Steeling Dan

On Thursday, 12-23-10, Kim, Slick and I were looking for a place to go and listen to some music.

I found on place in St. Paul that was going to have a Blues Band, but when I called to verify I was told they cancelled. It was unknown if anyone else was going to play.

I checked Famous Dave's in Uptown and saw that Steeling Dan, a Steely Dan Tribute Band , was playing. Hey, I used to listen to Steely Dan a lot when I was in college as well as a lot of other music, but I liked Steely Dan.

Steeling Dan was billed as having 13 members. Well, something must be going on having that many members playing. I told Kim what I found and she checked with Slick. Slick decided not to come out and play. I arrived a little after 7 pm and grabbed a couple spots as close as I could get to the stage. The place was full and more people coming in. Kim wouldn't get there until 9 pm.

Once Kim arrived I got up and took some photos. As you can imagine 13 people packed up on stage it was tough to get any good shots. I ended up with some, but I didn't post any images of a few of the members. Overall it wasn't a place to photograph that many people on a smaller stage.

I was surprised to find the music delightful. Like I said it was a full house. There appeared to be many family/ friends of the band. People were dancing on the dance floor. Not much of a dance floor, but people were dancing!

During the first break about half the members went off to do whatever they wanted and the other half and another guy on keyboards came back up and played some Fleetwood Mac. I don't know if they have been playing publicly as Mac Attack but they played about three songs. They sounded pretty good!

Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening. I will go see these guys again. In fact, they announced that they will again be playing next year once a month on a Thursday at Famous Dave's. I believe this is or was their 6th year at Famous Dave's.

Steeling Dan

About half the members





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Chuck Ryan Photography

Davina and The Vagabonds

Davina and The Vagabonds

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Davina

Davina

Davina and Kim
Corey Franks and Davina

The two "Little Dancers"

Kim Buell called me earlier in the week wanting to know where we would go this week-end to listen to some music. I hadn’t checked around as I had been busy working on photos, work and other things. Besides I had to work Friday evening so I wouldn’t be going anywhere that night.

We both said we would look and get back to each other the next day. Kim likes the Belfast Cowboys, Van Morrison Tribute Band, who were playing Saturday night at the Whiskey Junction. I also like Van Morrison so that’s where we planned to go.

I’ve been wanting to see Davina and The Vagabonds for some time now. One thing or another and I just haven’t seen them. I’ve had then penciled in on my calendar on several different days, but just never made it.

Well, Saturday afternoon, I saw that Davina and The Vagabonds (DATV) were playing at Famous Dave’s in Uptown. After Kim got done at her “Craft Fair” or at least that’s what I call it. Anyways, Kim sells Handmade Polymer Clay jewelry and photo cards at different places on week-ends. What I hear...Kim is one of the best at this Polymer Clay stuff art.

Back on topic...I called Kim up around 5:45 pm and asked her about changing our destination for the evening. I told her I wanted to go see DATV. I reminded her that DATV was the band I had sent her some YouTube links of a while ago. At that time Kim made some very postive comments about DATV, but she had told some other people that we were going to the Whiskey Junction tonight.

Kim called her friend, Tom, and Grace aka Slick, to see if they were going to the Whiskey Junction. Nope...Kim called me back and said she would be at Famous Dave's at 08:30 pm.

I got there about 8:15 pm. Paid my cover and asked for a table. I saw Davinain her blue and whire dress, sitting at the table next to the one the Famous Dave employee was cleaning for me.

Before the table was clean Davina walked up toward the front. I introduced myself and she said I must be the photographer. I guess she recognized me from my Facebook photo or maybe she saw my camera. We spoke briefly then I sat down at the table.

About 10 minutes later Kim arrived and we immediately notice that there was now an open table directly in front of where Davina would be playing on stage. We moved to that table.

DATV reminds me of New Orlean’s style jazz/blues. Davina has such a unique voice and she can belt out the vocals. Davina introduced the band members: Conner “Chops” McRae on drums, Darren Sterud who they call “Ray Ray” on trombone, Daniel Eikmeier who they call “ Daniel Eikmeier” on trumpet, and Michael Carvale on upright bass.

The stage was big enough for “Ray Ray” and “Michael Eikeimer” to move about the stage while playing and dancing around.

There isn’t much room for dancing at Famous Dave’s as the tables are fairly close to the stage. Later on the dance floor was full. There were a couple young girls who were doing most of the dancing earliy on.

Kim and I stayed the entire evening. During the first break Kim bought DATV latest CD, Live @The Times and I got that one and their first one, Under Lock and Key. DATV have a new CD, Black Cloud, due out....when....in April. As someone in the band said, April 32nd.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening and watching the band. I will go and see them again soon! Thank you, Davina and the rest of the band, for putting on an excellent show.

I found this to be another tough venue to photograph with the way the lights are positioned. The lights when they hit any object i. e. microphone, instrument, etc. cast a different color shadow right back upon the band members.

Chuck

Chuck Ryan Photography

Charles W. Ryan II

Chuck Ryan Photography (Facebook)

42nd Avenue Station Monday Night Music...

with The Langer's Ball and Felonious Bosch (minus David Stenshoel and Katy Thomasberg) last Moday night, 12-13-10.

Chuck

Chuck Ryan Photography

Alex

I only spent about 5 minutes with Alex at our Second Street Photography Studios Open House. She really has beautiful eyes.

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Chuck

Rachel Christine

Rachel was another model who came to the Second Street Photography Studios Open House. Thank you, Rachel!

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Chuck

Nadya Elegance

Nadya was one of the models who came to our Second Street Photography Studios Open House last night. She was the first model to show up because she was one of three models who wanted to be body painted for our Christmas theme photo shoot.

I decided to take a few photos before she got painted.

Thank you, Nadya, for coming to the open house.

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Second Street Photography Studios Open House...

behind the scene shots...

Last night, 12-10-10, we had our Open House at our studio with some of the models we have worked with before. We set up several stations in the studio so the shooting could be done quickly without have to adjust the lighting too much.

We had three models who wanted to be body painted. We had a Christmas theme.

Prior to the real shooting I took a few behind the scenes shots. The ladies who were being body painted they came to the studio early. Michael, Opti-Mystic, did the painting for the ladies. We also had two MUA's to do the hair and make-up for them.

Nadya was the first model to be painted, so once she was done I brought her over to the high key station to begin the shooting.

Here are a few behind the scene shots! I actually didn't take many.

Everyone seemed to have a good time! Thank you to everyone!!!

Chuck