2016 Year In Review
As 2016 finally reaches its most welcome conclusion, Noise Floor once again takes the opportunity to look back on a year’s worth of live music in and around Boston (and occasionally beyond).
2016 was not a fun year. It was frequently ugly, scary, and rife with personal and professional setbacks. David Bowie’s passing in early January set the tone for the following 12 months: bleak and hostile to creativity and goodness.
Still, whatever disheartening things may have happened – and there were plenty of them – I was still fortunate enough to shoot a lot of music. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 135 shows and 4 festivals is my final count. I continue to be grateful for the opportunities I have to do the work I love, and which assists in keeping me sane.
Without further ado, a selection of my best and strangest shows, photos and memories of 2016:
January 9th – METZ at The Sinclair
January 14th – David Bowie Tribute Night at Out of the Blue
In the wake of Bowie’s passing, the sort of communal catharsis offered by a night of local weirdos paying tribute in ways both faithful to the source material and completely fucking out-there was just what a lot of us needed. This shot of A. Campbell Payne getting into the crowd while covering “Let’s Dance” is one of my favorites of the year.
(As a side note, it’s a shame that Out of the Blue is no longer a safe or appropriate space to book music – the room itself was great. So 2016 went.)
January 22nd – Graveyard at Middle East Downstairs
This show marks the first (and hopefully only) time a tour manager has ever swooped on stage in front of the band to temporarily confiscate my gear for violating a first-three-songs rule. I would advise not messing around with Graveyard in this capacity, but they disbanded in September. Alas. This was a fun show otherwise.
January 29th – Wilco at the Orpheum
I’ve Wilco a lot of times, but seeing them on my birthday was neat.
February 14th – Martin Courtney at Brighton Music Hall
Real Estate’s Martin Courtney is not the most magnetic live performer (although he does a solid “Killing Moon”), but I really like this triple exposure from his Valentine’s Day show.
February 19th – Wavves / Best Coast at Royale
One thing I realized last year is that on nights when there’s a photo pit set up, Royale is probably my favorite venue to shoot at. The barricade is always spaced appropriately for both photographers and security to work, the lights are usually great, and the sight lines are strong for hanging out and watching the show after you’re done shooting. This Wavves/Best Coast double bill was one such evening, and I love this backlit shot of the former.
February 22nd – Animal Collective at Royale / Coheed and Cambria at House of Blues
This was a bizarre but enjoyable double-assignment night. Prog titans Coheed had an insane, spastic light show that was tough but occasionally rewarding to work with. A crowd surfer came over the railing and forced my face into the edge of the stage at one point, which is always fun. I drove across down after those three songs in time to catch the beginning of Animal Collective’s set, which wound up being much easier to shoot from a distance than it would’ve been up close thanks to their Kraftwerk-in-Candyland stage setup for this tour.
March 1st – Ty Segall and The Muggers at Royale
For Ty Segall’s largest Boston gig to date (he previously headlined the tiny Great Scott in 2014), he and his Muggers brought out a rowdy crowd and worked them into a sweat-drenched, stage-diving frenzy. There was no photo pit at this show (supposedly, I heard in passing, because Ty’s New York crowds had broken down a barricade earlier on the tour), but shooting from the middle of the chaos was an integral part of the experience here.
March 6th – Slayer, Testament and Carcass at House of Blues
A brilliantly-lit triple bill that’s tough to argue with.
March 19th – Bully at afterHours
That this was the last Tastemakers Presents show I’ll have a hand in brings me great sadness. I served in a number of editorial roles at Northeastern’s student-run music magazine in college and it shaped my life in numerous ways. I was proud of many entries in our biannual concert series, but having my last one feature a mclusky cover was especially great.
