Last week The Moth & The Flame bid Provo farewell.
Click below to read my feelings on the move.
Last week Velour asked (via Instagram) everyone to describe their experience at The Moth & The Flame's last Provo show in one word. One said "sensual," another "transcendent," and another "connected." I think that mine would be "observant." For the first time at a TM&TF show I felt outside of the music. Knowing this was their last show as Provo natives, I watched them sing to the crowd, not just for them. During "Home", when Brandon [Robbins] sang "and if I learned just one thing from you, it's love." He lifted his right hand, palm up, and held it out towards the crowd. It was a small gesture, but it captured so much emotion. He really meant those words as an expression to the audience. In reply the audience wept and sang and closed their eyes and smiled to themselves and at the band. I have never seen (and doubt that I will again in my lifetime) a band so loved by their listeners. They instill an emotion that goes beyond typical fandom and enters into a type of reverence and an almost religious excitement, a zeal to share the "gospel" of their sound. Their listeners feel compelled to support and assist them and they strive for and cherish their success. If fans could will and love a band to greatness, TM&TF would have achieved the highest honors already.
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Though last week was indeed the definition of bittersweet, I look forward to seeing the boys rise in the industry. They have earned it. I hope that they continue to make music that they love and believe in; and if I'm being honest, I hope they continue to make music that I love. I hope they continue to make music I feel so passionately compelled to share, music I want to write about, music that brings tears to my eyes and fills my heart.
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As I've followed TM&TF over the past 2 years I've had the good fortune of photographing a lot of their shows. The photographs below are a chronological collection of images that demonstrate not only their development as a band, but mine as a photographer.
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| April 8/12th, 2011 |
To Brandon and Mark
(and the other members of the band who I don't know personally),
I have watched you progress from one of, if not the, first shows as "The Moth & The Flame". I ran to catch your tiny set in Grey Whale, played to only a handful of shoppers. I listened to your plans and your excitement over scrabble and peaches and cream summer evenings. I watched you carefully choose your album and tshirt design. I laughed at big ideas like puppy parades at planning meetings filled with your friends.
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| June 30th, 2011 |
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| June 30th, 2011 |
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| June 30th, 2011 |
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| June 30th, 2011 |
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| June 30th, 2011 |
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| July 1st, 2011 |
I listened to the album for the first time in the back seat of Brandon's car, driving up a beautiful nighttime canyon (the perfect environment). No one said a word while the album played, but I was filled with relief and wonder as I heard so much of the power of your live shows bottled for home use. I prepared for 11.11.11 eagerly, inviting as many people as I could convince to come. I believed, and still believe so strongly in your music, I did everything I could to share it.
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| August 6th, 2011 |
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| August 6th, 2011 |
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| August 6th, 2011 |
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| August 6th, 2011 |
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| September 27th, 2011 |
I cried at your album release, overwhelmed by emotion, connected in an almost transcendental experience to to every other listener there. I
wrote about your show with the agony of trying to capture something that cannot be described through words.
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| 11.11.11 Album Release |
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| 11.11.11 Album Release |
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| 11.11.11 Album Release |
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| 11.11.11 Album Release |
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| 11.11.11 Album Release |
I tagged along as you began to tour: happily selling merch at a slushy show far north. I sat in the corner during a radio interview and heard my own admiration echoed by the DJ. I began to see what you were doing to people, how affected they were by your work.
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| January 22nd, 2012 - Radio Interview |
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| January 22nd, 2012 - Radio Interview |
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| January 22nd, 2012 - Radio Interview |
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| January 22nd, 2012 - Radio Interview |
I watched how hard you worked, trying to balance 9 to 5 lives with the hectic hours kept by artists. I listened to the early beginnings of commercial jingles and bounced around in the back of the new tour bus for a civilian tour.
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
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| May 21st, 2012 |
I speculated over record deals and producers and the many opportunities awaiting you, and I knew that soon you would leave the warm loving nest of Provo to share your music with many thousands of eager new listeners.
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| September 15th, 2012 |
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| September 15th, 2012 |
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| September 15th, 2012 |
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| September 15th, 2012 / January 19th, 2013 |
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| September 15th, 2012 |
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| September 15th, 2012 |
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| March 23rd, 2013 |
And now that day has come.
But as I listened to you play last week I thought of all of these experiences, all of the memory vignettes that make up your history and I realized that you leaving is not an end at all, like many things in life it is a point along a continuing road. You will not start or end or even really pause here, you will merely pass through, as you did earlier experiences. And here, in Provo, we will all feel observant. We will watch you succeed and listen to your songs and love and support you always, regardless of distance.
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| 11.11.11 |
xxx.
