Dave and Shawn are no strangers to Boston's drum and bass scene, or Elements for that matter. Each boasts several years experience playing not only crowd favorites, but an also increasing number of their own original productions. With the ability to know precisely what works (and what doesn't work), they know how to deliver every time. Particularly in front of a crowd they are the most at home with!

Just a quiet Sunday night on Mass ave in Cambridge, perfect way to wind down from a busy weekend. Unfortunately I got to Dubwise a bit too late and they closed early, but still had a chance to get a few pics and hear the tail end of Dabu's set. This is the first time I have ever used a prime lens at a party (Canon 50mm f/1.8) so apologies for a few of the coming out a little blurry. A little practice will fix that.

1500 RSVP's on Facebook: Check. Line wrapped all the way around the building at 10pm: Check. Top notch lighting in every corner of each room: Check. Female booty shaking contest: Check. DJ Assault attempting stand-up comedy on the mic while juggling 2 copies of Ass & Tittles: Check. Enough candy bracelets for me to actually make me admit feeling awkward not wearing one myself: Check. Praying my car wouldn't get scratched as everyone was parked so tightly in the lot: Check. Yes folks, this was a good one. Nicely done, Tight Crew.

Been a few months since I've been to So Dope's Good Life Odyssey monthly party. I knew I needed to climb aboard the U.S.S. Odyssey and catch up with the Alpha Sector. Under the leadership of Joe Bermudez, as well as the supporting role of Damien Paul, the entire team delivered!

Crisis (of Terravita and Hot Pink Delorean fame) makes a hometown appearance playing drum and bass- something that is becoming more rare with each passing year and the success of his latter house/electro outfit. Although I tried to check out fellow HPD mate Mr. Matt at Throwed down the street, they were at capacity at 10:30 so wasn't able to get in.

After a full week jam-packed with festivities, the first Together fest came to a close with a valentines day laced edition of Thunderdome. Well-known producers Hot Pink Delorean ran through tons of different genres of dance, and Spank Rock closed things off with some hip hop and baltimore club. Plenty of vocal support from the likes of Incite, Virtuoso, and Spank Rock's MC as well.

I'd have to say that out of all the parties I attended for the Together festival, I had the best time at the Rise event. The club was completely rammed the entire time; there was absolutely zero sign of the crowd letting up when I walked out at 5:30. Emjae played some quality minimal and tech house, picking up the pace perfectly for Wolfgang who took the baton and simply ran. And ran. And ran.

"Mega" producer and remixer Sinden makes another appearance in Boston and kept the energy level high at the middle east with his usual selection of baltimore club, fidget, and tech house. Local talents Stacatto, Shuttle, and Soren Jahan warmed up the crowd perfectly!

V Recordings founder Bryan Gee has had a great deal of impact on the evolution of drum and bass music and is instrumental in helping launch the career of artists such as Roni Size, Marky, and DJ Die. As part of the Together festival, he makes his first Boston appearance in over 7 years.

Full house at one of several events hosted in the Middle East's basement for the Together festival. JMP Live brought together (pun intended) a nice cross section of "live-tronica" acts such as Biodiesel as well as DJ's for an eager crowd. I was a bit tired from a busy day at the office; the poor quality of these pics are a result of that. Still had fun regardless.

One of the first events for the Together festival. With a line wrapping around the block outside the Middlesex, many were excited to check out some of the new tunes that rising producers AC Slater and Udachi had in their bag. Playing everything from baltimore club, dubstep, house, even drum and bass and trance, they left no stone unturned when it came to pleasing everyone in that tiny room.

They've been doing it for eleven years, and they make it look so easy. The drum and bass heads in Boston get down to celebrate another year of what has become a weekly tradition for many who like their music faster than 170 bpm.

I took a short hiatus from shooting pics at events as I've been busy apartment hunting. That's all wrapped up now thankfully! Basstown kicked off 2010 on a high note, showcasing not only Cobra Krames but also the a last minute booking by the Beatards. The Beatards have toured with ?uestlove and did an awesome job hyping up the crowd!

