Date night interrupted.

so as K and I were getting ready to go out to see Spamalot (see previous post) when my phone rang.... Wojo (GP worship leader) called to ask if I was available to run sound at a local Rock club.... He didn't have all the info handy, but gave me the number of the guy in charge, so I called and it was aparent that I would have time after the show (Spamalot) to take K home and get myself down to the club...

The mixer was a Mackie TT24 (digital mixing console) that I have not worked on before... I downloaded the manual and looked over the basics, seemed easy enough. The sound system is installed, so I knew it couldn't be too hard to run.. Sure enough, the staff got me into the sound booth and into the closet that holds the microphones and cables, and I was ready to rock!

Two bands on the bill, local original bands, I was expecting heavy metal screamers (there are a lot of them in Vegas) but was pleasantly suprised by the two bands. A good mix of jam-band stuff and rock and blues, both bands were pretty good!
The first band was doing grat, then the bass player broke a string... no backup bass and no extra strings.... so it was the guitar player/vocalist and drummer jamming out some tunes.... people were leaving, the MOD gave them the 'last song' and it was back to the house music and stage swap...

Second band used the same drumset and bass rig, so the larger half of the swap was already done. These guys were jamming! I can't say enough about how good these guys were, everybody knew their part, good interaction between the guitar and the keyboard, and the vocalist knew how to work the crowd!!

I got a lot of compliments from the bands and their friends/family but the least expected came near the end of the second bands set.... the sound booth at the Rainbow is a little room a full-sized door with a window on the top half ..... so this cute girl knocks on the window, I wasn't sure what she wanted/needed and the band was a little on the loud side, so I leaned in her direction (ear first) she said 'Thanks for doing a great job" and kissed me on the cheek.... Happy St. Patty's Day!!!! I'm not sure if I was being hit on... didn't realy occur to me at the time, I said 'thank you, happy St Patricks day." and went back to my little stifling box (it was really hot in the booth)...

All in all I'd say it was a good night. It was good to get behind the board again, and to know that I can walk into a foreign situation and handle it like a pro, had I not told the bands that it was my first night ever working this room, they probably wouldn't have known, and that's my goal, to be as professional as I can no matter what is thrown my way.

My mix was awesome (in my not-so humble opinion)

Spamalot!!!! Good Show!!!

K and I decided that we needed to go out, really do a date night in Vegas.... we chose Monty Python's Spamalot and dessert out. We got the show part, dessert was interrupted....

So take a Monty Python movie (or parts from many), put it (them) to music, add dance scenes, and voila! a great 90 minute show filled with all the best parts of Monty Python bits! You knew what was coming, the whole crowd recited the lines along with the actors, and the laughs were loud and many!

Now.... add J O'Hurley in the lead role (he was J peterman on Seinfeld and won on Dancing with te stars), absolutley hillarious. What a nice touch, to have O'Hurley's dry delivery and timing along with a good cast, it really made for a great night.

The scenery was top-notch small theatre stuff, really good us of props and scenery, it was kind of like waching a high school musical that had a really big budget. Good use of modern projection technology, without making it the focus of the show (ala Celine....)

I was pleased to see that the show uses a real band, tucked away somewhere under the stage.

So my final word on Spamalot...... COME OUT TO VEGAS AND WE'LL GO SEE IT!!! I could easily recommend this show to anyone and everyone!!!

My first Vegas Implosion, pretty cool stuff!!

So this is what the Stardust looked like, with MR. Las Vegas headlining in his own showroom and a fireworks show going off (probably from it's official opening..) It was a neat older casino, with a lot of smoke hanging in the air, and a cool oldschool vibe. I only went a few times to see some bands play in the lounge or while I was walking around aimlessly (which I used to do a lot when I got off work early...) It's been closed, they've auctioned offeverything they could and stripped the building to a shell. Ready to go.

The implosion was reported as after 1:00 AM before 5:00 AM, I guess they gave themselves a big window for wind conditions or smething (don't want to screw around when you'r loading dynamite......) I got there at 1:00 AM (on a little back story, I ate dinner and hit the sack at 6:30 PM so I wouldn't be too fried.......) I found a nice spot across from the doomed structure and set up my tripod withmy SLR camera on it and hung my digital from the tripod so it would be handy. I heard a worker say 2:30, so I knew I had some time to hang out and get comfortable. people kept piling in to the area I was in , it was pretty cool, they were shining colored lights on the building, the streets were blocked off from traffic, there was definite tension in the air. I snapped a few pictures with my SLR and forgot to look at the photo count, so I only got some B&W pics before the fireworks/implosion.... I'm really glad I brought the digital.

The fireworks were pretty good, many people around me were saying they were better than New Years Eve of last year.... Fireworks mounted on the side of the building made for a cool vision, and then the fireworks made big numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 (you get the picture...) a series of booms and nothing.... another set of booms, and down she came, in around ten seconds the tower cam crashing down, a cloud of dust filled the air (and sent the crowd running, those of us who were smart enough to see how slow it was moving too our time getting back to our cars...)

Traffic was backed up getting out ofthere, but I'm gad I went, it was pretty cool.... a lot of staning around and waiting, but worth every second of it!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY FLICKR PHOTOSET

For some reason the Flickr uploader puts these in bacwards order, so start from the end and work your way back if seeing them in chronological order is important to you....

>