remember that rapper who would do the yearly wrap-up of pop culture? what was his name? he was on the sprite liquid mix tour back in the day…i think. Skillz. LOL. well, this is my monthly wrap-up. i went to arizona and las vegas at the beginning of the month. just before i left, i had a week of concerts that i never posted about. i’m going to try and rewind and catch up on all of the shows from the past month+, including last week!
oh wait. i did post the week before i left. look at me, being efficient. new found glory, the black eyed peas….they are posted. i even gave a little shout out to mike posner and citizen cope. ok, ok. this post will just cover the march shows.
AMADEUS (TREY SONGZ) @ TD GARDEN
i ran into my old buddy, chad brandolini of vater percussion at the new found glory show. i told him…as much as i love shooting weddings and portraits, i miss photographing music/concerts. i used to ONLY shoot concerts. i explained my new side gig at examiner.com and told him i need more hip-hop shows in my life. chad to the rescue.
chad put me in touch with drummer/producer amadeus (antwan ‘amadeus’ thompson in long form). ha. amadeus was on tour with trey songz, who was on tour with jay-z for the BP3 gig. omg. sign me up. the night of the show, i ran around the venue looking for the correct entrance with the credentials i had. finally, i gave up and hollered at chad…who had amadeus give me a call. now i had never talked to this guy on the phone before, so i was nervous. he put me at ease immediately. super nice. not an ounce of douchebag in him. not that i expected that. i just didn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms. he introduced me to the staff and band waiting in the cafeteria backstage. wicked nice. i sat while they went through their pre-show routine. trying to keep it together. ha. jay-z walked by in the hall. i secretly sh*t myself. memphis bleek walked in. i was cool. trey songz set was pretty darn good. i sang to myself while taking pictures of amadeus, who is a beast on the drums. thank baby jesus that the soundboard guy let me stand on the side of the stage, because i couldn’t get great shots of amadeus behind the drumset from the front of the stage. i’m too short. stage is too high. they killed it. and the plan was for amadeus to sneak me out to shoot jay-z. HA! it didn’t work. i was immediately removed from the pit. hova’s security doesn’t play. dream killers. amadeus could see my soul was destroyed, so he tried to sneak me into the other side. double HA! security dude had already made it over there and they were escorting the photographers out of the pit. so close. no cigar.
either way. trey songz was good. jay-z was fire. amadeus is the truth. he even danced with one of the security guards. that was hilarious. and i got great pictures from the show for them. go to his website: platinum boy entertainment. and buy a drumstick from vater while you’re at it. boom.
visit review: CLICK HERE!
DROPKICK MURPHYS @ HOUSE OF BLUES
the dropkick’s come thru every year (10 years to be exact) and do a week long string of shows for their hometown. ‘i’m shipping up to boston, yeah yeah yeah.’ that’s them. their song was in THE DEPARTED. and i shot them back maybe 4 years ago at locobazooka. the one with disturbed as the headliner. i remember how crazy the crowd went for their set. this saturday matinee show was just as sick. they had a little platform sticking out from the stage so the lead singer could walk out to the people…which meant the photographers were shooting him from behind most of the time…or really close up. i got a foot to the chin. thank you, crowd surfer. security was working hard, just pulling people out of the pit left and right. good show. shoutout to mary mare!
visit review: CLICK HERE!
i didn’t even think i was going to shoot this show. i’ve been a fan of MAN IN A BOX, since my hypercane days. it was one of those songs they’d always close with and dana would kill it on the drums. their management emailed me the day before saying i was set to go. surprise! they asked that i only post the images in the article, so i’ll respect that. i guess.
chad to the rescue again. ran into brandolini and he helped me get the tickets that were not at the box office. that happens too frequently. 9/10 times everything is set. your name is on the list. all good. it’s tickets that the tricky part. there is either one, two or none…but never what is discussed beforehand. it’s cool. i go with the flow and usually have a person to call/email if something goes wrong the day of the show. i am fortunate enough to make my own deadlines, so i try not to stress out too much. AIC asked to review and approve all the images that would be posted for this, so you’ll have to visit the article to see photos from this show.DAUGHTRY @ AGGANIS ARENA
phew. the good people at sony called me friday afternoon at work to confirm this one. i tried following up with no email response, so imagine my surprise. thanks, RCA. and thanks to my cousin akila for helping me reach out to folks over in that office. i appreciate it, cuzzo. i shot at the agganis for mixfest back in 2006. rihanna was there and had the flu, but tried to sing anyway. trooper. jessica connor is in charge over there and is the nicest venue person ever. tricia at the garden is pretty awesome also. mary mare was in the house again. and daughtry was looking very
aj mclean that night. good show either way. lifehouse was great and i missed cavo due to INSANE traffic on commonwealth avenue. parking near boston university is painful. too many one way streets. the stage lighting at this gig was perfect.
visit review: CLICK HERE!
more photos from daughtry.
i have 5 more shows to post. i’ll do a part 2. word.