The Boston Music Awards held its 30th awards show Dec. 7 at the House of Blues to celebrate musicians from across Massachusetts, including some from Northeastern.
Third-year music industry student Sidney Gish opened the show with songs from her album “Ed Buys Houses.” She stood centerstage with an electric guitar, one foot in a black platform shoe frequently tapping the loop pedal letting out layers of chords over airy vocals. Gish was nominated for New Artist of the Year.
After a few songs, Gish was joined onstage by Camino 84, a modern disco group that featured rows of bopping brass musicians, including several who also perform with the Northeastern pep band. They closed their set with the upbeat “Sounds Fake but OK,” which has garnered over 12,600 plays on SoundCloud.
The night continued with several performances by nominees such as rappers Avenue and Latrelle James, who were both up for Unsigned Artist of the Year.
Avenue was particularly proud of his Boston roots and how they manifested in his album “Mass Ave & Lenox.”
“This is for Boston, about Boston,” he yelled to the crowd.
Nominees were selected by a committee and awarded based on a public vote on the show’s website. Categories not only included best producer, album and artist by genre, but broader aspects of the local music scene such as best venue, best intimate venue and best music photographer.
The award for best music photography was renamed to honor Eddy Leiva, who died unexpectedly in November at age 35. Leiva was a staff photographer for the popular music blog Vanyaland and a regular on the Boston music scene. His first namesake award was given to local freelancer Natasha Moustache.
Nominee performances broke up three rounds of award presentations. The earlier awards for new and unsigned artists were announced by people representing corporate sponsors. Winners were welcomed onstage to accept a black block that spelled out “BOSTON” in three dimensions.
Some acceptance speeches took a political turn. Unsigned Artist of the Year winner Weakened Friends closed their speech with a passionate “And [expletive] Trump!”
Rappers STL GLD, winners of Album of the Year for “Torch Song,” chose a less aggressive message.
“This is about more than music. If there are people around you who don’t look like you, hug them tighter,” said Moe Pope, one half of the duo.
The end of the show skipped the human announcers for many big awards like Artist and Song of the Year, and instead flashed winner’s names on the screen above the stage. PVRIS, an electronic trio from Lowell, picked up Best Artist and Best Song for the second year in a row.
STL GLD and Weakened Friends will be joining artists such as Eminem and The Killers on this year’s Boston Calling lineup May 25-27.
All photos by Brian Bae.
