Although I don’t write about it enough, music is a big part of my life, or at least it used to be before I had a full-time job. I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, but these days, I don’t usually have the energy or time to drive an hour or two to D.C., Baltimore or Richmond.

Going to a concert is sort of like eventing for me. When the lights go down and the crowd cheers, I get the same feeling as when I’m getting counted down in the start box on cross-country.

At the moment, my favorite band is Go Radio. They’re the perfect pop-rock band with great melodies, heartfelt lyrics and it all comes together through lead singer Jason Lancaster, who sings like he means it with an amazing set of pipes. I just saw them on their most recent tour last week in Richmond and it was pretty amazing. Even though there were probably only 100 people there, they put on an awesome show. Although the photographer in me doesn’t like small club shows because of the generally bad lighting, I think I prefer them to bigger arena shows and clubs. On average, the places I go to have about a 1,500 capacity, which is nice, but still not as intimate as the smaller club shows. There’s nothing like standing in the front row and singing along with the band.

My tastes have slightly altered as I’ve gotten older. I don’t listen to as much pop-punk as I did when I was in high school. I’m more into pop-rock and I really like a strong vocalist. Anything with a piano will definitely get my attention. Unfortunately, a lot of the bands I listened to in high school have broken up, and I’m not finding what I’m looking for in the current crop of bands in “the scene”.

I can’t believe I’ve been shooting concerts since I was 16. It started with just my point and shoot, then I started shooting for a website called AvoidtheScene.com and was able to get photo passes and learn how to deal with PR and media people. I took over the site soon after I started working for them, but my web design skills are severely lacking, so I’m going to be migrating the site to a WordPress platform in the next few weeks I hope. All of my photos can now be seen on Flickr. I’m currently shooting with just a 50mm f/1.4, but I’m hoping to upgrade to some sort of zoom lens soon.

So, I’m not sure exactly what the point of this post was, except maybe to share some of my photos! I saw two amazing shows last week, so they just inspired me, I think!

Go Radio in Richmond. I think my iPhone 5 will be replacing my point and shoot for videos from now on!