Gig Blog Page

~04/20/2008~

Although the winter is my slow season there have been several things that should have been written up here. I did write up the Daytona Spring Rally in my rally blog. I have had a bit of work beside that rally. In addition I put up a few web sites over the winter. One was an offer for free web sites for bands, clubs, and churches. I then expanded the offer to include almost anyone. This offer, though not well publicized, has been received with an absolutely amazing level of apathy. If you are interested in finding out more about the offer click HERE.

I am not going to try to list all of the gigs since the first of the year because that would require a lot of head scratching, and the hair is a bit too thin already! I will list the events of the past couple of weekends. April 13th was the third annual VFW-ACS Benefit. This was held, and sponsored by, at the New Smyrna VFW Post 4250. Earnie Lancaster opened the show. This was fun because he had an old friend, Debbie Boyer, playing with him. Magda Hiller played the event for the second year. Greg, a member of the post and a local musician, played a few songs solo, and later joined the Sugar Daddies in their set. Rhonda Patrick was also back this year. William Van Dyke sat in with Earnie and his band for a couple of songs and Steve, a friend of Bill's, did a few songs solo as well.

The 18th and 19th of April I provided production at the Indian River Festival. Friday Night was the festival concert with BlackFoot opening for Molly Hatchett. There was a good crowd for the concert. There was a 24 X 24 foot stage, but the sound wings were only 4 X 4. The concert sponsor was a local car dealership and they had a vehicle on stands very close to the stage. I was not able to put up all of the equipment that I brought, and with the large crowd I really needed it. Then Saturday night Brittany Lee, a 14 year old girl from Orlando, opened for Jim Van Fleet and the Reign.

~12/31/2007~

I guess that I should put one more entry in this blog before I have to remember to write 2008. There have been a couple of events in the past couple of weeks that are worthy of note. On the first day of winter, the 21st, the weather was not very winter like for the Pat Travers show at Cpt. Hiram's in Sebastian Florida. This was a toy benefit show sponsored by Cpt. Hiram's and a local radio station. The radio station had some sort of hatchback vehicle into which they were putting the toys. By show time there was barely room for the driver to get into the vehicle.

On the morning of the 24th I got a last minute call from Rev. Kennedy Jacobs of The Living Truth Christian Center in Daytona. They had decided to move their Christmas Eve Service out to the parking lot of the church to encourage more of the local residence to attend. They needed a sound system for the event. I still had the pa loaded from the Pat Travers show, so I took it down and unloaded about half of what we had used for Pat in their lot.

Friday and Saturday evening, the 28th and 29th there was a revival service sponsored by the Butz Temple Church of God in Christ. It was held at the Daytona Deliverance Church of God. The featured guest was Evangelist and Recording Artist Ms. Beverly Crawford. She preached a sermonette Friday evening and there was a concert Saturday Evening.

~12/17/2007~

Friday evening I worked with local artist, Nickoloff, at Finnegan's Daytona in South Daytona. We had gone in the night before and set up the PA and lights and done a sound check, so Friday evening was an easy night. John had hit his email list to promote the show and the turnout was good. Spike, who played with John in Naked Rachael, played guitar for the show.  (Rachael was there, but not Naked. That is similar to which one's Pink, of Pink Floyd.)

Saturday night it was off to Orlando and the JW Marriot for the Big Apple Consulting USA Christmas Party.  One of their customers has brought in a band from LA, Taxi Doll, to play at the event.  This was a good band playing an electronic rock music.  They have a female vocalist that fronts the band with bass, guitar, keys, and drums.

This venue is a huge hotel/conference complex on the south side of Orlando.  My estimate was that the entrance to the conference room was about a quarter mile through the service corridors from the nearest service entrance.  I had to make many trips, although I only carried a small PA.  I also carried two trees of lights and transported the backline equipment.  (It was the backline provider that had the contact with Big Apple and set me up with the gig.)  On the out, the service corridor was filled with workers cleaning up after the many Christmas partys that were held there that evening.  It took me two hours to dodge the workers and drag the equipment out of the conference room.  There was not room in the service corridor to use the flatbed so it all went out on the hand truck, with many trips.

~12/10/2007~

On Saturday evening I worked with Tory Wynter performing at a Christmas party in Orlando.  Tory used members of 506, a local reggae band and long time friends, as his back-up band.  Tory provided the musical entertainment for the event.  There was also other entertainment in the form of contortionists and acrobats represented by Krazy Kreis Entertainment.  These are truly amazing and crowd pleasing entertainers.  If you want something different for your special event I would highly recommend that you contact Krazy Kreis and have them hook you up!

Sunday, the ninth, was the first annual Toys for Tots benefit held at the Comfort Zone in the Howard Johnson's Motel located at the SR 44 exit on I-4.  The event went from 1:00 PM until around 8 PM.  Five central Florida bands contributed their time to play at the event. They were Southpaw, Infury8, Powerkor, Scratch, and CrashRocket. The weather was beautiful and there was a good turn out for the event.  The stage was provided by MH Audio out of Edgewater, Florida, and I provided the sound and lights for the event.  I have requested a list of the bands with web info which I will add to this post.

~11/26/2007~

This past weekend was the 24th Church of God Florida State Youth Convention.  I have lost exact count, but this is about my 18th youth convention.  I have watched children in this group grow to adulthood.

There was a bit of confusion at the beginning of this one.  There are two Rosen hotels on International Drive in Orlando.  I had gotten the name Rosen Centre into my head.  I passed the Rosen Plaza, the hotel where I thought the convention was to be held, and drove on to the Rosen Centre.  When I got there I asked at the office for the Church of God Convention.  They directed me to the hall.  I looked in the hall and saw a company setting up production for the event.  I spoke with the people from the production company.  They said that they were doing a Church of God Youth Convention, but they also said that this was their fifth year doing the convention.  After some thought, I decided that I had probably not slept for five years so this must not be my convention.  I went back to the office and asked that they call the Rosen Plaza to confirm my suspicion.

The youth convention is held the weekend after Thanksgiving each year.  On Friday night there is a concert.  This year's concert artist was Tye Tribbet.  The production requirement was quite heavy for this show.  They wanted mixing consoles that were beyond what I have.  The church had to rent these consoles and 5 wireless microphones, in addition to the 2 wireless microphones that I have.  They normally rent backline equipment from ASR Pro Events.  ASR is a full service company and they had the additional equipment that was needed.  With the additional equipment we were able to pull off the show.  The concert was very good.  One of the former state youth co-ordenators reminded me that we had done this artist before.  The previous concert was before he had achieved the level that he now is.  I mixed the show on my equipment and all went well and a lot easier than this time.

All in all it was a good weekend.  The weather was very pleasant.  The attendance was good for the event.  It was fun to work the rest of the weekend on the heavier artillery.