Howard Theatre : Washington, DC : 04 09 2012 :

For the grand [ re ] opening of the historic Howard Theatre, Wale, backed by his Dj and members of the legendary UCB band put on an amazing show. The energy level in that place was turned up to 10,000. Having the band was certainly an added plus.

Wale, as usual, sported some of Nike’s newness. This time, the Nike Air Penny 5 [ New Green/Safety Orange ] set to release later this year. I’m a big fan of the Nike Air Penny line, so I can’t wait.

Wale’s mini-speech about not listening to pple’s negativity and following your dreams got the crowd pretty excited – oh, and not to mention when Wale jumped off the stage to perform “Tats on my Arms” in the crowd with the fans surrounding him.

Bringing down the house lights for an emotional and genuine performance of “Ambition” made for another memorable moment. “They gon’ love me for my ambition…easy to dream a dream, though it’s harder to live it.”

The live version of “Slight Work” is crazy. Work, work, work, work. Slight work. Even though the “B-word” isn’t included in my vocabulary, I love Wale’s “Illest B*tch Alive” song.

Much love to the talented homie Demont Peekaso for the live-art piece, featuring Wale and Chuck Brown.

Tabi Bonney, another internationally-known artists, from the DC area, opened the show with a handful of his hits. Tabi’s performance is always consistent. Very energetic; and he gets the crowd going. He even brought about 8-10 Ladies up on the stage to dance to one of his songs.

One thing is for sure, I was hot as all hell sporting that Everyday Pple “Redskins Edition” sweatshirt last night. [ Yes, I plugged my own clothing company in the post. So? ] Lol.

I think most would agree that last night was a heck of a way to reintroduce the Howard Theatre to the pple.

Check out more Wale concert photos:

Wale on New Years Day

MMG Takeover in NYC

For my second time shooting at Hammerstein, since Trey Songz back in November, I was there to shoot what turned out to be one of the livest hip-hop shows I’d been to in a while. Wale kicked off the night with some tracks from Maybach Music Group’s Self Made album, his Ambition album (go buy it if you haven’t already), and he even took us back in time a little with “Pretty Girls” and “Nike Boots”. He also performed his Rack City remix, Make it Rain remix, and No Hands.

Meek took the stage and performed a number of tracks from his Dreamchasers mixtape, as well as some stuff from the Self Made album. I was excited when I thought he was going to perform “Tony’s Song”, as he recited a snippet of the lyrics, just to see who in the audience had heard the mixtape.

As Meek Mill closed out his set, he performed “Ima Boss”, which was the segway to bringing out the Boss, Rick Ross. Ross entered at stage left and the place went crazy! You hear me? Simply bananas! (see pic)

Rick Ross performed a nice list of his hits from Self Made, throwbacks like “Hustlin”, and a lot of songs from his recent Rich Forever mixtape. He brought out special guest Dj Khaled to hit the stage for a song or two. Shortly after that, another special guest grabbed the mic – Swizz Beatz. After Swizz, Stalley, and after Stalley – French Montana joined Ross for “Stay Schemin’. Frenchie also performed “Shot Caller”.

There were so many special guests in the backstage area, that I decided to retreat to the dressing room to avoid the end-of-show madness.

Busta Rhymes, Maino, some folks from Bad Boy, Swizz Beatz, Sway, French Montana, Dj Khaled, Omarion, and Rihanna were some that I recall.

To make a long story short, this was a hell of a show! I’m so glad I took the trip up to NYC from DC.

***Shoutout to Ebro at Hot 97 for giving me the green light to shoot.

***Shoutout to Rich Kleiman as well as the Board Administration for the ALL ACCESS.

I wanted to shoot this show days before in New York City, but my schedule got thrown off. Luckily, I was granted ALL ACCESS at this DC show. I photographed the entire show but I won’t post the entire set until the tour ends. I don’t want to spoil it for the upcoming tour stops.

After leaving the pre-show meet and greet, I arrived at DAR about 3 hours before showtime, to get situated and hang out with the venue staff and Trey’s team. Minutes before showtime, as usual, I got in place, said a prayer, and waited for the bright lights and smoke…

After the show, backstage, I had Trey sign a posterized image for the Wall of Fame, which will join my Steve Harvey, Janet Jackson, Drake, and Erykah Badu photos.. I actually printed it back in November and had him sign it at the Angels with Heart Foundation: Benefit Concert, but I printed it on the wrong kind of paper. ***shrugs. Then, I asked him if he could sign a mat for my concert photography exhibit, and he gladly signed it, and said, “I hope your exhibit goes amazingly well.”. Heck, so do I. Lol.

