FIELD NOTE//Hatebreed Summer Slaughter 2026 Kansas City | The First Press Pass
FIELD REPORT// HATEBREED AND THE FIRST PRESS PASS
THE RACCOON ENTERS THE PIT WITH HER FIRST OFFICIAL PRESS PASS AT HATEBREED AT WAREHOUSE ON BROADWAY
FIELD NOTE // Hatebreed and the First Press Pass
FIELD OBSERVATIONS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY Alethea F. Mehdipour- Slightly Feral Media PUBLISHED BY My Midlife Crisis Creative Inc.
HATEBREED// THE PRESS PASS
When the raccoon first began documenting live music culture and its humans, she purchased a used camera off Facebook Marketplace then she looked up what it took to get a press pass.
The answer she found: one must be associated with an established media outlet.
Well. How does one do that without working for a media outlet? More research. And Slightly Feral Media came to be. Now the raccoon had to become “established.” What that really meant was covering as many shows as possible, practicing as much as possible and taking as many pictures as possible. So the raccoon began asking if she could bring her camera in.
She bought the tickets and called it an investment in herself. If she was turned away, then that space was not for her. There were others who would welcome a raccoon with a camera and a goal.The first time the raccoon went to Warehouse on Broadway and Sound Bite Social was for Darkside, hosted by KC Goths. Then there was another good show there. Then another. Before long, the raccoon was a regular.
Then, one day, someone needed a video. The raccoon had it. The raccoon only APPEARS chaotic. Okay. Maybe we are a bit chaotic. But it is chaos with a system, and I knew exactly where it was. A door opened.
Then Hatebreed required a press pass. Freelancers were not being considered.
By then, I had taken more than 60,000 photographs in the six months I had owned my camera. I had covered more than 25 shows since the end of May. I had spent endless hours editing, learning color correction and learning how to take better photographs so less editing was needed in the first place. It was trial and error. I went from hoping a good shot was hiding somewhere in the hundreds I had taken to understanding how to intentionally time the shutter for a live music photograph.
This was the test.
AND THE RACCOON WAS AWARDED HER FIRST PRESS PASS.
It has now become one of her most treasured possessions, along with each all-day stagehand credential from my first year, my Cyndi Lauper local crew purple shirt, my camera and my Jeep. Each represents something I experienced that changed my entire reality.
These are what the raccoon would grab in a fire. The Jeep would presumably assist with the evacuation.
This was not just any show. This was the first Press Pass. The first time Slightly Feral Media was recognized as a legitimate media source.
The first BIG goal accomplished on this feral journey.
HATEBREED//THE GIRL OFFSPRING HAD A PREDICAMENT
The raccoon has a daughter. The daughter had a predicament. So the raccoon had to drop her off at work early before going to Warehouse on Broadway for Hatebreed. That also meant the raccoon was early.
Really early. Doors were at 4 p.m. By 3 p.m., the line was forming.
It was HOT. Really hot. And the Warehouse Guardians were doing what Guardians do: keeping the mostly feral creatures lining up outside their venue hydrated, cool and safe. The raccoon has witnessed this on many occasions. Their work begins well before anyone has an opportunity to launch themselves at them.
While the humans assembled outside, the raccoon spotted a familiar ponytail flash above the fence line.
That is Stef…
Then the raccoon’s little black heart got mushy.
HATEBREED// THE PRACTITIONER OF STAGECRAFT
The raccoon tumbled into the stagehand world much like a raccoon tumbles into a dumpster. Headfirst and excited for a new adventure into a world she never knew existed.
An overzealous raccoon had to be taught. Because I knew NOTHING about ANYTHING about stagecraft, and because I have a freakish memory, I can tell you almost exactly who taught me what.
Enter: Stefanie Shryer.
This fabulous human walked me step by step through SO MANY THINGS. How to build truss. How to set up lights. How to run feeder. She had my back. When there was some social rule of the stagecraft world I had failed to pick up on, she guided me politely and kindly. More often than not, she did not let me make the mistake first. She simply dropped an important little tidbit into the conversation.
