Five months away from photography flew by. Partly unplanned (life) but mainly to recharge and the distance did just that. It made me miss shows. I missed standing in a venue and letting live music reset my love for my small window into it. I didn't expect Thursday night to pull me back, but knew it would when I read Lael Neale was finally visiting. Would've cleared my calendar for a year to capture this.
I was ready.
Except she would arrive the following night.
I'd waited years and suddenly she was right there. On a total longshot, with less than sixteen hours before the show, I reached out, expecting nothing. She replied almost immediately, that notification alerting me just before midnight, with a YES. (My all caps, not hers.) In under fifteen hours, she sorted everything out. That kind of trust given to me isn't something I take lightly, especially from an artist I hadn't photographed before. Mutual respect between artists is at the heart of why creative communities exist, and how without it, that connection loses its meaning, turning what should be a shared language into something transactional, ephemeral.
Night of. The minimalist stage gave the room space to breathe. I'm used to The Salt Shed being shoulder to shoulder, but tonight was more intimate. A smaller stage, fit for two, lay below the main stage, floating like a dark raft at the center of an even darker venue.
When she stepped unto it, her gold dress caught the spotlights and amplified them back, drawing every eye toward her.
Her music settled the room. When she sang "I Am The River," it gently christened the room into the night, following where this "raft" would take us. It was calming in a way I didn't realize I needed after a day at work. Her crystalline voice paired with her Omnichord's electronic tones were crisp and dreamy, her fingers sliding across the flat surface and pulling out harpsichordic waves, both retro and new.
I planned to send Lael a small preview after the show, but instead found myself happily editing the whole set into the early morning.
Here's to Lael and to a wonderful start to '26.