I’ve played a few thousand shows in my career. Some of them were original music. Some of them featured our band covering other artists’ material. Most were at an event where we were part of the entertainment, and there is usually something else going on. Think about your typical bar gig or rock concert. Sure, the band may be the focal point, but there’s food, dancing, drinking, interacting, making new friends, catching up with old friends, and sure, maybe even a ceremonial cutting of the wedding cake. I have rarely had to perform as an ongoing part of an event. I had that opportunity in Las Vegas in July, 2011, and felt like sharing.
Many of my friends know I work for a (very) large software company. Almost everyone I know (friend and casual acquaintance alike) know that I’m a musician. I’ve performed as a solo act, or part of an ensemble, or part of a three-, four-, five-, or six- piece act too many times to count. So, it was no surprise to me in 2008 when I was approached by some co-workers who wanted to hear me perform. Our annual sales conference is held in Las Vegas. For years, one of the highlights for many of us was the friendly soccer tournament with teams from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA. We even had a pretty awesome trophy that went to the winner for the year; kinda like the Stanley Cup, only not as cool. Way back in 2008, I was asked if I could put together a band to play that event. It was the 3rd or 4th night of the conference, and there would plenty of things going on, including 2200 or so people playing or watching the soccer games.
The answer was an obvious “why not?”
Like I said before, I could be part of a group, even a makeshift one, with almost no pressure, while other things were going on, including soccer, drinking, skee ball, carnival games, etc. We played about an hour of music and had an absolute blast. Because it was later in the week, we threw together some set lists, song ideas, and even rehearsed a few times. Flash forward to 2011, when I get a call asking if we would be willing to do it again. This request, however, was slightly different…
Which leads me to the theme of this blog.
In 2011, we rounded up the musicians from our last performance, and added a few others. We opted to keep the name Sales Machine, which was chosen after vocalist Chet Stockton changed some lyrics from a well-known James Brown song. The 2011 version included NINE performers. Chet and I sang, and we were accompanied by two guitarists, a bassist, a horn section, a drummer, and a keyboardist. Why so many musicians? Read on…
(btw….I’ll let the guys sound off in the comments section if they want to be mentioned by name.)
This gig was different. Sure, we had to perform somewhere around 8-10 songs, but that wasn’t all. We also had to work with the production staff. We were going to be the official house band during the kick off meeting. We were the new Paul Schaefer, the corporate version of The Roots, Max Weinberg 2.0; however you want to put it – we were part of the show…the whole show, not just a jukebox in the corner.
On top of that, we were playing the KICK OFF meeting; not an event on day three or four. That meant a lot more music to play and a lot less time to rehearse. Fortunately, these guys were insanely organized, and very experienced. We put together weekly calls to determine what songs and “stingers” (the 20-30 seconds of a song played while someone walks on stage) we would play. We personalized some of them for the presenters we knew, and chose classics for everyone else on the roster. Then, we sent around custom snippets of just those sections. The guitarists chose who would play the solos. Chet and I picked which songs we were going to sing. The horn players selected arrangements and instruments. Basically, everyone went off to their own separate corners of the world and did their homework.
Thanks to issues with my flight, I wound up getting more time in production meetings with the audio/video crew than I had in rehearsals with the band. If these guys weren’t the amazing performers they were, we would have stunk up the joint. As it was, we wound up with ten full songs and more than a dozen stingers. What was the feedback? Well, we heard every thing from “the band was alright” to “Oh Man, the band was the only thing that kept me awake through that session!” Not bad considering attendees flew in from all over the world that day, and most of them were beaten down by the airport experience. Besides, we had all of a day to put things together, and we didn’t completely botch the gig.
Here are a few tunes we played:
“Jenny (867-5309)” by Tommy Tutone
“Money (That’s What I Want)” by The Beatles
“I Want You to Want Me” by Cheap Trick
“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” by James Brown
“Takin’ Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
“Soul Man” by Sam & Dave/ The Blues Brothers
Interested in some more from the event, including the full list? Let me know. I’m happy to share.
See you at the next gig…maybe Sales Machine 2012? Just sayin’…
nK
