Tim Toke Benefit

Tim of the band Toke (a really great stoner/doom metal band from Wilmington North Carolina) was involved in a bad motorcycle accident in September of last year. From what I understand he’s recovering and things are going in the right direction, but it’s going to be a lengthy process.

In true Wilmington fashion, friends and family came together to put on one helluva benefit show at Reggie’s. Both nights sold out pretty quickly. A lot of people, businesses and artists offered goods and/or services for the raffle (which did very well) and quite a few local bands played. One of the major highlights for me and lots of others is that the incredible Thunderlip! would be playing with the original line up!

Thunderlip! shows are some of the funnest and entertaining shows I’ve ever been to and I wasn’t going to miss this for anything.

I also got to see Worsen for the first time. Worsen is a black metal band from here in Charlotte which includes members from Raw Hex.

This was also the first time I got to put the M10-P to work and probably the first time I’ve shot a live show in, I don’t know, 10 years? This is how I got started doing photography in the first place and it felt really great to do it again. I shot about 200 photos. I knew it would be pretty dark and a lot of movement during Thunderlip! so I shot their set with an off-camera flash.

Never shot a show with a rangefinder and now I don’t want to shoot a show with anything else. Being able to zone focus and frame your shot without having to worry about what the lens sees is incredible in low-light situations. It was basically like using a point n shoot.

We stayed through most of ASG's set and missed Weedeater , but we weren’t staying in town for the weekend so needed to head back for the long-ish drive.

I’m sure the second day did just as well if not better. It was an all day event. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at my parents place by the beach. A packed, but also relaxing weekend.

More photos from the show can be viewed here.