Never arrogant. Never know-it-all. Just something I needed to know to succeed in the stagecraft underworld. When both of my children went to work as stagehands at LOUD Production Company, Stef was the one I pointed to and said:
“If I am not here, she is your mom.”
In fact, I called her Mama more often than not, despite the inconvenient fact that I was born before her. Even when my mistakes were stupid and she laughed, it was in that Mama kind of way that never made me feel stupid. She is a generational stagehand. She was raised on stagecraft wisdom that I have yet to even understand exists. And she took in a baby stagehand and taught her. Over and over and over again.
I do not know it all. I have much to learn. But I DO know a lot now, and I AM good at what I do. That is in large part because of this woman, LOUD Production Group and many of the others there. They taught me well. They treated me as capable.
Regularly, I worked all-female crews.
They are part of the raccoon’s lore. The Practitioners of Stagecraft are responsible for a great deal of what the humans come to experience. Someone builds the structure. Someone runs the power. Someone makes it possible to hear the vocalist and see the drummer. The raccoon knows enough now to look at a stage and see some of the work inside it. She also knows enough to understand how much she still cannot see.
And there, at the show where she would use her first press pass, was one of the humans who had taught her how that world worked. The little black heart was going to have to cope.
There was documentation to do.
HATEBREED// THE RACCOON HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING
The doors opened, and the humans began filing in. The raccoon was greeted by The Guardians. The Guardians at Warehouse are the ones she has the most experience with. When she first began venturing into this ecosystem, the humans at the door were the only ones she could not avoid interacting with. Repeated exposure apparently results in familiarity.
This is how they get you.
The raccoon is also a creature of habit. She enters Warehouse and goes directly to the bathroom.
Long drive + big water bottle = bathroom. Not today.
The raccoon immediately noticed The Illuminated Altar to the Live Music Deities. It was PACKED FULL OF PRODUCTION. The raccoon enjoys good production. Apparently enough to briefly forget the equation.
Hatebreed, Terror, Incantation, Gates to Hell, Torture and Creeping Death were the musical reason for this gathering. Around that reason, an entire habitat was taking shape. The venue quickly began filling with stereotypical Metalheads.
Which is to say: any and every diverse human imaginable.
The appearance of the subspecies Metalhead is tricky and essentially useless for identification. They can look like anything. Fortunately, the raccoon has developed a more reliable test.
TURN UP THE METAL.
DISCLAIMER // THE RACCOON SPEAKS FOR HERSELF
The Metalhead classification and criterion below are the opinions and entirely unofficial field observations of Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon. The raccoon’s opinions. ONLY the raccoon’s opinions. They do not represent the views, criteria, policies or endorsements of the venue, bands, tour, staff, crew or anyone else.
No other human or institution should be held responsible for giving a raccoon a camera and allowing her to develop theories.
Provisional Human Subclassification: Homo sapiens metallicus
Common designation: Metalhead
Diagnostic instrument: Turn up the metal music. Observe. For classification, exposure to sufficiently heavy music must produce four or more of the following, with at least one behavior occurring spontaneously and Criteria H–L indicating increasingly definitive presentation.
A. Rhythmic cranial response
Repetitive movement of the head in synchronization with the music, ranging from subtle nodding to complete surrender of the cervical spine to the Hair Gods. B. Guitar-mimetic behavior
Subject begins playing an instrument that is not physically present. Technical proficiency is irrelevant. Commitment is not.
C. Horn formation
One or both hands spontaneously assume the horns.
D. Metal-face response A sudden facial configuration involving narrowed eyes, exposed teeth, stank face, or other visible evidence that the Guitar Gods have produced an acceptable riff.
E. Volume-seeking behavior Subject increases the volume despite all available evidence indicating that the music is already extremely fucking loud.
F. Breakdown-induced behavioral escalation The arrival of a breakdown produces an immediate increase in movement, vocalization, aggression, or general ferality.
G. Barely controlled aggression
Subject begins engaging in behavior that appears—to an untrained observer—to indicate that violence is imminent.
Closer examination reveals the violence is already occurring. It is simply controlled. Barely. H. Voluntary pit entry
Subject knowingly enters an area containing rapidly moving, colliding, kicking, flailing, or otherwise aggressively enthusiastic humans. Subject may subsequently describe this experience as “fun.”
