January 2, 2016

Top Shows/Photos of 2015

I’ve totally neglected to do a proper shows/photo wrap-up at the end of a given year prior to this one, but given how insane 2015 was for my life in concert photography, I think it had to be done. I’m just gonna tackle this chronologically with favorite images and memories because, over the course of approximately 425 sets in 130 shows and 6 festivals, I’d be here til June trying to rank them.

1/12 – A$AP Ferg / YG – House of Blues

No one could find Ferg’s tour manager when I showed up, YG rode on stage on what I can only describe as a pimp tricycle, Ferg dumped 2/3s of a bottle of water on my head, I saw a woman nearly escorted out for indecent exposure…good way to kick off the year.

2/4 – Eyehategod – Brighton Music Hall

It was awesome to catch volatile sludge metal legends Eyehategod on one of their non-cancelled U.S. tour dates in February and survive what I assumed would be a much more vicious mosh pit. This was a great shoot, and I love the hair action and lens flare on this shot of Mike IX in particular.

2/18 – Swans – Columbus Theatre – Providence, RI

Swans continue to be the best touring band around. I have quite a few shots by now of Michael Gira’s Christ pose, but the Columbus’ weird retro overhead light fixtures made this one a standout for me.

2/21 – Ariel Pink – Paradise

Put your number in his phone.

2/23 – Sleater-Kinner – House of Blues

I’d been sick in the bed the entire day leading up to Sleater-Kinney’s Boston reunion show, but I was determined to be there. I arrived to find there was no photo pit. Good times. I shot this one from a stair I wasn’t supposed to be standing on about 2/3s of the way back on the floor, wound up being my favorite of the night.

2/27 – Behemoth / Cannibal Corpse – House of Blues and Disappears – Great Scott

Even with one of the most crowded non-festival photo pits I’ve experienced to date, Behemoth and Cannibal Corpse were both a total blast to shoot – for the dramatically-lit Satanic theatricality and the straight-up hair-whipping death metal madness, respectively. Plus, it was an extra-good night since I managed to take a cab up Comm. Ave and catch a really solid (and photogenic) Disappears set at Great Scott afterwards.

3/6 – Gang of Four – Paradise

I’m not sure what I expected out of a Gang of Four show featuring precisely one of the band’s founding members (that’d be guitarist Andy Gill), but I certainly didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. Pictured are bassist Thomas McNeice and vocalist John Sterry, whose manic energy totally sold me on this show. Also, shouts out to the extremely enthusiastic fans.

3/14 – Cursive – The Sinclair

This was an outstanding show on a number of levels – producer extraordinaire John Congleton, who apparently also writes songs, was first up on the bill, followed by excellent up-and-comers Beach Slang, and concluding with Cursive performing The Ugly Organ in full. Cursive frontman Tim Kasher is a wonderfully expressive subject through and through, but I immediately fell in love with this shot of him collapsed on the stage in half-sincere exhaustion at the end of “Staying Alive.”

3/27 – Blackberry Smoke – House of Blues

Can’t say I’m a huge Blackberry Smoke fan, but this show was my first official assignment for The Boston Globe, which was and still is a pretty huge deal for me. Weirdly, I think this photo ran larger than anything I’ve had published there since…

3/30 – Belle and Sebastian – House of Blues

I’d shot Belle and Sebastian very briefly at a previous year’s Pitchfork Fest, but I was happy to actually spend some time with the band at this show. I thank Stuart Murdoch’s stage-traversing enthusiasm during “I’m a Cuckoo” for this shot.

4/3 – Electric Wizard – Royale

For doom metal legends Electric Wizard’s first U.S. tour in many years, they sold out the Royale on a Friday night, months in advance. A photo pit might’ve been nice for this show, but it was also good fun to stay up front til the very end when they inevitably played “Funeralopolis,” which obviously ruled. I think this frame of Jus Oborn conveys the Power of the Riff nicely.

