Victoria Justice-Pentatonix

Last night I had the pleasure of just hanging out at the fair.  We went to all of the free stages to check out the entertainment.  The Iowa State Fair does an amazing job of offering such a wide selection of free entertainment.  Local show band Hairball always packs 'em in and sells beer and Jerrod Niemann puts on a great show.  Needless to say, I think the hours are catching up with me because I just wasn't feeling it today.

Jerrod Niemann on the Knapp free stage

Today we got to work with Victoria Justice and Pentatonix.  Victoria has found her fame on her tv show, Victorious, a Nickelodeon phenomenon.  Usually these type of shows, the ones that draw 5-12year old girls are extremely needy and just flat out dramatic.  However, the most dramatic thing I was faced with today was creating a quick change room and then the roses petals that were all over the ground outside the tour's buses.  Turns out the meet and greet person puts the roses out, it's not an infamous rider requirement.  The quick change room was just fine except the wind blew like heck right up until show time.  What's a quick change room you ask?  Well it's normally an area sectioned off with pipe and drape and they put fans, mirrors, tissues etc. so the artist can either change they're clothes or "take a break".  In this case it was used for a total of 2mins and she never changed clothes but just relaxed and checked her makeup.  The crew today is basically the same crew I worked with a couple of times a few years ago with Big Time Rush.  I was glad to hear we'd be working with them.

Pentatonix, which is a complete acapela band, opened the show.  They found their stardom on the 'Sing Off'.  Three of them went to high school together and found the other two through friends.  They make all of the music, drum sounds, beat boxing etc. only with their mouths.  They were absolutely incredible!  Their musical abilities are just amazing and they have a pretty good show put together.  I saw this video posted last month.  It was the first time I heard Pentatonix.  It's absolutely amazing and worth the 8mins it takes to watch it.
Pentatonix- The Wizard of Ahhs

Victoria definitely has stage and show presence.  She dances all over the stage, flipping her hair back and forth.  How she doesn't have a headache every day is beyond me!  But the little girls (and older ones) loved her!  There were even some super male fans.  Some in her meet and greet brought her several presents a piece.  I'm looking forward to another day off before we hit the long string of really long, busy, successful days!

Dierks Bentley and Justin Moore

This is definitely one day to go on the top of my favorite days list.  We had Dierks Bentley and Justin Moore.  Both who have been extremely successful lately and just continuing up the ladder of stardom.  With two large sets to get on our particular stage, we knew it would work but didn't know what the day would hold.  I've worked with Justin's crew several times and it's always a pleasure.  They're extremely easy to work with and I should have known that would extend all the way with this group.

I received an email right after getting back "home" last night (about 1:30A) from Dierks' tour manager informing me that one of their buses had broken down but they were back on the road and would be about an hour late.  It wasn't a big deal for me.  We had a late load in of eleven anyways so whatever worked as long as they got here.

On another note I was awoken this morning from a call from one of the acts that I had booked on the free stage.  Their agent was calling with a crisis.  It's amazing how many people can get involved on a Sunday even.  The act was flying in but their bus was meeting them here.  The bus was supposed to bring their trailer with all of their musical equipment in tow.  Except someone didn't pick up the trailer.  So the act is flying in from Vegas with nothing to play on.  Nice.  Our backline provider was already sorting it out and ended up having everything already on the grounds.  Crisis averted!  It's nice when they're that easy.

Back to the grandstand.  I spent a little time playing catch up, working on schedules for Dierks' bus to roll in actually early!  So first the bus breaks down, turns out the transmission was blown.  They took Dierks' and two band members to a hotel only because they wouldn't fit on the second bus.  Dierks' called his pilot buddy and had him get his (Dierks') plane and fly up today to get them and then fly in to Des Moines.  They piled every other crew member and band member on the second bus and had headed here.  Apparently there were like 17 people on the bus, sleeping on couches, etc. all the way from Ohio.  Now they have to turn around and do it again and ride back to Nashville.  You would think after a night like that they'd roll off a bunch of grumpy butts.  Absolutely the opposite!  I'm greeted with a friendly and chipper hello from the tour manager.  Everyone has smiles on their faces and is ready to start the day.  We couldn't have asked for a better day all the way around.  The show was fantastic and the crowd was eating it up.  Justin is definitely on his way up and has a huge fan base.  Dierks' show was packed with hits.  A few new songs and a ton of extremely popular songs.

