Somehow two of my favorite bands came together with limited intervention on my part: The Blizzard of 78 and The Lights Out shared the stage at Church on June 25th. They were joined by a new favorite, Old Jack. I had a day left on the Nikon 1.4 85mm lens I was renting this week and snapped these photos at the show. The lighting in the club seemed to be intentionally awful (too much red!) so I made most of the photos black and white. View the full set of photos on Flickr.
I shot this photo in Harvard Square on Saturday of Epiphany, a performance artist who painted and dressed herself in silver. She moved whenever someone contributed money. She was a lot more interactive than most statue performance artists. To see the rest of the photos, check out the album on Flickr.
Growing up in Nebraska, peony bushes lined the back of my grandparents house in Fremont. On Memorial Day Weekend, we’d cut the flowers and put them in mason jars to bring to relatives graves around northeastern Nebraska. Ever since then, peonies (and lilacs) have been my favorite flower. They only bloom for a few weeks in May and early June — not long enough!
I took this photo of two pink peonies in Central Square in front of Betahouse. View the image on Flickr to see a larger view of the flowers.
I go out to see a lot of live music and it’s always more fun to share it with other people. Annie Burns and I started up a new group called The Rock Out Boston Club on Facebook. The first concert outing is for Aloud at TT The Bear’s Place on Tuesday, May 12th in Central Square. We’re meeting up for drinks and appetizers at nearby ZuZu at 8 and then the band goes on at 9pm.
My hope is that people who might not go out to see live rock shows all that often will join us. And since Aloud goes on first at 9, it won’t be a late night if you can’t stay past the first band on a school night. There are approximately 393,038 great bands in Boston. You can go out any night of the week and see what this town has to offer.
Everyone who joins us will get a free CD from Aloud with live and unreleased songs on it.
Marc Pinansky, singer and guitarist for Boston band Township, is exploring his mellower, singer-songwriter side with a collection of new songs that he tested out at TT The Bear’s Place last week.
I absolutely love Township. Their style of unabashed rock and roll is the real thing. But I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like to see Marc with just his voice, an acoustic guitar and a lot less volume. Chris Lay summed up the (very good) experience:
Marc added further evidence to my theory that inside every hard-driving neoclassic rocker is an acoustic balladeer struggling to get out, and also convinced me that that is a good thing.
The Lights Out with Rumble host Anngelle Wood on night six of the WBCN Rock N' Roll Rumble Preliminaries. TLO won the night and will compete in the semi-finals on April 16.
I skipped the Rumble the first 13 years I lived in Boston and first checked it out a few of the nights in 2007. Last year, SoozFavorites Girls Guns And Glory competed (and then won) so I went to the two nights they performed plus maybe one more.
Mostly whenever I go to rock shows to photograph I just do my thing and leave. It’s not that I’m not a sociable person; but for whatever reason, at concerts, I always feel a lot more shy about saying hi to bands and other people that are there.
But this year’s Rumble has been an entirely different experience for me. After deciding to turn the lights out at Exploit Boston! (RIP 2002-2009), I collaborated with Ryan Spaulding who runs the popular music blog Ryan’s Smashing Life: his words plus my photos and video. We had an exhaustive blast covering the six nights of preliminaries last week. I still can’t believe I saw twenty-four bands on six nights (one night in the middle was designated as “day of rest”)! Mike, Sophia and the rest of the gang at Boston Band Crush have also shared speedy coverage of each night of the Rumble with lots of tweeting and video roundups.
So many people are using Facebook and Twitter to share tidbits, accolades, pointers to their blog stories, photos, etc. (Not just “social media experts!!”) Everyone felt like they were part of something that was bigger than just four hours at a rock club.
A good host and organizer makes a huge difference!
Of course, there’s also this year’s new host, WBCN DJ for local music show Boston Emissions, Anngelle Wood. She is a long-time music tastemaker and very well respected within the Boston music community. Anngelle did a great job wading through lots of Boston bands to select twenty-four that would play in this year’s 31st Annual Rock N’ Roll Rumble. Her Boston Emissions cohort Shawn Sixx has also played a part in making this year’s Rumble so awesome.
Be there for the semi-finals on April 16-17 at The Middle East Downstairs
If you are in Boston on April 16-17, you really owe it to yourself to attend both night’s of the Rumble semi-finals at The Middle East Downstairs. Avoid the online fees and stop by The Middle East on Mass Ave in Central Square to pick up your tickets in person or buy them online through Ticketmaster.
On the surface, it seems like a great idea to go to nine rock shows in two weeks. It turns out to be a little crazy. It’s fun — but I’ve learned to really appreciate good shoes and the right pair of socks!
The crazy band of music loving bloggers over at Boston Band Crush are also writing about each night at the Rumble.
Here’s a video I shot on Thursday of Sarah RabDAU and Self-Employed Assassins who won the fourth night of preliminaries. They’ll go on to compete in the semi-finals at the Middle East Downstairs on April 16th or 17th.
Today was a really great day outside. It might actually be Spring! I took this photo of tulips in Harvard Square on Mt. Auburn Street. Click the photo to see a bigger version at Flickr.
(The Motion Sick competed on the second night of preliminaries)
Ryan’s Smashing Life has reviews of the second and third preliminary nights of WBCN’s Rock N’ Roll Rumble at The Middle East Upstairs including my photos and videos.
Video of The Dirty Truckers performing “Boston Wrangler” at Rumble preliminaries
Here’s the video I shot of The Dirty Truckers performing “Boston Wrangler” at the third preliminary night on April 7th. They will compete in the semi-finals on April 16th at The Middle East Downstairs.
This is the website where I’ve documented life and work since 2001. I do freelance work as a Boston event planner, photographer, web marketing and social media consultant. (photo by Wm. Marc Salsberry
