Concerts Photos
Ruel Brings His ‘Kicking My Feet’ Tour to Los Angeles
Ruel brought his Kicking My Feet tour to a close in Los Angeles on Wednesday, April 8th at the Hollywood Palladium. The tour covered 30 cities over the past two months.
Singer-songwriter Chelsea Jordan opened up the night with a high-energy set, performing some of her own songs to warm up the crowd for the rest of the evening.
Mercer Henderson took the stage next. She sang a handful of her songs that had a folk-pop feel to them as she jumped around the stage.
A little after 9:30, the venue went dark and cheers erupted from the audience. A spotlight flicked on, pouring light through a red door raised in the center of the stage. As the cheers grew louder, Ruel made his grand entrance, emerging through the door in a cloud of smoke while singing “Only Ever,” the first track on his latest album. Kicking My Feet is Ruel’s second studio album, released two years after his debut album back in 2023.
Throughout the night, Ruel took the crowd back to the beginning days of his music, playing some fan favorites such as “Dazed & Confused,” “Younger,” and “Painkiller.” The British-born Australian singer hyped up the audience even more by playing an unreleased song from his upcoming album, Kicking My Feet & Screaming, which is a continuation and second part of Kicking My Feet. The new album is set to release in June.
Openers Chelsea Jordan and Mercer Henderson were brought back out on stage to sing a song with Ruel in a heartwarming tribute to the past eight shows they had done together. A bit later, Ruel surprised the crowd by bringing out Arthur Hill, who had previously joined Ruel as a supporting artist for the first half of the shows on this tour leg.
The night was a lively blur of laughter and dancing, a testament to Ruel’s incredible stage presence and vocals. It was the perfect closing night to the Kicking My Feet tour, no doubt leaving fans with memories that will last a lifetime.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
RUEL
MERCER HENDERSON
CHELSEA JORDAN
All Photo Credit: Mallory Snyder
Concerts Photos
Chance The Rapper Brings ‘Coloring Book Ten Anniversary Tour’ to Vancouver
Chance The Rapper brought Coloring Book back to life in Vancouver, taking over the Freedom Mobile Arch at the PNE for a night that felt like both a celebration and a trip back in time. The Chicago born rapper is currently marking ten years of Coloring Book, the 2016 mixtape that became a defining project in his career and helped push independent music further into the mainstream. There was something special about watching Chance perform music that has been with his fans for a decade. You could see how much these songs still mean to people just by looking around the crowd. There were hands in the air, people singing along, and moments where it felt like Chance barely needed to say anything because the audience already knew exactly what was coming.
Photographing the show gave me a completely different way of experiencing that energy. Through my lens, I found myself paying attention to the smaller details , his expressions between verses, the way he moved around the stage, the lighting changing around him, and the reactions coming from the crowd. Chance is naturally expressive when he performs, and as a photographer, that gave me so many different moments to look for rather than simply trying to capture the biggest moment of each song.
What I also loved was that the performance wasn’t only about nostalgia. Chance has always mixed hip-hop with elements of gospel, soul, and jazz, and hearing that musical identity in a live setting gave the night a lot of warmth and personality. Even with a project celebrating its tenth anniversary at the centre of the show, the music didn’t feel stuck in the past.
Getting the opportunity to photograph Chance The Rapper was one of those experiences where I occasionally had to remind myself to look beyond the viewfinder and actually take in what was happening in front of me. Capturing an artist celebrating such an important chapter of his career, surrounded by a Vancouver crowd that clearly still has a lot of love for these songs, made this a memorable night to shoot. Some concerts are about getting the perfect photo; this one was just as much about capturing the feeling behind it.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
CHANCE THE RAPPER
All Photo Credit: Raphael Arthur
Concerts Photos
Arlo Parks Brings Her ‘Desire Tour’ to the Pearl in Vancouver
Arlo Parks brought her Desire Tour to Vancouver’s The Pearl on September 22, turning the intimate venue into something much bigger than its walls suggested. In support of her third album, Ambiguous Desire, Parks delivered a set that traded some of her earlier introspection for movement, warmth and a genuine sense of connection.
She opened with “Heaven,” immediately filling the room with energy. Parks moved across the small stage with an ease that matched her soft vocals, while low lighting and haze created the kind of atmosphere that has become part of her live identity. By the time the chorus arrived, the crowd was fully in it.
That sense of connection became the defining feature of the night. Parks was joined by just two musicians, yet the stripped-down setup never felt too small. During “Get Go,” the audience took over the vocals.
The shift in energy reflects Ambiguous Desire, Parks’ third album and the follow-up to 2023’s My Soft Machine. Her Mercury Prize-winning debut, Collapsed in Sunbeams, captured isolation, young love and the uncertainty of growing up. The new record keeps that emotional honesty but gives those feelings somewhere to move.
“2SIDED” brought the set to a fitting close, capturing the album’s push and pull between giving love and wondering if it is being returned.
Arlo Parks had given Vancouver a dance party, but more than that, she created a room where people could simply feel close to one another.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
ARLO PARKS
BAIRD
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer