Dark, Dark even Darker Day

The past few days in Lubbock have been dark and dreary but the lights of the carnival, the sounds of kids screaming, and the stages of entertainment have kept the excitement going at the fair.  The sun tried really, really hard to come out today.  While it would be cloudy and misting one minutes the next it would be hot and sunny.  I could have gotten a workout just putting on and taking off my jacket. 

With it being the last day of the fair I spent the afternoon cleaning out my office, organizing leftover supplies and preparing for the last show of the 2012 South Plains Fair.  Today we have 'My Darkest Days' a hard rock group.  You know, the different colored haired mullets, skinny jeans, piercings and tattoos.  Funny thing is usually these groups are the nicest, more polite and their crowds are typically well tamed.  There will be the odd balls that have fans that like to mosh pit.  I started off the day by telling them about the area in front of the stage.  He said no problem at all.  Then HE proceeds to ask ME "I assume we're doing a non-profanity show here?"  I said "yes, if we can scaled it down a bit".  He said "no, there are two rules.  Everything goes or nothing goes."  We'll have PG-13, family friendly show for you.  That's how I knew the day and show was going to go well.  I've never worked with these guys, don't really listen to their music but I hope to work with them again.  They've been such a pleasure and the show really is half bad.  'Cept the lead singer sounds like a banshee every other verse.  I'm assuming that's normal.  :)

I'll be getting on a jet plane tomorrow morning and ending the last leg of the 2012 Mud and Dust Tour.  It has been a wild and crazy ride!  Thanks to everyone that has read the blog and I hope it's been an intriguing read.  You might think 'what is she going to do now?'.  Believe it or not, we're already booking for 2013.  When I get home I'll be preparing for two corporate shows at the end of October, Vegas for Fair Convention in November, Iowa for a fair convention in December and then I have the pleasure of going back to the South Florida Fair again this year in January.  I'll be ready for it by then. :)

The title which should remain un-named

There is not a title of a song that I knew would be appropriate for this.  There's only two songs of the artist that I know the title of and well, they aren't appropriate songs. 

Today started out being a dreary day with overcast skies and drizzle here and there.  Once we hit mid evening the crowds were light, the temps were dropping and it was just wet.  We had our largest, most talked about concert tonight, Ginuwine, so we knew they would come out.  They sure did.  Over 4,000 packed the coliseum and they didn't care who you were, they were going where they wanted to.  I've never been cussed or given the evil eye as much as I have tonight by a crowd.  The crew was great.  The show consisted of Ginuwine, two back up vocalists and a DJ on stage.  They were all a pleasure to work with, welcomed compromise and were more worried about how I was doing.  We had originally talked about the show being 45mins.  I asked the tour manager if they could lengthen it.  He said sure we can do 90mins if you want.  Sure! Why not give them what they paid for.  I should have left it at 45min.  The extra 45mins was him gyrating on stage, cracking up amongst each other and lead to a very loose show.  That was on stage. 

Off stage the crowd inched closer and closer to the stage, filling the aisle and the gap between the stage and the front row.  Several of us ended up having to work security because we just couldn't keep them back.  Of course he encouraged it by jumping up on the speakers to "get closer" to the folks upstairs, throwing t-shirts, towels and roses.  It didn't help that toward the end he striped his shirt, pulled his pants to the "thug" position.  What made me laugh the most was as I was keeping about 50 people in place a little girl, maybe 10 years old comes up with her mom and little brother.  She starts singing one of his most popular songs that is explicitly, in between the lines about sex.  She has no clue what she's singing.  He says 'who all is single?'  and she raises her hand up and screams.  The mom reaches behind her, pulls her hand down and says 'he's not talking to you'.  I look at her like "you're the one that brought her here". 

To sum it all up there were three fights in front of the stage immediately after the show ends.  Of course they were fighting over the shirts.  It got so bad the tour manager picked up a mic and says "ya'll stop acting like fools, this ain't no rap concert".  Funny, they didn't listen to him either. 

Then they do an hour of taking photos with him that they charge $20 but then print them all out making everyone wait like an hour for their photo.  I told the guy in charge I'd pay $20 not to have to wait in that line and print it offline later. 

While it was a huge crowd and Ginuwine's first time to Lubbock, he loved it and wants to come back.  Let's wait a few years on that!

