Weezer’s Indie Rock Road Trip Tour highlights the impact the band has had on rock music through the years at Cleveland’s Blossom Music Center.
There are countless stadium-filling performers who play the same songs night after night, and even from tour to tour. No one misses out from one city to the next as they get the exact same performance, but there is little need to check them out again. Shakey Graves keeps it real and fresh for each performance.
The Hot Mic crew is joined by photographer, Nick Spanos, who shares stories from his many years as a portrait photographer of musicians. Nick has worked with celebrities like Yungblud, Halsey, Gwen Stefani, Debbie Gibson, Quincy Jones, Arianna Grande, St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson, Andrea Bocelli, Belinda Carlile, Usher, Rascal Flatts, Herb Alpert, Chris Isaak, Kacey Musgraves, Tank and the Bangas, Jason Derulo, Green Day, and so many more. Check out Nick on Instagram or his website.
At 7:30 PM there was just one lone cowboy hat in the crowd. Two more trickled through the security check by 8 PM when Jaime Wyatt started the night’s music performance. There was an older crowd, but not the typical die-hard country music fan. Local favorite Angela Perley arrived on the scene. The room was filled with free-thinkers flirting with the idea of country music. Nikki and Jaime were indeed country music artists, but both iconoclasts in their own right.
It was a cold night in Columbus. The kind of night where you don’t see many people waiting outside the doors of the Newport Music Hall for a show to start. This crowd, however, showed up early for a performance they previously thought might never happen. Gen Xers and millennials filled the Newport Music Hall with the front row packed with women. They continued to wait patiently for a show that was originally supposed to happen more than two years ago.
You know how after watching countless advertisements over your life, you discount the idea that anything is as great as they say it is? We’ve all been burned on recommendations for a must-have, or must-see that we don’t know who to believe anymore. Maybe you find it difficult to believe me when I tell you that Palaye Royal’s Forever Dream North American Tour is the best show to see this year, but I have photos to prove it!
Mobley has released 1 album, and 3 EPs, and even if a recording artist writes and performs as a solo artist, it is rare that they would perform on a full stage by themselves. Who is that on drums? It’s Mobley. Who is that on vocals? It’s Mobley. In the crowd? On the keys? Playing guitar? IT’S ONE GUY! Even the beginning years for band Shakey Graves as a one-man-band, Alejandro Rose-Garcia was able to affix everything to himself. Mobley had a full drum kit on stage, electric guitar, keyboard, microphone, and moved through them all throughout his performance.
Things have changed for live performances since the start of the pandemic, and we haven’t fully recovered. People are allowed to return to events, while no longer required to wear masks or show proof of vaccination. There is still a fear of the unknown affecting ticket sales. The recent price spike of gasoline, food, housing and energy is also a factor in the decline of ticket sales. The crowds just aren't filling in the venues like they had been … yet.
At our core, people want to feel music. If we hear, but don’t feel it, it’s just noise. If it moves us, it now has meaning and we want to listen to it again and again. Unfortunately, like most jokes and stories, it loses meaning the more we hear it. Some of us are music junkies - always searching for new music; chasing the dragon to feel what we once felt with another song.
