Hopefully you’re all dug out & plowed out. Huge shout out to our neighbor for plowing our long driveway after plowing all day & night, and to all the plow drivers out there that cleared all the roads for us. Winter definitely came in with a bang this month, and the music was just as impressive. I know this is PA Musician, and one of my bits for this article is from five states away…but it’s my article, I do what I want. Hope you enjoy!
My first jaunt out for the month was to my favorite bar in Perry County, the infamous Sherman’s Creek Inn to catch Ed Allison and Y2Kids. The guys cover songs from the 2000’s, and they definitely brought the 2000’s party to The Creek. It was an absolute blast catching them belt out tunes like Dirty Little Secret, Johnnie Doesn’t Know, Mr Brightside and a ton more for a great crowd that sang and danced along the entire time. I should note that the special of the night, a chicken cordon bleu sammich, was absolutely delicious!
Our next trip out was a long distance one…Wendy and I headed out for our first ever visit to the beautiful state of Vermont: specifically to Lake Morey Resort for the Adam Ezra Group’s 5th annual Winter Gathering. I’ve mentioned before that this is a band that we love…their music is fantastic, and they’re really just awesome, down to earth people. We chose to have this trip double as our Honeymoon and also did a little sightseeing while we were up there. While on the resort, there were 6 sessions of music over a couple days for a total of 15+ hours, ranging from solo shows to full band shows. Over these 15+ hours of playing tunes, they didn’t repeat a single song with one exception: they closed out most or all of the sessions with “The Toast” which seemed very fitting. The weekend started off with them playing a bunch of their older material, Saturday night started out playing with their soon to be released newest album in it’s entirety, and Sunday night’s theme was ballads. One thing that we love about seeing Adam and the group play is the story telling in between songs. Sometimes he talks about what inspired him to write a particular song, sometimes it’s about life experiences, etc. I may have also heard a rumor that Adam will be coming back through the area this summer…so if you’re interested in folk music with an underground vibe and beautiful writing, keep your eyes open! All of it made for a great trip & Honeymoon.
The following weekend, I trekked over to the Capital City Music Hall in Harrisburg for a show I’d been looking forward to for quite a while. The show was down in the basement which has a cool underground sort of punk vibe to it which I dig, and definitely recommend. Opening up the evening was a relatively new Central PA band called Within Me. Their style blended hard rock and metalcore (sometimes with the moves of a 90’s boy band that worked oddly well!) with a lot of energy to their great music. The evening got loud and hard quickly. Next up was my buds in Elsewhere. It’s been a bit since I’d gotten to see them play, but they definitely haven’t lost any steam! Their emo-metalcore tunes really got the crowd cranked up, even forming a pit right in front of the stage. Coming out to the stage third was a band that I have been looking forward to seeing since they started a little over a year ago: KVRMA. The last few times they’d played in the area I wasn’t able to make it so I was really excited to finally see them. To top it off, they were announcing and bringing out their new lead singer who they were keeping a mystery until the show. I had my suspicions beforehand, but was really excited to see Nolan Mateer (also of The Art Of Deception) hit the stage with the guys. Nolan is an incredible vocalist and awesome human being and I truly feel he’s a perfect fit with KVRMA. The guys had an incredible set pounding out their awesome songs for the crowd (much of whom sang along with them), and interacting with the crowd throughout. I highly recommend catching these guys the next time they’re around. Rounding out the evening was Frederick Md based metalcore band Who They Fear. They continued with the high energy theme of the evening and definitely brought a load of fans up from their hometown area. Overall, it made for a great night of music.
My last trip out for the month, before snowmagheddon, was again over to Harrisburg to hit up a show at HMAC. Opening up the evening was Samaritan Snare, a Lancaster based group cranking out very high energy hard rock with some screams and tasty riffs. Their all original tunes did a great job of warming the crowd up. Keep an eye out for them, their debut EP is reported to be coming soon! Next up was a band that I’ve heard the name, but knew nothing about until I looked them up prior to the show. Light The Lamp self describes as “hard, fast, and heavy puck (no misspelling) rock coming at you like a slap shot to the face! We write songs about hockey!” I had no idea what to expect from a punk rock band writing about hockey…but they were an absolute blast. They had the entire crowd jamming and singing along for their entire set. Next up was my good friends Ruiness. By this point, the room was crowded as folks had continued to fill the Stage On Herr during through first two sets. Ruiness crushed their set with much of the crowd screaming and singing along to every single song, and ending their set with their newest killer release The Decline. Rounding out the evening was the guys in Gun Metal Gray (I think I was on an Ed Allison kick for January LOL). GMG came out to a crowd that was thoroughly warmed up and they continued the party cranking the volume to eleven with their high octane metal tunes. Powerful vocals, killer guitar riffs, and everything needed to make for a great show. All four bands put on a great show.
So there it is, my month of music through my eyes and ears. I want to once again thank all the bands, venues, and everyone else involved in our incredible local music scene for everything they do. Just a reminder: if you’ve got a show coming up that I should see; make sure to send me an invite, shoot me an email or a message, let me know about it. Venues: please don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. The majority of the shows that I go and shoot I find out about through invites from all of you or your friends. Hit me up on facebook: @chrisriderphotography or email: chrisriderphotography@gmail.com, stop me if you see me out say, hi. Until next month…go find some live music and give them and the venue your support, they truly need it more now than they ever did.
