I FOUND IT!!!!!! It is in the "Holiday Gift" thread. Wew!!! I thought I was loosing it there for a minute!!
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I FOUND IT!!!!!! It is in the "Holiday Gift" thread. Wew!!! I thought I was loosing it there for a minute!!
Oh yeah! I thought you meant on the DFJ web site. My bad.
"Holiday Gift" thread? Where, here? I did a search & it didn't come up...or do you mean on Stv's HOD site?... or were you referring to the "Analog men in a digital world" thread here on HB... [img]confused.gif[/img]
...[*waits with baited breath for details of the DFJ TX show*] [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thinking.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 13, 2004 06:34 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>
PT I don't see that on there. Link?
Well, it appears that there have been some video segments posted for you all to see here, but I have some pics that I'll try to get up on the site for you all to see. And now, I will go over the day/evening for you all.
I showed up at Lakepointe Church at about 1pm for "Dress Rehearsal", which was from 1-4pm, and was immediately asked to help the Premier drum rep clean up the wiring/extra boxes on the stage behind the percussion section. About five minutes into doing that, I look back, and there he is.......The Man is in front of the stage hugging and talking to Acuna and the primary coordinator of the event. It was difficult to want to do ANY work at that point, but I managed. After I finished helping out with cleaning up the stage, I went into the backstage area, where Vin was talking to another guy working the event, and patiently waited (trembling, I might add) for Vin to finish talking to that guy and walk towards me. He finally did, and I greeted him and introduced myself....paid my respects, etc. After that, we started chatting for about twenty minutes about assorted things, but the main thing I discussed with him was his Megadeth stint. He said he had a really fun time doing that with Dave Mustaine, but then proceeded to tell me some VERY interesting news about Mustaine, but for some reason, I'd feel strange revealing it here. I'll just put it this way.....considering what type of event this was, and the fact that Vinnie proceeded to DO the Megadeth album....that might tell you what I'm getting at with Mustaine. Anyway, other than that, I just asked about recent projects and stuff. He had mentioned about ten minutes earlier that he needed to go to the john, so I ended the chat session so he could go and take care of his business. As elated as I was to have just talked to the man who has been the primary drum inspiration in my life for years, I went back to the "boss" to see what I had to do next. I ended up setting up the brocure and poster table for all of the drum sponsers outside the auditorium doors, so I got to see how my "decorative skills" were doing! After that, I went back again to the backstage area and helped (along with the other helpers) arrange everyone's kit for the night, but then found out the BEST part from the coordinator.....ME and another guy would be VINNIE's techs for the night!!! How amazing is that?? As you can see from the picture and vids here, he was playing black maple Renowns for the night, and they sounded pretty good. Then, I went back into the Green Room, where Vinnie and one of his piano playing buddies were just chillin' on the couch. Vin was warming up on the tips of his tennis shoes and pointed out that that's why cross trainer type shoes came in so handy....you can practice on them! The guy I was teching with was asking Vin about his time with Joni Mitchell, and whether he toured with her or not, and he said he did for a brief time. The guy also asked him if she gave the band their own freedom to do their own thing, and he said she did. I asked him if he would be doing any more gigs/etc. with Karizma, and he didn't know at that point. I also asked him if he would be playing the Baked Potato anytime soon, and he said that he probably wouldn't play there much anymore at all. (sorry LA guys....that is...if that really is his thinking). Other than that, it was just random conversation about religion and such. After all of that, I TRIED to go back to "work" (if you will) on the event. We were given a few hours break before we had to be back at 6:15 for a rundown by the coordinator of what we needed to do at what times. I was told that after Marvin McQuitty gave his testimony, me and the other Vin tech needed to be ready and waiting to switch out sets. I guess I'll start from the beginning of the show itself. The lights went down, and the applause came.....they started flashing pictures/footage of the performers up on the two huge video screens, and when Vin's footage was shown, there was a noticable rise in applause. (what else do you all expect??) Paul Leim immediately came out and broke into a tune with the band and an independent percussionist (can't remember his name off hand, but he was excellent), and though Paul isn't really among the "elite" (of course, who am I to say something like that, but you get my drift), he had a good, positive energy, and started