What can I say about this show to demonstrate how important it was to me…. Let me tell you a story. Way back in 2008, I was living and going to college in Chicago. I had tickets to see Hot Water Music’s 10 year anniversary tour. What I did not know was that show would introduce me to other bands in the punk rock world. Since I’ve always been a fan on photography, I have photos of this show from my old measly digital camera (I’m pretty sure our phones have twice as many if not more megapixels as this camera had). This band from Tennessee called Lucero was an opener. I remember enjoying their music and snapping some photos. A few years go by, I was going through the my photo library and came across these pictures. At this point, I had fully immersed in my self in the punk and singer/songwriter world and I didn’t remember the band’s name from when I saw them. So I discovered the them for a second time all on my own. Anyway, I realized the pictures were of a young Lucero band.
Jump forward several more years and the lead singer Ben Nichols went on to do some solo music in addition to being apart of the band. He started touring on his own and playing his solo and Lucero songs during the sets. I’d make it to whatever show I could no matter where I was living at the time.
Now, it’s about 18 years later and I saw Ben Nichols was going to be coming to Medford. Since I am now in the thick of these concert photography gigs, I decided to go out on a limb and reach out and ask if I could be the photographer for the show. Much to my surprise and excitement, I received an email saying “Yes, we would love you to!”.
So last night my best friend and I went and saw Ben Nichols, had a blast and I had my full circle moment thinking back to when I was just a fan to now being the photographer at the show. It was just a bonus that we got to meet him and get a signed poster too.