First show of the summer! Been a little while since I’ve been able to shoot a show and it was great to be back. This was a really fun show too. I was there to shoot two bands this time instead of one.
Sunday’s show was at The Smiling Moose, a venue I’ve come to familiarize myself with recently. The tour that came to town included the two headliners who came from Boston, MA: bloom. and Off Road Minivan. They got two local bands to open up the show for them: Vertigo and Atlantic Wasteland.
Atlantic Wasteland took the stage first and they were fantastic as always. The building was warm to begin with and they were dripping sweat by the end of their set. The crowd started to fill in a lot more by their set and seemed to enjoy themselves. What I love about them is they always have so much energy, on and off stage. Ausinette (lead singer) is fun to watch on and off stage because she is just wild. Her and Sam (lead vocals and guitar) can always be found in the audience whenever they’re not playing. They really aappreciate music and it’s so cool to see. I’ve shot them before, so their name may sound familiar. They’re a very good mix of pop/punk, with some songs of theirs sitting more on the punk side. They’re always a fun band to shoot.
Vertigo was next. By now, I’m sure you are very familiar with their band if you follow my blog and photography pages. I shoot them all the time. They had the biggest crowd of the night, actually and that was an awesome sight to see. The crowd seemed to enjoy every second of it. Even the parts where the back track played “Andromeda” about 3 times, when they were transitioning to the next song. They also had previous drummer, Tyler Knatz, come back to play a couple of songs with them. He has since joined bloom. while at school in Boston. So it was a nice little reunion show. I even got some shots of their group hug 🙂 As usual, they were great. They always have so much passion. Especially Jesse (lead singer). He puts his all into each show and it’s really fun to watch. I’ve missed their shows since the last one I’d done was the MAX show I helped plan at my college.
Next up we had bloom. Originally, they were started by Matt and Torre, the two leads, in Boston. They hadn’t had a bassist who could travel, so they got in contact with Brenden, of Vertigo, and he travelled with them on this short tour with Off Road Minivan this past week. As I mentioned before, Tyler Knatz also joined the band after graduating Berklee. Brenden talked highly about the band to me before this show so I knew I had to stay to check them out. They were pretty great. One of the craziest things was the fact that Tyler played the Glockenspiel, an instrument I would have never know the name of if Sam (Atlantic Wasteland) hadn’t told me, haha. They had 6 band members on the stage and if you know the Moose at all, you know that’s a small stage. I don’t know how they managed it but they did. Overall, they were a great mix of Indie/Rock/Punk and put on a great show. I definitely understood all of Brenden’s hype. I tagged their Facebook above!
Off Road Minivan was last on stage. I will be honest, I wasn’t sure if it was the name of a band or the tour until they got on stage. I assumed it was a band, but I wasn’t sure. I think what I liked most about their set was hearing what each of the songs were about. Lead singer, Ryan, introduced each song with a little anecdote informing us what inspired the song’s creation. I love hearing back stories because songs have different meanings for each person who listens. It’s nice to hear what truly inspired the song, rather than just wondering. They consider themselves rock and I can back that. They’re like a good mix of rock and punk. I’m not a big fan of heavier punk music, but I was able to enjoy their set so it wasn’t that heavy. So if you’re a fan of rock or punk music, you should go check them out.
As always, some of my favorite shots are featured below. The rest can be found on my Flickr page.
I’ve enjoyed my travels… I really have. But I’ve also really missed my shows. I’m so used to shooting them so often anymore that it was weird to not have one for over a month. Stay tuned for some more adventures coming up!
Abigail McNatt Photography 