I was a rebellious youth. When I was maybe 15 on the side links of YouTube I heard my first metalcore song. I quickly fell into the scenes. In the scene I found new and adventurous ways to express myself through color, style, dance, body language, vocabulary, and friendship. I began frequenting metal, metalcore, punk, pop-punk, hardcore and more live shows in Illinois; I started going with friends but eventually went to shows alone and on my own time. The show was more than a concert for me, it was a place for expression unlike anything else. In the scene is a different and varied social sphere. I began bringing my camera to shows for a time when I was in college to show people the things I was struggling to explain to them (often to their horror). What outsiders so joyously failed to acknowledge when speaking of the scene was freedom of expression, brotherhood (for men, women, and anyone else), support, acceptance, rejection, grieving, pain, counterculture, the working class, the outcasts, the pariahs, the weirdos, the 'freaks' and unnoticed, the suffering, the strong, the willed, the rockers and shockers, the psychonauts, the hardcore, the social reformer, the nihilistic, the idealist, the lovers, the artists, the disciplined, the faithful, the dedicated, the reborn. Sometimes music with a meal is enough, other times...it's time to battle-dance; rekindle the flame of the untamed.