Moments: Another Round of RVA Musical Things | Music Photography

2/8/14 was an epic night of music in the RVA. The adventure started with The Big Payback at The Bull & Bear Club for the third annual Bootleggers Ball, which is a fantastic celebration of the Prohibition Era. Everyone in RVA came dressed in their vintage and feathers to The Bull & Bear Club to dance the night away.
The Big Payback a Tribute to James Brown, well, what can I say about TBP !!??!! other than – they are finely tuned perfection. I mean, this is about as real as you can get, until you invent a time machine to go back to an actual funkified James Brown heyday throw down. Seriously, they are everything in a perfectly executed tribute MACHINE. I can’t get enough and I’ve never seen a crowd that could either. The sounds, the moves, all just makin’ ya git down to the Get Down.

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I left the crowd tearing up the dance floor and headed to The Camel for The People’s Blues of Richmond, another of my fave RVA bands. This night had all the bases covered, music to dance and do nothing but have a great time too. & all the people that go to those shows are kickass. Fun people who just want to get down and enjoy. These bands will have every crowd dancing every time, without fail.

So I made it to PBR in time for the last sweaty, high energy, funky, rocking set. Everyone in attendance was ripe for every dang thing they were delivering. The crowd might get a little mosh mayhem sometimes but a guitar surfing above them brought back the focus from the edge of utter chaos at just the right moment.

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It is hard to stop a night of music when that many musicians end up at shows together at the end of the night. I love that in RVA, the musicians go out and support other bands shows. It makes for a great community and a base for collaboration. That night Jordan Tarrant created a spot for the music to continue.

A few nights later I met Nate of Porter Street Productions up at Balliceaux for the RVA Big Band to snap some pics while he filmed. We got their early and I’ve got to take a moment to say…wow…. If you dropped me blindfolded in the middle of there, never in a million years, would I guess it for the old Bogarts. The old comfortable backroom, that dark woodend room that embraced you and held you in the music was gone. Not that Balliceaux isn’t fantastic. It is beautiful and big and very classy. I just will always be wistful for the old Bogarts or perhaps the memories of the nights of the old Bogarts.
This was my first time seeing The RVA Big Band, a 17 piece music ensemble of awesome that features a long list of the A Team players of RVA, including some that carry over from the long ago Monday nights of The Devil’s Workshop at Bogarts. The RVA Big Band plays every Monday night and I highly recommend going and checking them out.

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Working for a spell at The Virginia Moonwalker is grand on many levels, one of the tops being that I never know who I will find when I show up to prep gear for a night. This particular afternoon, I found Russell Lacy laying down a track for Ben Butterworth with Corey Wells, Matt Kuester & Raphael Katchinoff. I love the honest sound that comes out of The Virginia Moonwalker. There is just something some raw and pure about the way it is being done out in this country studio.