Hobo Johnson Rocks Out The Recher

Grab your Peach Scone and stick around for the show

The Recher (pronounced like wrecker, I was first unsure) is a venue in Towson, Maryland that I haven’t been to, as a fan or a photojournalist. There was an eleventh-hour venue change from Rams Head Live (a venue I have not yet been to either) so I shrugged my shoulders and dove in. The Recher is an intimate venue, maybe about the size of the 9:30 Club. Its red and black paint theme sets a dramatic mood and the disco ball mounted in the center of the ceiling gives me instant feel goods. Call me old-fashioned but I personally LOVE when a venue has a disco ball and usually pray they’ll be using it during at least one song. 

Staff at the Recher are super polite and get me into where I need to be without issue. I weave through the already impressive amount of people to the stage area, where I’m welcomed into the photo pit pretty early. I take a seat on a barrier bench stage left and ready my camera. 

Before I know it, the pre-show music stops abruptly and the lights dim. BabyJake, a slender fella with a shaved head and a slew of tattoos walks out onto stage cradling an acoustic guitar. I immediately notice his pants, they’re bell bottoms and I feel like I hardly see those anymore. He has my attention. I grab his too, he notices me with my camera and does a little jig before he reaches the mic. He begins his set with his song, “Bottom Of A Dirty Shoe”. I made a crash course playlist for the drive to the Recher and this was on it, I’m a fan. This is followed by “Confidant” and then a cover of “Don’t Let Me Down”, made famous by The Beatles. BabyJake’s gravelly vocals work perfectly for this and it’s one of my favorite parts of his set. 

The whole is just him with his acoustic guitar, and me, a sucker for acoustic music, thoroughly enjoy this. At one point, he fakes us out by playing the intro to “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band before he played his original song, “Don’t Hurt Me So Bad”. 

This one is tugging at my heartstrings, and at this point, I’m at the back of the venue grabbing some crowd shots, and good thing because my emotion was being worn on my face. 

Babyjake says “This song changed my life” before he plays “Cigarettes On Patios”, which is his most popular song. This one was part of my playlist too, and as it ends, someone from the crowd shouts “Daddy’s coming home!” and BabyJake smiles. He agrees to play a snippet of the requested song even though it’s not part of his setlist tonight. The crowd is pleased. 

His last song comes quickly, he says it just came out on Friday and it’s titled “Arian(e)”. He shares this is the first time in 3 years he’s had a really good team around him and things are going so well for him. He begins to strum and sing before stopping himself a few seconds in, “I can do better than that” and restarts the song. BabyJake has a new fan in me!

I make my way back to the front a few minutes before it’s time for Remo Drive to hit the stage. I listened to them some in the car too and I enjoyed what I heard so much that I added a few songs to my library. Suddenly, there they are. Remo Drive. The crowd screams and whistles and the band wastes no time diving right into their set list, starting with “Art School”. A few songs in, Erik tells us that their guitarist, Tim, actually played his very first show here at the Recher. What a neat little Easter egg. 

“All You’ll Ever Catch” is one of the songs that made it into my library, and lucky me, they play this one. It kicks off with an emo-sounding guitar riff which is what hooked me in the first place. Erik is dancing around all over the place, even doing a few jumps and kicks as he plays and sings. I notice that he’s wearing a bracelet with “Sir Lando” on it. That’s a band from Frederick, MD! I know them! Turns out their drummer was at the show and gifted him the bracelet, I later met him and made the connection. Neat. 

Now I’m at the back of the venue again to get a break from the crowd and grab a bottle of water, and man there are a ton of fans getting down back here. I mean dancing wildly, swinging their arms, and running around. It’s a sight to see, and Remo Drive has the energy to match them. I kind of get it, and if I wasn’t so sweaty already I might be doing the same. 

One thing I notice about Remo Drive is that their lighting is much more colorful and flashy than BabyJake’s. I don’t say that as a hater, BabyJake’s music was very chill and the lighting matched it. Remo Drive is very upbeat and groovy, so it only makes sense that the lighting matches. 

Remo Drive plays one last song, “Yer Killin Me”. This is another one that earned a spot in my library and it’s my favorite of their whole setlist. 

“Don’t wanna fucking be here anymore, I’m leaving forever, if you miss me whatever”

I think we’ve all related to that lyric at some point, I know I have more than a handful of times. This song feels like it’s about someone who’s draining the life out of you, who hasn’t experienced that?

Remo Drive tells us thanks and to visit them at the merch table where they have all sorts of swag for sale. I might just take them up on that. 

Now it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for. It’s time for Hobo Johnson! I snake my way through the crowd up to the photo pit for the last time this evening. While the crowd is stuffed at this point, I’m the only photog besides the band’s photographers in the pit, which is such a treat. 

