otis and the other halloween

In a world where Halloween falling on a Saturday night equals two Halloweens for all - you have to wonder where our priorities are. Yes, indeed, we love to dress up, listen to music, and have an excuse to party all night long. Enter my Friday night on October 30th in seeing the ever-so-fun NYC based band, OTiS. The Mercury Lounge was decked with unique costumes, booze guzzlers, bopping heads, and shaking hips, and luckily enough, I was there to capture it.

Everyone was hopped up on Paul Simon showing up to the funky venue, standing in the corner early in the night with his Indiana Jones hat in place, in support of his son's very talented band who opened for OTiS. Needless to say, the band could feel the pressure of having to perform in front of the man who said he was "still crazy after all these years" back in the day. Despite any anxiety that may have been brewing, however, the buzz simply added to their fire and energy. They were calm and collected before the show in what I have deemed "the pipe room", the green room of sorts, filled with graffitted pipes, in the basement of The Lounge. And then, once on stage, they got almost every single audience member up off their feet, moving and grooving.

OTiS, a down-to-earth, very easy-going band with a stage presence that even makes the lead singer, Craig, scream into the microphone "Hell Yeah". The music of this band is funk, soul, groove, and everything in between, with no level of excitement left out. At one point a young girl behind me in the audience, said it best to her friend: "I don't even care which song is next. I feel it all."
















To see more photos, head on over to the beIMAGED photography smugmug page.