While I was staying with a friend in Long Beach, he randomly mentioned this friend of his who’d recently moved to San Diego from Texas and was in some band. So we pulled up this band on MySpace and they just look incredibly fun. They’ve got this unique style and presence that I found absolutely captivating. To which I discovered myself exclaiming audibly, “Wow. I would LOVE to shoot this band!” That was that and I moved on with the rest of my week — didn’t think anymore about it.
Fast forward a week later and I’m in northern Cali, staying with one of my dearest friends in the whole universe. March 17th we’re having a lazy start of the morning (read: afternoon) and discussing how to spend our St. Patrick’s Day. We decide on a block party in downtown Sacramento about an hour away. We continue about our laziness and slowly get ready. (Which includes picking up some green beer ties to wear in adorable twinkiness together. Which we pulled off superbly, for the record.)
The block party is humorous, at any rate. It’s one entire city block of downtown Sac sectioned off with overpriced tickets to get in, followed by overpriced beer. It’s not even 5 p.m. and the surrounding drunkenness is astounding. (Not to mention wildly entertaining.) Some band is setting up. We allow ourselves to be amused by the random antics of the drunkersby, (Yes, I just made up a word. Deal.) and the poor characters dressed as a pint of Guinness and a lion on stilts. (I know, right?! WTF?)
The band starts playing. A song or two in, we start making our way up to the stage area and through the gathering crowd. I look at the stage and it takes me less than five seconds to realize, “Holy F*@!. This is the band Jayson was telling me about!” (Sorry… that’s truly the direct thought process that happened there.) I flip through my iPhone and fish out the picture I have saved from their MySpace page (…to analyze the lighting. Yes, I’m a photo-nerd. This has been established. Moving on.) for extra confirmation, and to share the extraordinary coincidence with Heather.
So… Heather and I get down and shake it through the hour. and a half. long. set. They are PHENOMENAL live. They are beyond fun to watch. The beats are more than danceable. They are just insanely, crazy GOOD.
After they finished, we kind of walked back stage (I’d say snuck… but it’s not like anyone was there to stop us,) and met Joshua, followed by Jayson’s friend, Tim, and eventually the rest of the guys. At the end of the night and even more craziness (that I will not expound upon here. ha!) We were able to catch back up with the guys at Shady Lady — this swanky, little saloon in downtown Sac that rapidly became one of my favorite places in the world. As it turns out… The Silent Comedy was playing at Shady Lady the following night and I did get that opportunity to shoot them — that band I said I’d LOVE to shoot. :-)
