BY KYLE “Buttercup” MILLION | Go Venue Magazine
What a night this turned out to be, shooting at the new casino in “The Corral” was quite a treat. First of I’d like to mention the polite staff of the casino since usually we don’t get such a warm reception like we did tonight. Fans both local and that came as far away as Fayetteville or Springfield kept yelling out hey Buttercup which is how about everyone in the industry knows me as such. Since I have covered Pop Evil many times over the last five years this was icing to the cake so to speak as the band has always been courteous to myself and fellow media.
The lights darkened and local Zimmer radio host Chis Hayes gave a brief announcement for upcoming shows and welcoming all to tonight’s show just seconds before the music started and the drummer Hayley Cramer leads the way onto the stage followed by Nick Fueling, Matt DiRito, Dave Grahs and frontman Leigh Kakaty. While capturing the first shots of the band I swear I could feel a huge wave of energy from the crowd as this is one of my areas most beloved mainstream rock group and they always give the fans here a little extra acknowledgment in return. Sound was pretty straight forward as to be expected in such a new and large casino venue and the lighting was on par with bigger ones like the Voodoo which made my day as a photographer for sure, even allowed me to get probably one of the most outstanding shots of the drummer for sure. Leigh as always acknowledges us in the pits with a shake on our shoulders and like everyone in the band making sure that they give us some wild looks for our entertainment as we work hard to capture it all.
Now if by some weird twist of fate you have not been to a concert to experience Pop Evil, (is that even possible) please do so as soon as you can because if it wasn’t for them and a handful of bands that went mainstream in the last two decades Rock and Metal could have died out, no seriously I watched the popularity of the genre’s fade in the late 90’s to the point you couldn’t give tickets to shows away. Then out of nowhere bands like Pop Evil meshed with the hearts of common folk and rock took off again so for that I always love covering them and enjoy seeing familiar faces on the rails and in the crowd.
On that note it’s time to thank Kansas Crossing Casino, Big Dog 97.9, all the fans, and most of all Pop Evil for one heck of a great night in my corner of SEK.
Till next time …
All images © Kyle “Buttercup” Million=====================================
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