Show Pics: Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr @ Emos’ (2/22)

Dale Earnhardt Jr JrI have a confession to make. I asked to go to this show to shoot Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. I was really more excited to see Chad Valley. That said, I ended up being quite impressed with the Dale Jr. Jr. on the eve of their big Daytona 500 win. How did they get there in time? Jr.

There was a rabid crowd that showed up early to reserve a spot to dance in the more personal small venue version of Emo’s, thankfully now divided by a proper curtain bisecting the room at the soundboard to tighten up the sound a bit versus the camouflage net previously used.

Read on for a few more notes and plenty of pics.

Chad Valley can do no wrong in my humble opinion. The small show at Holy Mountain was so great, but this was at a higher, bigger level and the crowd in house for Jr Jr all swayed and bobbed and applause built through Chad Valley’s set. Hugo Manuel’s voice is so bolted down while jumping octaves and delivering strong falsetto. The two-mic technique, one standard and the other with a long release echo, allows for vocals that mirror the recorded materials. “Tell All Your Friends” is a test that was passed and I was just plain mesmerized by “Fathering/Mothering”. “Up and Down” was my fave cause its my jam.

Dinosaur Jr. Jr., as my wife calls them, were embraced by a rabid crowd. The stage layout was very awkward for the photographers, a very wide split between Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott. The central stage left open for extra percussion moments or flailing fluffy hair about in the jammiest parts of a song. Two light-box JRs were are the corners of the stage elements trapezoid consisting of the aforementioned Josh and Dan with touring drummer and multi-instrumentalist in the back. There was a projector blowing hot air on the front row pointing to a white globe and plenty of light-bulbs on stands all over place. Unfortunately, I can’t show you any of this in use because they weren’t in use during the first three. Sad face. Once I left the pit, lights came up and bubbles flowed freely. And for anyone wondering, they sounded great. It was fun. They even did a little show banter in Spanish, bad Spanish, but they tried.

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