Brokenhearted

I didn't blog last night because it was an early, slow night and I had a party to get to. :)  We had comedian, James Gregory at the Coliseum.  He was easy to work with and heck comedians only need a mic so it was an easy setup for the production crew.  We didn't get here until like 4:00PM!  He was hilarious both on and off stage.  Very personable and easy to get along with.  A comedian is a little different for this crowd so marketing it can be difficult.  We didn't expect a huge crowd but unfortunately, a huge storm right before show time killed any luck we had at a crowd.  There were about 150 people that showed up and loved it!  His clean, funny show was perfect.  Of course the load out was just as easy as the load in and we were wrapped up by about 9:30P.  Sparky was hosting his annual 'cookout' with the ground acts so we had an entire spread of delicious goodies and I got to meet some of the acts that I never get to see.  We got to hear stories of sea lions, tigers and monkeys, OH MY! :)  Plus a family jam band, spoon musician and hypnotist.  It was entertaining, chill and a great time as always. 

I was definitely ready for the shows to pick up because that's what keeps me going.  I had the pleasure of working with Karmin in New York and was glad to have them here.  Up until the show I was dealing with some basic stuff.  I had to have one argument over some spotlights and the fact that there was a miscommunication and they were needing them for another stage.  Fortunately, it wasn't my mistake and it was all worked out.  It didn't start my day off well though.  OH and I woke up to a text from Ginuwine's tour manager saying someone in Lubbock was promoting an after party that they weren't aware of.  I had to track down who was doing it and make sure they weren't promising that Ginuwine would be there.  After a few calls, one being to the venue pretending to be some avid fan, I found that that wasn't the case and the manager was happy again. 

We knew it was going to be a big crowd when the line started an hour and half before doors opened. 

Off we went, opened the doors and I watched a slew of little girls probably ages 6-16 and a few boys sprinkled in there SO excited to be coming to the show.  Things were running smoothly and I think, 'hey, I can go watch some of the show'.  I walk in, I'm watching the front of the stage and Amy "Karmin", bends down and a few little girls run up to give her a five. Well, once a few do it the entire crowd thinks they can too.  Unfortunately, security wasn't in their proper locations and the entire floor came up to the stage.  In other locations this wouldn't be as much of a problem and here we do it sometimes toward the end of the show.  This was toward the beginning.  We've now lost complete control of the house and there wasn't a darn thing anyone could do about it.  One of the guards says 'what do you want us to do?' I said keep it as calm as you can, get those girls down out of the seats and we'll deal with it.  The great thing was they were pretty calm, the band loved it and the crowd loved it even more.  They were up dancing, singing along and having the time of their lives.

 Thankfully the fire marshall didn't show up because I know it would have been a fight to keep them from shutting it down.  Can you tell I wasn't really happy??  Then I was told one of the swamp coolers was leaking again so there's a pond growing in the bleachers and someone was acting a fool, tripped up the stairs and probably broke her ankle.  To top it off the band members were signing autographs after the show from the front of the stage.  The tour manager asks me to have the building cleared.  I said "well it would help if you're guys would stop signing".  He sends them back, security gets the crowd moving toward the door and 'Karmin' comes out.  Just imagine 50 SCREAMING teeny boppers, bopping back up to the stage.  Thank goodness there were two huge security guards (in the right place this time) that were able to keep them back.  The key players go to leave and there's no way to get them from the building to the van without the 100 people in the parking lot seeing them so that turned into an hour autograph session. 

So while the band is fantastic and cheesily entertaining, the crowd had a wonderful time and no one had a clue anything was out of place.  That's when I know my job was done.  But I can still hear the 2,300 screaming girls in my ears for some reason....

Uno, Dos, Tres

I didn't know and couldn't understand the music tonight so I couldn't come up with a proper headline given song name.  It was Tejano music night.  This night is always huge with the Hispanic community.  A popular, local radio station books the bands so I go into 'building manager' and 'firefighter' mode.  Since I haven't talked with the bands up front I let the rep from the station take the lead.  If there's a big problem I can step in and help but usually I just take care of the building, staffing, etc. 

I ended up getting to the fairgrounds early to knock out some work that I haven't gotten done until now.  Unfortunately, I only got to about half of that.  LOL  Tomorrow, tomorrow!  I'm now caught up on all of the shows and schedules and advances are finished.  Tomorrow we have a comedian, James Gregory.  We aren't loading in until 4:30p so I'll have the day to spend on catch up.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday are going to be big crowds. 

