Half the reason I love doing what I do is taking photos at concerts. Seeing live music and taking photos are in my top favourite things to do. Here are 10 photos I have taken that I am particularly fond of. I will give you a short explanation why I love them. So, let’s jump right in there and have some fun. In no distinct order,,,

Beam me up Scotty!

The Band is called Firewind, a Power Metal band from Greece. I love the two little beams of lights coming out of the guitarists head. It was a fast and furious light show, so getting a shot like this was a bit of a lottery shot.

Mother Nature

Toronto artist Lily Frost did a show at Edwards Gardens to a packed place. I love the open space as she sings in her Mother Nature’s garb. The show had a very natural theme to it and so I used the empty sky to represent this moment. The dark clouds came in later when she was singing about a looming disaster.

The Delta Blues at sunset

Camilo Restrepo has an incredible voice that suits the delta blues in an amazing way. The light was getting low, and the stage lights were just kicking in as I captured this pensive moment during his set at the Drom Taberna.

Punk Energy

The Bloody Blue Darlings are a very unique punk band that played one night at the Dakota. I was trying to capture the lead singer with his wild swaying movements with the microphone. I couldn’t grab a sharp image, so I decided to use this blurry one which seemed to capture the spirit of this band better.

Love and Respect

Mrs Henry is a Band from California, and they also go by the name Chest fever. They are an amazing band that covers The Band. In the photo we have the singer with Rock Legend Don Stevenson from Moby Grape who hailed from San Francisco, performing with Mrs Henry at Hugh’s Room. What I love about this photo is the look of respect and love each other have at this moment of time. It almost has a father and son moment.

Give me the Creeps

Night Chill hail from Hamilton and occasionally come to Toronto. This was taken at the Super Wonder Gallery. I just love the deep creepy look I am getting from Theremin player Thea Triffid.

The Scream!

No, not the painting. This is Dave Barrett from the band Superchucker. This was the first time I got to see them live and I heard this guy has some serious pipes. I moved around to the backside of the stage at the Rockpile to get a different angle when this great light was pointing right at Dave. I caught him in mid- scream. It turns out this guy has got a great set of pipes!

He’s an Animal

I was covering Havens at the Horseshoe and was enjoying the show. Then I found myself getting sucked into the drummer’s energy. This guy was turning into an animal in front of me and was having the time of his life. It was difficult to get a sharp image of him and so I went with the flow and captured his energy with a long shutter speed and a dragging flash. I had plenty of good shots to choose from, but I like this one the best.

Me and my shadow

How many great tuba shots can a photographer really get? Well in this case one is all you need. Big Smoke Brass was playing over at Reid’s Distillery, and I loved what they were doing with their lighting. The place has really high ceilings and I was waiting for the right moment to grab a cool shot with the shadows they were casting. Well, here it is!

Friends for Life

Whenever I go and see Johannes Linstead and his band, the feeling I get is that they treat each other as best friends, you can really feel that with each of their performances. I went all the way over to the Guildwood in Scarborough and was lucky to nail this shot of all of them working in perfect harmony.

Thank You for taking the time out to read this. I look forward to seeing many more of our talented musicians and hopefully walk away with some quality moments. Maybe I will put these photos on our website, and you can buy a copy for yourself. Who knows what 2025 will bring. All I know is that I will continue to let you know, who is out there and why you should go see them.

If you want to support the work we do here at Blast Toronto, consider donating to our Ko-fi. We have monthly memberships and one-time donations and will thank you on our website! Your support helps us cover the Toronto music scene and nightlife.

Let 2025 be a year we all can have a Blast together!