4/11 – Inter Arma – TT the Bear’s

Inter Arma are one of my favorite live metal acts around right now, and they were insanely good at this headlining Saturday matinee show at TT’s. There’s an intensity to this shot of vocalist Mike Paparo that instantly jumped out to me.

4/27-5/1 – The Replacements, Passion Pit, Slayer, Descendents – The Sinclair

For a number of mostly music-related reasons, this was objectively the best week of my life to date. Converse brought a frankly ridiculous lineup of acts to the relatively tiny Sinclair for a Rubber Tracks show series, and I covered most of them. Between Monday and Friday, I saw The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr., Passion Pit, Baths, Slayer, Doomriders, Descendents and King Tuff in a 500-cap room and skipped one show out of five to conclude my college radio career and drink a $250 bottle of scotch (it was a gift). I’m probably never gonna top that.

5/6 – David Duchovny – Red Room @ Cafe 939

This show wasn’t particularly remarkable on a musical level, but singer/songwriter Fox Mulder was definitely the weirdest thing I got assigned all year. And I am fond of this photo.

5/11 – Faith No More – Orpheum Theatre

A number of firsts at this show: first time shooting Faith No More (they’re great), first time using a 300mm lens (they’re heavy), first show with the 5D III I’d just bought (worth noting that Canon’s factory settings are to shoot in JPEG only, not RAW…). This was fun despite the setbacks and I like Mike Patton with the megaphone, which I didn’t get during the first three songs when I shot them later in the year.

5/15 – Full of Hell – Middle East Upstairs

Went to this show mainly to see co-headliners The Body, but I ended up liking my shots from Full of Hell’s extremely chaotic set more. Distressed flannel guy really sells this one for me.

5/22-24 – Boston Calling

This May’s lineup might’ve been Boston Calling’s strongest ever. Beck (above) headlined Friday night with a pitch-perfect selection from his expansive discography. I was also able to shoot him from a photo pit this time, which was satisfying after being shut out during Pitchfork Fest 2k14. Tame Impala (below) also played a solid and colorful set on opening night.

Saturday was the lesser of three, but St. Vincent (below) delivered as always.

TV On The Radio (first above) offered Sunday’s first major highlight, while Jack Black’s fake metal comedy project Tenacious D proved extremely photogenic. Pixies’ headlining set was pretty much a nightmare from a photo perspective, but the Boston veterans, sans founding bassist Kim Deal, sounded shockingly good. How much I enjoyed that set was one of 2015’s pleasant surprises.

6/1 – Refused – The Sinclair

Swedish punks Refused are a difficult shoot in a club venue – dynamic light and a frontman who literally never stops moving – but they’re a lot of fun for the same reasons. A tad too much grain on the above due to boosting it a couple stops in Lightroom, but I liked Dennis Lyxzén’s mic flying out of the frame too much to trash that one. Security was thankfully cool with us shooting from the house after three songs in the pit that night, so I could snag him diving into the crowd at the end of the set.

6/2 – Wire – The Sinclair

Post-punk legends Wire are a great band who don’t move a whole lot. Had to be patient for this shot of Colin Newman toward the end of the show, but I think it’s a nice moment of levity in what was mostly a tightly-coiled performance.

6/16 – Viet Cong – The Sinclair

Calgary’s Viet Cong released one of my favorite records of the year, and also played one of my favorite shows. They were incredibly tight, translated their songs to the stage brilliantly, covered Bauhaus, then capped it off with an extended version of “Death” that concluded with drummer Mike Wallace tossing out their remaining beers to the crowd.

6/18 – Spoon – House of Blues

Aside from Sleater-Kinney, this is only other House of Blues show I can think of where the photo pit was removed at the band’s request. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, since I definitely wouldn’t have gotten this shot of Britt Daniels during the traditional first three.

6/23 – Rush – TD Garden

I’ll cop to never really getting into Rush, but they’re undeniably legends – unapologetic prog-prophets who’ve soldiered on for 40-plus years. It was pretty cool to shoot them on their last large-scale tour.