April 1st – Savages at Paradise Rock Club
April 11th – Iggy Pop at the Orpheum
It’s a small miracle that Iggy Pop is still playing gigs as good as this one. Backed by the band that helped him make last year’s comeback record Post Pop Depression, Iggy delivered a lively, vibrant and extremely shirtless set of new songs and favorites from his untouchable 1977 classics The Idiot and Lust for Life. It was one of those life-affirming, restore-your-faith-in-the-power-of-rock kind of shows, and Iggy was delivering them night after night in 2016. Long may he reign.
April 15th – Parquet Courts at Paradise Rock Club
It’s been fun to watch Parquet Courts climb the ranks and become a big enough act to headline a room this size, and they’re a consistently excellent live band. This show particularly stands out in my mind, though, for this being my favorite crowd-surfing shot I’ve ever taken.
April 16th – Melvins / Napalm Death at Paradise Rock Club
If 2016 drove home some of my feelings toward various venues around town, it certainly hardened me against the Paradise. Combine terrible light, a low stage, a weird layout, giant sight-blocking pillars and stage-front barricades that barely leave room for security (and certainly not enough for photographers too), and you have Boston’s least hospitable spot. This night, a co-headlining affair from grunge-metal weirdos Melvins and English grindcore vets Napalm Death – was surely a challenge. Despite that, it was also a killer show from which I got some images I’m very happy with after waiting several years to finally photograph the Melvins. Plus, it was dubbed the “Savage Imperial Death March” tour, and how can you not have fun at an event with that title?
April 17th – Kvelertak at Middle East Downstairs
April 24th – Behemoth at Royale
I loved photographing Poland’s black/death metal provocateurs Behemoth with Cannibal Corpse in 2015, but shooting them again as headliners in a much less crowded pit was an even better experience. Nergal’s inversion of various Christian ceremonies during the band’s sets is always fun, and I was particularly happy with this shot of his censer.
May 4th – Ought with Priests and Ursula at The Sinclair
May 6th-7th – Waking Windows in Winooski, VT
Vermont’s Waking Windows fest had everything from Waxahatchee playing in a church to Protomartyr headlining a bar that served Heady Topper by the can (although Joe Casey was still drinking Budweisers). The festival brought a host of excellent semi-local and small label acts to charming downtown Winooski on a beautiful spring weekend. This was my first year at Waking Windows, and I’m assuredly planning a return trip.
May 13th – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at The Sinclair
Australian psych rockers King Gizzard brought one of the year’s most unexpectedly wild crowds at this Sinclair show. I had seen the ensemble play a solid opening set for White Fence at Great Scott a few years prior, but had no idea they’d blown up into a phenomenon that would sell out this room and move up to another (they play Royale in the coming months) in the interim. A fun, if difficult, shoot. The obstruction you see in the bottom left of the frame above is the result of my lens hood being knocked askew by a crowd member falling over and onto me while shooting.
May 27th-29th – Boston Calling
Boston Calling’s final City Hall Plaza edition wasn’t my favorite of their lineups to date, though it was nice to finally see a stronger female presence on the bill. Sufjan Stevens’ Friday night set (featuring all 25 minutes of “Impossible Soul”) was the weekend highlight for me, but Courtney Barnett, Janelle Monae and a perplexingly booked Battles were also highlights.
June 2nd – Venom Inc. at ONCE Ballroom
I’ve not seen the Cronos-fronted version of Venom which largely sticks to the festival circuit, but can confirm that Inc. fucking rule. I love a band that’s willing to play as up-close to their audience as humanly possible, as Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan is doing in this shot.
June 16th – The Cure at Agganis Arena
Robert Smith and company don’t sound as though they’ve aged a day since the mid 80s, and June’s set at the typically ghastly Agganis was a jaw-dropping effort in both performance and manipulation of hockey arena acoustics.
June 17th – The Village People at Kowloon
If anyone ever asks me about my weirdest photo assignment ever, I definitely have an answer now: disco holdovers The Village People performing at an enormous Chinese restaurant in Saugus.
July 11th – Guided By Voices at Paradise Rock Club
Not my favorite GBV set – Pollard’s new lineup leans a bit too heavily on the new stuff and myriad obscurities – but I was psyched to finally get a decent high-kick photo at this show.