So I arrived late, apologetically missing Todd & Steppo's sets, along with I'm sure a bunch of other great ones, but definitely did not miss out on a lot of people enthusiastically waving goodbye to 2009! I weaved in and out of both bars as much as possible but unfortunately wasn't able to catch up with as many people as I had hoped to in the limited time I had to work with. Statesmen and Lenore played some bitchin' jump-up though!

After Throwed wrapped up I walked across the street to the Middlesex to check out Hearthrob. Haven't been there in a minute. Room was packed and residents Baltimoroder, Redfoxx, and Morgan Louis made sure that people were on the floor and not by the bar for the whole night.

Just a little electro tinged pre-holiday celebration at one of the usual Mass Ave stomping grounds. Residents E-Marce and Jay-K at the helm.

Scotty B has been holding the torch of Baltimore Club since it was literally just a Baltimore thing, more than 15 years ago. With it's infectious use of hip hop hooks in a house context, it's only natural that it spread like wildfire, albeit the fact that it took over a decade to do so. Regardless, we got to witness Scotty B play his library of it; which extends FAR beyond just the flavor of the month jams. He played a set consisting of almost two decades of the stuff!

Sick afterhours event!

Tejada is simply a man of consistency. Having witnessed all three sets he played in Boston in 2009, I can safely conform that he knows how to command a dancefloor all while playing entirely unique and obscure music that nobody recognizes yet can't get enough of. Each set he plays is a little different from the next, but the crowd's reaction is always the same. People dancing, smiling faces and hands in the air!

Another thursday night at the Phoenix Landing. Consider it a pre-game for the Fresh party the following week! By the way, if anyone from the Phoenix is reading this, awesome christmas decorations in there as always.

So Dope crew kicks off the month of December with 10 hours of back-to-back partying, starting with Goodlife and DJ Volterra, and ending at Rise with the return of Hyphy Crunk. I didn't end up making it over to rise but was at the party for much of the Goodlife part. It was a nice turnout while at the same time it wasn't overly packed in the basement so there was plenty of room to dance without worrying about spilling drinks on people by accident!

The man behind one of the most popular house labels, Get Physical, came directly from Berlin to show us why he's a tastemaker in the frontier of tech house. He played a 3+ hour marathon set that flowed perfectly; there wasn't a dull moment. When I left at 5, the room was still packed.

One of RAM Records' newest ambassadors, Xample makes his first Boston appearance! Surprisingly, he played very few of his own tracks, in favor of supporting the sound of fellow label-mates Chase & Status, Sub Focus & Noisia! Regardless, he had no problems whatsoever working the crowd, flawlessly weaving jump-up, liquid, techstep, and a few dubstep bits into one very cleanly mixed composition.

Falty DL at the helm in the basement.

I was only there for an hour, but still managed to squeeze in a ton of pics!

Mr. Nice Guy himself returns for yet another Halloween party in Boston. He pretty much has this date locked down in our town, as I think this is the third Halloween in a row he's played here. Regardless, everyone dressed up, got their groove on, and although the pictures may not illustrate it, he wore a hell of a pair of beer goggles during his set!

Another throwdown at the Villa Victoria performing arts center on the south shore. People came decked out in the halloween attire (hell I even dressed up and went as a, er, photographer!) Mistaker was slaying things with some acid when I got there, Robotkid gets another A in the visual category, and Redfoxxx closed things out with some fidget and bassline stuff.

My very short list of top shelf drum and bass headliners who I've never had the opportunity to see perform before has now gotten even shorter. Bukem and Conrad have journeyed to Boston around this time every year, but I haven't checked them out until now. LTJ Bukem's selection is pure class and regardless of what people say about him being fixed to one sub-genre or style of drum and bass, he can still flawlessly build and execute an interesting and energetic set incorporating only liquidfunk/intelligent like it's his job. And wait, it is!

DJ Paparazzi from Cali trekked cross country to drop banger after banger of pretty much any form of music you can bump and grind to imaginable. He kept the place packed the entire night!

This was the first time I've seen Evol play since way back in 2004 when Sin & Cos brought them to Rochester NY when I used to live up there! With all three members bringing up their laptops, an APC, a Mashine, Korg Nanopads, and a Jazzmutant (pretty much any toy a budding producer could want right now) they gave us one of the best Ableton mash-up sessions I've seen recently.

