Dave’s Photo Blog

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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I had just walked into The Vixen, in Provincetown, to shoot The Neighborhoods, who were headlining. Sidewalk Driver was onstage and most of the way through their set. Then Tad, the lead singer, dedicated their last song of the night to Mike Scag. The song was Rock and Roll Suicide, and they played it in tribute because Mike had passed away earlier that week. At the end of the song, Tim Frustration (pictured on left) came onstage to thank Tad and then they threw their arms around each other in a long, emotional hug. Mike Scag was the lead singer of The New Frustrations, and Tim was three hours away from performing with the band in a riveting, emotional and triumphant performance of rock and roll grit.

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Thursday night in Cambridge was crazy. I was hopping between the Lizard Lounge and Toad. I’ve wanted to see the Baker Thomas band for some time now, and on Thursday I made it happen. I’ve been looking forward to seeing them because of the line-up, which includes Tom Bianchi (seen here on the left playing bass), Jeff Gaynor (keyboards), Dietrich Strause (trumpet), Hugh McGowan (guitar), Larry Scudder (viola) and Jim Larkin (drums) and on this night, Brendan Hogan (guitar) as well. These guys are some of the best musicians and songwriters in the Boston area and it showed in their performance. At one point there was sheet music flying around, but you wouldn’t have known it if you didn’t see it – these guys are good.

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