We Are the 9 Showcase in Atlanta

Screen Shot 2013-04-28 at 6.38.53 PM.png

Jules and I will be performing at Smith's Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room for the We are the 9 showcase.

Founded in 2008 by singer/songwriter Justin Trawick, "The 9 Songwriter Series" is a touring live music event based in Washington, DC. The show was created with the idea of nine artists getting together and combining their talents in order to play in nicer clubs and to larger amounts of people. Each installment features nine solo singer/songwriters performing in rotation and often sitting in with each other, providing audiences with a rich, intimate, varied listening experience. Where else can you hear almost 30 songs from nine different artists for only $10? To date, over 100 different artists have participated in "The 9", at shows in DC, Arlington, Bethesda, Baltimore, Annapolis, Philadelphia,  New York, Richmond, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Los Angels and San Francisco. Follow and Like "The 9" at www.facebook.com/wearethe9 and www.twitter.com/wearethe9 " or go to www.wearethe9.com. 

​

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

I Shot the Band - Kenny Howes at the WOW! at the EARL

It's sorta crazy to think that all though the years I've seen Kenny play in bands since sometime in the early 90s. He was a fixture in the Florida music scene for a while based mostly out of Tallahassee, but with frequent visits down to Tampa Bay where he kicked out some great power-pop records over the years before relocating to Atlanta for a bit where he started a band called, Kenny Howes and the YEAH! with folks like Jason NeSmith (of Orange Hat, later of Casper and the Cookies) and bassist Kyle Harris (later of The Diamond Center).

A few year later as I moved to Atlanta, Kenny headed out to LA and performed as a member of San Diego garage-pop band The Shambles and at times with Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens.​ As I got settled into the music scene here in AtlantaI would become friends with all the folks in the scene he just left. Small world.

Fast forward a few years, and Kenny is back in Atlanta and kicking out the power-pop again. A few months ago he played a exhaustive, 8-man band, 2-hour plus set at the Star Bar to celebrate the release of his new album, Tornadoes Here & Past, where Pat DiNizio and The Church's Marty Willson-Piper appear as special guests on the record. 

Tonight's show at the EARL featured the 8-man, 4-horn lineup from that Star Bar show, and it was non-stop high kicks and power pop from start to finish.​ Incredibly good times.

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

I Shot the Band - Pink Pompeii at The EARL

After we played our set, Pink Pompeii played. Last time I saw them was at the 529 in East Atlanta, on a tiny stage, so it was great to seem them stretch out on the bigger stage at the EARL. Mostly they played a bunch of tunes from their latest record, Pomp and the crowd was down for a good time. The band, Courtney, Nan and Rob are expressive and fun on stage, and not afraid to camp it up a bit, which makes for a fun time shooting. Check them out on Bandcamp, for my money, Boyfriend is a great 80s hit that could've been.

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

The Sunset District at the EARL

Playing the EARL is always a blast, but I always wish I could take some pictures of myself playing! I am so happy that Robyn was there to grab the camera for our set. More and more the EARL seems a little challenging to shoot. They're using LED lights for the stage and most of the time they tend to run them a little dark. These were shot with NIkon D90 and a simple 50mm 1.8 lens.​

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

The Sunset District at the EARL tonight!

188049_479133562135493_309374124_n.jpg
9pm • The Sunset District
10pm • Pink Pompeii
11pm • Kenny Howes & the WOW with The Funderbone Four

Tickets: $5, http://www.badearl.com/
21+

Full Details: http://www.reverbnation.com/show/9844896

Who are these people, anyway?!?

Kenny Howes & the WOW with The Funderbone Four (a trombone quartet!)
http://www.reverbnation.com/kennyhowes

Pink Pompeii
http://www.reverbnation.com/pinkpompeiimusic

The Sunset District
http://www.reverbnation.com/thesunsetdistrict
Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

SXSW 2013

I seriously don't know where to begin. Before I boarded the plane for SXSW I was already exhausted, but by the time I arrived, had some BBQ and settled in I was beyond amped for the next 9 days of music, tech, film, food, and meeting new folks. The Interactive part of the festival is always a bit lower key than the Music part, but I was once again blown away by the Jefrey Tambor Acting Workshop, and I went to a ton of great panels, parties, and events. The Music part of the festival kicked off on Tuesday night this year, and once it started it never looked back. So many band, so much BBQ, so little sleep. Higlights? Too many, but here's a few.