6/27 – Wilco – Solid Sound Festival – Mass MOCA

It’s a lovely thing that Wilco have decided to house their biennial Solid Sound Festival here in Massachusetts, because it’s pretty easy for me to justify going back many times after my first round in 2013. Nothing could quite top the mindblowing covers set from that year, but this year’s acoustic Friday/electric Saturday Wilco sets were also a treat.

I don’t enjoy shooting in the rain for obvious practical reasons (one camera nearly lost in a festival downpour is one too many), but I do have a soft spot for the effects that raindrops on a lens can have.

6/28 – Ceremony – Cuisine en Locale

I actually left Solid Sound a little early to catch this show on that Sunday night. I don’t shoot a ton of hardcore, and I try to avoid being That Guy up front shooting blindly over my head with full-power flash, so I aimed to make the best of the side stage angle. This is far from my best image on a technical level, but between the dude in midair, Ross Farrar gripping the mic with his teeth and the venue employee holding desperately onto that monitor to keep it from collapsing into the crowd, I think it captures the vibe pretty well.

7/3 – Swirlies – Great Scott

Early 90s Boston shoegazers Swirlies are only kind of still a band, and they don’t play many shows, so I was very psyched to catch this one at one of my favorite venues. Having original guitarist/vocalist Seana Carmody (above) back in the fold for this run of shows, and getting to hang out with the band for a portrait beforehand, were added bonuses.

7/10 – U2 – TD Garden

As someone who had a huge U2 phase in the 8th and 9th grade, this was another milestone show for me. It was a weird set of shooting restrictions – two songs from a tiny platform on the floor, two more from the nosebleeds once the light show really got going – but allowed for some cool images. This one of Bono on his catwalk is my favorite.

7/11 – Mudhoney – Brighton Music Hall

My first show with these Seattle grunge mainstays. Mark Arm is a really fun guy to photograph.

Pitchfork Music Festival – 7/17-19 – Union Park – Chicago, IL

Pitchfork was my first music festival and it’s still my favorite. Great bookings, great atmosphere, great city. Above is a shot from Iceage’s Friday night set, which presented a rare opportunity to shoot the band with some light on them. First below is Ex Hex, taken during one of three songs they were able to perform before Saturday’s torrential rain became a hazard and the park was temporarily evacuated. I thank some variety of dark magic for every good photo I got from this set, because I could barely see what I was doing through my rain gear. Second below is a levitating Chance the Rapper during his Sunday night headlining set. That was one exceptionally crowded photo pit, as the intruding lens hoods can tell you.

Other amusing recollections from this weekend: playing “Soon” on a dive bar jukebox to the chagrin of some people who really wanted to listen to Kid Rock, drinking Johnnie Black in a hotel room while experiencing the surprise weekend releases of Wilco’s Star Wars (which they played in full at the festival) and Future’s DS2 for the first time, and losing roughly 75 games of Connect Four.

7/21 – Thalia Zedek Band – TT the Bear’s

This set was part of TT’s run of farewell shows, and saw Boston legend Thalia Zedek reuniting with her erstwhile Come bandmate Chris Brokaw for an awesome run through of “Hurricane.” It was my last show at one of the first venues I shot at, and sits among many fond memories there.

Newport Folk Festival – 7/24-26 – Fort Adams State Park – Newport, RI

Newport is always a great festival, but they really outdid themselves with this year’s lineup. Roger Waters (above) playing “Wish You Were Here” in the rain, surprise sets from James Taylor (below) and My Morning Jacket, Robyn Hitchcock covering “Visions of Johanna”…the highlights were many.

A smiling Sufjan Stevens (above) was a welcome site following his beautiful but heartbreakingly somber show at the Wang earlier in the year.

