Bite of Las Vegas
Wow, did I have such an amazing time today. Bite of Las Vegas turned out to be more fun than I ever expected. I got there a little before 11:00am with my parents. We had to wait in line for a bit until they opened the gate. Once we got in, the very first place I went to was the Mix tent so I could finally meet Mark and Mercedes. I've been a huge fan of their show every since I moved back here in November 2002. I've been wanting to meet them for a really long time, so it was cool to finally tell them how much I enjoy the show. I got a picture with them and they were very sweet. Mark asked me to email them a copy of it, which got me to thinking.. I remembered that they had pictures on their site from last years Bite of Las Vegas. So I figured I'd take a whole bunch throughout the day and just mail them the link to my album. If they decide to use any on their site, that would be awesome.
In my travels trying to find my parents again, I came across Chad- also from Mark and Mercedes. So I got to meet him too, hehe. I found my parents and we wandered around for a bit. I found the small side stage I was talking about in here recently, so I headed over to check out the schedule of bands performing. I hadn't heard of any of them, though. While I was standing there, I turned around and saw someone who looked familiar nearby. I thought it looked like one of the paper perfomers I knew. Then I glanced up at the sign she was standing under, and it was a big BMG Complex poster- LOL. So it really was her, and BMG had a booth. I wasn't expecting that. It was pretty cool, they had signs and spin arts hanging up, and were doing a drawing for free tickets to a show. The "bin" that they were putting the ticket entries in was actually a clear drum with a slit in the drumhead for the ballots to put slipped through. Now and then one of the staff members working the booth would drum on the "bin" in between people putting in their entries. There was also a roulette wheel where you could win small prizes like twinkies, small boxes of crunch cereal, band mints, tshirts, etc. I managed to win a tshirt so now I can donate that to the BML for a contest giveaway. :) While I was near the booth, I saw Corky and Amy Gainsford so I went over to say hi. I was really happy I got to see Amy there, she's really sweet. And it still surprises me that Corky knows my name- lol. Turns out there was a bonus surprise- they told me that Corky was getting ready to do a set with a band called Ponder in a few minutes. I had never heard of them, so I would have totally missed it if they didn't mention it to me. I split up from my parents and stuck around to watch their set. They were good, I bought a cd also. (http://www.pondertheband.com) The website doesn't work right now, but thats the one on their cd.. so I guess its coming soon?
Later I found a House of Blues booth so I checked to see if Ryan was there. Sure enough, he was. Poor guy, he was so sick! He mentioned he had come down was something and felt like crap, and wanted so badly to just go home, but he was stuck there until 5:00. We talked a little bit about Smash Magazine distribution and when I'll be able to pick up the next issue. He also told me that a friend of his had seen them at the mini mart and was commenting that he'd never seen them on the "west side" before. Ryan seemed pleased about that, and I felt good. I stopped by a couple more times during the day and chatted briefly,and got a picture with him at one point.
My dad was tired after a couple of hours, so he and Ellen went on home. I spent the rest of the day alternating between the House of Blues mainstage and the smaller side stage, watching whatever one had live music going at any given time. I also spent a lot of time just walking around the whole park and taking pictures of anything that looked interesting. I got quite a few good shots, including some of the Mix dj's. During Frankie Perez's set, I did see Captain Crunch Muncher (Eric) across the crowd. I kind of followed him for a minute or so, trying to catch up so I could say hi. But, he had someone with him so I gave up on that. One of the funnier moments of the day was when I spotted BlueJim. I headed in his direction, but apparently another friend of his also spotted him at the same time and beat me there by about 1 second. He was just saying hi to her and acting suprised to see her when I stepped out of the crowd and hopped up next to her. "Is this the Jim line??" I asked all crazily- LOL. He laughed and said hi to me too, and introduced me to his friend, whose name I forget.. Samantha? Anyway, she was obviously a real life friend, and not a "computer" friend, so I excused myself and told him I'd talk to him later. I never did find him again though- booo!
Once Switchfoot started their set, I started to strategize how I was going to get to the front of the stage for Blue Man so I could get some good pictures. I noticed that everytime a band finished playing, they announced that they would be signing autographs at a table off to the side of the stage. Switchfoot seemed to have a pretty huge crowd, so I started making my way into the middle of it on their 2nd to last song. My plan worked perfectly.. after the band finished, one of the DJ's announced that they would be signing autographs. As one collective being, 75% of the audience (mostly made up of 14 year old girls) screamed and began to stampede to the side of the stage. I squired my way through and scored myself a spot in the 2nd row right behind the barricade. This resulted in some really good photos of the BMG set. It was definately worth the effort it took to get up there.
The show kicked ass! I was afraid the crowd would be impatient for Five for Fighting to go on and wouldn't receive BMG very well. But it was just the opposite. They even started chanting BLUE MAN.. BLUE MAN.. BLUE MAN.. as the crew was setting up the PVC and props for the show. When the blue men came out, everyone was screaming and cheering for them like crazy. :) And they seemed to LOVE the show. Wands went over even better than I expected. I thought I was going to get knocked unconcious during the "Up and down jumping motion" part. :P The blue men were Jeremy, Marcus and Matthew. They did Opening Paintdrumming, spin art and marshmallow, drumbone (Complex version), PVC IV, Wands, Tributes, Ending Paintdrumming and ended the whole thing by bringing out the confetti cannons. :)
After their set was over, I decided I was too tired to stay for Five For Fighting, so I went ahead and came home. I had to get up this morning for work at 3:30 am and then was on my feet all day from 11am-8:30 pm. I'm getting to old for that! ;) But yeah, what an amazing and perfect and fun day. I cant wait to do it again next year!