Roguewaves, So Dope, Good Morning Good Night, and C&G merge to host Banger at the Middle East. Another nice joint effort by all involved.

Columbus day weekend 2009 in Allston finished with a bang, and it couldn't be done without the assistance of Dara, Dieselboy, Messinian, and AK1200 who are in the midst of their tenth Planet of the Drums U.S. tour! Oh yeah, it literally finished with a BANG as someone across the street behind Blanchards properly capped off the night with some leftover fireworks from a 4th of July party. There will be about 100 more pics I took from this jam exclusively on truecrew.com.

Just another saturday in the hood with Basstown bringing the monthly back to the Goodlife and all of their resident DJ's in tow. I was downstairs for the entire night so didn't get a chance to check out much of the lounge, but Mistaker and Redfoxx came correct with a healthy dose of French House, followed by Certified Bananas, who were, ahem, simply that: Bananas. Clever joke, eh?

The annual ragga jungle night returns to Elements! Original resident Rando (co-founder of Levitated recordings) paid us a visit from NYC, and LAB Boston boss Nuggs steered the ship and played tons of mid-90s ragga classics. Bomber, Give Me A Dubplate, Massive, Arsonist, R.I.P., the list goes on. The CD decks and laptops took a backseat for vinyl and acetates tonight!

Although I was only there for about an hour, I had a chance to check out a band called Blue Pages. I've only done band photography a couple of times so it was good practice for me; as you can see I didn't do very many pose shots this time around. Mainly just shots of the band to get a better feel for shooting one in action.

Local producer and DJ Sable Gray makes another appearance at the Phoenix Landing. As per usual, he brought with him a laptop hard drive filled with dancefloor friendly liquidfunk rollers, both released as well as forthcoming. To balance things out a bit, he devoted the last 20 minutes of his set playing nothing but classic 90s tracks on Full Cycle courtesy of Roni Size's crew. Nice one.

The last of a series of three parties the Hearthrob crew hosted to celebrate 3 years of dance music on Tuesday nights at the Middlesex in Cambridge. Definitely a treat getting to see one of the top house producers in the world right now in our own backyard; he even admitted at the end of his set that the Middlesex was the smallest room he's played at in over 2 years. We feel honored!

Well I didn't end up finding a clean pair of 3D glasses to wear there so I only ended up getting the "2D" experience, but they probably would've made taking pics way more difficult anyways! Thunderdome came back with a bang from their summer hiatus. In fact, many commented that 3D felt like the closest thing to a real rave in downtown Boston in over a decade, thanks to it's location inside an old church on the South End.

So what do you get when you show up blatantly late and the show ends early (all of 15 minutes after you get there)? A lame photo album that consists of the SIX whole pictures I took for the entire night! Sorry I didn't get there earlier, but these are better than nothing I guess.

John Dahlback played a great 3-hour marathon set that traveled the lands of tech house, techno, electro, minimal, and even some trance towards the end. Certainly not a DJ who chose to play it safe and just stick with one style, Dahlback took things to the next level and took everyone at Rise on a nice journey. Great party!

So it wouldn't be a standard thursday night for me unless I passed through Elements on the way home from Paper. Even though I didn't get there till 1:30, I still managed to bang out a couple pics, drink 2 shots, and hear some fresh liquid joints from C.A.B.L.E. as he wrapped up his very first DJ set in Boston. Not too shabby.

School is in session, but there is still plenty of time before midterms which obviously means packed attendance in various events around Allston such as Paper.

Drum and bass/dubstep DJ and producer Benny Page touches down at Goodlife. Hosted by the Seismic and Bassic crews!

Fresh off the release of his Twelve Steps LP, along side a couple of killer 12" singles on his T&A imprint, Jesse Tittsworth graced Boston with his presence for an absolutely blinding set. Not only did he select the finest in baltimore club and fidget house to play, but also ended up playing straight up drum and bass for almost half his set, pleasantly to everyone's surprise!

Part 5 of Soul Clap's 6-part summer series. Mother Nature couldn't have timed things more perfectly; the rain caused by the incoming hurricane held off right until the party ended at 1 am. The following storm was perfectly foreshadowed by the last song played that night: a remix of Fleetwood Mac's classic "Dreams" (thunder only happens when it's raining)!

