Photos from the 21st Annual Boston Music Awards at the Roxy

I wasn’t sure what to expect at this year’s Boston Music Awards. Instead of a live music and awards event open to the public, this year’s festivities were private, invite-only at The Roxy on December 7th. In a Boston Globe article leading up the event, Chip Rives (whose company, TRP, produces the event) said that the event would likely return to being open to the public next year. There were three rooms with live music — a lot more (live music) than previous years. The awards ceremony was reduced to announcements-only with a few exceptions: Donnie Wahlberg and Jordan Knight accepted New Kids On The Block’s award for Oustanding National Act; Billy Beard spoke briefly after being awarded the Unsung Hero award (immensely deserved, by the way); and Ernie Boch Jr. talked about being dissed by John Sykes from VH1’s Save The Music so he set up a foundation called Music Drives Us with $2M of his own cash.

Below are a bunch of photos I took at the Boston Music Awards plus the list of winners with links to all their websites. If you’re a band in one of the photos and you’d like permission to use the photos, send a note.

21st Annual Boston Music Awards: Event Photos

21st Annual Boston Music Awards: The Winners

Act of the Year (National) – New Kids on the Block
Album of the Year (National) – Who Killed Amanda Palmer – Amanda Palmer
Song of the Year (National) – This Lonely Love – Juliana Hatfield
Act of the Year (Local) – Girls Guns and Glory
Album of the Year (Local) – Absolute Value – Akrobatik
Best New Act – The Low Anthem
Best Song of the Year (Local) – One and One – The Great Bandini
Female Vocalist of the Year (Local) – Sarah Borges
Female Vocalist of the Year (National) – Amanda Palmer
Male Vocalist of the Year (Local) – Eli “Paperboy” Reed
Male Vocalist of the Year (National) – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys)
Outstanding Americana Act of the Year – Girls Guns and Glory
Outstanding Blues Act of the Year – David Maxwell
Outstanding DJ/Electronic Act of the Year – Baltimoroder
Outstanding Folk Artists of the Year – Miss Tess
Outstanding Hip-Hop Act – Termanology
Outstanding International Music Act of the Year – Zili Misik
Outstanding Jazz Act of the Year – Grace Kelly
Outstanding Live Act of the Year – The Camp
Outstanding Metal/Hardcore Act of the Year – Doomriders
Outstanding Pop/R&B Act of the Year – Jada
Outstanding Punk Act of the Year – Big D and the Kids Table
Outstanding Rock Act of the Year – Wild Light
Outstanding Singer/Songwriter of the Year – Marissa Nadler
Outstanding Tribute Act of the Year – Joshua Tree
Producer of the Year (Hip-Hop/R&B) – Matty Trump
Producer of the Year (Rock/Pop) – Ed Valauskas
College Band of the Year – Bearstronaut
Humanitarian of the Year – Chad Stokes Urmston
Unsung Hero Award – Billy Beard

21st Annual Boston Music Awards Voting Open Until December 5th

(UPDATE: Here is a bunch of photos I took at the 21st Annual Boston Music Awards plus links to all the winning bands’ websites.)

This year’s 21st Annual Boston Music Awards is a private industry event happening at The Roxy on December 7th. Fans can vote for their favorite local and national bands in twenty-six categories until December 5th. The event is a benefit for The Music Drives Us Foundation.

Some of my favorite Boston bands are up for awards including …

• Girls Guns And Glory (Act of the Year – Local, Album of the Year – Local, Outstanding Americana Act of the Year – Local)
• The Great Bandini (Best Song of the Year – Local)
• Aoifie O’Donovan / Crooked Still ( Female Vocalist of the Year – Local)
• John Powhida (Male Vocalist of the Year – Local)
• The Everyday Visuals (Outstanding Live Act of the Year)
• A.K.A.C.O.D. (Outstanding Rock Act of the Year)
• Mieka Pauley (Outstanding Folk Artist of the Year)

Here are some photos I took at last year’s 20th Annual Boson Music Awards at the Orpheum.

Photos! The Finals at WBCN 30th Annual Rock & Roll Rumble

Until this year, I skipped every other WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble since moving to Boston in 1994. I’m glad I finally ended that tradition and made it out to some of the shows at this year’s 30th annual rumble. The finals night was no exception. The winners, Girls Guns & Glory, played their best show I’ve ever seen (and I’ve been to a bunch). I finally got to see A.K.A.C.O.D., the union of Dana Colley (former Saxaphonist for Morphine), bass player and singer Monique Ortiz and drummer Larry Dersch. Low-rock awesomeness! Despite being a big fan of Girls Guns & Glory I thought there might be a chance that The Great Bandini would win it all. In the end, the rumble belonged to Girls Guns & Glory. Not bad timing for them: next week they’ve got their CD release party for “Inverted Valentine” downstairs at the Middle East on May 2nd. (Not so subtle hint: go, go, go!)

The Neighborhoods, who won the first Rumble thirty years ago, performed at the end of the night to a very enthusiastic crowd. After the music was over, Marc and John from Township, the 2007 Rumble winner, crowned Girls Guns & Glory as the 2008 Rumble winners. Yes, there was a tiara.

To view all the photos I took at the WBCN 30th Annual Rock & Roll Rumble, check out the photo set at Flickr.

Photos in this entry: David Minehan, The Neighborhoods; Marc Pinansky, Township