Since I have so many more photos, you’ll have to wait until next Wednesday for the full recap. I hope you understand.

Thanks to DC Fab for posting my photos.
Pics: Trey Songz “Anticipation 2our” at Constitution Hall

UPDATE:

I had ALL ACCESS for this show, but I didn’t want to post all of the photos and spoil it for the other cities.

Now that the tour is over, I have added an additional 30 photos.

At a near halfway point in the show, Trey asked if any lady in the audience wanted to go to a place, that he referred to as “Jupiter”. A screaming fan from somewhere around the third row was selected, and lifted onto the stage. She proceeded to follow some instructions given to her by Trey’s security guy, and then more instructions from Trey shortly followed. She accompanied Trey Songz to his dressing room aka “Jupiter”, and the camera followed, but coverage was restricted once they entered the dressing room, and the door shut.

Trey Songz changed clothes and appeared on the jumbotron from backstage, coincidentally, standing right in front of my two photos hanging in the background – Drake and Erykah Badu.

He returned to the stage to perform some of his more uptempo hits, like “Bottoms Up”, and the song that goes like this “Which one of yall…which one of yall goin’ home wit’ trigga…”. Shortly after, Big Sean joined him on stage for a few songs. Sean exited, and Trey followed up with a couple of more hits – finishing with his “Top of the World” song, which I really like a lot.

Overall, it was a great show. I’ve seen Trey Songz in concert about 5 times, and photographed each. He definitely puts on a show for the people! Well, the ladies – 98% of the audience.

I have to admit, I was beyond excited to shoot this show. After all, with the price of the tickets, I certainly couldn’t squeeze it into the budget. Lol.

It was my first time seeing her in concert, so I honestly couldn’t wait. I love her Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album, and even that Unplugged album where she cries while singing. All of it, I simply love…

I’ve been a fan since Fugees – The Score. I mean, really, I liked her in Sister Act 2 also. Joyful, joyful Lord we adore thee!

At this show, the lighting was extremely low throughout the night, which really sucked. I ended up shooting with my ISO at 6,000. The images are so grainy, but the composition works.

What do you think of the photos?

Thanks to DC Fab for using my photos.

http://thefabempire.com/2012/03/01/recap-lauryn-hill-rocks-new-look-at-warner-theater/

This was my second time shooting Rick Ross since I started covering concerts, so I was looking forward to seeing this show. The venue was at best, half-sold, but Ross showed appreciation for how the crowd swarmed to the front of the stage – chanting his lyrics and adlibs. The crowd’s energy gave Rick Ross a boost. He certainly gave the people an energetic, and somewhat intimate show.

To my surprise, Jeremih wasn’t bad in concert. I didn’t realize I was familiar with so much of his music.

Although most were probably there for Ross, local artist Fat Trel convinced some attendees that he’s an act that they should follow.

At DAR Constitution Hall, I’m the house photographer, and periodically, depending on the act they hang my photos in the backstage hallway. The “Wall of Fame” currently displays a few of my concert photos. This particular weekend, the goal was to add a photo of comedian Steve Harvey to the wall. It was his last tour as a standup comedian, and considering the fact that he sold out 22 shows there in his career – it was only right.

Friday night, right as Steve Harvey hit the stage, I started shooting like a crazy man, then, once I saw that I had a solid set of shots, I raced to the back office. Once there, we printed out a large 30″ x 40″ photo and hung it up in the dressing room area so Steve Harvey could see it after the first night’s show ended. He saw it, and was impressed. Impressed enough that he said, “Look here, do you travel?”. He then expressed interest in me photographing the rest of the tour. At that point, I was shocked. That was far more than the response I expected. What’s cool is the fact that the majority of his remaining tour stops are Saturday dates.

After the Saturday show, I passed along to him a small photo album containing photos from the Friday night show, as well as about 15-20 photos from various shows that I’ve covered – Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Ledisi, Al Jarreau, Mary J. Blige, Anthony Hamilton, Chrisette Michele, Erykah Badu, Common, and more. I wanted him to see my work without having to visit my website. It seems he liked the photos overall. My initial plan was to inquire about photography at his upcoming 10th Annual Hoodie Awards events.

Later, when I had a chance to speak with him, I shared the story about when Anthony Hamilton invited me to hang out with him and his friends – Jill Scott, Common, Raekwon: The Chef, and Stevie Wonder (which still amazes me). Before I could even express the excitement and the shock of that experience, Steve Harvey politely interrupted me and quoted Proverbs 18:16 which says “A Mans gifts will make room for him, and bring him in the presence of great Men.”.

