BLARE’s Best Photos Of 2011

A moment can last a lifetime. While photographers are rewarded with mint photo passes exclusive to artists and have the opportunity to be a foot away from their favourite band, they take on some grueling tasks. This year alone, our group of photographers got kicked in the crotch (girl parts too), had to squeeze in with 20 others in a pit, fall to the wrath of 12-year-olds with fake nails and also take a blow from Tyler, The Creator while trying to survive the mess of a spastic crowd. The bruises and bumps though are apparently worth it.

Real truth: the’yre almost priceless. The reason being, photographs hold more value than words. Our team is no stranger to digging for information and getting intimate, but exposing that one picture – the one that forces your nervous system to be shot for a second to fully capture it’s inner artistic beauty – is truly a work of art. If you don’t believe that, take a look below. And feel free to blame us if we take your breath away.

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“If I’m going to write a bunch of words and tour around, I might as well create an atmosphere so it allows people to hear what I’m saying..”
– Dan Smith (Listener)

“There’s going to be a day where our bodies and our minds say “I’m f*cking done” or like something will happen and I’ll blow out my knee and won’t be able to walk. That’s how hard we want to push ourselves..”
– Dan Campbell (The Wonder Years)

“I’m never going to write songs like Katy Perry. I’m never going to talk about feeling like a plastic bag drifting in the wind. I will always sing about stuff that has meaning.” – Jessica Lea Mayfield

“It obviously has that dirty, kind of nasty sound to it but you can hear the different layers. Instead of just pressing record and bashing out the tunes, I took some time to make sure you could hear everything.”
– John Barrett (Bass Drum Of Death)

“These are the most emotional lyrics I’ve ever written but they’re not negative like what I usually seem to write. This record is arriving just in time for punk music..” – Vinnie Caruana (I Am The Avalanche)

“My lyrics are very personal and distant in a sense and people have said the music and the purpose is ridiculous and that I’m a hypocrite.. the presence, that’s who I am.” – Teri Suarez (Le Butcherettes)

“Continuous learning is really important. If you get to a point where you stop learning, or get stagnant, that’s when you stop moving forward
and I really don’t ever want to stop moving forward..”
– Adam Lazzara (Taking Back Sunday)

“As a band we always speak our mind but I think everybody has to make a choice as to what they truly believe in and once you find that, you have to decide whether you have enough courage to be willing to come forward and be public about it..” – Justin Sane (Anti-Flag)