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/204778551qowcli
In my travels trying to find my parents again, I came across Chad- also from Mark and Mercedes. So I got to meet him too, hehe. I found my parents and we wandered around for a bit. I found the small side stage I was talking about in here recently, so I headed over to check out the schedule of bands performing. I hadn't heard of any of them, though. While I was standing there, I turned around and saw someone who looked familiar nearby. I thought it looked like one of the paper perfomers I knew. Then I glanced up at the sign she was standing under, and it was a big BMG Complex poster- LOL. So it really was her, and BMG had a booth. I wasn't expecting that. It was pretty cool, they had signs and spin arts hanging up, and were doing a drawing for free tickets to a show. The "bin" that they were putting the ticket entries in was actually a clear drum with a slit in the drumhead for the ballots to put slipped through. Now and then one of the staff members working the booth would drum on the "bin" in between people putting in their entries. There was also a roulette wheel where you could win small prizes like twinkies, small boxes of crunch cereal, band mints, tshirts, etc. I managed to win a tshirt so now I can donate that to the BML for a contest giveaway. :) While I was near the booth, I saw Corky and Amy Gainsford so I went over to say hi. I was really happy I got to see Amy there, she's really sweet. And it still surprises me that Corky knows my name- lol. Turns out there was a bonus surprise- they told me that Corky was getting ready to do a set with a band called Ponder in a few minutes. I had never heard of them, so I would have totally missed it if they didn't mention it to me. I split up from my parents and stuck around to watch their set. They were good, I bought a cd also. (http://www.pondertheband.com) The website doesn't work right now, but thats the one on their cd.. so I guess its coming soon?
Later I found a House of Blues booth so I checked to see if Ryan was there. Sure enough, he was. Poor guy, he was so sick! He mentioned he had come down was something and felt like crap, and wanted so badly to just go home, but he was stuck there until 5:00. We talked a little bit about Smash Magazine distribution and when I'll be able to pick up the next issue. He also told me that a friend of his had seen them at the mini mart and was commenting that he'd never seen them on the "west side" before. Ryan seemed pleased about that, and I felt good. I stopped by a couple more times during the day and chatted briefly,and got a picture with him at one point.
My dad was tired after a couple of hours, so he and Ellen went on home. I spent the rest of the day alternating between the House of Blues mainstage and the smaller side stage, watching whatever one had live music going at any given time. I also spent a lot of time just walking around the whole park and taking pictures of anything that looked interesting. I got quite a few good shots, including some of the Mix dj's. During Frankie Perez's set, I did see Captain Crunch Muncher (Eric) across the crowd. I kind of followed him for a minute or so, trying to catch up so I could say hi. But, he had someone with him so I gave up on that. One of the funnier moments of the day was when I spotted BlueJim. I headed in his direction, but apparently another friend of his also spotted him at the same time and beat me there by about 1 second. He was just saying hi to her and acting suprised to see her when I stepped out of the crowd and hopped up next to her. "Is this the Jim line??" I asked all crazily- LOL. He laughed and said hi to me too, and introduced me to his friend, whose name I forget.. Samantha? Anyway, she was obviously a real life friend, and not a "computer" friend, so I excused myself and told him I'd talk to him later. I never did find him again though- booo!
Once Switchfoot started their set, I started to strategize how I was going to get to the front of the stage for Blue Man so I could get some good pictures. I noticed that everytime a band finished playing, they announced that they would be signing autographs at a table off to the side of the stage. Switchfoot seemed to have a pretty huge crowd, so I started making my way into the middle of it on their 2nd to last song. My plan worked perfectly.. after the band finished, one of the DJ's announced that they would be signing autographs. As one collective being, 75% of the audience (mostly made up of 14 year old girls) screamed and began to stampede to the side of the stage. I squired my way through and scored myself a spot in the 2nd row right behind the barricade. This resulted in some really good photos of the BMG set. It was definately worth the effort it took to get up there.
The show kicked ass! I was afraid the crowd would be impatient for Five for Fighting to go on and wouldn't receive BMG very well. But it was just the opposite. They even started chanting BLUE MAN.. BLUE MAN.. BLUE MAN.. as the crew was setting up the PVC and props for the show. When the blue men came out, everyone was screaming and cheering for them like crazy. :) And they seemed to LOVE the show. Wands went over even better than I expected. I thought I was going to get knocked unconcious during the "Up and down jumping motion" part. :P The blue men were Jeremy, Marcus and Matthew. They did Opening Paintdrumming, spin art and marshmallow, drumbone (Complex version), PVC IV, Wands, Tributes, Ending Paintdrumming and ended the whole thing by bringing out the confetti cannons. :)
After their set was over, I decided I was too tired to stay for Five For Fighting, so I went ahead and came home. I had to get up this morning for work at 3:30 am and then was on my feet all day from 11am-8:30 pm. I'm getting to old for that! ;) But yeah, what an amazing and perfect and fun day. I cant wait to do it again next year!
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/204778551qowcli