At a point, just he and I had a really inspiring conversation about me taking a leap of faith to pursue my photography 100%. Inside a completely empty auditorium, we stood on the stage chatting – no staff, no security. He spoke of taking a leap of faith being similar to jumping out of an airplane. No matter what, you are falling for the sky, but if you have a relationship with God, God is like a parachute. Your descent is very different.

The next morning in church, I kid you not, the message was about taking a leap of faith, and a Man’s gifts.

3 days later, on Wednesday, when Steve Harvey returned to the radio show, he started his show with his usual Morning Inspiration. I don’t wake up at 6:00am for work, so I never hear it. At a couple of minutes after 6:00, my phone rings, with my Mom on the other end saying “Van, Steve Harvey is on the radio talking about taking a leap of faith, etc, etc!”. I quickly tuned in, and I caught the tail end where he said again, the parachute thing. That was cool. I felt connected to that.

Little did I know that I’d check my Twitter, and my text messages to read messages from friends saying “Steve Harvey is talking about you right now on his morning show!”. I didn’t hear it, so I can’t quote it. Sorry. My friends said that he mentioned meeting an amazing photographer in DC that took the most amazing photos of him – more amazing than he’d ever seen before, and that there was a conversation about taking a leap of faith. That’s what my friends said he said, I didn’t make that up. Lol.

God is good. __________ ( fill in the blank )

For his absolute last night of standup comedy in DC, Steve Harvey brought the house down with an arsenal of jokes that had me in tears laughing. I missed most of the previous night’s show, so I had to return for the 2nd night. I missed it because I was busy backstage printing a posterized photo I took at the start of that show, which he later signed “More Sold Out Shows at the DAR than Anybody! – Steve Harvey”.

It cracks me up when he says, “Before I do anything, I’d like to give a honor to God.”. He takes a long pause, and says, “Well…now that THAT’S out’ the way!”, and goes right into his routine. Haha! I’m terrible with remembering jokes, but there was one about President Barack Obama (not a negative joke either) that was hilarious. I cracked up when he talked about his “first commercial”.

He slid-in a public service message to the parents – telling them to always encourage their children.

One thing that I like about him is that he takes the time out to give God praise. That always makes for a genuine moment. At the end of the show, he thanked everyone for supporting him for so many years, and gave God praise, as tears ran down his face. A sold out DAR Constitution Hall was on its feet applauding Steve Harvey’s testimony.

God is everything. If you don’t know him – get to know him. <— That had nothing to do with anything, but it has something to do with EVERYTHING. It’s always relevant.

Comedian Steve Harvey hit DC for his very last tour as a standup comedian, with 2 nights. This was my first time shooting him, and maybe my 4th seeing him live. With this being the first night of the two, I had already planned to print out photos to give to him at the next night’s show. The back office at DAR Constitution Hall has a plotter that they use to print large photos for their “Wall of Fame”, and they wanted a photo of Steve Harvey to to join it, where a few of my photos are already hanging.

I spent a good while in the back office printing the 30″ x 40″ image, so I missed a portion of his show. I knew I’d be there the next night, so I wasn’t concerned. Once the poster printed, the building manager and I hung it down in the dressing room area for him to see once the show was over.

To make a long story short, when he finally saw the image, he liked it – a lot! We asked him to sign it for the “Wall of Fame” before the tour left the DC area.

Fast forward to the 2nd show. Well, look at THESE photos FIRST, and then FAST FORWARD TO THE 2ND SHOW.

Al Jarreau was the special guest for the United States Air Force Band’s “Guest Artists Series” show, which kicked off with the band playing a number of covers. I must say, they’re amazing!

I have to admit, I’m not familiar with the majority of Al Jarreau’s music, but I thoroughly enjoyed his entire performance. He’s a pretty funny guy. The band even presented him with a nice trophy.

I had a great time at this show, even though it was extremely difficult to shoot the show in a suit. What was I thinking? I was clean though! Lol.

Funny man Mike Epps returned to DC for two back to back shows, since his last show in February of 2011. He came back with a lot of new material, and had me rolling! I’m terrible with remembering the jokes that were told at a show, so I won’t even try to tell you what was said. His opening comics, Buck Wild and Kenny Howell were hilarious too, along with his host – Henry Welch.

Shoutout to Mike Epss for bringing out the Godfather of gogo – Chuck Brown.

I stuck around to shoot both shows, and I was actually the only photographer there.