Beat Brigade @ Electric Avenue, Characters, NYC – 4.13.13

Beat Brigade is a old school NYC ska band from the mid-80s but this was the first time I saw them perform since reforming. I missed their set the last time they played Electric Avenue but glad I saw them this time!

I can’t claim to know a lot about ska even though I’ve been listening to it for over 16 years, but apparently Beat Brigade only had 2 tracks or so on vinyl ever. Steve Shafer explains it better than myself. I believe they might be actually recording something though so that’s encouraging. The band are tight and sound great live. I was amazed at the talents of Dave Barry on the keyboard, who also plays or played with Rude Boy George in the beginning of the show. I just hung out by his keyboards, taking pictures and was wondering how he was playing that fast.

The fact that bands from the 80s are re-forming and playing ska again is just amazing to me and gives me hope. With this show and previous Electric Avenue shows, the upcoming Apple Stomp; ska is finally back!

Apologies to Across The Aisle since I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of them that night. Sometimes I can handle the late night shows, other nights I can’t haha. Next time.

The Entire Gallery

Buy Prints/ License Photos

Prints in this set are available for purchase! You’ll certainly help me out if you bought a print or two! They make lovely gifts. Just Let me know which photo(s) you’re interested in (please provide alt tag or #) and I’ll give you a quote. Photos are also available for licensing to your website, magazine, facebook page, etc. as well.

Tags: Beat Brigade, Characters, Concert Photography, Electric Avenue, live photography, new york city, Nikon D800, nyc, ska