Transviolet /  by Liz Brown

Transviolet opened for LANY and it's been quite some time since I've been that blown away by an opening band. Frontwoman Sarah danced across stage, flinging her thick curly hair back and forth. The stage lights reflected off her hair and the guitars and the whole performance was engaging and mesmerizing. 

The Band Joseph /  by Liz Brown

If you haven't ever listened to Joseph, jump on the bandwagon before it leaves, because these gals are lovely and talented and even wear great denim. I have few regrets in life, but one of them is not seeing them at a house show a year or two ago. Not about to make the same mistake again, we arrived at the Midland early enough to both see and shoot Joseph. Catch them on tour sometime or check out their new album: I'm Alone, No You're Not. Thanks, ladies, for a lovely evening and for letting me shoot your set! 

LANY /  by Liz Brown

These photos are from LANY's show in Omaha last night. I never should have been there and I shouldn't have been shooting. It's a good story.

There are a few bands on my short list to shoot in the near future. Folks like the 1975, James Bay, and Troye Sivan. And LANY. But I didn't have any luck with a photo pass on LANY's  Kinda Tour but I decided to go anyhow. By myself. To sing and dance and wear denim and generally make a fool of myself in the best way. 

Upon hearing I was going to a show, my boss let me off work early. Who does that? Only nicest humans. Driving straight from work, I got to the venue 3 minutes after the first band started. My backpack slung over my shoulder, I entered the dim room and realized 3 things: they didn't check my bag, there was little security, and there was no photo pit. Which meant I could probably shoot from the crowd. I booked it back to my car to retrieve my camera. I posted up on the right side of the room, one hand clutching my camera, one hand clutching my prism, sort of close to the front. 

In front of me was a dad-of-a-teenager aged fellow and when I pulled my camera out, he motioned that I could stand where he was: right next to the stage. And he let me stand there the entire show. Where I shot with my camera. Totally unexpected and entirely grateful. Undeserved. 

Due to my inability to move around, most of my shots are of Paul and Les and from similar angles (sorry, Jake!), but I would be a fool to be disappointed. I didn't expect to get to shoot the tour at all and here I was in the front row with my camera. Grateful, insanely grateful.

LANY, you were lovely. I like you lots.

Vintage and Made Fair /  by Liz Brown

To preface this post, I went to two markets yesterday. In the late morning, I visited the Firehouse Flea Market at the Des Moines Social Club and in the afternoon I visited the Vintage and Made Fair at Jordan Park Camp. I took a few photos at each one, but not enough for an entire blog post for each. As a result, I combined them into one post, and titled it "Vintage and Made," though these first three shots are from Firehouse Flea.

These gals are from Des Moines and recently started a vintage business (I'll post the name as soon as I find their card!) However, what originally drew me to their booth (if we are being very honest) are the Redwings on the gal on the left. I've only seen one other pair of women's Redwings out in the wild; I never would've thought to pair them with a dress or something white, but she was rocking them!

This is my friend Joany. She's the founder of the company One Positive Thought and a deep thinker and an encourager. More and more I'm becoming convinced that these words (by Lucas Scott/One Tree Hill) are important: "You art matters." Joany is the sort of person who says words like that, honestly and often, and it's so encouraging. It reminds me how important that is, how I should be constantly speaking truth and hope to people.

Now begin the Vintage and Made photos. Any event that greets you with a row of flannel when you walk in is bound to be a good one.

If I recall correctly, this gal's name is Michelle. She, along with two friends, hosted a booth at the fair. What drew me back was a sherpa/denim jacket, something that I've had an eye out for for quite some time, but without any luck--until now. They had dope items and reasonable prices, and when I began chatting with her, I learned they were from Chicago. What a small world! I love that having lived in that city gives me commonality with so many people. I think that's one of the better things about traveling and trying new things: all the new people that you now immediately have something in common with. Their business is called Fownd Vintage and naturally after I bought the jacket, I asked her for a portrait.

My last stop at the Vintage and Made Fair (and, honestly, and main reason I came) was to see my friend Rayna. She has a local, all-natural henna business and is ridiculously talented. This isn't my hand, but she also gave me a beautiful piece on my hand and arm that I'll be rocking for a couple weeks. All in all, I ended the afternoon feeling full. One of my favourite things is a lack of agenda: just talking to folks about their art and lives and yesterday was just that. Firehouse Flea is over, but the Vintage and Made Fair is still going on today. Stop on by!

Tour de Compadres: Needtobreathe /  by Liz Brown

I saw Needtobreathe for the first time about five years ago, opening for David Cook at an outdoor amphitheatre. Prior to seeing them, I wasn't a particular fan, but their live show won me over. Since then I've seen them close to half a dozen times and each time their performance and production has been amazing. This year they released a new album entitled Hard Love. I'm a believer in times of day and places for certain songs (for example, listen Coldplay in the city at dusk), and Needtobreathe hits the spot while driving midday through Kansas with the windows down. Give it a try sometime and you won't be disappointed. 

Once again, for Needtobreathe's set, I was limited in the areas I could shoot from. But, once again, I decided to get creative. They had a superb lighting setup, which made using a prism quite fun.

I isolated parts of this image by literally putting my fingers in front of different parts of the lens. The other images with huge negative spaces I created in the same way: covering the lens with my hand.