fitz and the tantrums

There is a cool and funky indie band that has hit my radar. Their name is Fitz and The Tantrums. They stole the spotlight at The Mercury Lounge on Friday, with a late night show. With their Debut LP set to be released in August, the band has quite a following for not even having a full record out yet. With the small venue packed to the brim, it was easy to feel the excitement in the room. The audience was filled with cocktails and smiles, and the band with vibrance and heart.

The music is a bit of pop, a bit of Motown, a bit of funk. It's good, if not great. The one unfortunate aspect of the midnight performance was that slow songs dominated the set list, when it is clear that the best is brought out in them when they keep it upbeat. Fingers crossed that the album will have a majority of fast tempo.

Despite any performance qualms I may have had, having shared a great portion of their tour with Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, it is clear that Fitz and The Tantrums is a musical force to be reckoned with. With so many up and coming musicians exploring the route of what I call "modern Motown", it is nice to have a band stand out from the crowd.

Second best part of Fitz and The Tantrums, placing in after their clap-your-hands fun music, is the personality of the band. The members are friendly, engaging, and seem to genuinely enjoy the ride. Third best part: allowing me to ebed the tunes. Enjoy.

Photography by: Melissa Lynn of beIMAGED Photography. To get beBLOGGED coverage, e-mail us.

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.

will dailey and the rivals

On Tuesday, July 28th, I walked into the Mercury Lounge of the big N to the Y to the C: after a day of New Jersey rain storms, flash floods and anxiety attacks, I have to say that I didn't know what to expect out of the concert that my friend had convinced me to go to. When we first arrived at the Lounge, and the doorman had an earphone plugged into one ear and a cell phone held firmly to the other, wearing a puss face all the while, I thought: this isn't looking good. Not the warmest of welcomes.

But with a few footsteps past the front entrance, the face of Will Dailey lit up the place, and I knew it would be a great night. His strapping good looks aside, the guy is real and authentic. He's got the face of Peter Sarsgaard and Orlando Bloom melded together, and the heart and soul of a true musician. The heart and soul is what stands out the most.

I didn't plan on being in photographer mode all night, but when Will and the Rivals started up, it was like I couldn't be anything else. The expression leaping off of Mr. Dailey's face and the colors pouring out of the voices and instruments, was something too visually stimulating to resist. I was basically crouched on a bench the entire performance, just shooting one photograph after the other. Uncomfortable positioning had no effect on me: this music was emotional, lively, captivating and most importantly, artistic.

After the performance, as I had silently predicted (because of how intrinsically cool the entire band already seemed), Will Dailey and The Rivals came out to the bar area and mingled. I don't know if it was the Vater dums being marked "Darth" Vater with the implemented tools of marker and tape, or getting to chat with one of the band members for a hearty fifteen minutes, or if it was the overall performance being so engaging: I don't know what it was that made this musician and band so refreshing but refreshing they were.

Nice guys, great music, and no, the overall cuteness of them didn't hurt one bit. Quality stuff, or as they might say in Dailey's neck of the woods: wicked. Truly wicked.

You can see more where these photos came from on melissalynn.smugmug.com and you can check out more of my other work and words at beimaged.com

To see more of these talented musicians go to willdailey.com.