The weekend’s concluding ’65 Revisited set, which featured an all-star roster taking on various Dylan tunes to mark the 50th anniversary of his historic plugged-in Newport performance, was a particularly surreal experience from a photography angle. We were allowed to stay in the pit for the duration, in order to capture the parade of unannounced guests, provided that we stay crouched on the ground once we’d gotten our shots in order to keep the audience view as unobstructed as possible. Dylan didn’t show up, of course, but the range of musicians who did, including the aforementioned Hitchcock (above), David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Willie Watson, Deer Tick, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Hozier and Al Kooper, offered a range of interpretations. Below is the whole crew (photographers included) taking on “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.”

7/28 – The Smashing Pumpkins / Marilyn Manson – Blue Hills Bank Pavilion

Yeah, I don’t get this billing either. This was a fun show though. Manson’s provocations are not nearly as impactful in 2015 as they probably were in his heyday, but it’s darkly amusing fun to watch him cover “Sweet Dreams” on stilts and set bibles on fire from a podium nonetheless. We only got one song in the pit to shoot him, and I had to get a little creative to salvage the exposure on the above, but the end result is easily among my favorites of the year.

The Pumpkins were well worth seeing on this tour as well, with original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain joining founder and sole constant member Billy Corgan for the first time since 2009. Plenty of classic songs with Chamberlain’s essential percussion back in place, Corgan looking like he was actually having a good time, Peter Hook’s son on bass for some reason…this was the ideal Smashing Pumpkins in the year 2015.

8/2 – Thurston Moore Band – The Sinclair

I shot Thurston at this same venue in 2014 and aimed to get a little more creative this time. This is a long-ish exposure at f/22 timed with a burst of backlight; I’ve always dug the effect.

8/4 – Faith No More – Blue Hills Bank Pavillion

For round two with Faith No More I actually got to stay for the whole show, which was great. It’s a singular pleasure to hear thousands of people singing the chorus of “Midlife Crisis.” We also got to shoot from the pit rather than the soundboard this time, so the flower arrangement was able to offer its full impact.

8/6 – James Taylor – Fenway Park

I probably looked like an insane person to passersby on this night. I had a 400mm lens on one shoulder and an 800 on the other, plus a bag full of gear on my back. I stumbled into the Hunt’s Photo in Kenmore square like that and bought a monopod on the spot after shooting Bonnie Raitt’s opening set because, as it turns out, those lenses are really goddamn heavy when you’re trying to hand hold them. Fenway’s soundboard is so far from the stage that you might as well be shooting from an adjacent galaxy though, so the glass was necessary. The below shot was with the 800, and I still had to crop in.

8/9 – Jamie xx – Royale

Electronic performances that I would ever be interested in seeing tend to be a little dull on the visual side, unless you’re Jamie xx and you bring giant mirror balls and a strategically deployed light show.

8/17 – High On Fire / Pallbearer – Royale

This was a great double bill balancing High On Fire’s thrash-y sludge proclivities with Pallbearer’s more measured doom epics. Both are good fun to shoot as well.

8/22 – AC/DC – Gillette Stadium

Another milestone show, for being the biggest I’ve covered so far. Football stadiums are enormous and crazy. AC/DC’s ridiculously tall stage was challenging, but they made up for it with an abundance of clean white light and, y’know, being AC/DC. Bonus shot below of openers Vintage Trouble, because I love the poses and the stadium backdrop.

9/10 – Scorpions

Stare into the tambourine, where Klaus shall reveal your destiny.

9/17 – Godflesh

This was a weirdly under-attended show for these industrial metal trailblazers. Everyone’s loss, because it was great. Also one of the more well-lit sets I’ve shot at the Paradise in recent memory, thanks in part to the band’s projections. Justin Broadrick silhouetted against a wall of fire sums up the band’s aesthetic pretty well.

9/26 – Boston Calling

I only covered one day of Boston Calling in September, but it was definitely the most important day. Few of my captures pleased me more in 2015 than Stephen Malkmus checking his non-existent watch. Also, he played “Baby C’mon,” which was awesome.

9/27 – Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Paradise

A large part of the reason why I skipped Sunday of Boston Calling was so I could catch Godspeed leveling a club venue way too small for them. They were heavy and majestic as ever that night. They’re not an easy band to shoot – numerous members seated in a semicircle in low light – and I didn’t have a great spot, but I like this photo a lot.

