Wicker. Projections. Looking for Alaska. Dec. 16 ’11 @ Awesometown. Cordova, TN.

It’s been a crazy sort of a week, in which I attended two shows whilst having my website non-functional for most of it. Thanks to those circumstances, I present to you a quick SWP update containing photos from both of those shows, in one fell swoop .

Show, the first:

“The Acorns Appreciation Show “

There is an annual, and sometimes bi-annual, event wherein the Acorns (aka Ryan Hailey) are (is) in the Memphis area and plays a show or two.  It’s an experience you won’t soon forget!

ManCub. Chad Turner. The Acorns. Wicker. Nov. 27 ’11 @ The Smith7 House. Cordova, TN.

Show, the second:

Caleb Roedel Benefit Show

I went to see Looking for Alaska at this HUGE benefit show out at Hope Presbyterian. This was an LFA unlike any we had ever seen before. I would describe the experience as “intense” (and did so several times to the band’s members afterward.) They played a set of distinctively heavy covers, which I personally was not expecting. But I also personally give this performance two thumbs up. They were SO awesome, as per usual. It made me one happy girl, as per usual.

Looking for Alaska. Dec. 2 ’11 @ Hope Presbyterian. Cordova, TN

Okay, that’s it for now! If you’re looking for me over the next coupla days, I’ll be busy photographing a gala tonight, baking ten cakes for a banquet tomorrow, and being busy busy busy in general ! Phew!

♥♥

At any rate, Wicker was one of the local bands I hadn’t seen in a loooooong time. Srsly. A long time. This past weekend I decided it was high time I remedy that situation. I couldn’t be more glad that I did! I had forgotten how fun seeing Wicker could be. It was actually a great reminder for me that fun is sorta the whole point of this band. I mean, you’re pretty much guaranteed that at least some members of the band will be in costume during their set and, more often than not, some type of hijinks will occur. And boy, do the kids (as I like to call them) have a good time at Wicker shows! Anyone who saw me while they were playing would have seen that I was feeling pretty dancey as I watched the band. That’s right. I could be seen dancing in my place as I took pictures. Told ya I had a good time…

Wicker. Nov. 12 ’11 @ The Smithseven House. Cordova, TN.

The latest in Shoot With Personality’s LFA coverage is the show they played this past weekend to kick off the release of their first full-length album, “There Is Hope.”

As a someone who is good friends with this band (well, with members of this band…) I have been looking forward to their album release since they recorded it this summer. I was even more excited when they set the date for its release. And more more MORE excited as the date (October 22) approached. If I felt this way, I imagine the guys in the band were just plain over the moon as October 22 neared!

One thing that was very cool about this show was its opening act: Jim Cannon, grandfather of the irrepressible Josh Cannon (LFA member/superfan of Shoot With Personality.) I think we all especially enjoyed the duet Jim and Josh did, as well as when Jim performed that little ditty “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” The latter song required crowd participation, and Paw Paw Cannon actually got the crowd of young whippersnappers to participate!

The Star Killers played next,. They are another great band I started seeing at Smithseven shows this summer. The Star Killers has a petite red head with a BIG voice as their frontwoman, and they’ve pretty much killed it every time I’ve seen them play. The LFA show was no exception.

I’ll level with ya folks: there was a more metalcore/hardcore band who played after The Star Killers, and I am sure they were lovely but…as Mr. Chad Turner put it, “Amanda Raney 2003 would have been in there fighting the pit to take pictures.” Amanda Raney 2011 wasn’t so much doing that…Maybe next time though!

And onto the main event (for me): Looking for Alaska!

I hadn’t realized this would be the case before arriving at the show that night, but LFA played the new album in it’s ENTIRETY. I thought it would have been a funny joke if they said “We’re going to play every song on the album tonight,” and then brought a boom box on stage and pushed play. You know, instead of actually playing all their songs live? Get it??? But I digress…Luckily for those of us in attendance, that was not the case!

It was probably one of the longest sets I’ve seen a band play at a local show, but with LFA, this is a good thing. A very good thing indeed. I was happy with everything I heard, the guys played their hearts out, and the crowd seemed to respond very positively to all that was going on up there on the stage.

As the band finished their final song and started putting up their instruments, something unexpected happened…Chad began playing the old hymn “Be Thou My Vision” (a favorite hymn of many in our social circle.) I was used to this sort of thing because I have gone to several churches with Chad where he’s led music, but I am sure for many in the audience this was a new experience. I know it wasn’t something that the band had planned, but it was powerful. I hope no one involved minds that I’m adding this part to my blog about the show, but I had to. Everyone was so moved. You could hear voices from people in the crowd, singing along with the hymn. It was an intensely personal moment being shared by a room full of people, and I’d say it was the perfect ending to this band’s CD release show.

And now….on to the pictures! Click on through to ‘em below!

Jim Cannon. The Star Killers. Looking for Alaska. Oct. 22 ’11 @ The Abbey. Memphis, TN.

(Pssssst. In addition to gushing over my friends, I am also into giving shameless plugs for them…Looking for Alaska‘s album is available at Amazon and iTunes. Get on it!)

The band and I made arrangements to meet downtown. Did we have a specific plan? No. Did we do some explorin’ until we found a couple of righteous places for snapping  photos? We sure did!

Being downtown, it’s hard to avoid a bunch of cliche backgrounds. When you’re photographing bands for promo or press photos, it’s SUPER hard to avoid cliches.  I had one rule: no brick walls. LFA had another rule: no fields. Other than that, we just set out on a trek around downtown Memphis. We were on a {photographic} mission.

