They practically played in the dark.  There was a floor spot behind the drummer, another by the monitor in front of the singer and whatever residual light there was around the venue.  I started to get the feeling that the new lens needed too much light for auto focus and there was too much movement for me to switch to manual focus.  I’m sure an actual photographer could have made it work but not I.  I did have my smaller lens in my backpack but I forgot to grab it before I handed my bag over at coat check.  I was able to manage one usable picture of each band member before I gave up so it wasn’t a total loss.

Botch was a sonic and visual onslaught for an hour and change.  I am still not sure how to describe what I saw other than “HOLY SHIT!!!”  To witness four people make that much coordinated noise at that volume for that length of time was something to behold.

The lighting design and cues were impeccable.  There were several racks of spotlights all over the stage which had me thinking that there would be a lot of strobe flashing but the person running the lights kept them just shy of that.  I did learn that the bursts of white light added to the fog machine would damn near wash out a photo.  There were times when the shutter was lining up perfectly with the lights and the result would either be all white or all black.  It’s in those situations where I’ll hold the button down until the camera’s computer locks up and hope for the best.

At one point Dave Verellen, the singer, jumped into the crowd.  While I had my back to the stage in an effort to take pictures, there was a massive thump right next to my head that scared the shit out of me.  It was Dave Knudson stomping on the stage for emphasis while he was playing guitar.

After the allotted two songs, I ended up pinned in the front corner of the club.  It was packed shoulder to shoulder so there was no way I was going to be able to move through the crowd to take pictures from the balconies.  I put the camera away and watched what I could from the corner I was stuck in.  At least I was near one of the doors to the lobby so I was able to duck out to buy the screenprinted poster that was made for the show.

Being on the same side of the stage as Dave Knudson was a treat.  Getting to watch him and his guitar wizardry was mind blowing.  I had never seen a guitar player change their tuning with one hand while they were still playing with the other.

I am almost certain that Botch broke the PA at some point.  After about the halfway point of their set, any time there was a low end frequency I could hear one of the subwoofers making a flapping sound.  I had only encountered that one other time and that was at a Boris show.

After Botch was done, Dave, the singer, jumped down onto the floor to shake hands and take pictures.  I was standing around watching all of that go on while I waited for the crowd to die down before I made my exit.  That’s when one of the security guards came up to me and said, “Let’s get that poster signed,” and escorted me through the crowd.  I talked to Dave for a minute and gave him my thanks before I made my way to the door.

On my way out, I ran into the singer from Uniform.  We chatted for a bit and I ended up with yet another t-shirt.  All in all, the show went off without a hitch and I’m glad I was able to put together the time and expense of getting myself there and back.

It wasn’t until I was back in the room that I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything substantial in the last twelve hours or so.  I also forgot that I was in a real city where restaurants stay open past 6pm and I probably should have stopped somewhere on my walk back to the hotel.  But the shoes were off and I was not in the mood for a late night adventure so I packed it in for the evening.

Between the brightly blinking light of the smoke detector, the pinging sound the mini-fridge made every time the compressor turned on and off and the people down the hall loudly having sex, I managed about two or three hours of scattered sleep.  Any more than that was not going to happen and wasn’t really necessary.

I was back in the lobby just before 6am ready to check out.  It turns out that the overnight clerk was from the Pittsburgh area so we talked for a bit while he entered my information and then I was back on the road by 6:30am.

I planned to hit the first rest stop on the turnpike for food and coffee but there was no food to be found.  It was 7:10am and none of the food places were open yet.  They are not open late and they are not open early so why are they even there at all other than to tease the traveling public with nonexistent food options?  I ended up being fueled with gas station coffee and spite which was enough to get me five hours down the highway and back to my house.