Parallax brought his signature THUMP sound for his opening set, followed by an hour of ass-and-tittles bootie house by Assault! This was my first time at Aural Pleasure's Soulstice weekly at Felt, you can definitely expect to see me there more during the upcoming weeks.

Well for the second time in a row I ended up with a SHIT load of blurry pics (sorry guys) but still had a blast; the lineup drew a good crowd of people from both the electro as well as the deep house community. Both Treasure Fingers and Roy Davis Jr. played almost entirely disco house, coming from such different backgrounds it's amazing how similar both their tastes were!

Playing his final set on his Summer '09 US Tour, Optical made his debut at the Phoenix Landing one that many probably won't forget. Sorry about the blurry shots, I had a hard time controlling my trigger finger, must have been all the new Noisia and Subfocus bits he played making me overly energetic!

PAPER returns for their last summer installment at the Ferry. Although I didn't stay for very long (I went to the Phoenix afterwards) and didn't know many people there this time around, I still managed to grab a few action/crowd shots. Roguewaves put on a pretty interesting show, lots of clever stage antics!

Volume Productions is back in action again, kicking off a slew of upcoming events at Therapy with a half-house and half-dnb party, headlined by Bad Boy Bill and Optical. Both got to use the main room's new setup (which, I might add, was kick ass- 5 Pioneer CDJ1000mk3's side by side!) and Optical even played a bonus classic techstep set in the basement.

It's John B, bitches. You know the score. Great tunes, showmanship behind the tables, girls going wild, and a 20-minute house mini set to boot (the longest I've ever heard attempted at Elements!) I think I had the guitar riff of his MJ/Beat It bootleg stuck in my head the entire following day. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Legendary disco/house DJ Harvey touches down in Boston for the very first time. People danced. Nuff said.

B.Rich makes his first Boston appearance since moving several months ago, fully loaded with a bag of brand new forthcoming tracks both from himself as well as fellow producers such as AC Slater and Udachi. Decided to do more action shots than poses here, which lent itself better to the lighting and atmosphere of the room.

Bassic returns to Goodlife for a weekend installment, complete with a renovation of the entire upstairs floor. Ramadanman passed through and decided to surprise everyone with some awesome UK Funky, probably one of the first full sets of it played by a headliner in Boston!

This one is self-explanatory; the event really needs no introduction whatsoever. Those who go to the Phoenix plan their schedule for this jam months in advance. In fact, I'm already pumped for the 2010 edition.

This was the first time I've checked out Paper- I've heard lots of good things about the night over the course of the past 6 months but was never able to make it down for one reason or another. Expectations were high, but boy were they exceeded last night! It's rare I see that much energy in one room; honestly I don't even think the pics will do it justice. Definite shout outs go to anyone involved in this night!

Whether you call him Stylus, Surgical, Drew, or whatever else, you will get the same top track selection no matter how you identify the dude. And obligatory birthday shoutout to the one like "Ableton" Rob!

Warehouse/rave party in central CT that involved 8 production teams, almost 100 different DJ's, and 6 months of planning and promotion! Even though it ended early (that's another topic for another time) I had fun and it always feels good to step outside Boston for a bit and support my neighbors down south.

I was so busy dancing/getting into Farina's set that I really wasn't focused on shooting pics and only brought my camera as an afterthought, but did manage to snap a couple at the tail end. Nice to see house acts getting booked at An Tua Nua, hopefully there will be more to come soon.

Even the dude who pulled the fire alarm causing the firefighters to bust in at the tail end of Matt from Concord Dawn's set (right as the vocals for Morning Light kicked in and people started to go nuts) couldn't put a damper on peoples moods that night. Spirits and energy was high and a great kickstart to the holiday weekend!

Another night down at the phoenix landing watering hole. Crisis demonstrates here that he's still very much on top of his dnb game even though he currently has a TON of other projects going on with Hot Pink Delorean in other genres. Versatility is key!

Damian, Pandai'a, Dabu, C-Dubz, Incyde, and Scotch 1 (sorry if I missed anyone else!)have been serving Boston's quickly growing dubstep needs for two years; here's the pics of their second birthday party at the Goodlife, featuring Starkey from Philly.

