Hot doesn’t begin to describe it.

When I left my house around 5 p.m. and headed toward Riverbend Music Center for Five Finger Death Punch, the temperature was pushing 100 degrees, with enough humidity to make the short walk from the parking lot to the gate feel like an endurance test. By the time I made it inside, I already felt like I needed a change of clothes.

But this was Five Finger Death Punch, and a little Cincinnati summer heat wasn’t going to get in the way.

My friend Bruce, who was mixing front of house for the show, was nice enough to invite me out and leave a couple of passes at the box office. After picking them up, I headed inside Riverbend. (A 20,500-capacity amphitheater sitting along the banks of the Ohio River.)

Built for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1984, Riverbend has become the venue of choice for summer concerts. Over the years, just about every genre imaginable has found its way onto that stage. On this particular Monday night, however, subtlety wasn’t exactly on the schedule.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to shoot from the photo pit for this one. Instead, I was given the opportunity to shoot from front of house.

As it turned out, that might have been the best place I could have been.

Before Five Finger Death Punch took the stage, Bruce hooked me up with some amazing seats where I was able to catch the first couple of acts, Eva Under Fire and Cody Jinks.

Both killed it.

I’ve been a fan of Cody Jinks for a while, so I already had an idea of what to expect from him. Eva Under Fire was a different story. This was my first time seeing them live, and let’s just say they left with another fan.

Once Jinks finished his set, I made my way over to FOH and met up with Bruce. We had some time to catch up, talk gear, and do what people who have spent far too much of their lives around audio equipment inevitably do, talk about more audio equipment.

Then the lights went down.

I’ve seen Five Finger Death Punch a handful of times over the years, so I wasn’t walking into this show without expectations. I knew the intensity. I knew the songs. I knew the kind of audience they attract and the connection the band has built with its fans.

But this felt different.

The production was massive.

Five Finger Death Punch has never exactly been known for doing things halfway, but this show took that philosophy to another level. The enormous stage production transformed Riverbend into something that felt built specifically for the band. From FOH, I could see the entire picture rather than just one piece of it, and that’s where the scale of the production really became apparent.

And then there was the sound.

Don’t tell Bruce I said this, but it sounded amazing.

There is something uniquely satisfying about hearing a heavy band through a properly tuned large-scale system. Five Finger Death Punch’s music is built on weight, the guitars have to hit, the drums have to punch, and the vocals have to sit on top of all of it without losing the aggression that makes the band what it is.

From where I was sitting, everything hit exactly where it needed to.

But as good as the audio was, something else was helping make my full-stage photos come alive.

The lighting.

Lighting designer Bryan Hartley absolutely crushed it.

Shooting from FOH means giving up the proximity and intimacy you get in the pit, but it also gives you something the pit can’t: perspective. From that distance, I could capture the entire stage, and Hartley’s lighting turned those wide shots into some of my favorites of the night. The colors, movement, timing, and sheer scale of the lighting complemented the band’s production rather than simply illuminating it.

Thank you, Bryan.

After spending some time talking with Bruce and getting the shots I needed, I eventually put the camera down and grabbed a seat directly behind Bruce and Bryan.

That’s when the night became even more interesting.

I’ve spent enough years around concerts and production to know what happens behind the scenes, but there’s still something fascinating about sitting there and watching talented people execute a show at this level.

Bruce and Bryan weren’t simply pushing buttons and moving faders.

They were performing.

Sitting behind them, I watched the two of them run the show almost like conductors leading a symphony. Every cue mattered. Every lighting change, every transition, every adjustment happened in real time while thousands of people watched the result without necessarily thinking about the people responsible for making it happen.

And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

When production is done right, the audience shouldn’t be thinking about the lighting console or wondering what the front-of-house engineer is doing. They should simply feel the show.

And Riverbend felt this one.

Five Finger Death Punch has spent more than two decades building its reputation as one of modern hard rock and heavy metal’s most recognizable bands. Formed in Las Vegas in 2005, the group has collected platinum and gold records, dominated rock radio, and developed an intensely loyal fanbase along the way.

