LeRoy Bell and His Only Friends at the Triple Door Theater in Seattle

LeRoy Bell (prounced La-Roy, not Lee-Roy) defines the word cool in my opinion. His voice is nothing short of amazing. His wit and charm on stage can't help but make you smile and the diversity of his music is overwhelming. He walked through the crowd and literally touched nearly every person in the theater making it a very personal event. His fans are..well, his fans are nuts! They were dancing, singing and just plain rockin out the entire time.

I rarely watch the reality tv shows...well, OK that's a lie. I watch them all. American Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race. I'm a dork, you know it, I know it. Why lie? That being said when The X Factor came on I said to my Wife there was no way we were going to add another show to our list to watch. I knew there had been auditions at Key Arena in Seattle though so we had to tune in and watch that.

The Seattle audition episode wasn't the classiest show I've ever seen. One man dropped his pants and started flapping his junk in front of the arena. The cameras showed parents rushing their children out of the venue in horror. Paula Abdul started to vomit. All in all, a classless introduction to the show that probably should have been left out in my opinion. That was all wiped away when LeRoy Bell performed with his silky vocals ensuring he would make it to the next round. I recognized his name and remembered he had been a regular at the Triple Door so of course we had to watch and see how he did with the rest of the season. He was placed in the "Over 30's" group with mentor Nicole Scherzingerthe former Pussycat Doll who quite honestly rubbed me the wrong way in the beginning of the season but by the time it was all said and done ended up being one of my favorites. The over 30's group in my opinion was by far the strongest of the four(Boys, Girls, Groups and the Old Fogies at 30+). Both LeRoy and Josh Krajcik were in my opinion the most talented on the show.

Without recapping the entire season I'll just say that we ended up watching it all. The only episode we missed happened to be the one LeRoy was booted from the show. He made the top 10 and I would like to think that is mostly due to the fact Lea and I voted for him countless times each week :)

So after all that it was a real privilege to get to shoot his first of two performances at the Triple Door Theater in Seattle this past Thursday night. I got to meet him briefly back stage and he was just as nice as you would think. On stage he teased a bit about the show asking how many people in the audience were there only because they saw "The Show." Quite a few people sheepishly raised their hands resulting in a chuckle from LeRoy.

The photos are below. I hope you like them.

On a side note, during the month of April my photos will be on display in the Triple Door theater so if you find yourself in the neighborhood be sure to stop in and check them out! That all starts Thursday April 5. I'll be there from 5pm until 7pm that evening to kick it off and hope to see you there!