Fortunately, on day's like this I can do some things that I don't usually have time to do.  My friend, Jesse and I went out and explored the fair.  We watched one of the grounds acts, Matt's Family Jam.  It's a family of 5, parents and their three kids, that perform songs that everyone knows and can sing along with.  They even have little drums and hula hoops in front of the stage for a little play zone.  Of course that's where Mark, Jesse and I ended up.  Let's just say we were extremely entertaining trying to hula hoop!  I also got to ride the Ferris Wheel with my little buddies the Wallace twins.  I HATE carnival rides and heights but the Ferris Wheel is the only thing that I trust enough to ride and that's a stretch.  They just couldn't understand why I didn't want them swinging the cart or turning around on their knees to wave to Mom and Dad in the cart behind us.  I was petrified they were going to fall out.  Fortunately, it didn't go as fast as it looked from the outside and it was over sooner than later. =)  No,  you're not going to catch me on the swings or anything that goes upside down. 

Will, Tiffany and I

I think I might actually make it home before 11P.  Thankfully, because I've had a migraine for three hours now that is just plain annoying!

'Roll With It'

Just wanted to slip a bit about my exciting Sunday in here.  I had the day off so I had found that a marathon/half-marathon was going on on my day off, Sunday.  I thought 'why not'?!  So Sunday I woke up walked out the hotel door and within in a block I was at the starting line.  I had no expectations but was hoping to finish in under 3:00hours.  My last and best time was 3:25 with the Derby Mini in April.  I ran the first two miles and then started a walk/run but ended up running most of it.  I finished in 2:54!!  I was so excited about this time and that I finally proved to myself that I can do it.  They had promoted the course as a flat course.  Given Lubbock is only 13miles wide, we basically could have walked from one side to the other.  However, they ran us through the parks and canyons so it was anything but flat.  I ended up counting 9 hills.  Three of which I stood at the bottom thinking "you have to be kidding!".  All in all it was a great time and I hope to make that a tradition if they continue to have it.

'Thumbs Up for Lane!'

So today I was holding my breath.  Last year we had Easton Corbin scheduled for this day he fell ill and wasn't able to make the show.  We replaced him with Sawyer Brown two days before the date.  When I woke up this morning I was hoping for the best.  Unfortunately, their crew bus broke down in Tuscon last night but they were able to switch the bus out for a new one and make it here only an hour late.  So I contacted the production company, labor crew and runner and pushed everything back.  Then rearranged their lunch order and coordinated that.  Then received a text from the tour manager saying that he needed to run to Walmart to make sure Easton's new CD was on the shelve and in a particular spot (rules from management) but because they were late he was asking me to do it.  Fortunately, I was already running there and just swung through the music section, snapped a photo and was off.  It was a busy day with situating the house to meet their needs; expanding backstage, finding a Texas flag for the stage, etc. etc.  I had to get a last minute interview for the news station approved and then coordinate getting Easton to their location.  Unfortunately it landed right when I was supposed to be training the ticket taking staff and opening doors.  So I trained in 3mins, had security situated before I left, ran him to the interview and back and then made it to open doors with 5mins to spare.  WHEW!  Glad everything ran on time and fell into place.  We had over 3,600 in the house for the show.  A great, great show.  This guy has all the factors and is definitely going to go places!  He's an absolute sweetheart (has his quirks, but don't we all), handsome, personality, and has that old country voice mixed with new country song writing and star power.  I look forward to see how far he can go.  His crew is A+ too.  I look forward to working with these guys again and again. 

 



Remember how I talk about my families on the road?  This is one of them!  The goofy one in the red is actually Mark Sparks, Vice President of Triangle Talent and he runs the "goofy" department with our specialty acts.  The rest of the bunch are the Wallace's.  Ricky, Jennifer and the twins, Tiff and Will.  The kids are just precious and it's been great watching them grow over the past 5 years.  They call me the 'candy lady' because I always have candy in my little 'house', my office, the shack behind them.  How can you not love those little faces!!

'Jeremiah was a Bullfrog'

Had an amazing day at the South Plains Fair with Three Dog Night!  The past few days have been filled with fun with friends and preparing the building with sound, lights and general odds and ends.  We usually have a show on Friday but in order to get bigger names throughout the fair they decided to not do a show on Friday and invest more on the rest. 

With today being our first show it was much like opening day.  First was the overhaul with the cleaning crew; make sure the bathrooms and dressing rooms are cleaned, get trash cans backstage.  Then put out the ticket stub holders, hang 'no smoking' and 'no re-entry' signs, etc. etc. :)  It was a busy day even before the band got here. 

