Primo Lotto Arena !

My brother and I arrived at the venue in the afternoon, went backstage where we almost immediately ran into Hannes Van Dahl, the drummer of SABATON.
He took care of us right away, arranged our passes for the day and still found plenty of time to catch up. Was great to see the rest of the band again as well. DELAIN and SABATON are just two of those bands I've been following for a while and now to get to work with both of them just feels incredibly satisfying.

After dinner, I went to check on my buddies in DELAIN and apparently the band wanted/needed new band photos. Fortunately, I had part of my studio gear in the car, so we did some new photos in the backstage of the (very spacious) Lotto Arena. The shoot was discussed and done within an hour. Speaking of work-flow! Charlotte had a brand new outfit as well, which made it all come together.

It was the second time DELAIN performed in the enormous Lotto Arena, only opening for WITHIN TEMPTATION a couple of months earlier. This time, I had the impression Belgium has really got to know these talented musicians.

Since I had my gear ready anyway, Joakim of SABATON and I decided to shoot a quick five-minute portrait right before stagetime. Just before the intro tunes, we shot some incredibly tough pictures before running to the stage. I shot this image with only one light: a giant octabox to camera rights.

As usual, I could follow the band from dressing room to the stage and I was permitted again to shoot from every angle I wanted to shoot from during the full concert: front stage and on stage. Lights were impressive. In addition, a stage this size really gives me the possibility to move around and shoot from some exclusive angles.
The show was done at around midnight and after a couple of hours of chitchatting, we went back home. Thank you SABATON and DELAIN !