How to De-Vegas Your System
And so I have survived five days in Vegas, and one night in Essex, MD.
I'm not sure which was harder on my health.
Vegas was an interesting combination of experiences. Let's see if I can recap the agenda as accurately as possible. Monday, I flew out, landed, checked in to the Venetian, and headed up to meet the impromptu band, Sales Machine, for a five-hour rehearsal. It was pretty grueling, but it gave us a few rays of hope that we might actually be able to pull off the gig we were scheduled to play.
Tuesday started with a two-hour rehearsal before team meetings and the best introduction to a sales conference I've ever seen. We had a flag ceremony and welcomed the athletes from the Special Olympics that the company is sponsoring this year. After a few hours in meetings, it was one more rehearsal, after which, we felt like we actually had a chance of not sucking too bad.
Wednesday included meetings and classes all day, after which, we headed to the big room to prepare for the gig. When I say big, picture a convention hall. This place was HUGE. There were eight soccer matches going on as part of a round-robin tournament. There was food, beverages, air hockey, human bowling, pool, ping pong, a batting cage, and more...plenty more. In all, there was somewhere around 2200 people in the room.
The stage setup was unbelievable. There were two separate risers (drums and keys), a big screen TV, great light show, as many mics as we needed, six monitors and even tele-prompters, which we didn't use because we're idiots. haha. We played a 45 minute set, with some issues opening and closing songs cleanly, but in all, it was pretty damn good.
A few songs on the list: The Heart of Rock n' Roll, I Want You to Want Me, Jenny (867-5309), What I Like About You, Twist And Shout, Money (That's What I Want), I Feel Good, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Secret Agent Man, and Soul Man.
As you can tell, we were all over the road. We had two guitars, drums, sax, bass and two vocalists. (And yes, Malena, your tambourine got to play Vegas!) It was fun. Everyone seemed to appreciate us, since I didn't pay for a drink the next two nights. (And didn't have another one for two more nights after that! haha)
The rest of the conference went well. I was pretty much beat by Friday. We got up at 6 am Saturday (to the sound of a few guys and a paid escort in the next room) and flew home. Only, I didn't fly home. I flew to BWI, met the guys in Division and played a gig with Black Widow USA. Many thanks to the great support we had there, plus the Sudafed, Excedrin and Usana vitamins that got me through the show.
It's so great to be home. Today is all catchup time (479 emails!), so anyone who dropped me an email or MySpace message, standby. I'll get back to you soonest.
One Love!
nK
I'm not sure which was harder on my health.
Vegas was an interesting combination of experiences. Let's see if I can recap the agenda as accurately as possible. Monday, I flew out, landed, checked in to the Venetian, and headed up to meet the impromptu band, Sales Machine, for a five-hour rehearsal. It was pretty grueling, but it gave us a few rays of hope that we might actually be able to pull off the gig we were scheduled to play.
Tuesday started with a two-hour rehearsal before team meetings and the best introduction to a sales conference I've ever seen. We had a flag ceremony and welcomed the athletes from the Special Olympics that the company is sponsoring this year. After a few hours in meetings, it was one more rehearsal, after which, we felt like we actually had a chance of not sucking too bad.
Wednesday included meetings and classes all day, after which, we headed to the big room to prepare for the gig. When I say big, picture a convention hall. This place was HUGE. There were eight soccer matches going on as part of a round-robin tournament. There was food, beverages, air hockey, human bowling, pool, ping pong, a batting cage, and more...plenty more. In all, there was somewhere around 2200 people in the room.
The stage setup was unbelievable. There were two separate risers (drums and keys), a big screen TV, great light show, as many mics as we needed, six monitors and even tele-prompters, which we didn't use because we're idiots. haha. We played a 45 minute set, with some issues opening and closing songs cleanly, but in all, it was pretty damn good.
A few songs on the list: The Heart of Rock n' Roll, I Want You to Want Me, Jenny (867-5309), What I Like About You, Twist And Shout, Money (That's What I Want), I Feel Good, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Secret Agent Man, and Soul Man.
As you can tell, we were all over the road. We had two guitars, drums, sax, bass and two vocalists. (And yes, Malena, your tambourine got to play Vegas!) It was fun. Everyone seemed to appreciate us, since I didn't pay for a drink the next two nights. (And didn't have another one for two more nights after that! haha)
The rest of the conference went well. I was pretty much beat by Friday. We got up at 6 am Saturday (to the sound of a few guys and a paid escort in the next room) and flew home. Only, I didn't fly home. I flew to BWI, met the guys in Division and played a gig with Black Widow USA. Many thanks to the great support we had there, plus the Sudafed, Excedrin and Usana vitamins that got me through the show.
It's so great to be home. Today is all catchup time (479 emails!), so anyone who dropped me an email or MySpace message, standby. I'll get back to you soonest.
One Love!
nK
Labels: Division, Sales Machine, Usana, Venetian
