Photography – Pigments of Sound Sensation

March 2, 2022March 2, 2022

LIVE: Plush (with Daughtry) Gets Standing Ovation From Audience at Their First Ever Live Show (July 31, 2021)

Originally Written for Nippertown.

Clearly I’m publishing this months after it was first published. And since then I’ve been to a few more Plush concerts. So there might be some edits I make with a newer perspective. But I’m not sure. I haven’t reread this since it was written. But so much has happened since my last entry that pertains to this one, and so a little context is needed.

In October of 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, Moriah’s father and mother reached out to me about taking some photos for a secret project. Moriah was putting together a band, and they wanted some promo shots and a demo song to send to record labels. They sat around my dining room table, my cat settling into Moriah’s dad (Josh)’s lap within minutes of them taking a seat. We discussed the project, costumes, locations, poses…and planned a date for all four of these women to come together. They were so newly put together that they didn’t even have a band name yet.

January 12, 2021January 19, 2021

Madison VanDenburg Permeates the COVID-Quiet Halls of the Bearsville Theater

Originally written for Nippertown.

The pandemic has brought many challenges for many-a-musician, but some artists have found ways to connect with and perform to audiences from afar. In a COVID world, living rooms and bedrooms and even bathrooms become concert halls. And occasionally, there’s an empty concert venue all gussied up for a live stream show. Such is the most recent performance by our own Idol alumni and pop music poster child Madison VanDenburg, who took up residence in the historic Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on Sunday (01.10.2021) night for a livestream concert.

With an itch for live music that hasn’t been satiated since last March, I was more than happy to attend at Madison’s request as one of only two people who weren’t venue staff (or Madison’s team.) To wander the halls of an empty venue is spooky. The absence of an audience was certainly felt, and it wasn’t just the performance space itself that made my skin prickle. It was the echoing crunch of gravel under your feet in the sparsely occupied parking lot, the locked doors, darkened rooms, vacant lounges with empty bar shelves, and this weighty silence that wrapped around you in the half-lit hallways.

Madison on the grand piano on stage at the Bearsville Theater

March 3, 2020March 3, 2020

Dermot Kennedy & SYML || 03.01.2020

Review initially posted on Nippertown

So I generally try to go to a concert educated on the music, but this time I fell short. I attended the Dermot Kennedy show on relatively short notice, and in doing so I failed in familiarizing myself with Kennedy’s music which allowed me to attend his show with a clear, unbiased perspective. The same cannot be said for the supporting act, SYML, who I am very much a fan of. With those disclosures out in the open, let’s dive right in.

The opening act was Seattle-based Brian Fennell, or as he is known in the music world, SYML. SYML, formerly of the band Barcelona, is generally a one-man all-encompassing songwriting, producing, and performing entity. However, during an anecdote, SYML stated that he picked up a musician somewhere along his tour, a fellow Brian nonetheless. Brian offered violin and piano accompaniments to SYML’s largely mellow music.

February 29, 2020March 4, 2020

Fitz and The Tantrums || Upstate Concert Hall || 02.26.2020

Concert review initially posted for the online publication Nippertown.

Fitz and the Tantrums (FATT) has been on my radar for a lot longer than I’ve actually been actively listening to them. My father and I used to occasionally watch this show called Live from Daryl’s House. It began as a web show and later moved to public broadcast.

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019

Daughtry Acoustic Trio || Troy Music Hall || 10.16.19

Daughtry (Acoustic Trio), Troy, NY, 10.16.19

Concert review initially posted for the online publication Nippertown.

American Idol alumni Chris Daughtry, flanked on either side by Elvio Fernandes (Piano) and Brian Craddock (Guitar), put his heart and soul into over an hour of some of Daughtry’s biggest hits in their purest form Wednesday night at Troy Music Hall.

August 21, 2019August 22, 2019

Madison VanDenburg :: 08/18 & 08/19

Madison VanDenburg, Altamont Fair, NY, 08.18.19

The last time I wrote about Madison, she had just barely started her run on American Idol. Since then, she claimed the title of Second Runner-Up (or third place), and has been touring nationally and locally with her band and her fellow Idol contestants.

April 16, 2019April 17, 2019

Crazy On Moriah Formica

Moriah Formica, if you live in the good old 518 area, is not a new name. She is another one of the many extremely hard-working and talented superstars to find fame, be it local or international, on a reality television music competition show. She is what Adam Levine, front man for Maroon5, has called a “pint-size powerhouse” and what country superstar Blake Shelton once referred to as someone who received an extra dose of talent when God got distracted when He was sprinkling it onto people. It’s people like Moriah that make me joke that they need to save some talent for the rest of us.

Left to right: Nick Stamas (Guitar), Moriah Formica (Vocals, Guitar), Tony Tirino (Drums), Andrew Blowers (Bass). (f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 1600)

March 27, 2019April 4, 2019

Madison Vandenburg: America’s Next American Idol!?

Madison Vandenburg performs at Upstate Concert Hall with her guitarist Tom.

When it comes to reality TV shows, there’s no such thing as the binary. It’s never just as simple as “I watch it” or “I don’t watch it.” There are so many gradations that float in between “do” and “don’t.” There’s the guilty pleasure watchers. There’s the casual watchers, or the home-sick-in-bed watchers. You could be one of the watching religiously watchers and/or one of the live-tweeting commentating watchers. Or you could be like many and watch when a citizen of your locale becomes a focal point of the show. While I probably more closely fall into the “casual watcher” category, having turned these reality competition shows on and off for the past fifteen years or so, I know the latter category probably encompasses many citizens of New York’s Capital Region these past couple of years. I can’t even blame them with incredible talents such as Moriah Formica (The Voice, American Idol), Sawyer Fredericks (The Voice), and now most recently, the incredible Madison Vandenburg coming out of the woodwork. No, not coming out of the woodwork. Coming in like a Category 5 hurricane. Great talent isn’t such a bad thing to be known for, is it?

February 26, 2019March 20, 2019

Postmodern Jukebox — 2.22.19

The ensemble of Postmodern Jukebox at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

I think PMJ is a great band to set this blog in motion. Why’s that? PMJ , much like my spirited marriage of photography and music, is the passionate intersection of two diametrically opposing musical motifs: the old genres and the new. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox is where new songs, whether by Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus or Nirvana, meet vintage arrangements in the stylings of Nat King Cole, Patsy Cline, The Chiffons, any Rat Pack member, or anything of the like. Not only are the rotating vocal talents of this ensemble of quite the caliber, but the big band backing brings as much enthusiasm and skill to the table as one could need to make these arrangements seem authentic. There are no small roles in this band.

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February 25, 2019February 25, 2019

An introduction.

I would say there are three areas of the arts that intersect to form me: graphic design, music, and photography. During the day, I am hunched over a desktop computer designing logos and posters and fliers and billboards and anything you could ever see that required some kind of design. At night you may find me in the pit of an auditorium, uncomfortably contorted in front of a lively musician so to get the photo I want. That’s what this blog is about. It’s about the music I hear, the photos I make, and my experiences doing what I love even when I sometimes don’t.

Continue reading “An introduction.”