THOR Class of 2012 Show

The THOR class of 2012 show at the Bowery Ballroom on 6/17/12 was epic in the way that ALL the THOR shows are.  Seriously.  Damn.  These kids can rock and they put their heart and soul into every moment.  There is no slacking, no half assed performances.  They are there to rock your face off and they do it.   Praise and glories to Chris ‘Tomato’ Harfenist for making the magic happen.  How he juggles the kids/parents/venues/instruments/everything is beyond me and that he can do it with a smile on his face is just beautiful.

For the Class of 2012 show the lineup read like this
Epic Thor – 1 – 1:35pm
Black Leopard – 1:35-1:50
Alt/Indie THOR – 1:50-2:25
Chocking on Bleach – 2:25-2:40
JAM THOR – 2:40-3:15
THOR House Band – 3:15 – 4
Class of 2012 Ceremony – 4-4:20
Metal THOR – 4:20 – 5pm

Musical guests Richard Christy and Alex Skolnick sat in during the Metal THOR slot and they both had to rock their hardest to keep up.

Super Congrats to the Graduates of 2012

               – Jack Moulton                                      – Karina Rykman

– Josh Musto

– Max Feldman

                  – Daniel Risdon                         – Evan Lowy

           – Damien Moffitt

To see more photos from the show CLICK HERE

Phish 6/16/12 Bader Field | Music Photography

 I haven’t been to a Phish show since 2002?   Hampton was the last one and that show left a bad taste in my mouth…   crowds were getting maced by police on horseback in the parking lot and the amount of kids on heroin face first on the pavement was alarming.  (why the hell would you get a ticket to a show and then get so junked out you don’t make it inside the show?  major fail.)  so yeah, no me gusto.

That was also around the same time ‘real life’ started happening and the schedule fills up and running off on tour becomes hard.

but i remembered how glorious it could be – Summer of 98’ – HTFSUAA Tour – Best Summer hands down. The Gorge!

I also haven’t really listened to much phish since then.  I loved their live show – that was my jam.  I never just listened to them.  Then I started making photos of THOR, an incredible program that basically teaches kids how to be rockstars (and good people) and I started to hear the songs again in their jam program sets.  At those shows I rediscovered my love for the songs.  and yeah man, Phish has some damn good songs.  but more so than that, they are damn good musicians…which is why the live shows always held my interest.

So I was pretty excited when the talented musician and photographer and recent Thor graduate, Karina Rykman, invited me to go along with her & some friends to the Atlantic City Phish show.  I hoped the scene and the sound was the best of what I remembered…..  and it was.  x500.

I only saw cops in the photo pit during the encore and while they were dressed in riot gear, they were all smiling and laughing.  The crowd was ecstatically happy – dancing, spinning, laughing.  There was one poor fella who had to be coaxed out of a port-a-potty by the medical team…  poor fella… a port-a-potty may be the worst place to have a bad trip.  shudder.  but that was the only rough situation that I noticed.

and the show.  damn guys.  you fucking killed it.  when they started with mike’s song, I got pretty excited figuring for weekapaug groove and they followed through.  i love that jam.   The pulled out  a lot of great ones – Wolfman’s bro, Possum, Suzy Greenber & Golgi Apparatus were some of my faves.  They  closed with the zepplin Good Times, Bad Times, which was badass.

The night was a blast.  I’m back in love with the Phish live shows.  Oh how I wish I had the time to throw my shit in my car and get on the road.

More Pics HERE  

Von Shakes | 5/24/12 | Arlenes Grocery | Music Photography

Everything good came together on 5/24/12 – I was in nYc the same night as a Von Shakes show.  I dig their sound and their show.  Rock n Roll, heavy on the guitars, the Von Shakes strut around the stage and give one hell of a good show.   – Get their CD – it is awesome!  They are doing touring around the east coast – check them out if you get a chance.

time for the rocking.

To see photos from the whole show CLICK HERE