Justin Moore with over 8,000 in the crowd

Dierks Bentley closing the show

The end to a perfect day, 8,000 camera phones lighting the sky

A few months ago we were contacted by an organizer with a foundation called Operation Finally Home.  They build homes and give them away mortgage free to soldiers that have came back from serving overseas.  They had asked if they could present a home to their recipient between Justin and Dierks being on stage.  We talked through several different scenarios as to how they could accomplish this.  It was to be a complete secret for the solider.  It ended up that one of the organizers called and invited them to participate in a veterans recognition ceremony.   They got them tickets and meet and greets.  It ended up to be the most overwhelming and humble experience I've had the opportunity to participate in during my career thus far.  We took everyone up on stage, including the officer and his wife.  Turns out they have a two week old baby and he convinced her to get a babysit and be by his side for this completely unknowing of what was going to happen.  Kix Brooks (of Brooks and Dunn) had pre-recorded a message that was shown on the video screens.  A local DJ welcomed the crowd and introduced the video.  Kix welcomed everyone and explained what Operation Family Home was.  He then thanked the solider for his service.  At this point the soldiers wife nudged him and said, "You need to pay attention.  Kix Brooks just said your name in that video!"  At that point Kix introduced the builder that was standing on stage who thanked the gentleman for his service and eventually told he and his wife that they were being given a home mortgage free.  The crowd was on their feet, cheering and screaming.  Everyone of us was bawling like babies.  Seeing the reaction on their faces was priceless and it made every minute that went into planning the reveal completely worth it.  But it gets better.  Right before we started Dierks' tour manager told me that Dierks' wanted to personally congratulate them as he was going to the stage.  So we held them backstage, Dierks' walks up and carries on a conversation for a few minutes.  The soldier was a complete fan to begin with so this was over the top for him.  Dierks' walks away to walk over to his band and go on stage.  I turn to see them in a arm over arm huddle to say a prayer to go on stage.  What happened next is seriously making me tear up and have cold chills just writing it.  They all yell for the soldier and his wife to come join them in their pre-show prayer.

You can barely see it but this is the prayer

All in all the day could not have been any better and I seriously feel honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.  We even dodged the rain!  We were watching the radar the entire day waiting for this huge super cell to hit us.  As soon as Dierks' bus and trucks pulled out, it has now started pouring.  Tomorrow is a dark day in the grandstand, we don't have a show, so I'll be doing paperwork and phone calls at the office and spending a little down time at the fair seeing the sights and free stages.

Saturday Night Live Featuring Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon

What a day!  What should have been the easiest show we have here turned out to be the most incredible detailed and hands on day I'll have.  We had Saturday Night Live stars, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, and Kevin Nealon.  But the story really starts about three days ago.  You would think, "ok, they're comedians, they need a mic, maybe some water."  That's exactly what the fair manager said this afternoon.  I get their requirements, 3 mics, 3 stools, a music stand, 5 unopened bottles of water.  Each guy does a 25 minute skit and then they all come back out together and do 25 mins of Q&A.  Now we're in a 10,000+ seat grandstand with hardly any way to pass a mic 'around' and I surely wasn't looking forward to half of those 10,000 rushing down to ask a question.  So after some thinking I asked the marketing department to go to the facebookers of the world and ask them to submit questions and pick 25 people to participate.  That way we can manage the number and screen the questions.  That part worked like a charm.  Until the comedians came in and asked, "Do we need to do the meet and greet?"  You bet you do, was my reply.

I spoke with Miller and Nealon's asst. who felt the most important thing to talk about was to confirm five times that the music stand will be there.  "It's very important.  Are you sure it will be there."  YES! After the 5th time.  There are 20 at another stage.  We WILL have a music stand.

