Bears Den // Belfast

One of my albums of last year was Bear's Den – Islands - incredible work by a great band. However I was a bit late to the party, the first time they played Belfast I was relatively unaware of them. However in March I was doing wedding photos in Texas of all places, and the first dance was about to happen and these lads got up on stage to sing the couple through this normally slightly awkward tradition. It was only after they played I found out who they were. As you can see in the photo below, they fully bought into the Texan look! 

After leaving Texas I made sure to look up this 'first dance band' - to my joy, I loved their stuff. They also released one of the best & beautiful music videos I have ever seen - shot & directed by Marcus Haney - Elysium.

So when they were calling through Belfast to play in Voodoo & I was offered the opportunity to take some photos of the band as they hung out before the gig and then some shots of the gig itself, I jumped at the chance. Now the only time I have done music photography was YEARS ago at a Foy Vance gig and then more recently at an Ellie Goulding gig in Madison Square Garden in New York [Will feature this in a future blog]. So I wasn't sure what to expect, but I had met some of the band & their management team before, so knew it would be a good laugh anyway. I love documenting parts of experiences that people dont get to see, the behind the scenes parts. So here are a selection from soundcheck right through to the end of the show. I didn't do photos whilst we where eating dinner at Made In Belfast because we were all enjoying eating too much.

So do me a favour and have a look some of the photos from that night, however do yourself a favour and listen to their stuff and/or catch them on the remainder of their UK/European Tour - Dates HERE