Life of Pablo: The Specials Rock the TLA

Our photographer Pablo Martinez captured the epic sold-out show with **The Specials** at The TLA in Philadelphia last night! Check out his images below!

I met our writer/photographer Pablo Martinez seven years ago at Johnny Brenda’s, one of our favorite Philly venues at a British Sea Power show. We both happened to go alone and ended up standing next to each other. While we were waiting for the show to start, he turned to me and asked me if I have ever heard of the band Little Comets. As they were one of my absolute favorite bands at the time (still are) I couldn’t believe he knew who they were, I was telling everyone I knew about them at the time (still am). We started talking about our favorite music, what shows we’ve been to and were going to, and realized we had been to, and were going to, almost all of the same shows. A passionate music fan and photographer, I asked Pablo to start writing and shooting for mylifeinsound. Welcome to Life of Pablo, our new series featuring Pablo’s photography, interviews and favorite bands.

xx Cher

When I got the email that I was going to shoot The Specials show in Philadelphia I was very excited.

Wow, right away my mind traveled to my high school days in Mexico and I started thinking of all of the bands that their music influenced.

Bands such as:

Panteón Rococo

Salón Victoria

Café Tacuba

They are all Mexican bands, but of course I can’t skip the this mega band from Argentina:

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Everything changed when we started listening to that music genre… the way we dress, attitude… we were cool kids now.

We couldn’t wait for The Specials, such an iconic and influential band, to play such an intimately epic show for Philadelphia at the TLA. We made it to Philadelphia around 8:45pm and still lots of fans were making their way in to the venue.

We collected our tickets and photo pass, got checked in and made my way to the front through a sea of fans that were waiting for the band to play.

As soon as The Specials walked on stage and started to play the venue erupted with the sounds of the sold-out crowd, and fans sang along to each song.

Terry Hall sounded great and Lynval Golding never stopped dancing, their energy was contagious.

It was totally worth the wait to hear their new music. Their new album

Encore, is The Specials first album release since 1980 and it is amazing. The band’s social commentary is just as vital now as it was 40 years ago and seeing those songs performed live was electric. The album is out now via Island Records, you can listen to it and order it now here, and pre-order the extremely limited edition (only 2250 copies) red vinyl pressing of Encore here!