Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:02pm – Millennium Music Conference 2010 in Harrisburg Pa.
07 May 2010
So this past weekend ATOM STRANGE attended the MMC 2010 because we were invited to play. It was supposed to be this really huge event with like 100 bands and hundreds of people from all over hawking their wares that could help out bands and artists struggling to become successful. Along with that, there were a bunch of showcases and seminars scheduled for bands like us to play and attend to attract all these people vying for our attention and business.
While we made some new friends like the band New Day Dawn, and some pretty useful contacts including the local chapter of the Roller Derby team (who by the way were really cool!) and a table sponsored by Harley Davidson (that was kinda cool especially when we got an autographed poster from the Harley model!).
The really funny part of all this was the showcase that we were scheduled to play. It was at a place called the Field House in Etters Pa. As we drove from the hotel to the “venue” we were thinking it would be some sort of local dive bar or something along those lines. When we finally pulled up, it looked like a cool place just off the beaten path. As we entered to find out where we were going to load in and put our gear, we find out the place is basically a family restaurant with a bar! I am looking around and find that there are tons of families having their dinners with all these little kids eating chicken tenders and I’m thinking “We are going to end up either deafening these children with the first chord or even worse, killing them!” Not really what we expected.
We then found out that the people that were supposed to provide the backline (drums, PA and bass rigs) were putting together a PA that could have probably been more appropriate at CBGBS considering all the power amps and outboard gear they had. The place was pretty small and the PA was way too powerful for the space. Then the bomb dropped. After 2 direct calls to the sound guy the day before (Voyager Music in Pennsylvania) to confirm what we needed to bring, they tell me they have no drum kit! Fantastic! So now we are thinking to ourselves should we just up and leave and consider suing the MMC people or what? We decide to stick around because the owner of the restaurant (a sweet lady named Joyce) tells me that she is going to try and get a drum kit for all 5 bands to use. Thankfully she manages to get a good kit but not til after the first band plays using a floor tom on it’s side as a bass drum and just a snare and hi-hat ala Slim Jim Pahntom of the Stray Cats! While that might work for them (and they did a great job actually) it would not really work for ATOM STRANGE!
Just as the first band finishes, the drum kit arrives. Yay! All the while this is happening the sound engineer is looking like he is about to have an aneurysm because he says he’s 4 hours behind schedule and none of this is his fault but everyone is looking to him for answers! He’s screaming all kinds of obscenities and stuff and I am thinking “This is a family place! This guy is gonna kill some one soon if someone doesn’t tell him to watch his mouth or maybe if someone does tell him to watch his mouth!”.
So things seem to be getting up to speed now and we are looking forward to playing. We had a couple of friends that drove in 2 hours from Philly and we didn’t want to disappoint them. After listening to some cat play Jeff Beck Jr. with his dad on bass, we were up. We set up as quickly as possible and are rushed into our first song before I can finish tuning my guitar! Ok. I can deal with that. I’ve been there before and made it work. As we continue through our set, the sound levels were all over the place and the mics are working intermittently and the sound guy is nowhere to be found! Thankfully one of our friends from Philly is an ex-roadie and helped us out a little but it was still a fiasco. Of course we were too loud for the space we played but we are used to that. The people that book these things never actually listen to the bands and will put a show together that makes no sense to anyone. Finally as we go into our last tune, the sound guy magically appears and says “That sounds great!” and we are like “Where the fuck were you dude? We needed your help through the whole set and you disappeared!” He answers that he was busy taking care of the other system he installed in the basement! Thanks a lot!
So after our set New Day Dawn played a great set of their own and then we all left to head back to the hotel.
So after that experience (which I have to say is probably about par for the course when you are on tour as an unknown band) we drove home the next day with smiles on our faces even though things could have been way better, they could have also been a lot worse. We had fun anyway!
While we made some new friends like the band New Day Dawn, and some pretty useful contacts including the local chapter of the Roller Derby team (who by the way were really cool!) and a table sponsored by Harley Davidson (that was kinda cool especially when we got an autographed poster from the Harley model!).
The really funny part of all this was the showcase that we were scheduled to play. It was at a place called the Field House in Etters Pa. As we drove from the hotel to the “venue” we were thinking it would be some sort of local dive bar or something along those lines. When we finally pulled up, it looked like a cool place just off the beaten path. As we entered to find out where we were going to load in and put our gear, we find out the place is basically a family restaurant with a bar! I am looking around and find that there are tons of families having their dinners with all these little kids eating chicken tenders and I’m thinking “We are going to end up either deafening these children with the first chord or even worse, killing them!” Not really what we expected.
We then found out that the people that were supposed to provide the backline (drums, PA and bass rigs) were putting together a PA that could have probably been more appropriate at CBGBS considering all the power amps and outboard gear they had. The place was pretty small and the PA was way too powerful for the space. Then the bomb dropped. After 2 direct calls to the sound guy the day before (Voyager Music in Pennsylvania) to confirm what we needed to bring, they tell me they have no drum kit! Fantastic! So now we are thinking to ourselves should we just up and leave and consider suing the MMC people or what? We decide to stick around because the owner of the restaurant (a sweet lady named Joyce) tells me that she is going to try and get a drum kit for all 5 bands to use. Thankfully she manages to get a good kit but not til after the first band plays using a floor tom on it’s side as a bass drum and just a snare and hi-hat ala Slim Jim Pahntom of the Stray Cats! While that might work for them (and they did a great job actually) it would not really work for ATOM STRANGE!
Just as the first band finishes, the drum kit arrives. Yay! All the while this is happening the sound engineer is looking like he is about to have an aneurysm because he says he’s 4 hours behind schedule and none of this is his fault but everyone is looking to him for answers! He’s screaming all kinds of obscenities and stuff and I am thinking “This is a family place! This guy is gonna kill some one soon if someone doesn’t tell him to watch his mouth or maybe if someone does tell him to watch his mouth!”.
So things seem to be getting up to speed now and we are looking forward to playing. We had a couple of friends that drove in 2 hours from Philly and we didn’t want to disappoint them. After listening to some cat play Jeff Beck Jr. with his dad on bass, we were up. We set up as quickly as possible and are rushed into our first song before I can finish tuning my guitar! Ok. I can deal with that. I’ve been there before and made it work. As we continue through our set, the sound levels were all over the place and the mics are working intermittently and the sound guy is nowhere to be found! Thankfully one of our friends from Philly is an ex-roadie and helped us out a little but it was still a fiasco. Of course we were too loud for the space we played but we are used to that. The people that book these things never actually listen to the bands and will put a show together that makes no sense to anyone. Finally as we go into our last tune, the sound guy magically appears and says “That sounds great!” and we are like “Where the fuck were you dude? We needed your help through the whole set and you disappeared!” He answers that he was busy taking care of the other system he installed in the basement! Thanks a lot!
So after our set New Day Dawn played a great set of their own and then we all left to head back to the hotel.
So after that experience (which I have to say is probably about par for the course when you are on tour as an unknown band) we drove home the next day with smiles on our faces even though things could have been way better, they could have also been a lot worse. We had fun anyway!