They showed up, load in and were ready to rock when the band arrived early evening.  Then it was getting coolers ready, putting a little hospitality in the dressing rooms, getting the radio station taken care of.  This fair is a little different.  With this one I actually run the building and the concerts.  So I'm checking restrooms, managing tickets takers, operating house lights (the band's lighting director says when to turn the main lights on and off and I'm the one that has to do that), manage security and make sure the patrons are happy.

South Plains Fair- Fair Park Coliseum
Three Dog Night setup

Tonight we had almost 4,000 for the show.  There was hardly any room to sit in the venue.  They loved every minute of the show and the band did too.  They always put on such a great show.  The manager said 'you should know the show by now, you can run it next time we work with you'.  This is why I love my job, seeing 'friends' along the road that actually get it and everything runs smoothly from both ends. 

They sing an A Capella version of 'Prayer' during the show.  The front of house engineer (the guy that makes the band sound good...or bad :) ) said over 30 people came up to him in tears saying how wonderful in was.  He said it's usually a handful but never that big of a response!  Lubbock definitely loves Three Dog Night!

Three Dog Night

 

Tomorrow we have the day off.  I know we only work day and then get a day off.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  Usually the first Saturday I'm here the Komen 5K takes place.  I had been looking up to see when it was and they've actually moved it a couple of weeks but I stumpled upon a new one.  I'm proud to say that tomorrow I will be running the 1st Annual Panhandle Marathon---I'll be running half of couse. :)  I'm so excited to see how many minutes I can shave off with my new found love of running!

So Called Life-Devil Went Down to Georgia

Ugh...I so should not have partied as hard as I did last night!  Completely paid for it today.  A lot of the Chevy Court staff went out and ended up meeting up with a group of Troopers.  Let's just say many, many jager bombs later, a little karaoke and dancing and I was not happy about waking up today.  Thank goodness it was an easy day. 

Candy Coburn was our 2PM.  Our company has actually managed her for the past few years.  We've had a hands off approach the past year but our boss still works with her.  She's had two singles released on the national charts and numerous fantastic tour sponsors.  Watching her try to make it has shown me the down and dirty side of the business.  Even with talent it doesn't guarantee a spot.  Yet, some of these that do not have talent make it. It boggles my mind.  Anyway, the load in was extremely late today which was perfect.  We had Candy's backline rental gear set and ready to roll when they arrived.  They line checked and were ready.  They actually had an opening act, Joanne Shenandoah.  They were just a trio so it was basically a plug and play.  There were a few people in the audience for the show but not many.  The fairgrounds traffic was really light.  We had clouds all day that looked like they would just open up anytime but never did, thankfully.  They kept bouncing the hourly forecast all over the place.  I thought that might scare the crowd away. 

Charlie Daniels Band was up for our last concert of the year.  They had been worried about loading in so late in the afternoon (after the 2PM show).  Of course with their professional crew and ours they were loaded in and ready to do a show within 2.5hrs.  They just aren't used to their day being cut in half.  Triangle has done so many dates with Charlie they know we'd take care of them.  This was the first time they've been back to the fair in about six years but they're no strangers.  They've played here over 20 times and sold the GRANDSTAND (17,000+ capacity) out seven years in a row.  Charlie is just a sweetheart.  He goes out of his way to say hello to everyone.  He and several of the investigators were talking about guns, etc in the dressing room area for a half hour.  So the weather at one point looked like it was going to mean bad news about 2/3 way through the show.  And it changed.  :)  I think even if it was raining, people would be here.  This was a great way to end the 2012 Chevy Court series and fair.  Over 10,000 are now out there jamming to the King of the Fiddle. 

I'm definitely looking forward to getting home tomorrow.  It will be another rough morning (shuttle pick up at 6:30A for an 8AM but I'll be home and on my couch by 2:30. =)  A couple of weeks at home and then it's off to Lubbock!

'The Voice'-If I Die Young

I've been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Not only because it means we only have one more today left at the New York State Fair but I was looking forward to working with both of these groups.

Jermaine Paul was our 2PM show.  If you're a fan of 'The Voice', the new, performer competition with Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo and Christina Aguilara as judges you'll recognize his name.  He's the Season 2 winner.  He had the genuine, crisp voice on and off the stage.  He traveled from the city with his family and two kids.  His sister actually performed as a backup singer with him.  It was fun to see them all having fun at the fair.  I'm usually a fan of the more organized, on time groups.  This was not one of them.  I didn't advance the show until 3 days ago, neither the tour or production manager were coming with them but were sending replacements.  They ended up doing a 75min show and going on 10mins late.  I'm sure once they have a little experience the show will be great.  He has a great voice and definitely has those entertainer qualities. 