I’m sitting on the barrier step again, waiting for Hobo Johnson to take the stage, taking everything in. There’s a large vintage refrigerator center stage in the back that’s shrouded by fog and illuminated by blue lights. The fog is thick usually this is a bummer for photos. To the naked eye, it looks cool as hell. Don’t get me wrong, it IS dope but it makes for a tough time photo-wise wise usually. I forget all about it when “Rap Diablo” by Mac Miller starts to play. Man, I miss Mac Miller. 

I like to try to get a photo of me in action when I’m shooting the headlining act, and this time I decide to chitchat with a couple of girls front and center of the barrier at the very last minute. They’re happy to help me out, and I take a photo on my camera of them in exchange. 

The lights dim once again and the whole room screams. Out walks the man himself, and he immediately goes into one of my favorite songs, “Mover Awayer”. I won’t lie, I peeked at his setlist and was thrilled that I would be in the pit for this one. His next jam is “Sex In The City”, which contains a lyric that says – “I’ll be in Los Angeles, or at your mom’s house eating all the sandwiches” but he switches out Los Angeles for Baltimore which gets a very positive reaction from the audience. This is my first time seeing Hobo Johnson live and this guy MOVES. I bump my shutter speed up higher than usual and chase him around the pit. The third and final song that I’m in the photo pit for is called “Subaru Crosstrek” and for this one, Hobo Johnson opens a bottle of water and thrashes his arm.

I’m soaked, and so is my weather-proof camera and lens. I’m not mad, in fact, I’m thankful because I’m sweating my ass off chasing the guy around back and forth in front of the stage. 

I duck out of the photo pit and retire to the crowd once again. Hobo Johnson makes tons of crab jokes between songs. I mean, we are in Maryland after all so this is appropriate and gets laughs. 

The Lovemakers, (this is the band of Hobo Johnson and The Lovemakers) leave the stage and Hobo grabs a guitar. He starts patting his pockets and realizes his guitar pick is gone. No worries, Dave, a random dude from the crowd, actually had a guitar pick on him. Dave saved the day. We’re treated to a few demos and solo jams, which I end up loving. My favorite one didn’t even have a title yet. 

The Lovemakers aren’t gone for long, they return to the stage, and the full band set resumes. From the second half of the set, I’m gonna say “Happiness” hit me the hardest. Hobo shares that he just got out of a five-year relationship but they still talk on the phone every day.

The crowd boos, he covers his eyes and grins embarrassingly. He dedicates “Happiness” to his ex-girlfriend. This song claws at my emotions, I almost shed a few tears. Anyone who’s gone through a painful breakup can likely relate to the message this song has. 

“I’m thoroughly in love with you and yeah, I’m really scared that I may never change but I’m so fucking done being so afraid. I really hope that you find happiness”

After this tearjerker, Hobo Johnson gives a big thank you speech to the fans, the venue staff, and all of his camp for making tonight happen. He then levels with us. “Look. I’m tired of the theatrics. We have three songs left. One of them is an encore but I’m not gonna run backstage and anxiously wait for you guys to ask for it. Do you want me to just play it?” The fans scream in unison that they indeed do want him to just play it. 

The song before the “encore” is one of his most popular songs and my favorite song of all, “Peach Scone”. The crowd has been super enthusiastic but they went nuts for this one and chanted along to every single word. The energy was incredible. Our “encore” is a song titled “Typical Story” which is a BANGER with insane energy. The crowd loses their minds and are jumping and throwing their hands in the air to the beat of the lyrics. When the song ends, the fans still try to get the band out for an encore. It doesn’t work. 

I hustle over to Remo Drive’s merch table, greet the band, and snap a photo with them. They’re incredibly sweet, I tell them how fun they were to photograph and say my goodbyes. 

I leave the venue and need a few minutes to unwind. I take a seat and start moving photos to my phone via the WiFi function on my camera. I edit a few sneak peeks for Shutter16, gather my camera, and walk around the corner to the front of the venue before I hit the road. To my surprise, there stands Hobo Johnson. He’s got a few fans sitting on the ground nearby, but it’s a very chill atmosphere so I decided to approach. Turns out he’s a total sweetie. 

I told him he was also a blast to take photos of, chatted with him about the magazine, and told him I was doing a write-up on the show. He was like “Oh god, what are you gonna write?” and I jokingly told him “I’m gonna write that it freakin’ sucked!” 

We shared a laugh, snapped a photo together and I made my way back to the parking garage beaming. The entire lineup this evening impressed me and I would come out for all of them again with no hesitation. 

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you captured any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see. 

Catch Hobo Johnson and The Lovemakers on tour!

BALTIMORE | 07.09

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