the show well. I was stationed on stage left, so that was my view for the night. Alex Acuna proceeded to play a very cool solo piece on his own creation of an instrument (I assume since it had his sig on it). He then got on the set and played with the band, which was also very good. Marvin McQuitty was the next performer, and he played some very nice pocket material, and a decent solo. For some reason, the tunes got mixed up, and instead of Marvin being the last one in the first set before intermission, it was Luis Santiago Jr. who finished out the set. Luis is a good player, and played a decent solo complete with a few Blackwell-esque twirls that really got the crowds attention. Towards the end of his solo, he flipped his primary snare over and proceeded to play the actual snare wires in a sweeping fashion, which I personally had never seen done before, and while it had an interesting tone, it just didn't do anything for me personally. He then ended his solo to a standing O, and gave a very good testimony. (and for the record, he's an ULTRA nice guy after talking to him for a bit backstage). Intermission was here, and it was time to move the Renowns to the stage. Vinnie went ahead and came out to sit at the kit during our setting up, and was kindly telling us to tweek this and that, and getting everything straight with his earpieces, music, and heights and such. We were then done, and went back to our "stations" (again, if you will). I'm trying to remember the exact order of a few of the performers (remember, I'm on a Vin high the whole time, so it's hard to stay focused [img]wink.gif[/img] ), so if I get a few of these wrong, forgive me. Sheila E. came out and performed a nice vocal piece with a female singer friend of hers, and that was nice. She and Acuna were back on percussion for much of the time, and Sheila can still wail away on those timbales!!! Will Kennedy was the next out, and he did his normal uptempo swing thing, which sounded nice, and the band kept up well. His solo was pretty good as well. He then did "It's Your Thang", and in the middle of that tune, he told the rest of the band to keep playing while he got up on the mic and started his testimony, which had much humor and playfulness added to it, which seemed to kind of loosen the crowd up a bit. He then finished the song and his set. Sean McCurley was up next. I had never heard of him or heard his playing (that I know of) before Friday night, but he was a decent player. Then......the moment of the night came. Vin walked out, sat behind the set, and immediately (as I'm sure some of you have seen) starting choppin' away. Then, there was that pause before the track started. I talked to the sound guy (who ended up being an old college buddy of mine) about what happened, and he said that Vinnie was supposed to have FIRST played to a sequence....THEN soloed, but he did the opposite, and that's why there was that pause before the first tune. You could have heard a PIN drop during that pause....everyone was dead silent. I felt bad for Vin since I'm sure he was a bit embarrassed that the pause was happening, but that's ok, cause everything ended up ok. I could definitely see that he was uncomfortable with the camera lady onstage holding the camera RIGHT in his face the whole time, and I think he was probably uncomfortable for the rest of his performance until the whole crew of the night's performers came out for a grand finale. From the front of the stage, it was Will on the left, Vinnie in the middle, and McCurley on the right, with Acuna, Conte, and Sheila back in the percussion area. They proceeded to do trade offs in a similiar fashion to the Buddy Rich Memorial tapes, and that was very nice, though Vin was not REALLY unloading. Most everyone then proceeded to come down to the front of the stage in front of where Vinnie continued to sit behind his kit and play some supporting rhythms. The groove they were all playing then became very quiet, then slowly built up to full volume, and finally ended with Vinnie, Will, and Sean doing the final hits. Everyone of course came to their feet in applause (including myself, of course). The artists then proceeded to go to the front of the stage and gave out plenty of autographs, pictures and such, with Vinnie having the biggest group of people in front of him. (what a surprise, eh). Once he was done, he thanked and hugged all of us for helping him out, and went backstage to chill with everyone else. I could probably have written much more than this, but you all get the idea, I'm sure. For me, the night far exceeded everything I could have hoped for, and I'm happy to have shared it with all of ya! I will find a way to get you all a link to more pictures of the event asap!!
WORD.
[Thx brauh!] [img]cool.gif[/img]
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 15, 2004 03:33 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>
no more baked potato????? noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! !
Thanks a lot for the review! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
Nice review, thanks a lot. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
Plaid, which one were you up on the stage?