I honestly didn't think the crowd tonight was going to be super big.  When we booked Band Perry we thought it would be a slam dunk.  Judging by some of the hard ticket sales (where you have to pay for a ticket) I thought this show would be a little light.  Good grief was I wrong!  Traffic on the fairgrounds was backed up all day.  We had to route the bus through the troopers so they could get into the grounds and through traffic.  I knew there would be a huge problem trying to get the Perry's bus through at 6PM so we arranged for an escort to bring them in from the interstate and in to the venue.  The crew has always been such a pleasure to work with.  Today was no different.  I overheard the production assistant say "We haven't been home since the end of June.  We've been washing our clothes in the sink!"  That just proves that it's not all glitz and glamour! 
The people sitting in the front row somehow got in the fair at 1AM and staked out their spot.  They sat there all day long in the blazing heat on metal bleachers.  That's a dedicated fan!  It was a few hours before showtime that we knew it was going to be a monster crowd.  When I made it up in the trooper tower I instantly knew it was the top 3rd crowd we've had in the 4years that Triangle has been here.  After a couple of walkthroughs, getting up in the tower on the opposite side we set the estimated count at 26,000!!  Just a few thousand short from Lady A's record two years ago.  The most amazing sound was hearing the crowd belt out the beginning of 'If I Die Young'.  I'm pretty sure I would have teared up had I been them up on that stage. 

They ran off stage, jumped on the bus and were gone within 10mins. 

It's now been an hour, the truck is packed and everyone is showering.  Pretty sure we'll be out of here by 11P!  Good thing because we're headed to karaoke with the staff and troopers.  Could get interesting!

Take Me Home Tonight-Bad Girlfriend

On a non work note- I didn't eat anything hardly all day; a granola bar, a couple of carrots and a couple peppermint patties all so I could eat Tully's chicken strips and fries for dinner.  While it tasted delicious I have a feeling my tummy isn't going to agree with me.  So that's it, back to my chinese and sushi for the rest of the fair. 

I ended up going out and being a tourist at the fair today.  I saw everything I wanted to see (shopping and lottery) in an hour.  We did find some exciting things along the way. 

I don't know what's funnier- the number or that they actually do this!  Proves that we're NOT in NYC.

You never know what you'll find lurking around the fair

We actually had a morning with no church, no tv but they added a local group as an opener for the 2:00PM show so we still ended up with an early load in.  Eddie Money is always easy to work with.  He may not sound like he did back in the 80s but he can still entertain.  They are always easy to work with.  It was an absolute gorgeous day but hot if you were sitting in the sun.  The first four rows of bleachers filled up around noon with not people for Eddie at 2PM but for the 8PM show.  Crazies!  They got a great show and Eddie even went out and signed at the merch tent for over an hour.  That's how you sell merch people. 

Eddie Money

Didn't take long and Theory of a Deadman was set and ready to rock.  We didn't realize it but the lead singer was hanging around back stage all day.  Could have fooled me.  They're all from Canada but you could barely tell the accent, especially once they were on stage.  He is amazingly good looking though, on stage and up close. :)  Their crowd was just huge.  2.5 hours before the show there was already 3,000 people here.  It didn't take long for the crowd to take over the entire court.  Peering from the trooper tower we estimated 17,750.  LOL  No, we didn't count each individual person.  With this being a hard rock group we knew there were going to be a few issues with the crowd.  As I take the emcees up to the stage to have them introduce the band I see one of the avid fans in the third row holding a fancy homemade sign.  Actually it was a piece of posterboard with "Will F*#( for beer" in black sharpie.  I did censor this.  I come inside and one of our cop friends was hanging out.  I mentioned it to him and say, "I'm just trying to decide if I want someone to take that away from the guy."  He volunteers and makes his way outside.  He comes back with it in 10 different pieces which he had ripped up in front him.  While I considered I might have been a little conservative the last thing I needed was to have the camera actually catch it and it end up on the jumbotron!  Best part of probably the entire run...they came off the stage to the Golden Girls theme song!!  BEST THING EVER! 

Part of the crowd for Theory of a Deadman

We're finishing on a strong note with the next two night shows being big crowd pleasers as well.