Connect with us

Concerts Photos

The Academy Is… Bring ‘Almost Here’ 20th Anniversary Tour to Los Angeles

Published

on

Attention! Attention! All your eyes and ears are turned towards the Belasco Theater on a cold Friday night in Downtown Los Angeles in December, as The Academy Is… comes to Los Angeles in front of a capacity crowd at this historic 1926 venue. TIA were playing a huge set on this tour, with a lot of songs coming off the album Almost Here, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The band was joined by Slow Joy, fronted by mastermind Esteban Flores. The band was energetic and really got the crowd moving and interacting. Their live set is punchy pop rock mixed in with heavy rock, emo, and bit shoegazy at times. Definitely something the crowd at this show could easily get behind. The band played with nothing to lose, making sure to remind everyone that while you came to see TAI, you would not forget Slow Joy. Not one bit.

The Academy Is… stepped onto the stage, only to be illuminated into light once “ATTENTION ATTENTION” kicked in to a much higher gear, and the crowd really started to chant and sing along with singer William Beckett making sure to ask the crowd if they were here to have fun and get involved in singing as loudly as humanly possible.

The band moved into “Seasons,” which got the crowd dancing with its sublimely fun guitar harmonic parts, and danceable drum beat that moves into a soaring chorus that you’d sing at the top of your lungs. Beckett moved onstage with such ferocity and suave, as he danced and preened his way into the crowd that was clearly having the best times of their lives, and we’ve only just started.

The band moved into “Slow Down,” with its ambient sound, absolute pristine, and heavier live. Beckett moves onstage like a pied piper, singing “kiss me like an over dramatic actor, that’s starving work”, perhaps a simple nod to the nature of the not so simple lives of Hollywood and the industry as a whole.

Check out our favorite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

THE ACADEMY IS…

SLOW JOY

All Photo Credit: John McCrary

Concerts Photos

Jungle Turns Pacific Coliseum Into a Seventies Dance Floor

Published

on

Jungle

British electronic funk outfit Jungle brought its Sunshine World Tour to Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum on October 2, turning the arena into something that felt far removed from 2026. For a couple of hours, the band’s mix of funk, disco, soul and psychedelic pop made the place feel like a very stylish party from the 1970s that somehow landed in East Vancouver.

For anyone new to Jungle, the project was formed in London in 2013 by childhood friends Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland. What started as a mysterious duo became a full live band, with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lydia Kitto becoming a key part of the lineup. Across five albums, including their Mercury Prize-nominated debut and their latest record, Sunshine, Jungle have built a sound that feels rooted in the past without getting stuck there.

Jungle appeared behind long curtains, revealing a stage setup that looked like a mid-century modern conversation pit. It was an appropriately retro setting for a band that has made old-school grooves feel current. “Smile” got things moving immediately, and the crowd rarely stopped from there.

Tracks including “Heavy, California,” “PROBLEMZ,” “Beat 54 (All Good Now)” and “The Wave” kept the energy high. The band moved between instruments with ease, rarely stopping long enough for the momentum to disappear. Kitto was a standout throughout, her vocals cutting cleanly through the layered instrumentation while her presence added another dimension to the performance.

The production was just as important. Teal, orange, red and blue lighting shifted with the music, creating everything from soft, dreamy moments to full-on dance-floor chaos. Fog and sharp beams of light gave the Pacific Coliseum a cinematic quality without distracting from the musicians.

Then came “Back on 74,” the obvious crowd favourite. The song’s Fosse-inspired video has become one of Jungle’s defining visual moments, and Kitto and the backing vocalists brought some of that choreography to the stage with sharp poses, curved shoulders and expressive hand movements. The audience knew every move and every word.

By the time “Keep Moving” and “Busy Earnin’” arrived as the two-song encore, there was little question that Vancouver was still ready for more. The band had spent the night keeping everyone on their feet, and the final notes were met with cheers, whistles and a Coliseum full of people who probably weren’t quite ready to return to 2026.

Jungle may make music inspired by another era, but their live show doesn’t feel nostalgic for nostalgia’s sake. It feels alive. And last night, Vancouver was more than happy to keep moving.

Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

JUNGLE

All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer

Continue Reading

Concerts Photos

Chance The Rapper Brings ‘Coloring Book Ten Anniversary Tour’ to Vancouver

Published

on

ChanceTheRapper-Vancouver-Raphael-34

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

Continue Reading