I. Guardian-rushing behavior Subject deliberately approaches the barrier and/or The Guardians with sufficient enthusiasm to suggest poor decision-making is imminent. This is frequently a precursor behavior.
J. Stage acquisition
Subject successfully evades, negotiates, climbs past, or otherwise traverses The Guardians and obtains temporary access to the stage despite not appearing on the evening's official personnel roster. K. Stage-diving response
Having successfully acquired the stage, subject immediately elects to leave it by launching their entire body into a collection of other humans. This behavior strongly supports classification.
L. Crowd-surfing behavior Subject voluntarily becomes horizontal and allows themselves to be transported overhead by the hands of strangers. Notably, the subject generally appears delighted by this arrangement.
M. Reciprocal airborne-human response
When presented with an incoming crowd surfer, subject instinctively raises their hands to catch, support, transport, or redirect the airborne human toward The Guardians.
This criterion demonstrates thatMetalhead behavior includes not merely aggression, but cooperative aggression governed by an elaborate and largely unwritten social contract.
Diagnostic threshold
Classification as Metalhead requires:
Four or more criteria following exposure to metal music, with at least one involuntary response.
However, the presence of Stage Acquisition + Stage Diving, or Crowd Surfing + Reciprocal Airborne-Human Response, may be considered sufficiently characteristic to warrant immediate classification.
The behaviors must not be better explained by intoxication, fleeing an actual emergency, participation in professional wrestling, or an unrelated desire to climb things.
Specifier: Feral Presentation Applied when musical exposure results in: barely controlled violence + pit entry + rushing The Guardians + stage acquisition + stage diving and/or crowd surfing.
At this stage, further testing is unnecessary. The human is a Metalhead. Do not turn the music down. Doing so may provoke them.
HATEBREED// I HAVE ELBOWS TOO
The raccoon had a goal. THE PIT. She desperately wanted to get into one, she hadnever been in one. Something about barely controlled aggression appeals to the feral and primal parts of the raccoon.
It happened. TWICE. Both times by accident. Apparently, wanting to enter the pit and arranging one’s own entrance are separate matters.
The first time, someone pushed the raccoon out. Brief study. Limited findings.
The second time, the raccoon remembered she had elbows, too. And when the six-foot-tall, tattooed man with the shaved head and beard turned to look behind him, he found a 48-year-old, 5'1" woman with purple hair and a camera.The raccoon simply stated the obvious.
“What? I have elbows, too.”
And walked off. It is difficult to maintain the appearance of a detached field researcher when one is personally participating in the diagnostic criteria.
The raccoon will address this methodological concern at a later date.
HATEBREED// THE CROWD SURFERS
Imagine, if you will, that one human decides standing on the floor is no longer an adequate way to experience music.vThe human raises its arms.vThis is apparently a request.vThe surrounding Metalheads understand immediately.
The Guardians catch the human, return it to an upright position, and release it back into the population.And, remarkably often, they don't.
The raccoon approves. 🦝
HATEBREED// THE GUARDIANS
It is worth returning to the humans at the receiving end of this arrangement. Earlier, The Guardians were looking after people waiting outside in the heat. Inside, they were receiving those same general life-forms in a considerably less convenient orientation. The job had acquired a vertical component.
The crowd could move a surfer toward the front, but the human still needed somewhere to go. Someone had to receive the weight, help them down and get them moving again. The surfer’s journey depended on people paying attention all the way through it.
The raccoon had known The Guardians first as the humans at the door. The necessary interaction before she could disappear into a room with her camera. Watching the airborne-human delivery system gives the word Guardian additional substance.There is a person inside the flying boots. Someone has to remember that while the boots are coming toward their face.
The raccoon appreciates these humans. She appreciates the ones outside in the heat, the ones at the entrance and the ones helping return the population to the floor.
A habitat this feral requires care. Some of that care stands at the door and catches people.
HATEBREED// PART OF THE EVIDENCE
There is an obvious complication in these field notes. The raccoon keeps referring to “the humans” as though she were observing from a safe distance with a clipboard.