Seeing them live makes it easy to understand why.

There’s an unapologetic quality to a Five Finger Death Punch concert. Everything is big, the riffs, the attitude, the production, the crowd response. Yet underneath all of that aggression is a connection between the band and its audience that has always been a significant part of their identity, particularly through their longstanding support of military members and veterans.

That relationship is difficult to manufacture.

After seeing the band several times, I could have walked into Riverbend expecting another Five Finger Death Punch show and probably still walked away satisfied.

Instead, I walked away appreciating the show from an entirely different perspective.

Maybe it was because I was shooting from FOH instead of the pit. Maybe it was because I spent part of the night sitting behind the people responsible for translating what was happening onstage into what the rest of us experienced. Or maybe the combination of the band, production, lighting, sound, and a packed summer night at Riverbend simply came together exactly the way it was supposed to.

Whatever it was, this one felt different.

The temperature may have been pushing 100 degrees when I arrived, but by the time Five Finger Death Punch took over Riverbend, the weather wasn’t the hottest thing in Cincinnati.

And somewhere behind thousands of screaming fans, two guys at front of house were quietly helping make the whole thing happen.

Every show has a story. Sometimes, the best part of that story is happening on the other side of the stage.

There are early shows, and then there are festival days.

Saturday started for me around 11:00 a.m., when I left the house and headed toward West Chester for the third day of the 2026 VOA Country Music Fest. My first concern wasn’t necessarily camera settings, credentials, or even the artist I was there to shoot.

It was the sky.

After storms had already rolled through the area the night before, I was hoping the rain would stay away long enough to get through the day. An outdoor festival and several thousand dollars’ worth of camera gear tend to make you suddenly very interested in meteorology.

Fortunately, the rain held off.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had apparently decided that if she couldn’t soak us from above, she would simply cook us instead.

Temperatures were pushing into the high 90s, shade was practically nonexistent, and the previous night’s storms had left behind enough mud to make getting around the festival grounds an adventure of its own.

But I wasn’t there to complain about the weather. I was there to shoot Blake Tyler.

Blake isn’t exactly a stranger to me. He’s been a previous guest on my show, and he’s managed by producer Matt McClure, someone I’ve worked for over the course of several years. So this wasn’t simply another name on a festival lineup. I was looking forward to seeing what Blake would do with one of the biggest stages in his hometown market.

And it was a hell of a stage to have.

The 2026 VOA Country Music Fest ran August 6–9 in West Chester, bringing four days of country music to the Cincinnati area. Saturday’s main-stage lineup would eventually include Frankie Ballard, LOCASH, Dustin Lynch, and headliner Blake Shelton. Blake Tyler was scheduled for the Vandalia Rental Main Stage at 4:00 p.m.

In other words, this wasn’t some side-stage appearance tucked away in a corner of the festival.

This was the big one.

Welcome to the Festival

Security getting onto the property was tight, but everyone I dealt with was friendly and professional. Renee McClure, Matt’s wife and business partner, met me backstage with my credentials, and from there I was officially in.

While Matt and Renee handled everything that needed to happen before Blake’s set, I found what may have been the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere on the festival grounds:

Catering.

More specifically, air-conditioned catering.

When it’s pushing 100 degrees outside, air conditioning becomes less of an amenity and more of a spiritual experience.

I grabbed some lunch, sat down for a bit, mapped out the afternoon, and started getting my gear together. Eventually, though, I had to leave my climate-controlled sanctuary and actually go do the job I came there to do.

That meant making my way toward the stage.

The heat was one problem.

The mud was another.

The storms from the previous night had turned parts of the grounds into a thick, wet mess, and carrying camera equipment through it required considerably more coordination than I apparently possess. I nearly busted my ass a couple of times getting to the photo pit.

Nothing says professional concert photographer quite like trying to protect thousands of dollars in camera equipment while simultaneously attempting not to face-plant into a mud puddle.

Somehow, both the cameras and I arrived intact.

And just in time.

