A Night In (The) Paradise....

Last weekend I had the extreme pleasure of photographing two great bands at The Paradise in Boston.
I had gone to the club with plans for photographing Adam Ezra doing an acoustic set as the opener for Donavon Frankenreiter and ended up staying all night and hearing some amazing songs from both acts.

Thanks to Cat Wilson, of The Cheap Seats, I had the pleasure of meeting Adam at The Hard Rock Cafe when he came to accept his four New England Music Awards. After talking with Adam for a few minutes I  realized  that this is somebody that I truly wanted to work with.

I had been a fan of the music but had now become a fan of the man behind the music and that does not happen as often as you might think.

Sound check was short and sweet as it was just Adam and AEG's percussionist Turtle for this gig but I already had a good idea of just how well this night was going to go.

Even at sound check there was passion and energy in each song and those are two of the things that I always look for, not just because they make for great photos but it's what
I want to hear personally as well. If you are going to get on stage and play for people you should move their hearts and souls and Adam and Turtle already had my attention on those counts.

I missed a lot of the sound check for Donavon and his band for various reasons (mostly helping the video guy get his gear set up, and eating) so I wasn't sure what to expect.

When doors opened at 7:00 I was surprised at the rush of fans that streamed in to get good spots up front. The fact that they rushed in wasn't as surprising as the fact that a lot of the girls were wearing big, fake mustaches (a sign of a true Donavon fan I soon learned).

Adam and Turtle came out and took over the room and rocked that stage from first song to last. They had the attention of everyone in that club and held their hearts in the palm of their hands. It was very cool to see.

It reminded me why I love live performances so much and being able to be this up close and personal makes the music even more powerful.
Big venues have their own special energy and vibe but in a club like The Paradise it's a whole different world.

Adam and Turtle were smoking that night and it was great to get a chance to finally hear and see them live. A lot of their fans told me that if I thought this was good then seeing and hearing the whole band playing will be even better.

All I could think of was, Really? Better than this? Because this was pretty damn good.
So, needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the next AEG show. Stay tuned!

Oh, and as for Donavon and his band, they were killer with cool songs and very funky energy.
There are some really great musicians in the band and a bass player that left me speechless which doesn't happen very often.

More to come...