The evidence does not support this position.
She was a 48-year-old woman with purple hair, a camera and a recently demonstrated willingness to deploy her elbows. She had history with the venue. She knew some of the people working. Seeing Stef’s ponytail over a fence had nearly undone her before the doors even opened.
Scientific detachment was already in serious trouble.
And this particular night carried six months of work into the room with her.
The early photographs. The missed photographs. The hours spent figuring out why something did not look the way I thought it would. The next show, where I tried again. More than 60,000 photographs do not mean 60,000 good photographs. It meant a lot of really bad ones, at first. They mean a great many opportunities to learn what you failed to catch.
Gradually, I began to understand what I was waiting for. How to watch the movement. How to time the shutter. How to give myself a better chance of making the photograph I intended to make.
Then came a show that required credentials. And I had them. They meant extra coming from Mammoth, the parent company of LOUD- where I was taught the foundations of stagecraft.
I could spend this entire field note classifying everyone else in the room, but that is the part I cannot pretend was ordinary. I had built Slightly Feral Media because I WANTED to do this.
Now I was there doing it. At Warehouse on Broadway. For Hatebreed. With my first press pass. Six months after beginning.
The raccoon reserves the right to be extremely fucking proud of that.
The raccoon went looking for a way to bring her camera into shows. Along the way, she became a regular. She learned names. She found people who welcomed her and people who taught her. She began to recognize the work happening around the thing everyone had come to see.
At Summer Slaughter, all of that belonged in the frame. The musicians on The Illuminated Altar. The Practitioners who made it work. The Guardians caring for the humans before the doors opened and catching them once they became airborne. The Metalheads, who apparently express joy by colliding with one another and placing their entire bodies in the hands of strangers. And somewhere among them, a raccoon who had once looked up how to get a press pass without working for a media outlet.
That question had taken six months, tens of thousands of photographs and a considerable amount of stubbornness to answer.
The answer now sits among my most treasured possessions. This was not just any show. This was the first Press Pass.
VIEW THE EVIDENCE
THE HUMAN // ALETHEA MEHDIPOUR
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| 📷 Barefoot Lifestyle Photography |
This is Alethea—the photographer, stagehand, behavior scientist, and designated human attached to this operation.
She documents the people, rituals, machinery, and beautiful disorder of live culture. She carries the camera, follows the evidence, and keeps wandering into places most humans never think to look.
The raccoon provides responsible supervision. Obviously.
CONDUCT YOUR OWN FIELD RESEARCH
FIELD NOTE COMPLETE
The room left evidence.
The raccoon collected it.
Slightly Feral.
Entirely Capable.
— Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon 🦝🖤
Slightly Feral Media
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REFERENCES // SOURCES & FIELD EVIDENCE
Event details
Warehouse on Broadway — Hatebreed: Summer Slaughter Tour 2026. Official event listing for September 3, 2026, in Kansas City, Missouri. Includes venue information, supporting acts, doors at 4 p.m. and the scheduled show time of 4:45 p.m.
Tour lineup
Incantation — Summer Slaughter 2026 Tour Announcement. Official band announcement identifying Hatebreed, Terror, Incantation, Gates to Hell, Torture and Creeping Death, and listing the September 3 stop at Warehouse on Broadway.
Hatebreed
Hatebreed — Official Website. Official band information, music and tour announcements.
The venue
Warehouse on Broadway — Official Website. Venue information and events in Kansas City, Missouri.
Firsthand observations and photography
Alethea F. Mehdipour, Slightly Feral Media. Personal experiences, original photographs and field observations from the show, presented through Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon. Accounts of the first press pass, stagehand experience, Stefanie Shryer, The Guardians and participation in the pit are the author’s firsthand recollections.
A note on the classifications
“Homo sapiens metallicus,” “The Metalhead — The Criterion,” “The Guardians,” “The Practitioners of Stagecraft” and related field-note terminology are creative descriptions used in this blog. The Metalhead criteria are humorous personal observations, not scientific or clinical classifications. They represent only the raccoon’s opinions and do not represent the venue, bands, tour, staff, crew or anyone else.
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