It's only fitting that the official first day of summer shares the same date as the first installment of Soul Clap's Dancing on the Charles series. The turnout was great and the rain held off while everyone bidded farewell to Paulo as he moves away from Boston back to France next week.

So Dope crew does it again, this time hosting SPYS from the west coast to play a nice variety of crowd favorites from the past 15 years.

Was cruising the Harvard Ave block in Allston last night; the drunk ass pub crawlers from BU were out in full force (at least the ones who were actually still able to stand up straight!) Basstown had a couple bands at Great Scott; I checked out Dpony's set. Only took a few pics though as my lens only goes up to 55mm so couldn't zoom in too far. Privus followed, the HPD and FTW crews were still recovering from their Roxy jam two days earlier!

Here is this party: >>-------------->>





Here is the meter: >>--------------->>
Nuff said!!

Pulled in to this party at 11:30, saw a line of hundreds of people wrapped around the building. That indicated straight away that this one was going to be a rager. Space Jam was the first larger-scale dance music party in New Hampshire in a long time, and walking into the building was like stepping into a time machine back to '99! I got to use my upgraded lens with image stabilization for the first time here; it was definitely a worthy investment as the sharpness/clarity of many of these pictures came out much better than on my 20d's original kit lens.

Mad props to the guys from Seed who hosted this. The music/views/vibe/weather was proper. Looking forward to more of these this summer. Check the 9-minute video I uploaded to youtube as well.

Swagger Jackers in the house.

Cheers to Damian and Jay K for having me out to shoot! Was another successful installment of their monthly afterhours event at Rise, place was rammed well beyond 4am. The production quality of the event, combined with the great sound and lighting at Rise, made it pretty much unbeatable.

Caught the first set of Biodiesel at the Middle East, and they smashed it! They opened with a 45 minute jam, followed by the second song which was maybe 30 seconds long tops. This contrast got a good reaction from the crowd, as well as the constant tricks the drummer had up his sleeve.

Nuff respect to FTW Productions for one year of great parties at Privus, Goodlife, and the Estate. Turnout was great for the anniversary party last night, Designer Drugs Mr. Matt and David Day on the wheels, and a hype crowd. Hands in the air!!

Place was rammed! But then again, this is DSL we're talking about here.

First weekend of warm weather in Boston for 2009 = me out partying! I went to a lot of miscellaneous places this weekend, here are the pics I took.

One half of the legendary Total Science duo passed through Boston with a CD wallet full of brand new melodic rollers and liquidfunk tunes. The breakdancers being out in full force was just a subtle hint that Spinback was laying down a proper set!

Went to a real rave last night in CT- haven't been to one of those in a minute haha! This jam was in a 2-story building, the bottom of which was an arcade and top was a huge laser tag arena. Tight Crew did an awesome job in regards to decor, lighting, setup, etc.

Another successful Bassic joint. I only had my coolpix on me as an afterthought and hardly took anything at all but did manage to snap a couple random crowd and dj shots.

Ended up taking a ton of pics at both the Middle East and the Phoenix Landing, hope you enjoy!

Another spectacular sunday night throwdown at the Ginormous Room.

Sorry didn't take a lot of pics, was too busy dancing and chatting about old skool hardcore records with Pete Dev/Null haha

One of the best producers in drum & bass touches down in Boston for the second time to promote his forthcoming album.

Look it's DJ TJ!!

I came for the dubstep, and I ended up leaving with a baltimore club fix.

The night Clinto (aka Slonto) visited Boston, took lots of shots and played lots of records. Cuz he's badass like that.

Didn't take a ton of pics, but here's the better ones of the lot.

Even the snowstorm couldn't deter the drum and bass fans from coming out to check out this legendary producer touch down in Boston for the first time in 4 years!

Props to Goodlife for busting out non-stop heart shaped chocolates and frosted cupcakes to keep the dubstep fans wired the whole night!

best house set I've heard since the last time Derrick Carter passed through! My picture-taking quality that night wasn't quite as good though haha...

Elements 10 Year Anniversary at the Phoenix Landing- 1.29.2009