Rex Brown recently looked back at Joe Giron’s photo archive and called him the unofficial fifth member of Pantera. If you’ve seen the shots from A Vulgar Display of Pantera, you know exactly why. The dude was there for everything—from the spandex-clad Texas club days when Dimebag was still going by "Diamond," to the absolute demolition derby of the Reinventing the Steel tour. Phil Anselmo said looking at the early 90s shots just reminds him they were waiting for the camera to click so they could hit "Beer:30." Which era of Pantera do you think looked the most purely unhinged? Are you taking the hungry Cowboys From Hell days, or the peak chaos around Far Beyond Driven?

We always talk about The Cure like they arrived fully formed as these untouchable goth pioneers, but looking back at their actual early years, it’s a miracle they survived at all. Their first label was a German disco imprint that dropped them because the music was too depressing. Then there’s the time they got kicked off a Generation X tour because Lol Tolhurst stumbled into a backstage bathroom and accidentally peed on Billy Idol. Even when they hit their creative stride recording 'Pornography', they were basically living in a literal mountain of empty lager cans and sleeping on the floor of the record label office. And let's not forget Robert Smith's dad making him go back on tour after he quit during a fistfight with Simon Gallup in Strasbourg. It makes their massive stadium success later on feel even more insane. What’s your favorite unhinged story from a band’s early days? Is there any group that had a messier come-up than early Robert Smith and co?

In 1968, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham crammed into a tiny basement room on Gerrard Street in London. Page was just trying to salvage the remains of the Yardbirds. They ripped through "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and, according to Page, immediately realized it was a life-changing musical communion. Within weeks, they were touring Scandinavia. Within months, they were recording the debut album that changed rock forever. The official "Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin" photo book has actual shots of these earliest gigs, showing them sweating it out in small clubs before they became stadium gods. What other band had a first rehearsal or early gig where they instantly knew they had lightning in a bottle? Drop the stories below.

Before getting hired by Circus magazine, Mark Weiss was just a high school kid stuffing a camera under a baggy sweatshirt and paying the Madison Square Garden door guy three bucks to sneak in. He was literally selling 8x10s out of his locker before landing a gig shooting Van Halen at the Asbury Park Convention Hall on August 11, 1979. He eventually became their go-to guy. By the 1982 Hide Your Sheep tour in Chicago, David Lee Roth was calling Weiss's hotel room to demand he come take photos of him climbing a tree to rescue a stuck kite. It makes you wonder how much incredible, unauthorized rock history is still sitting in some guy's attic because he snuck a camera into a legendary gig. Who are the modern-day rogue photographers doing this right now at your local venues? Drop their names, I want to dig through their archives.

From his days as an embalmer in Bakersfield to defining a whole new era of heavy music, Jonathan Davis has lived about ten lives. He took all the bullying, his goth/new wave influences, and the literal darkness of working in a coroner's office, and turned it into the blueprint for Korn. Looking at the year-over-year changes, his eras are so distinct. You’ve got the early raw tracksuits and bagpipes, the Untouchables-era refinement, the HR Giger mic stand debut, all the way up to his current sober, elder-statesman-of-metal vibe.

Everyone talks about the massive 90s comeback or the Armageddon soundtrack, but early 70s Aerosmith out of Boston was entirely different. They were gritty, unpolished, and arguably the most dangerous rock band in America at the time. Look at any live shot from the 'Toys in the Attic' or 'Rocks' era—it's pure chaos. Are we in agreement that 1975-1976 was their absolute creative peak, or does someone want to make a serious argument for the late 80s 'Pump' era?

There is an unmatched, chaotic energy in band photography from the late 70s, right before massive stadium tours smoothed out the rough edges. Looking at AC/DC between 1976 and 1979 is the perfect example—they don’t look like global rock gods yet, just a gang of guys who plugged into a wall and turned it all the way up. We need to get better at archiving this specific era of photography on the wiki. The unpolished, cramped-stage, cigarette-smoke-in-the-lens shots are pure history. The stadium years are documented to death, but the club days are where the actual story is. Who has the best pre-1980 band photos? Drop your favorite unpolished shots of legendary bands before they blew up.

Think about the best local band you saw in high school. Did you think they were going to be the next Beatles? Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore did. In 1988, he watched Billie Joe and Mike play to exactly five kids in an off-the-grid cabin in Mendocino County. They were 16. It was their third show ever. Livermore decided right then to make a record with them. He eventually walked away from Lookout because the music business got too corporate—treating artists "like soap powder"—but not before launching the biggest punk band on the planet. Decades later, they looked him in the eye from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stage and thanked him. What’s the smallest crowd you’ve ever seen a massive band play to before they blew up? Let's hear your best "I saw them when" stories.

They’ve been working on this Travis Barker documentary for 10 years. *Louder Than Fear* covers the whole timeline—from being a trash collector in Laguna Beach, to filling in for Scott Raynor, to surviving that horrific plane crash. We all know he’s the machine behind Blink-182 and The Transplants, but getting a raw look at his recovery and how he got back on the kit is going to be heavy. It hits Disney+ in August. In honor of the doc dropping, let's settle this: what is the absolute best Travis Barker drum track? Is it something off *Enema of the State*, a Transplants deep cut, or a Box Car Racer track? Drop your picks below.

A recently resurfaced photo from a legendary Metallica gig in California 23 years ago is a brutal reminder of the band's unmatched live energy during that era. Looking back at the raw crowd shots and setlists from the early 2000s, it's wild to see how global titans playing massive venues still carried the ferocious hunger of a gritty garage act. They just had this rare ability to make a sprawling arena feel like a sweaty, claustrophobic club show. Archiving these specific eras—the deep-cut setlists, the tour lore, and the nights where everything just clicked perfectly on stage—is exactly why we're building out their wiki over on The Band Index. It’s too easy to lose the history of these defining shows, and digging into their gig archive is the absolute best kind of rabbit hole.

There is something incredibly wholesome about seeing one of metal’s most intense frontmen geeking out in the crowd just like a regular fan. It’s that exact energy we love tracking.

Credit: Rock Feed

For anyone who doesn't know the story: Acid Bath formed in Houma, Louisiana in 1991. They released two albums — "When the Kite String Pops" (1994) and "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" (1996) — that are considered two of the greatest sludge metal albums ever made. Then in 1997, bassist Audie Pitre was killed by a drunk driver, and the band called it quits. For 28 years, fans thought they'd never play again. The reunion was originally supposed to happen at the cancelled SNW 2025. Now it's finally happening. If you've never listened to Acid Bath, go listen to "Scream of the Butterfly" or "Bleed Me an Ocean" right now. You'll understand why people are flying across the country for this one set. Are you as hyped for this reunion as I am? What song do you need to hear live?

Is it worth going?

Selling/Trading tickets? Post here with: Ticket type (GA/VIP) Price How to contact you Going solo and want to meet up? Drop: Your name / handle What bands you're most into Whether you're down to split rideshare/hotel costs No scalpers. Face value or below only. Let's look out for each other.

19 days out. Let's see how far people are traveling for this. Drop your: *City you're coming from *How many times have you been to SNW (0 = first timer!) *Your #1 must-see act I'll start: Seattle, 0, KORN