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....