St. Patrick’s Day. One of the few days of the year where people can be drunk at 10am and not be considered an alcoholic… sorta. It’s the time of year where everything is green and people must get their one Shamrock Shake for the year. The day typically begins with a parade in the city and continues with people celebrating with all kinds of Irish food and continuing to drink green drinks all throughout the day.
My St. Patrick’s Day was a bit different. It consisted of work, a show, and then a party after that show. This show was hosted by VictoriaDrive at The Mr. Roboto Project in Bloomfield to help celebrate the release of their “The Early Years (2014-2018)” album. This album is a re-release of their older originals with a mix of a few new ones; a cool concept if you ask me. I thought it was a good way to get people to listen to a good mix of older songs while learning the new ones.
I’d never been to Mr. Roboto before. I’d driven past it several times before, just never noticed it before. It isn’t your typical concert venue. When you go up the street towards it, it’s easy to miss. But whenever you walk in, you realize that it’s a nice size for local bands to play. At least, that’s how I felt. Not the best acoustics, but good enough for a venue that size. If I could compare the layout to anywhere, it would be the Keynote Cafe in Jeannette, PA, mostly for the sheer fact that there’s a small dance floor for people to stand and watch and the stage is just a small, raised up stage.
VictoriaDrive asked me to do their set at this show and I was obviously excited. The last show I’d done, was just Dan (lead vocals) and Rebecca (drums) whenever they opened for Set It Off. Therefore, I was excited to shoot the full band once again since the last time was at the Hard Rock Cafe. Prior to them, Vertical 48 played, whose music is so good. They played at that Hard Rock show as well. But, as always, VictoriaDrive did great. This was the best crowd I’ve seen for them, too. An involved and excited crowd makes for even better photos. They were dancing, singing, and just letting themselves have the best time. There was even a conga line at one point. One of my favorite shots I got was during one of the band’s slower songs, the crowd put up their phone flashlights and waved them (below). As I said, this show was a really fun one. The crowd was so fantastic, I even featured some photos (below and on Flickr) of them having the time of their lives.
Another thing I absolutely adored about Roboto was the firefly lights. I’ve always been a sucker for them. They’re so beautiful and elegant. I even have pink ones in my dorm room. The lighting at this show was absolutely nothing like the light shows I’ve seen at Mr. Smalls Theatre, but for such small bands, it’s okay. The firefly lights lit up the stage the perfect amount, in my opinion.
As far as their set goes, VictoriaDrive did a few originals. One of the fan favorites was “Wasting All My Time” since it’s really easy to sing along and catch on to. They also did a few covers, one of which was “That’s Just The Way We Roll” by The Jonas Brothers, an old heartthrob of mine, so needless to say, myself and the crowd went crazy when they played that.
Overall, it was an amazing night. In my opinion, it was a fantastic way to spend St. Patrick’s Day. I featured some of my favorite shots below, but the rest are on my Flickr page (here!) so go check them out.
Abigail McNatt Photography 
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