  • Watched Shaq lift a girl over his head, bench-press style
  • The Dave Grohl keynote address
  • The Jeffrey Tambor Acting Workshop
  • Bats!​
  • Bike rides
  • Iron Works BBQ
  • Kenny Loggins
  • The Joy Formidable
  • ​Fitz and the Tantrums
  • Hoeks Death Metal Pizza
  • Sound City Live ​
  • Divine Fits
  • The Chris Gethard Show
  • The Cast of Burning Love
  • The Irish Breakfast
  • Topless Hulahooping!​

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

We Are the 9 - Smith's Olde Bar - April 4th!

This Thursday, Aprill 4th, I'll be playing as part of a really great show called, We Are the 9. I would love to see you there! 

Founded in 2008 by singer/songwriter Justin Trawick, "The 9 Songwriter Series" is a touring live music event based in Washington, DC. The show was created with the idea of nine artists getting together and combining their talents in order to play in nicer clubs and to larger amounts of people. Each installment features nine solo singer/songwriters performing in rotation and often sitting in with each other, providing audiences with a rich, intimate, varied listening experience. Where else can you hear almost 30 songs from nine different artists for only $10? To date, over 100 different artists have participated in "The 9", at shows in DC, Arlington, Bethesda, Baltimore, Annapolis, Philadelphia,  New York, Richmond, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Los Angels and San Francisco. Follow and Like "The 9" atwww.facebook.com/wearethe9 and www.twitter.com/wearethe9 " or go to www.wearethe9.com. 

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

The Good Graces are playing tomorrow night!

1809_10151477089739241_1218365684_n.jpg

I have been in recovery mode, and songwriting mode since I returned from 10 days in Austin, TX for the SXSW music festival, and I realized that I haven't pimped out a show I'm playing tomorrow night with The Good Graces. We're opening ​for Auction House Letters, featuring Jeff Holt, Chris Poma, Erik Kaszynski, and Susannah Wallace, a bunch of old GA Fireflies. They've got a 6 song EP they'd like you to hear and tomorrow night at Kavarna in Decatur is where it all goes down, starting at 8:00 pm. More info here.

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

Savannah in Feburary.

Over the last few years, Robyn and I have made semi-regular trips down to Savannah for a few days packed full of ghost tours, to-go-cup drinking, dining, shopping and exploring. This last trip was a little different in that we stayed a little further out of the historic district, and further south near Forsyth Park in a really cute B&B called the Dresser Palmer House, which as it turns out is haunted. Isn't every place in Savannah? But this time I actually had a little encounter and wrote a song about it that I posted in a previous entry.

Madeline's Pennies on YouTube​

Unfortunately, for the explorers in us, the weather was wet, wet, wet until the last morning we were there so we hung close to our B&B and did a ton of nothing. So much nothing in fact that I quickly realized that I need to do more of it on a regular basis. I don't know how to relax. ​So much to do! So little time! Well, this time the weather was unrelenting so we gave in and took something like 8 naps a day. We still explored the city, had some great meals and did some sightseeing, but what a nice change of pace it was to do nothing on vacation.

Where do you find the time to relax when life is so busy?

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

I Shot the Band - Bain Mattox & Shot from Guns

When I first moved to Atlanta my friend Chris was playing guitar with Bain, so I tagged along at some shows to meet new folks in the scene and occasionally help roadie for the band on some of the bigger shows they played in the area. It was always a blast to be on stage at the Tabernacle, Center Stage, or Variety Playhouse handing out guitars and keeping an eye on things from the wings, and oh yeah, I got to hear all those great songs a hundred times and hang with some great guys.