10/2 – Destroyer – Royale

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar is a curious guy. I’d like to think this photo captures a bit of his mystique.

10/3 – Kraftwerk – Wang Theatre

This was definitely not a show I expected to be covering this year. I had long wished that Kraftwerk would bring their 3D show on the road and grace Boston with their presence, and out of the blue, that wish came true in 2015. It was amazing. Also, this was the first time I’ve ever been thankful to be shooting from a soundboard.

10/4 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Northeastern University

I’m currently the editor-in-chief of the music magazine at Northeastern that booked this show, and it was amazing to see the whole thing come together as it did despite a number of logistical setbacks. UMO were on fire, and I was pleased to capture a backstage angle on this moment where keyboardist Quincy McCrary briefly took charge of the set.

10/8 – Makthaverskan – Great Scott

I like experimenting with double exposures that capture a sharp image and a dramatically motion-blurred one, and I think this, of the Swedish post-punk group Makthaverskan, is my favorite example of that technique that I’ve shot.

10/10 – Luna – Paradise

I’m not totally sure how I ended up with the red cast over this entire image – some bizarre trick of lens flare I suppose – but I quite like. This was also a great reunion show from Dean Wareham’s post-Galaxie 500 dream-pop outfit.

10/15 – Krill – Great Scott

After having shot Krill many times over the last couple years, I felt it necessary to be on hand for their final Boston performance – the second of two sold-out shows at Great Scott that night. R.I.P.

10/16 – Major Stars – Middle East Upstairs

I’d been waiting a while to see Boston’s long running psych-jam crew Major Stars, and they exceeded expectations. Forty minutes of manic energy and insane guitar chops melting down into total shredding madness. One of my favorite sets of the year.

11/3 – Deafheaven / Envy / Tribulation – Royale

I’ve already written a bunch about this show; it was probably my favorite shoot of the year. Restraining myself to a few favorites here.

11/5-7 – Boston Hassle Fest

I’ve already covered my Hassle Fest experience in detail elsewhere, so I’ll just include some photos here: the face-kicking Urochromes, Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys in the crowd, Dent, Dreamcrusher, Screaming Females, Olivia Neutron John, Kate Biggar of Heathen Shame exacting rock ‘n’ roll vengeance, Travis spreading Ono’s avant-gospel and a bunch of David Yow fronting Flipper (which was probably the most fun set I shot all year). Hassle Fest was the best.

11/21 – My Morning Jacket – Orpheum Theatre

Jim James and Co. had a prime lighting designer this tour, evidently. I could only stay for three songs of the set, but I had “Off the Record” stuck in my head for days.

11/24 – King Diamond – Orpheum Theatre

I had to leave this show after shooting to catch Okkervil River up the street, and I’m still kinda mad about it. Please join me starting a petition for King Diamond to come back as soon as possible.

12/10 – Atlas Sound – Royale

Another high aperture/slow exposure shot akin to the Thurston one above – this is Bradford Cox opening a Deerhunter show under his solo Atlas Sound moniker.

12/15 – Big Boi – The Sinclair

Converse Rubber Tracks returned at year’s end with one half of revered hip-hop duo Outkast. Big Boi took the stage wearing a bandana over his face, which he kept on for about 20 seconds, and my favorite photo of the night ended up being him removing said bandana in dramatic fashion before he even raised the mic.

12/16 – Perfect Pussy – Middle East Upstairs

Perfect Pussy vocalist Meredith Graves is one of the more photogenic bandleaders around these days. I was happy to be able to shoot this set under considerably less chaotic circumstances than when I’ve seen the band in the past.

12/26 – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

And here we are, the last show of the year. I’m not much of a ska person, but I’ve had a blast shooting The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Hometown Throwdown shows the last three years. For 2015, they rebuilt The Rat on the House of Blues stage and booked a bunch of old school Boston bands as openers. Pretty fun way to close out an insanely great year.