As someone who commutes to the city of Atlanta to cover various shows at various venues, I often find myself getting home getting later than I would like to. And as anyone who does concert photography would tell you, once you get home you usually go straight for your laptop or tablet to unwrap whatever photo sets you may have from that day or night. Because of this, I have become acclimated with most late night talk shows. They provide good background noise for sifting through thousands of photos to find the best of for your next photo set. At one point many months ago, I heard in the background of late night with Seth Meyers a name that I had heard many times in passing, Sheer Mag. I made a mental note that they would be closing out his show and soldiered on through my haystack of photos. But as the show came to a close. I heard this noise. Something I had not heard before. Something new. I immediately stopped what I was doing and put my laptop down. From that moment on I knew that I had to cover this band, Sheer Mag.
They hail from Philadelphia, and bring with them a sound that has a very punk attitude with a soulful voice, all the while taking a lot of 70s rock tones and melodies to compliment their unique sound. Their lead singer, Tina Halladay, is a force of nature. Commanding the stage with a voice that pierces through the rest of the sound coming out of the half stacks that serve as her backdrop.
They are currently touring in support of their debut LP, Need To Feel Your Love, which came out in July of this year on Wilsuns RC. This Monday, October 16th, Sheer Mag came to Atlanta to play the Masquerade tracks from their debut, along with plenty of songs from their trio of 7″s that came out in 2015.
They played a rather short set, possibly by design leaving the crowd wanting more. In turn the crowd did indeed want more and Sheer Mag reciprocated with an encore.
Moral of the story: if you’re an insomniac like me, or you have a DVR box, record or watch late night programming. Especially if you haven’t heard of the band playing said show. You may be pleasantly surprised and find yourself deep into and obsession with a new band.
Written by Peter Sigmund. Check out Peter’s photos from the show:
