foto finish - james

{say something -  Instagram}


hello there! i'm back today with a recap of the james show Hoss and i went to last thursday.  james is my most favorite band in the world and has been for about 17 years or so.  they hail from Manchester, England, and have been around since the mid-80's.  they don't have a big following over here in the US but the fans they do have are huge supporters.  

{larry gott - guitar -  and mark hunter - keyboards}


Hoss and i made the trip down to San Diego to see them at the house of blues.  back when he ordered the tickets, Hoss surprised me by getting the VIP tickets for the sound check.  the larger photos in this post are from the warm up.  guests were encouraged to bring their cameras and take as many photos as they wanted--no video, though--so we did.  i was lucky to see this show when i did as i also had a photography assignment of environmental portraiture due and these pictures counted toward that.  we took over 200 photos during the sound check. 

{larry talking to the fellas}

{tim booth}

it was so cool to see them in this way--a more laid back environment than the frenzied excitement during the actual live performance. they were really receptive to the 75 or so (my estimate) fans who were there and answered a lot of questions.  

{andy diagram - trumpet}

{andy looks bored}

this is my favorite photo of the night.  during the warm up, Andy {sitting} looked so bored!  granted, he doesn't play on every song; he left the band sometime around '92 and didn't return to play on a studio album until 2008 so he missed a bunch of albums in between.  he's got a real Mr. Bean-ish look about him and later that evening during the show, he was dancing around and shaking his trumpet and behaving much differently than during the sound check when he kept yawning.  in particularly, he was cracking up Hoss the whole night.



with our VIP status, we were able to get into the show before anyone else and while most people head to the very front row to stand in front of the stage, Hoss and i like to head up to the balcony (most house of blues's have one, i think?) and stand in the center of that.  you still get a great, unobstructed view and because we're old, we like to avoid the pushing and shoving that goes on down below.
  

{"sometimes" crowd sing-along - Instagram}

we had to take the big camera back to the car after the sound check as the HOB has their own policies regarding them, but we both had our iPhones and took some pictures with them.  the photos aren't wonderful, but with the help of Instagram, it makes it look like we intended to get blurry, grainy shots!

{last encore - "laid" - with lucky audience members dancing onstage with the band - Instagram} 

it was a great show and i hope they come back again soon.  they remain my most favorite band of all time.