I haven’t updated this thing in a long time. Between starting up school again and not having a computer for a while it just wasn’t possible. Here’s my final set of photos from The Harbourfront of Amy Milan. Hopefully I can get some more updates online soon and upgrade the website a little bit.
The first time I saw Gentleman Reg was at Sonic Boom during record store day, which by itself was an amazing day. The crowd wasn’t as big as I expected for an artist of this calibre, but the weather was partially to blame with rain covering the whole weekend. Sunlight lit most of the shots nicely with colour accents from the stage lighting with the band playing as the sun set. I ran backstage after the first three songs for some crowd shots and to try and include the drummer.
I got my media pass sorted out and in hand just in time to run up and shoot Jenn Grant from the front area. There were some really cute moments and the seating area filled up as the sun slowly set. It made for a relaxing shooting environment and good night, but was a bit more difficult.
On the weekend of July 24th, I headed down to the Toronto Harbourfront Sirius stage to shoot some Arts & Crafts bands plus a few others. I made it just in time for Hey Rosetta!, but I didn’t have my pass worked out (seems like a theme) and so I mostly fought my way to the front. Using a longer lens then normal I was still able to shoot pretty comfortably as I had some sunlight from the setting sun mixed in with the stage lights. I think most people that read this have already seen Hey Rosetta! play and will agree they play quite a set.
Wow, so I’m really behind at posting any photos. About three weeks ago I made the trek down to the Sound Academy for the free guestlist show hosted by the Edge 102.1 and headlined by the Arkells. With it being free and people constantly trickling in it filled up pretty fast, and I was stuck by the bar with a beer in hand when openers Still Life Still hit the stage. Unfortunately I didn’t properly work things out before the show and didn’t have photo pit access so I elbowed my way to the front, which I always hate doing. I shot a couple songs before security threatened ot kick me out for “shooting with pro gear”.
I was really bummed I couldn’t shoot the Arkells. They were the reason I went to the show and I’d yet to see them play a proper set (a live to air at The Edge doesn’t count). Still, they played a long set with no glitches to a packed Sound Acadmy and I caught up a bit with “Pete”, so it was a good night.
Another one of the openers for Andrea’s CD release was Cory Lance. It’s my own fault for taking so long to post these, but trying to comment on Cory’s music by memory wouldn’t be fair and there isn’t anything on his myspace to jog my memory. Hopefully I can catch him again soon.
I received a message from Andrea Gauster about her CD release show at The Supermarket in Kensington market and decided on a whim to check it out and take some photos. The first musician was Darrelle London and she has an amazing voice. Her songs are a lot of fun and really honest, which makes it hard not to smile while listening.
The last set for NXNE that that I was happy with the light was of Matt & Kim who I interviewed a few days before they played. You can check out the interview here. Matt and Kim are very full of contagious energy that spills into the crowd. It’s more of a dance pit really as you ride the energy high, but don’t mind that Kim felt like shit and they had another show to play that night. They still killed it.
I started off my Friday of NXNE by heading over to Whippersnapper because I wanted to make sure I could catch Matt & Kim for their earlier show since it was a stacked night and I had a feeling Wrongbar would be packed by 1am. The first band on was Spiral Beach, who played a set earlier in the week at Yonge and Dundas. I somehow made it up to the front as the venue filled up and jumped around in the sweaty mess.
I ran into some friends at Peace Dot Love and we ended up taking a bit of a long route to the next venue, so the last band I was able to catch for the night was The Darcys and I think this marks the third time I’ve seen them play. It was amazing as usual and I’m becoming a huge fan. They’ve been steadily working on new material and introduced a three piece brass section (well, two plus sax) at this show. It was pretty epic. Check them out on the 16th at Sneaky Dee’s if you’re around!