4:00 P.M. Is a Tough Assignment

Blake Tyler took the stage at exactly 4:00 p.m.

That’s worth mentioning because an afternoon festival slot presents a completely different challenge than walking onto a stage after dark.

By that point, fans had already been on the property for hours. Many had arrived around noon, and with Blake Shelton not scheduled to finish until 11:30 that night, the crowd knew it had a marathon ahead of it.

They were hot.

They were sunbaked.

They were pacing themselves.

And Blake Tyler had 30 minutes to make them forget all of that.

Challenge accepted.

What happened next could only be described as a thunderous entrance.

From the first note, Blake and his band hit the stage like they were playing the night’s headlining slot instead of four in the afternoon.

There was no easing into it.

No waiting for the audience to warm up.

No feeling out the room, or, in this case, the enormous field.

Blake went after them.

And slowly, all those people who had been conserving their energy started spending it.

From Athlete to Entertainer

That intensity makes considerably more sense when you know Blake’s background.

A former college athlete turned country artist, Blake has carried some of that competitive mentality into his music career. His official bio describes an artist who has accumulated more than 1.4 million social-media followers and 39 million global streams while building an audience of more than 250,000 monthly Spotify listeners. He’s also shared bills with artists including Morgan Wallen, Carrie Underwood, HARDY, Brooks & Dunn, Cody Johnson, and Lainey Wilson, while opening for performers such as Bailey Zimmerman, ERNEST, Chase Matthew, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, and Rodney Atkins.

Those numbers are impressive.

But numbers don’t move a festival crowd.

Performers do.

And watching Blake Saturday afternoon, what stood out wasn’t the streaming statistics or social following. It was how comfortable he looked commanding a stage this size.

There is a difference between performing songs and performing a show.

Blake understands the latter.

He fronted a young, energetic band that matched his intensity, and together they attacked the set rather than simply working through it. There was a confidence to the performance that made the main stage feel less like an opportunity Blake had been given and more like somewhere he belonged.

That’s an important distinction.

Especially for an emerging artist.

No Energy Left to Conserve

The real measure of Blake’s performance wasn’t what happened onstage.

It was what happened in front of it.

Remember, this was an audience with hours of music still ahead of them. Frankie Ballard, LOCASH, Dustin Lynch, and Blake Shelton were all still coming.

There was every reason for this crowd to sit back, drink some water, hide beneath whatever microscopic patch of shade they could find, and save themselves for later.

Blake didn’t give them that option.

The energy coming off that stage kept building, and the audience responded in kind. What started as an overheated afternoon festival crowd became louder, more engaged, and increasingly invested in what was happening in front of them.

By the end of the set, nobody seemed particularly interested in conserving energy anymore.

Blake had taken care of that.

When the final notes hit, the reaction wasn’t polite applause for the local guy who got an early slot on the main stage.

They wanted more.

Actually, “wanted” probably doesn’t cover it.

They were screaming for more.

And that’s about the best review an audience can give you.

Just Getting Started

I’ve known of Blake’s career from a different perspective than many of the people standing in that field Saturday.

I’ve interviewed him. I’ve worked with Matt McClure for years. I know some of the people behind the scenes helping build this thing.

That makes watching moments like this particularly interesting.

Because careers in music rarely happen overnight, regardless of how they appear from the outside. There are countless shows, songs, meetings, rehearsals, miles, disappointments, small victories, and people working behind the scenes before an artist ever walks onto a festival stage like this one.

Saturday felt like one of those moments when some of that work became visible.

Blake Tyler walked onto the VOA Country Music Fest main stage at four o’clock in the afternoon with one of the toughest assignments of the day: wake up a massive crowd being baked by the August sun without completely exhausting them before the headliners arrived.

Instead, he damn near made them forget there were headliners still coming.

I arrived hoping the thunderstorms would stay away.

Turns out, the thunder showed up anyway.

It just came from the stage.

