Well, hello strangers! Seems like forever since Sand Dollar Rodeo has had a show, right? We're going to fix all that real soon. I guess I should be enjoying the down time (rather than feeling like I need something to be doing).
Since our last show, Heath and I have been doing some recording and also practicing for our upcoming acoustic shows. That, and a million other band related chores on the business side. So, I guess it really hasn't been down time. But, when you combine the every day business side of the band with the live shows, it's a faster pace of life, for sure.
So, about this show... Several months ago, Heath found out about an event at Fort Worth Convention Center being put on by USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology). They were looking for bands willing to come in and play at their SoundLab during the annual convention. The SoundLab is a setting where they take seasoned pros and students, then show them the ropes in a 10,000 seat arena with full concert sound. The "pros" are the real deal - sound guys from touring broadway shows to Miley Cyrus. The way it works is, the pro mixes a song, then a student, a pro, a student, back and forth through our 90 minute set. Anyway, sounded like fun and we went for it! I mean, come on, what band at our current level wouldn't want to play a stage where Elvis and U2 have played, right?
So, here's how it went... we roll in early, around 11am for load in. Kind of cool to drive your car into the underbelly of an arena. We pull in and are greeted by one of the runners and he gives a tour of the place. What a neat experience to roam the back halls where all sorts of famous bands have roamed and hung out. If those walls could talk... it's a whole city under there - meeting rooms, dressing rooms, showers, catering, etc. We finish our tour and then check out the stage. Then, we start unloading our gear, set it down and it's magically gone! What's this? Roadies? Yes - they actually took our stuff to the stage area and positioned it. From there, it only got better. A sea of stage hands, sound engineers and students start plugging us in and mic'ing everything and bam, time for sound check. I can't remember doing a sound check where I wasn't sweating away and exhausted from loading gear. Very nice, indeed.
Onto the sound. What can I say? Immaculate? We were test driving a new state of the art system that you'll soon see at major concerts nationwide. I heard is has little pins in it so that they can aim each speaker so the sound is equally as loud and clear up front as it is in the rafters. And it was!
One of my favorite things, as a concert fan, is when a show has booming bass. Especially, when it is on the bass drum. That "thud" that hits you in the chest gets my blood pumping. I wish you could have felt the bass waves as they left our stage and flooded the arena, then rumbled around the room. Very cool feeling.
Our part of the show was fun. We played pretty much all originals, except for one special one... You see, Heath's Mom had seen Elvis here years ago AND she happened to be on our guest list. So, of course, we had to do an Elvis song. We played Little Sister. Really, the performance itself was kind of a blur. We've all done this long enough that, unless something goes really wrong or is really bizarre, what we do isn't that memorable. Although, it was funny when I realized I had much more room on stage than normal... I was playing keyboards, turned my head to the left like I always do, to go back into singing and... oops... no mic - it was 5 feet away! I can deal with that - so much fun.
Mike Thornton was in the house with his camera and shot a lot of great pictures (thank you, Mike!). I have posted a few below. But, if you'd like to see the full roll, go over here to this album on our Facebook page and you can see them. Click Here for the Facebook Photo Album
Tonight, we're back to real life... playing a much smaller venue with our own PA system... should be a humbling experience LOL. But, so glad we got the chance to play the USITT event. I thank them for booking us and hope we can do it again.
Stay gold and we'll see you out there!
RH
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