Dave’s Photo Blog

Samantha Farrell is halfway through her first set at Toad and introducing her next song. “My mother told me once that I didn’t play any songs you can shake your booty to, so I wrote this one that I call Shake.” And shake they do, with Chris DeSanty (drums), Cilla Bonnie (bass), Barrett Anderson (guitar) and Jeff Gaynor (keyboards) lending a hand. Tomorrow, they’ll pile into a car and drive to Manhattan where they are playing the Rockwood Music Hall. It’s a four day, three performance mini-tour that perfectly illustrates the momentum that Samantha Farrell has generated since her first local performance at the Burren – momentum that’s based on her songwriting abilities, her voice, her performing and a little nudge from the Dave Matthews Band.

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It’s just past noon on a cold Saturday afternoon in Waltham, Massachusetts. Light floods through the glass windows around the front foyer of Schwartz Hall at Brandeis University. Rachel Millman is talking to the Brandeis VoiceMale who have just finished warming up. “When you get home this afternoon,” she says, “I want you to all look me up and friend me on Facebook.” Rachel appears at ease and a little playful. But the hard work is yet to come. In just a few minutes, she and VoiceMale will head inside the theater to start shooting takes for her new music video Throwin’ Rocks at the Moon.

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I’m a recent fan of Julien Kasper. He’s one of the best guitarists in Boston and I jumped at the chance to both enjoy his performance and capture some of the moments for the blog. I see a lot of local concerts and I go for various reasons. Sometimes, it’s to support the artist, or to blog a show because I know there are lots of people interested. Sometimes it’s because the music is great and I want to provide my own small measure of exposure. But I went to see Julien for me – I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see him demonstrate his command of the guitar, music and tone up close and in person.

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Rachel Millman is an up-and-coming singer who came to the Boston area recently to shoot a music video for her debut single Throwin’ Rocks at The Moon. Although she’s already recorded the song in the studio, she decided to capture a different arrangement of the song for the video. Rachel and her team drew upon the a cappella group VoiceMale at Brandeis University. Jared Greenberg and the group created an arrangement of all the music, including percussion, and came together with Rachel to record the song on a cold, snowy New England weekend.

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Every Sunday at Precinct, in Union Square, Somerville, you can see the rising talent of Christian McNeill and Jesse Dee jamming their hearts out to a delighted crowd.

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I love all the seasons, even winter, but the fall holds a very special place in my heart. Especially here, in New England. And so I found a way to take a few days off so I could slip away, deeper into New England and enjoy the fall colors. I chose Vermont, as I usually do. This plucky, rural state is perfect for fall camping, photography, hiking, fishing and a host of other activities I didn’t get to. But the camping, hiking and photography proved to be all that I had hoped. I’ve camped all over the state of Vermont over the years, but there are still a few places I haven’t been. Now I can cross Jamaica off that list, although it is one of those places I’d come back to again in a heartbeat. It’s a classic, rural Vermont town with a tiny town center mostly based on the local general store. But it’s surrounded by big country.

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It was sweet, yes, but bittersweet when Nicole Berke played her last local show at Toad recently. After a strong opening set by Cody James, Nicole sang 17 songs – some old, some new and with a few really good covers mixed in. Nicole has moved to the west coast, Oregon, for her last year of college. Boston has been fortunate to have her in town these past years and performances like this one prove it. Even with some new musicians thrown in the mix, she delivered a rock solid set with great songs and stunning vocals. Read more »

On this beautiful Friday night, The Neighborhoods performed at City Hall Plaza as part of the Boston’s GreenFest. They were the first band, playing about an hour set. Although I’d like to see them closing the night rather than opening, I suppose it worked out as Johnny Rock had another gig to get to later that evening. Although hampered by some initial equipment problems, the Hoods hit their stride and put in another high-energy performance. Yes, they played The Prettiest Girl, and I’ve got an embed of the video below. But they played another surprise song – you’ll have to read on to hear that story. Read more »

I met Noel Smyth at the Lizard Lounge. I’d seen him play there are bunch of times and so it was only a matter of time before we struck up a conversation. Lately, he’s been playing out more (both with a full band and solo) and is now in the final stages of releasing a CD. Recently he had a sneak-peak pre-release party at The Burren. It was part of Danielle Miraglia’s Sunday singer/songwriter series. I had the pleasure of attending along with a strong turnout of folks there to watch him and the other performers.

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David Minehan takes a break from singing to talk with the crowd of people in the audience at The Vixen in Provincetown.

“How many people are staying in Provincetown tonight,” he asks?

The audience cheers.

“How many people are staying in Wellfleet?”

A much smaller cheer.

“How many people are staying in Orleans?”

Barely a reaction.

“Well that’s too bad, because I was going to invite you all surfing tomorrow.”

Lee Harrington pipes in, “What street is that house of yours in Orleans on again, Dave?”

“That would be 12 nitrous oxide road, Lee”

Then they rip into another song to the delight of the crowd.

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