But then I find out 2 days before the show day...that they will have a band.  Really?  We've gone from a three mic, 3 stool, music stand (don't forget about the music stand) and 5 unopened bottles of water to having a 5 piece band back them.  Well, really back Dana because it was his project but the others can just go along with it.  While it really wasn't that big of a deal it was the thought of receiving the information 2 days prior that irked me.  Plus local bands are so much more needy than those that tour all the time.  Today was case in point.  The band was great, easy to work with but their video crew was a little over the top.
While I got to add, construct and produce a Q&A to my resume today, I also got to add stage hand.  There were particular parts of the show where their huge lists of needs needed to be taken out on the stage.  Change the water, take the music stand, switch the mics, yada yada.  Instead of bringing two stagehands in to do that I figured, what the heck, I'll do it.  But then I found out being in three places doesn't work.  I can't be changing things on stage, coordinating the meet and greet on the track in front of the stage and sending the signal for fireworks.  Thank goodness for a great stage crew that will jump in.

The comedians were literally on site for less than two hours, and on stage for an hour and half of that.  They weren't traveling with a handler so I had no one to ask questions to but them.  They were very nice guys.  Dana is shorter than me.  Kevin is very friendly.  Dennis was, well Dennis.  Dana spent a few minutes talking with the staff backstage getting tidbits of local flare, the different neighborhoods, etc.  Basically so he could get everyone stirred up.  Dana asked me before the show, while standing with Kevin, so what type of show is this, can we curse?  I told him that we want to keep it a family friendly show, PG, PG-13.  They asked, so what you see on SNL.  I said maybe back when you were on it...but not now.  No Fbombs, very few curse words and try to keep it as clean as possible on the innuendos.  I should have known better.  Dennis went on a tyrant about the government, I think Viagra was mentioned in a story or two, with the subject matter going along with it.  Dana dropped the Fbomb twice and I heard a few others.  All in all it was a hilarious show.  Goes to show it doesn't matter what you tell these guys; they're going to say, what they're going to say.  My favorite part of the day; The fireworks are just starting and I'm walking backstage and see their vehicle pull away.  Hello and goodnight and they're gone just as quickly as they came.  Not sure what to do on a Saturday night when the show is over at 9:45P and the artists are already gone!  Now if they just would have had Molly Shannon with them....SUPERSTAR!

Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller

 I can't forget to mention that one of the Dream Team honored me today with a WOW button.  Apparently the fair has special buttons that if someone sees someone doing something that deserves a WOW they can give them this button.  'Way beyond the ordinary, own it, win them over'.  I'm sure whatever I did was just part of the job but I appreciated the recognition.  Thanks WOW button giver. ;)

Happy Together Tour

Some of my favorite days on the road are the easy days.  That's probably because 'easy' is few and far between.  Today was one of those days--favorite day!  We had what was called the Happy Together Tour.  It consists of ONE band and several of the most popular singers from the favorite 60's acts.  Today we've had floating around, Gary Lewis of the Playboys, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Gary Puckett, Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night and Flo and Eddie of the Turtles.  I don't recognize half of them of course.  I really should look these people up before they show up.

I did get to have a nice conversation with Flo of the Turtles.  It's fascinating to pick the brain of someone that's been in the business for so long, has been through ups and downs and seen everything in the business.  I didn't necessary "choose" the fair business.  I like to think it chose me.  Hearing from an act that embraces the principals of fairs and thrives from their existence, makes my job seem worthwhile.

Today I had enough time to get 7 hours of sleep, run and have breakfast with the sound and light provider for all five stages of the fair.  I didn't have to be on site until about noon but came over about 11a to work on other things.  The tour runs so seamlessly that I haven't even had to check on the stage to make sure everyone was on the stage when they need to be.  It runs like a well oiled machine.  One comes off, the next goes on.  The Turtles actually came out to Gangnam Style.  =)

For "Happy Together" one of the Turtles hits they bring everyone back on stage.  Imagine all of those legends on one stage!