This Sunday, Robyn and I headed over to Athens to see the Bain Mattox & Shot from Guns reunion show. It was supposed to happen at Bain's new club, The World Famous, but it was going to take a few extra days to get the doors open, so the Highwire Lounge graciously stepped up and agreed to host the show.

It's hard to believe it's been 5 quick years since these guys have played a show together. In that time everyone's gotten married, babies have been born, and they've scattered to places as far away as San Francisco and Maine.

They had a great crowd out on a chilly Sunday night from near and far (Baltimore represent!), standing on chars, sitting at the foot of the stage and poking their head around every corner to enjoy the show. They rocked it out. They sounded great. 5 years vanished in a blink of an eye and you could just feel the connection these guys have with each other radiating off the stage, and just like in the old days, the accordion and the banjo got the biggest applause, even before being played. That always makes me smile. If you're not familiar with his music his album Prizefighter is a good place to start, and you can sample all of his tunes on Amazon.com.

The Highwire Lounge is about as dark a room to shoot in as you can get. There was no direct lighting on stage at all, this is after all a cozy bar space with a small stage, where I'm guessing the musical acts that play there aren't featured performers per se, but background music. Needless to say the 50mm 1.8 didn't come off the Nikon D90 all night and the ISO was cranked beyond where I like to be. I didn't want to shoot with a flash tonight and ruin the vibe so I keep the shooting to a minimum, hoping to catch folks when they were frozen in a moment or interacting with each other and the audience.

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

I Shot the Band! - Kenny Howes and the WOW! Album Release Show

As far as small worlds go, this is definitely one of them. Years ago back in Florida I would see Kenny play shows down in Tampa Bay. He moved away, up here to Atlanta and a few years later I'd move up here also, but not before he up and moved out to Los Angeles. Well, Kenny is back in Atlanta and he's got a great new record called Tornadoes Here & Past. He celebrated it's release last Saturday night with a fantastic show at the Star Community Bar here in Little Five Points, Atlanta GA. Paul Melançon and the New Insecurities and AM Gold opened the show and had fantastic sets. Really enjoyed both of them, but nothing would prepare us for the rock show that Kenny brought out, or the number of trombone players that would be on stage. He kicked off the show by playing his new album in its entirety and then proceed to rock out for another hour.  Such a great time, and it's been cool to reconnect with the man. Hopefully we're going to be rocking a show together pretty soon. 

For shooting tonight's show I kept it light an loose in the camera department with just my Nikon D90 and my nifty 50mm. Star Bar has a decent lighting setup, but they can keep things a bit dark at times. The stage is elevated about a 18 inches so its easy to run around, and being tall definitely helps. It's also nice to be able to stand directly next to stage right to capture more of an on-stage perspective.

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On

I Shot the Band - The 9 Songwriters Series

Juliana Finch

Last Thursday night I attended the The 9 Songwriters Series at Smith's Old Bar. All around awesome singer/songwriter and Sunset Districter, Juliana Finch was playing with a bunch of East Coast songwriters, so it was a great chance to get out to support and an opportunity to hear some great talent from up the coast and the South.

The show was presented in a way that I hadn't see before, and although it was similar to an in-the-round style show, it was altogether different and really enjoyable. There were 9 performers. Each person played 2 songs before the next person jumped up to perform. After everyone had gone, each person got up for a 1 song encore. Although it was presented in a singer/songwriter format I really enjoyed the different personalties everyone brought to the stage, and it was especially fun to see everyone collaborating on each others material, quite literally as they were hearing it for the first time. Hats off to Justin Trawick for coming up with a good idea and bringing it to Atlanta. I hope to be a part of one of these in the future, or at the very least shoot the next one.

From a photographic point of view, The Atlanta Room at Smith's is pretty dark. Most people are in seats or tables around the perimeter of the room and it makes it a little difficult to get a good shot without jumping up in front of people during the show and spoiling the intimacy of the performance. I grabbed a stool in front of the stage, against the wall, and stuck with my 50mm lens the entire time. The ISO is a little cranked, so the images are a little gritty, but I love the vibe. It would be great to have a few more bright lenses in the future, so I'm saving up!

Info
Comment
Written by John McNicholas On