The Palace Theater – Got Any Tunes?

CHVRCHES @ The Palace Theater 10/02/18

“Get two beers in me and I’m up for anything,” Logan said to me last night, and apparently anything includes going to a capital P, Pop concert on a Tuesday night. After last minute confirmation, we ended up going and turned out to be some of the youngest there. The average age of audience members was probably 29 and everyone seemed to be drinking more than I think is necessary for a Tuesday night. Nevertheless! It was a great show and 16 year old Maia was peeing her pants so excited that I was this close to Lauren Mayberry. Photos below (I went a little over board, but JUST LOOK AT THEM!).

Ghost @ The Palace Theater 06/01/18

These are really late, but I worked all weekend and haven’t been feeling great so we’ll pretend those are valid excuses. BUT last Friday I got to shoot for Ghost, the Swedish pop-metal band, on the day of their fourth album release. This show had been sold out for quite some time, and while I’m not a huge fan of their music (it should be way heavier considering their whole occult image, in my opinion) the theatrics and novelty of their performance made up for it. I’m glad nobody died at the Minneapolis show, Cardinal Copia paid respects to the passed fan from Milwaukee just two songs into the first set. Sad my dad couldn’t be there with me to people watch, but enjoy the photos, they were fun to shoot!

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile @ The Palace Theater 10/25/17

This show was very sold out. I thought Fleet Foxes was crowded, but this topped that easily. All the young people were stoned, all the middle aged people were drinking and talking too much, all the old people were singing along really loudly. The crowd honestly pissed me off at first, but as we shifted throughout the set, it ended up just fine.

I’m not a huge Kurt Vile fan, I mean I enjoy his music and I used to listen to him a lot in Florida, but I don’t know his work extensively. Courtney Barnett, on the other hand, I’ve loved for so long. I was happy, just like the rest of the audience, that they both mixed some of their own work into their set that consisted mainly of their collaboration material – Lotta Sea Lice.

I have to say that Courtney may have one of the best voices I’ve ever heard live. I was absolutely stunned – it was SO GOOD. I had a major flashback as she closed the night with “Avant Gardener.” All of a sudden I was 16 again, sitting on the floor of my parents basement, starring at a half-finished drawing on my easel that was due in less than 8 hours. I only listened to The Current in the basement and I can still remember hearing this song announced for the first time from “a gal out of Australia – Courtney Barnett.” Something about that song has always stuck with me, has always made me feel so calm and content, and I hope that it always does.

Fleet Foxes with Nap Eyes @ The Palace Theater 10/01/17

I was at The Palace Theater again this past Sunday for the second Fleet Foxes show of the weekend. Though I’m not a huge fan, it actually turned out I was less familiar with their music than I thought, I still enjoyed myself and the performance was really really pretty. Below are some photos I took of Fleet Foxes and their Nova Scotia-native openers, Nap Eyes. 🙂

Conor Oberst with Phoebe Bridgers @ The Palace Theater 9/07/17

While I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of Conor Oberst or Bright Eyes, and quite honestly was a little more excited that I was going to shoot at The Palace Theater, I still really enjoyed last night.

Before I get into all the music, I just want to take a minute to say WOW. The Palace Theater is hands down the most beautiful venue I’ve ever been to, I felt like I was watching the show in a castle the whole time and the ceilings reminded me of some very recent photos of the magic Norwegian afterworld (See here).

Phoebe Bridgers opened the show softly with her heart-wrenchingly personal songs. While I had never heard her before, I fell in love with her voice as much as the fact that she looks like if Zosia Mamet and Tavi Gevinson had a cool, songbird child. Bridgers reminded me a lot of Julien Baker, and as she told us later in her set, she has in fact been on tour with her already.

Bridgers ended her set with her latest release, “Emotional Motion Sickness,” introducing it with, “this song is about f*cking someone you don’t like.” Her debut album, Stranger In The Alps is due out in just a few weeks on September 22nd. Fans of Julien Baker, Margaret Glaspy, Lady Lamb, etc. – Phoebe Bridgers is for you.

Conor Oberst took that stage, accompanied by The Felice Brothers as his band, much to the audiences delight (I can’t tell if people were yelling really, really loud or if the acoustics in the theater were just that good). “You Are Your Mother’s Child” meant something really special when I was fifteen and watched Stuck in Love for the first time, and while the meaning may have faded for me a bit, it was definitely still something special to see Oberst perform it live.

This audience was a split. Older couples nodding their heads to the music, maybe a hand gently touching the other person’s shoulder during a tender song here and there. And young professional couples drinking and dancing like there’s no such thing as a quarter life crisis or any other worry for that matter. Young indie folk-rock fans are funny because they get kind of rowdy and yell a lot, which seems uncalled for at such an easy-listening concert.

My favorite part, hands down, was when Bridgers came back on stage and sang “Lua” with Oberst, a song that he told us he was burnt out on performing until he started singing it again with Bridgers. By this point in the show Oberst had already gone on one tangent about the current state of our nation and when he kept kissing Bridgers’ cheek, followed by three more political tangents, everyone started wondering just how much he had to drink that night.

I’m really glad I had this opportunity, shooting at The Palace was an amazing milestone for me, as well as finding my new favorite lady singer, Ms. Phoebe Bridgers. I enjoyed Conor Oberst’s set and the memories his songs brought back for me. I always like Oberst’s brand of folksy, indie rock in the fall just a little bit extra, so starting September with this show is a very nice beginning to the season.