The first Friday of the fair is nicknamed 'East Side Night'.  Everyone that lives in the East Side claims that to be their special night and they pack the fairgrounds.  As such, I'm now waiting to go home until the bus leaves at midnight because there's no chance I'll make it through the crowd.

Casting Crowns-Jeremy Camp

Well hello, Mud and Dust Tour 2013!  As always being on the road brings surprises, challenges and the joy of seeing friends and "family" along the way.  I always look forward to coming back to the Iowa State Fair.  It's definitely one of the best fairs in the country and the people here make it that way.

I flew in two days before the show started.  Luckily, I had no issues along the way.  That's surprising since it seemed like every surrounding gate was asking for volunteers to bump and take the next flight.  I was glad to have the opportunity to fly at least one leg of the trip on Southwest!  I hit the ground running and caught up with the staff and getting checked into the hotel.  The next day I spent the entire day at the fairgrounds, "moving in".  I set up my office, took care of paperwork and continued organizing the schedules with phone calls and computer work that I've been working on for a month.  Shockingly, I was already working on the New York State Fair, the next stop.  I found out about noon that the furniture for the dressing rooms had not been ordered.  Thankfully the decorator was willing enough to spend hours tracking down two sets of furniture for our dressing room trailers.  Unfortunately it had to come out of Chicago and didn't arrive until this afternoon, halfway through our first show day.

The fair decided to upgrade one of their free stages this year.  The Budweiser Stage used to live in a tent.  It was a very small stage, hardly any production but every band that played there loved it.  They were always packing people in there.  This year the fair decided to utilize a grassy area and bring in a large stage, upgrade the production and really do it up right.  That they did!  I'm responsible for working with one of the fair staff to book the acts for all of the free stages besides the grandstand.  My boss books that and I'm here to produce it.  So we really focused the budget on the Budweiser Stage that usually features classic rock bands.  I've heard several comments about how great the lineup is.  I got to sneak over there during Blue Oyster Cult's set tonight.  The lawn was PACKED and the stage looked great.  I think it will be a success all week!

Blue Oyster Cult at the Budweiser Stage

Back to my world, the grandstand.  We always kick off the fair with a Christian show.  I think we need to flip it and put it at the end of the fair because after a couple of doozy days, I'm going to need some worship time.  :)   We had Casting Crowns and Jeremy Camp today.  I've worked with both of the bands and they've always been phenomenal to work with.  It would have been a really great day except the cell reception has been horrible.  I suppose the tower has been overloaded.  I pretty much had to do a handstand on the dressing room trailer in order to make a phone call and forget about receiving or sending text messages.  It's really puts a cramp in your style when you're having 20+ people trying to communicate with you by phone throughout the day and not being able to do that.  The lead singer for Crowns was trying to get a hold of their tour manager for over an hour to get a ride back from the hotel.  Ovey!  I'm praying that's fixed tomorrow because I haven't been able to accomplish much without it.

One special thing about the Casting Crowns act is that they have their families on the road.  I honestly can't tell you how many people are living on the two buses that we have here today.  But I do know there are probably 5 or 6 kids that I've seen floating around.  The take the morning for "school" time.  They home school the kids so that they can all be together on the road.  Now that takes dedication and patience on both the kid's and parent's part.  I had to go into the dressing room trailer to reset some food.  I was moving it in to the "school" room.  Moving very quietly as to not interrupt I hear behind me a confident, "Hi, What's your name?".  I turn around to see a little boy and his dad (one of the artists) sitting there with a workbook in front of him.  He introduces himself and proceeds to tell me it's his last lesson.  His Dad mentions that he's looking for any type of distraction.  It was sweet to see how normal their live can be.

Casting Crowns at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand

Des Moines definitely loves their Christian music!  This night always sells well and we had over 6900 people that enjoyed this beautiful night and concert.  I'm looking forward to a late morning tomorrow.  Hopefully some sleep and run. :)

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!