Angel Vivaldi and Nita Strauss in Richmond, Virginia, The Canal Club, December 20, 2018

Shooting at a new venue can be exciting. Not so when you have to stand in the rain for 45 minutes. Once inside however, we were treated to a block of no less than five bands for the evening.

Local band, Emperial March, got the night started with their set of hard driving metallic rock. Getting a good spot on the front rail proved to be quite the challenge as people were lining up and reserving their spots as soon as they got inside. They are made up of seasoned musicians with front man, Eddie Sparrow sporting the classic long hair.

The Emma Garell Band followed up with their more progressive sound and younger lineup of musicians. A little less rocky yet more edgy sounding, Emma moved on the stage and kept the fans and the lenses moving with her.

Take Buckethead and remove the bucket and you have Jacky Vincent. Playing to an aggressive backing track, he moved on the stage like he moved on the fretboard – hard to keep up with. Originally from England and now living in Las Vegas, he had a number of fans here in Richmond who were eager to see him both on and off the stage.

Nita Strauss killed the show. If her backdrop which hung for the duration of the night wasn’t an indication of who ruled the night, her command of the stage sure was. Being Alice Cooper’s lead guitarist is quite an accolade to hold but Nita has quite the list of her own accomplishments including being raked at the top of the 10-list of female guitarists you should know by Guitar World Magazine. She’s even related to the Austrian composer, Johann Strauss, so she comes from a highly musical background.

I gave up my coveted spot at the front rail mid-show so I could move around for different angles. Once gone, there was no way of getting it back as the crowd totally loved her. This was one of those shows where I wanted to put down my camera and just watch and enjoy the scene. Having lost my spot, I never got a good angle on the final act – Angel Vivaldi but you’ll have to be sure to catch him at another show.

Emperial March