When I started seeing spots that sparked my interest, I didn’t have to think “Is this trite? Has this been overdone?” All that mattered was getting these Looking for Alaska lads into those interest-sparking spots, getting them to interact with each other, and, you know, snapping a few photos along the way.

Someone in the group suggested we go to the Peabody rooftop. I hadn’t really been up there before and didn’t know what was in store for us since the light was getting so dim (thanks to autumn, which brought shorter days with it!) I was not too sure that we were going to have (what I like to call) a “workable situation” on our hands. But then, we rounded a corner on the rooftop and saw that there was an old-fashioned street lamp giving ample lighting underneath it. I breathed a sigh of relief.  I also loved how the camera picked up on the last bits of dusky light the sky was offering us in the background!

Once I’d called it a wrap on the rooftop and headed back indoors, we caught a glimpse of some VERY PINK light coming from a room off to the side. I thought for certain that the door would be locked. It wasn’t. Then I thought we would get yelled at for going into The Skyway. But then I reasoned with myself, “If they didn’t want us in there, they should have locked the door!”

We ended up having a GREAT time together. I hope to have the pleasure of photographing Looking For Alaska again in the future!

♥♥

My point is: I’ve been out of the circulation from local shows for a bit now, due mostly to work scheduling conflicts. I’m discovering that I’ve missed that part of my life and those people and probably new people I could discover at those shows. Since that whole work scheduling thingy isn’t an issue right now, I’m trying my darndest to get out and see my friends play more often! I did so this past weekend, in fact, by heading out to the far east {Cordova, TN!} to see my friends’ band, Looking for Alaska. After I finally got to hear their music, I was kicking myself that it had taken me this long!

I have to say: I really, truly, genuinely think these guys are one of the best local bands I’ve heard in some time. They’re my cuppa tea. I may even be getting a sense of excitement over local music again! You see, in recent years, I have felt like there was a hole in my heart left by some of the local bands I used to love but aren’t together any more. Looking for Alaska just might be able to plug up that hole. AND they’ve just recorded an album, a fact which makes me both excited for them and eager for its release so I can get my hands on it!

Click on through for pictures of Looking for Alaska. Aug. 12 ’11. Smithseven House.

You guessed it. It was me!

And I happen to have a few photos of the occasion…

Animal Sounds. May 14, 2011 @ Young Avenue Deli

When I got word some months back that While I Breathe, I Hope (WIBIH) was “getting the band back together” and playing a reunion show, I was so unbelievably happy. These guys are friends of mine, and watching them play, taking their photos, and singing along with them had been a staple in my life for years! I couldn’t wait for this reunion show because I knew I and all of our friends connected to WIBIH would have SO much fun. I was not wrong about this. We had a blast! The band sounded great, they were enjoying themselves, and, as one of my friends so aptly put it, “It was like 2005 again!”

Now, even though I knew it was their last show, it didn’t actually occur to me until the very end that this was not just a reunion show, it was a final show. While I Breathe played their final song, one called “I’d Be a Liar to Feel That Way.” There is a break in the music, where the band stops for a second, Drew comes back in on the drums, then they start playing again and Jeremy sings the outro “It’s gotta go, so much deeper than they have/for me to make a move that way.” But on the night of this show, the band stopped playing, Jeremy stepped off the stage, the band started playing the outro, and Adam started singing those words. And, I don’t mean to get all emotional on ya’ll, but I suddenly felt a sense of finality. Because I don’t really know if WIBIH will ever play a show together again. I got unexpectedly sad!

Then we went outside and took “kids pics” (a feature on the old version of Shoot With Personality) and it really did feel like 2005 all over again.

It truly was a bittersweet sort of night, and while there were some friends missing from the crowd who I wish would have been there with us, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

So, my friends in While I Breathe, I Hope, I want to say:

That is to say, I got to do a bit of live band photography recently when  I saw David Bazan and mewithoutYou play a gig together at the Hi-Tone on June 21.

I’d like to remind you of something.

I saw mewithoutYou in August of last year and thought “Oh, I can die happy now.”

Then I saw Dave Bazan in October and thought, “But REALLY I can die happy now.”

And, having said that, I’m not the type that gets all hot and bothered about musicians and thinks “OMG I gotta get near this person!” It just  happens that there are a couple of folks out there making music right now that means something to me. The aforementioned musicians are highest on that list. When I found out that mewithoutYou was playing in Memphis again and – wait for it – David Bazan would also be back because they’re touring together…let’s just say I became a very happy girl!

Seeing bands play during the summer in Memphis is not always the most pleasant experience – all those people, all that lack of air conditioning in most venues. The night of June 21 at the Hi-Tone was no exception. I’d like to sit here and say “oh, that didn’t matter. It was just all part of the experience.” But, yeah, it mattered that we were all dripping with sweat! It just didn’t matter enough that I don’t consider that night to be one of the top three of 2010 so far.

And here is the album where the rest of the photos from that show reside!

I went to see Andrew Bryant’s band play Wednesday night at The Hi-Tone. I had such a great time watching them and am quite pleased with the photographic results of the night.

Andrew Bryant & Friends. Febuary 24, 2010 @ The Hi-Tone. Mem[phis, TN.

(a few shots of the band Giant Bear that played at the beginning of the night are also in the mix.)