Neighbor 1: Tuesday Night Neighborhood (2019-2020)
It's a cold night in February of 2020 and I'm at the front of the stage at Thunder Road, a small club in Sommerville MA, documenting the rise of the band Neighbor during their weekly Tuesday night residency. I have been coming here to photograph every week for well over ten months.
We are in the middle of set one, and the music is reaching stratospheric heights of improvisation, colored lights are flashing, and the fans (most of whom I have shot many times before) are grooving, each lost in both their own and their shared experience. I am floating thru the crowd, moving with focus, and completely involved in the music and chaos of the situation. I am working at almost a frenzied pace, making decisions on what to shoot and which lenses would allow me to best respond to each specific situation, and my senses are heightened to the visual and emotional connection between crowd and band. In my memory bank I remember past photos that I have taken during this project so I can fill in gaps in the larger story, and I am unconsciously using a lifetime of photo experience and visual formulas to attempt to create images that work on graphic, narrative, and emotional levels. And at this moment I am joyously happy to be here.
Little did I know that when I finally made it over to Thunder Road to photograph my first Neighbor Tuesday night residency show, I would be thrust into an immersive three-year musical photographic journey unlike any I had ever been on before.
I had been shooting music for most of my life, and had done extended photo-essays on established acts like Michael Jackson and Phish, but my dream had always been to discover an up-and-coming band, and to be on the ground floor to document their rise. After witnessing Neighbor for the first time, I had the feeling that I might have found that band.
Neighbor was the brainchild of keyboard player, vocalist, and songwriter Ricky James, and he had formed the band with his Andover MA childhood neighbor, the guitarist Lyle Brewer. Ricky was in the band Pink Talking Fish, who played improvisational covers of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, and Phish songs. But Ricky needed an outlet for his original music, so Neighbor was formed, and their weekly Tuesday night residency came into being. Eventually drummer Dean (Dux) Johnston, and bassist Dan Kelly were added to the mix, and things jelled from there.
The vibes entering Thunder Road on that first night felt really good. The hand stamp we received was a smiley face written with magic marker, and everyone seemed to know each other pretty well. As the music began Tom Papp, (a huge advocate for the band who would later become their road manager, and have a song named for him) introduced himself and slapped a sparkle bracelet onto my wrist. I immediately felt that I was home. At set-break both band and audience made their way out to Thunder Island, a small bricked patch located between two busy streets in front of the club, and we all posed for a group photo. I did not shoot the group photo that first night, but I took every subsequent set-break photo after that, and along with my weekly documentation of the Neighbor scene, I became known as the official “unofficial” photographer of the band.
Tuesday's quickly became my favorite day of the week, and I loved everything about going to Thunder Road; the camaraderie, the music, the connection between the band and fans, and the photographs that I was making. I had never participated heavily in social media but for the first time I began posting my photographs weekly on Facebook so my fellow Neighbors could see what I was shooting. For Neighbor Fan Appreciation Night, BBQ was brought in for all, and an exhibition of my photographs were displayed in the club's downstairs poolroom. And to show their appreciation for yours truly, the band honored me with one of the Neighbor medallions that were presented to select Neighbors.
As the saying goes “You don't know what you have till it's gone” but the truth of the matter is, we DID know what we had, and we knew it wouldn't last forever. And then it was gone.
The final gig at Thunder Road before it closed took place on March 10, 2020, and it was a Neighbor Tuesday night show. And then, in a blink of the eye, the Pandemic stopped the music. I went on to document the demolition of Thunder Road, but before it was torn down, we arranged a fully masked, final set-break group photograph on Thunder Island, to honor what we had all shared together on those incredibly special Tuesday nights. Photographing Neighbor at their birth was a dream come true, and I will always think back on those times with the fondest of memories.
Four months later, with the Pandemic still raging, Neighbor began playing outdoor shows, and then as cold weather approached began a residency at Soundcheck Studios, a new music club started by some of the owners of Thunder Road, where the band played to an empty house, with the shows being streamed via the internet. After that the band began touring nationally and a whole new set of fans began to flock to them. I photographed much of what would come, but things were changing quickly. They always do…
(For image data, click thumbnail and hover cursor over enlarged photographs)