Links

• Artist: https://www.blaketylermusic.com/
• Episode: https://jayfranze.com/episode15
• Episode: https://jayfranze.com/episode120
• Photos: https://jayfranze.com/blake-tyler-voa-country-music-festival-west-chester-oh-8-8-26-photos/

Some concerts are planned weeks in advance. Others come together with a simple phone call from a good friend.

After spending most of the day in the recording studio, I packed up my camera gear and headed across town for one of the summer’s biggest classic rock events as Chicago and Styx brought their co-headlining tour to Riverbend Music Center.

Before I even left the house, I had already spoken with my good friend, and Chicago crew member, Chris Franz. While we covered the usual logistics, our biggest challenge turned out to be answering life’s important question: Where are we going to eat?

Thankfully, Riverbend is only about twenty minutes from my house. I managed to beat the worst of the concert traffic, although Cincinnati’s evening rush still tried its best to slow me down.

When I arrived, I met Chris at the buses just after soundcheck. With limited time before showtime, we walked next door to the casino restaurant, ordered a couple of appetizers, and spent the next hour catching up. It felt like countless conversations musicians and crew members have every day while out on the road, equal parts work, friendship, and trying to squeeze in a meal before the lights go down.

Unfortunately, the restaurant never managed to get our food to the table. As packed as the place was, we finally admitted defeat and headed back to catering.

And… we probably came out ahead.

Waiting for us was an impressive spread featuring ribs, multiple sides, and enough desserts to test anyone’s willpower. I had every intention of showing some restraint.

Let’s just say I tried.

With dinner behind us, Chris headed off to prepare for the show while I made my way to the photo pit. After setting up my cameras, I caught up with security and a handful of photographers I’d worked alongside before. It’s one of my favorite parts of concert photography, the familiar faces behind the scenes that help make every show happen.

Then the house lights dropped.

The roar from the crowd was immediate as Chicago walked onto the stage.

There’s something remarkable about watching a band with nearly six decades of history continue to perform at such an incredibly high level. While the lineup has naturally evolved over the years, founding member Lee Loughnane still leads the charge alongside a lineup of exceptional musicians who honor the band’s remarkable legacy. Every horn section was razor sharp. Every harmony landed effortlessly. Every song sounded as timeless as the day it was recorded.

Chicago has always been difficult to categorize. They’re a rock band with horns, jazz influences, pop sensibilities, R&B grooves, and enough unforgettable melodies to fill multiple careers. That unique musical identity has helped them sell more than 100 million records worldwide and remain one of the most successful American bands in history.

None of that matters, though, if a band can’t still deliver live.

Chicago absolutely can.

The audience responded exactly as you’d expect. From the opening notes through the final encore, fans sang every lyric, danced in the aisles, and celebrated songs that have become part of the soundtrack of multiple generations. Despite the intense summer heat, nobody seemed interested in sitting down for very long.

As photographers, we’re typically limited to shooting the first three songs from the pit. Once that window closed, we were given the freedom to photograph throughout the venue, allowing me to experience the concert from several different perspectives.

One of the unexpected highlights of the evening wasn’t on stage, it was in the crowd.

I spent time talking with concertgoers throughout Riverbend, hearing stories about how many times they’d seen Chicago over the years, which songs meant the most to them, and why they continue coming back. I also met several new friends along the way, something that seems to happen whenever live music brings people together.

That’s one of the things I love most about this job.

Concerts aren’t just about the performers.

They’re about shared memories.

As the final notes faded into the warm Cincinnati night, I packed up my cameras and made one last stop backstage to thank Chris and the entire Chicago crew for their hospitality. Their generosity made the evening even more enjoyable, and I’m grateful for the invitation.

Then it was back home.

Because while the concert may have been over…

The night wasn’t.

There were photos waiting to be delivered, and another incredible show to relive one frame at a time.

Chicago has spent nearly sixty years proving that great songs never go out of style. Judging by Thursday night’s performance at Riverbend Music Center, neither has the band.

Links

• Artist: https://chicagotheband.com/
• Episode: https://jayfranze.com/episode22
• Photos: https://jayfranze.com/chicago-riverbend-cincinnati-oh-8-6-26-photos/