The Backseat Lovers Take On NYC!

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Standing by the stage door waiting for the show to start I was feeling really anxious and really excited. I didn’t know what to expect and The Backseat Lovers are my favorite artists, so I was pretty anxious. The band came down the stairs and stood by the stage door. The lights went out. The crowd started yelling. They huddled together as a pre-show ritual. I could feel the excitement for their second time ever playing in New York City, the previous night being their first. Then they went out. Just like that it started. 

As a huge fan of the band, the show could not have been better. I went around the venue for the first few songs. I was mostly looking through my viewfinder and focusing on the photos. Then I was pulled away from the lens and into the room. The beginning notes of a personal favorite of mine, “Kilby Girl”, began to play. The cheers were deafening. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that moment when the crowd knows the words and starts singing, but what pulled me away from my camera and into this moment was the intensity of these fans. Never have I experienced a crowd like this. They yelled the words to the whole song without stopping once. They were louder than the band. The love and excitement for this song, and this band, was real and very apparent. This wasn’t a last-minute stop for people who had nothing else to do that night. This was an anticipated and counting-down-the-days kind of show. I know it was for me, but to see everyone else experience what I was feeling was amazing. 

For the last bit of the show I decided to wait where I was originally waiting for the show to start, by the stage door. Here I ran into Christian, guitarist of the opening band, Sleepy Gonzales, who asked me if I would like to shoot on stage. (I am new to this whole press pass experience, so I didn’t know my boundaries here and I had been playing it fairly safe. I was watching the photographer hired by the band, Brandon Minton, in awe as he went where he needed to, no matter where, to get the shot he wanted.) After a very confidence boosting conversation, where he told me essentially that as long as you are confident and act like you are supposed to be somewhere, then no one will question you and if they do just leave, he opened the stage door and I was there. If I thought the show was great before, I don’t even know what it was I was feeling as soon as that stage door was opened. The band loves what they do so much it is obvious to anyone watching. As Josh, lead singer, moves with his guitar in a way that is so Mick Jagger-esque that it is completely his own. As Juice, the drummer, is playing so hard that I can’t even get a clear picture. Ethan, bass, and Jonas, guitarist, put all of their passion into their instruments. 

​When the band came off after their final song, of course there was an encore. They went out for one last amazing cover. I really took the time to enjoy the music. I was honestly sad when they were really done and heading off upstairs to get ready to leave for the next state on tour. It was a truly amazing night.

Review/Photos By: Tharynn Hook