I was lucky to see a lot of great live shows this year, and even luckier to be able to shoot most of them with my Nikon D5000. Although I am decidedly an amateur, I think I ended up with some pretty decent shots, so I decided to create a “best of” style compilation to wrap up a great 2011.

Artists pictured below include (in rough order): Soulive, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The Dodos, Yellow Ostrich, White Denim, The New Deal, American Babies, Phish, Cut Copy, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Steve Kimock & Friends (with Marco Benevento, Marc Friedman, and Adam Deitch), The War on Drugs, Deerhunter, Battles, Guided By Voices, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Steve Kimock & Friends (w/ Bobby Vega, Bernie Worrell, and Wally Ingram).

For more photos and — in most cases — reviews and videos, check out the links below:
Photos: Soulive’s “Bowlive II” @ Brooklyn Bowl, 3/11/11

Review: Steve Kimock & Friends @ Sullivan Hall, NYC, 3/30/11

Review, Photos, Videos: American Babies @ Mercury Lounge, 4/29/11

Photos/Videos: The New Deal @ Terminal 5, 5/7/11

Photos: White Denim @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC, 6.25.11

Phish in Camden, 6/10/11: Review, Photos, Videos, Downloads

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Final Photos, Thoughts

Photos, Video: Deerhunter @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Fleet Foxes @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Animal Collective @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Battles @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

PHOTOS / VIDEOS / REVIEW: Steve Kimock & Friends @ Brooklyn Bowl, 11/5/11

PHOTOS/VIDEOS: The War on Drugs @ Bowery Ballroom, 12/11/11

I caught up with my buddy Burke recently and he made a point to say how much he liked my live improv mixes, even though I don’t think he really considers himself a big live music/improv guy. In honor of summer, I recently put together two different all-improv, all-instrumental mixes around a “summer bliss” theme. I’m pretty darn happy with the final products, so I thought I should probably flag the new material on my site before the summer’s over!

Check ‘em out:

#1
Podcast #069: Bisco Bliss Mix:

Live Music Blog Podcast #069 – Bisco Bliss Mix by whitperson

#2
Podcast #70: Phish Summer Bliss Mix:

Podcast #070 – Phish Summer 2011 Bliss Mix by livemusicblog

By the way, I typically post most of my mixes over on Live Music Blog to add to our ongoing podcast series (which you can subscribe to via iTunes if you’re so inclined).

I’ve been seeing a ton of music this spring and summer and making great use of my two new camera lenses, so I decided to put together a round-up of my favorite shows and Live Music Blog posts. Check it out…

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Final Photos, Thoughts

Photos, Video: Deerhunter @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Fleet Foxes @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Animal Collective @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Battles @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Check out my full festival photo set on flickr.

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Photos: White Denim @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC, 6.25.11

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Phish in Camden, 6/10/11: Review, Photos, Videos, Downloads

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Photos/Videos: The New Deal @ Terminal 5, 5/7/11

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Review, Photos, Videos: American Babies @ Mercury Lounge, 4/29/11

Phish Friday: An Open Letter to Phish and Red Light Management
(aka We Need a High-Quality Paid Webcast for Phish Concerts)

I definitely felt I made some good points and did my research, but I was honestly taken aback at the response — both in terms of commentary and site traffic — that this post generated. Also, while it specifically addresses Phish and their fan base, I think there are aspects of my arguments that could be made for any number of large and mid-tier touring acts out there today.

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Here’s a brief intro:

After witnessing the evolving and ever-expanding online activity surrounding Phish’s recent reunion tour, I’m now thoroughly convinced that the Phish fan base is primed and ready for a high-quality and paid live video stream for the band’s next tour. If done properly and in innovative Phish fashion, it could create an untapped revenue stream for the band while allowing more Phish fans to engage with the band’s music – in particular those fans that can’t make it out to every show on tour.

Given the band’s recent history of wanting to scale down their in-house operations, I could see why you might think that a large-scale paid webcast would not be worth the large investment and effort it most certainly would require. But it’d be wrong to think so. There are some very compelling reasons why this should happen now and why Phish is the band to do it.
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Come join the conversation at Live Music Blog.

I finally made my triumphant return to Live Music Blog, after a fairly long hiatus due to all our moving chaos earlier this summer. Since I was lucky enough to catch a few Phish shows this summer, I decided to collect what I thought were the best improvisational segments from all of their summer shows. I mixed them all together DJ-style, and we just posted the mix as our latest podcast on LMB:

Podcast #065 | Best of Phish Summer ‘09 Improv

I’ve had various friends comment on my mixes, suggesting that they’re great workout and/or study music (since a lot of these are similar “improv-only” mixes of all instrumentals). So even if you’re not a Phish fan, you might like this for studying if you find music with vocals distracting. Of course, if you are a Phish fan, I think it goes without saying that you’ll dig the mix.

This is our 65th podcast, so there are obviously a bunch of others in the archives. Check ‘em out here: Live Music Blog Podcasts.

Enjoy!