July 15-17th – Pitchfork Music Festival
After my sixth Pitchfork, it remains my favorite music festival. This was my first year covering for Brooklyn Vegan and embracing the challenge of shooting every single act on the bill, which was exhausting, but fun. The reunited Broken Social Scene played my favorite set of the weekend, and I was glad to see Brian Wilson play Pet Sounds after missing him in Boston. Jenny Hval’s clown dancers were probably the creepiest thing I shot all year.
July 21st – M83 at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
July 24th – Super Furry Animals at The Sinclair
Welsh psych-rockers Super Furry Animals were great at Pitchfork, but even better photo-wise in a club. Those furry costumes only came out for the last song.
July 27th – Radiohead at Madison Square Garden
A no-photo pass heartbreaker, but I like this shot from the crowd on one of my 35mm cameras.
August 9th – Boris at Paradise Rock Club
Boris playing Pink in full (with Earth in tow) was even better than it sounded on paper. “Just Abandoned Myself” was the heaviest 20 minutes of my year.
August 12th – Drive Like Jehu at Irving Plaza
$8 PBRs and a fairly drunk Rick Froberg aside, the reunited DLJ still brought it.
September 13th – Sleigh Bells at The Sinclair
Sleigh Bells are not an easy band to shoot, but there’s fun to be had with their strobe lights.
September 17th – Car Seat Headrest at The Sinclair
A great set featuring a great “Exit Music” cover from a band that’s unlikely to play a room this small in Boston ever again.
September 21st – Explosions In The Sky at House of Blues
Explosions are one of the more photogenic post-rock bands I’ve shot, partly because they actually move around (looking at you, Godspeed), but also thanks to their nifty stage-front lighting rig.
September 26th – Wolves In The Throne Room at Space Gallery
Driving to Portland to finally catch WITTR (rather than seeing them in Somerville and skipping Buzzcocks the next night) turned out to be a good choice. The smoky, candlelit setting evoked the band’s Cascadian mysticism beautifully.
September 27th – Buzzcocks at Royale
October 6th – Saint Vitus at Middle East Downstairs
The iteration of doom legends Saint Vitus with original vocalist Scott Reagers back on the mic outstripped the more widely known Wino-fronted version of the band I saw in 2013 in sheer manic charisma. This might be my favorite set of images of the year.
October 15th – Brand New at Cross Insurance Arena
Another trip to Maine, and a beautiful day with some people I appreciate. A great show as well, where Long Islanders Brand New performed a scorching front-to-back take on their 2006 opus The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.
October 21st – Shellac at The Met
Another band I’d been waiting a number of years to cross off my list, and which did not disappoint in the slightest.
November 11th – The Proletariat at ONCE Ballroom
November 4th-5th – Boston Hassle Fest
Never a dull moment at the yearly gathering of weirdness that is Hassle Fest. Wolf Eyes, Pharmakon, Silver Apples and Doomsday Student were among my favorite sets and photos this time around.
November 19th – Carcass / Deafheaven at Fete Music Hall
Though I’d shot Carcass earlier this year and have covered Deafheaven many times in the past, this wasn’t a double-bill I could turn down. I end up with something new that I love each time I shoot Deafheaven.
November 25th – Dinosaur Jr. / Buffalo Tom at House of Blues
This post-Thanksgiving Boston indie rock summit delivered great sets from both bands, and finally a set of Dino Jr. photos that I’m actually happy with. I shot them from the pit at Sinclair during a Converse Rubber Tracks show in 2015, but only had about 60 seconds to do so. The full three songs was a pleasant contrast.
December 30th – Diarrhea Planet at Great Scott
I closed out a slow December by catching Diarrhea Planet’s quadruple-guitar assault at a packed Great Scott for a New Year’s Eve-Eve show presented by Allston Pudding. They were a blast to shoot, naturally, and a solid note to close out a solid year of shows on.
Here’s to 2017 being less awful in all other respects!
