Last Saturday, Megadeth’s Gigantour made a stop at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

You don’t really want to read any more words! You’re here to see the photos, right?

The full set of concert shots can be seen here.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Guns N’ Roses’ debut album, Appetite For Destruction, which makes the band eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

While there is speculation and hope that the original lineup of Guns N’ Roses will reunite for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this summer, Axl is keeping his chops up by touring with his current version of the band. It was just announced that they will be playing three shows in New York City in mid-February.They were last in the NYC area in November, when they played at Izod Center in New Jersey.

A gallery of photos from the Izod Center show can be seen here.

After seeing Adele’s second album, 21, at the top of the charts throughout 2011, it is no surprise that it was the highest selling album of the year. What is surprising, though, is how many copies were sold. The year-end Soundscan figures were released last week, showing that 21 has sold over 5.1 million copies, making it the first album to sell over five million copies in one year since 2004, when Usher’s Confessions sold 7.9 million copies.

Both of Adele’s albums, 19 and 21, were named for her age when making the albums. On May 5th, 2009, Adele played Roseland Ballroom in New York, as one of the last shows of her “An Evening with Adele” tour. This date also happened to be her 21st birthday.

By then, Adele had been touring for nearly a year and 19 was a big success, so I was surprised that I was only one of two photographers covering the show. After shooting the first three songs of the set from the pit in front of the stage, I was told that it was Adele’s birthday and a surprise was planned which I should stay to photograph. At the end of the performance, a cake was rolled out onto the stage and balloons were dropped over the audience as they sang “Happy Birthday” to Adele.

Click here to see the full photo gallery from the show.

Picture this: it’s 1983. Every Breath You Take is the biggest song on the radio. A young boy, who is probably wearing velcro-lace shoes and a Swatch watch, just bought his very first rock album. That album is Synchronicity by The Police. That little boy is me.

The Police were my first favorite band and have been a strong musical influence throughout my life. After their breakup, I continued to be a fan of Sting and his solo work.

I had the opportunity to photograph Sting’s two most recent tours. In the summer of 2010, Sting was backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra on his “Symphonicities” tour. I attended their performance at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island. Last week, Sting visited Roseland Ballroom with a more traditional rock lineup on his “Back to Bass” tour.

Here are galleries for each show:

Sting – Back to Bass

Sting – Symphonicities

Since I have only made a few website updates since August, I have a backlog of photo galleries that I want to post. The first is a collection of photos from the Dave Matthews Band Caravan on Governors Island. This event was scheduled to take place August 26-28. As my friends on the east coast will recall, that was the weekend that Hurricane Irene came to visit.

The storm was predicted to blow right through New York Harbor on the morning of August 28th. As a precaution, the city was pretty much shut down for the weekend. All events city-wide were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday, leaving Friday as the only day of the DMB Caravan festival on Governors Island. While more prudent New Yorkers were raiding grocery store shelves to stock up on food and water, I joined several thousand Dave Matthews Band fans in throwing caution to the wind and boarding ferries across the aforementioned New York Harbor.

It ended up being a beautiful day – pretty much perfect for an outdoor music festival. The lineup for the day was:

The Wood Brothers

Vieux Farka Toure

Soulive

Citizen Cope

O.A.R.

Dave Matthews Band

Here’s the Gallery!

Last month, I photographed Break of Reality’s concert at Hiro Ballroom. They are a talented four-piece band consisting of three cellists and a percussionist/drummer. Mixing classical and rock, their captivating live set combined originals with instrumental covers of songs from hard rock and metal bands, such as Metallica and Tool.

In addition to shooting their performance, I had some time with them before their show to shoot some portraits and candids of them warming up.

Seeing such technically-skilled performers playing their complex arrangements was really impressive and inspiring. Most often, after photographing a great show, I am excited about photography and want to shoot more. After seeing Break of Reality, I felt excited about music! I just wanted to pick up my guitar and play. I think that really says a lot about the power of seeing such great musicianship in a live performance.

Be sure to check out the full gallery from the show.

The CMJ Music Marathon returns to New York City this week. The annual festival celebrates indie music by bringing approximately 1,200 acts to venues throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

To get myself fired up for CMJ this year, I took a quick look at some of my photos from the past two years of CMJ and compiled a collection of some of my favorite shots. Some of the acts I first heard about at past CMJ events have since gained international popularity. Most notably, Mumford and Sons performed at Mercury Lounge during CMJ 2009, a few months before the US release of their album, Sigh No More, which went on to top charts worldwide and earn the band two Grammy nominations.

Visit the gallery to see photos of CMJ performances by Mumford & Sons, Val Emmich, Emilie Simon, Diamond Rings, Malajube, Surfer Blood, Grand Analog, PS I Love You, Peggy Sue, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., John Darnielle/Extra Lens, and Random Recipe.

Friendly Fires turned Central Park into a dance party last Sunday afternoon, playing a free SummerStage show for a capacity crowd.

The band’s high-energy electronic indie dance pop combined with the high temperature and humidity made for a very perspiration-heavy event. I learned the important lesson that sweat stings when it drips from my forehead into my eyes. When focusing on photographing the band, I didn’t pay attention and wipe my brow until it was too late. So, Friendly Fires, I will be ready for you next time. You will recognize me as the photographer wearing the John McEnroe-style headband.

Here is a link to the full gallery of photos of Friendly Fires at SummerStage.

Ra Ra Riot played a free show on Friday night as Celebrate Brooklyn entered the last week of its 2011 summer concert season.While the band originally formed in Syracuse, they are now based in Brooklyn. Singer Wes Miles mentioned that he lives only seven blocks from the Prospect Park venue. He also commented that the concert was the biggest headlining show, as well as the longest set, that they have played. The set list included most songs from their two full length albums (2008′s The Rhumb Line and 2010′s The Orchard), as well as two covers.

I am a fan of Ra Ra Riot’s original material, especially their first album, but one particularly memorable song from the show was a cover of Steve Winwood’s Valerie, which they played during their encore. They were joined on stage by Steve Marion, aka Delicate Steve, a guitarist whose band was an opening act.

Here is a link to a full gallery of photos from Ra Ra Riot at Celebrate Brooklyn.

U2′s spaceship-like stage, which is the centerpiece of their “360 Degree World Tour”, landed at New Meadowlands Stadium on Wednesday. The band took the stage as David Bowie’s Space Oddity played, then launched into a 26-song set, thrilling the estimated 95,000 fans in attendance. I later read that this tied the record for U2′s longest setlist.

While I have seen U2 play live at the Grammy Awards and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Events, this was the first full U2 concert that I have been to and the first time I’ve had the opportunity to photograph the band. The photographers were positioned under one of the legs of the massive stage structure, about 100 feet from the center of the stage, where Bono spent most of his time during the songs that we shot. Despite shooting from a fixed position and relying heavily on telephoto lenses, the band’s stage setup and rock star poses made the show a blast to photograph.

Here is a link to the full gallery of the show.