Pre-Thanksgiving treats this week with a couple of happening hip hop shows and a press event for tough guys. Producer Jen Green invited us to her Cardi B show for Fashion Nova. CB dropped her brand new clothing line, online, at Midnight. She did a live performance at the same time to celebrate and promote. Our show was live streamed on the Fashion Nova website so fans could see Cardi and could buy her clothes. We also had a great one with new client Crown and Conquer at the Theater at the Ace Hotel downtown, the 2018 Spotify Secret Genius show. This is Spotify's mission to remain dedicated to music's creator community including songwriters, producers, engineers, etc. Gorgeous theater, great new client, great acts. Look for the scary pic of the UFC fight press conf we did - Oscar de la Hoya is getting in to UFC and we're down. With all of it.
Dierks Bentley played an intimate show for 200 last week, in honor of the Grammy Museum's Jane Ortner Education Award. This is an award that is given to an outstanding teacher who incorporates music into non-musical classrooms to engage and encourage students to explore history and their creativity. Lois MacMillan of Grants Pass, Oregon received the honor after creating a six-lesson unit based on the music of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway hit, Hamilton, for her 8th grade history class. We had the opportunity to contribute equipment and support for the event. A sweet mix of philanthropy and Bro Country, huh?
Not a lot to say – more to see. Again our pals at Sequoia came up with a completely new look for a gig they've been doing for over 20 years. Word to Chris Greulach for rocking this one from Blinky LED balls to massive outdoor area that looked so good, to pin spots on six million tables - gorgeous. And that's a lotta circuits, Ligo – Dang, nice. Excellent gig.
It ain't summer if I don't post at least one outdoor concert on a mobile stage. AgenC included us in a show on Rodeo Drive itself. We've done a bunch of these where the street is shut down, and we do a show. The crew has learned by now how to reply to the ceaseless question from tourists – "What's happening here?"Their reply - "we're shooting a mayonnaise commercial". That shuts 'em down every time. The great Anthony Wayne programmed the lighting and made our local street fair look like a Foo Fighters stadium show.
ROCK FULLY for the rest of your summer, y'all!
Our new Global Events Director Jeff Rudner is working on some amazing gigs supporting Formula E. These are Formula 1-type cars that are all electric, and go 200 mph! We will be working on races all over the world, and kicked off the relationship with a 2.1 mile race through the streets of Brooklyn. We provided all aspects of production for the VIP Emotion Club and some related parties and activations on site. What an incredible experience working directly with the Formula E folks who are this massively talented group from all over the globe. It was truly electric seeing the races but also turning the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in to a unique oasis for 1200 race fans. Bonus for me as I brought Cheryl along, and we got to see Bruce on Broadway one night. Concrete Jungle where Dreams are Made, indeed - So excited for Europe, Africa, Asia and South and North America next season!
The new disrupted music industry finds a lot of big acts taking private corporate gigs to spread the word and fatten the brokerage accounts. Sounds good to me. These partnerships between brands and bands probably sound distasteful to all of my old stand-out rock and roll friends, but honestly it's pretty great. There's magic happening out there, and we love it when we get to be involved. This month we hung with John Legend on an Air BnB show, celebrated James Harden the new NBA MVP, at the elementary school he attended in LA with the Boss Rick Ross and Famous Dex, We did a big fundraiser for Chrysalis, who finds jobs for those in need with R.LUM.R and Jamie Foxx, and a whole lot more... Big month for tech with E3 gigs, and even an old-school automotive tour of the east and west coasts. Summertime, and the livin' is easy...
So I write about all of these fun gigs every month, and yes they are fun and they're important to me, but I pound out these gigs to pay the bills and raise a cute family. Mission Accomplished, Homeys. At least so far... Olivia graduated from Mayfield Senior School and is Wisconsin-bound in August. That's all folks - Both kids in college, we out. JK - although Cheryl did celebrate Olivia's graduation party as being her retirement party, too... What an amazing trip it's been - can't wait to see what comes next. Young parents - PLEASE take massive amounts of video at every age... Thanks for indulging me.
April was hectic. Lots of gigs at work and lots of fanboy gigs, too. Just for fun, we thought we'd mix up all the photos and let you piece it back together. Dior, Girlboss, Alt J, Pussy Riot, Adidas, Banny Grove, Phoebe Bridgers, Hermes, Mazda, Grammy Committee, NCL, The Live Nudes, Handmaid's Tale. Can you figure out which ones we got paid for, and which ones I bought tickets to? Me neither – it was a blur. See you in May.
We had some sweet Oscar gigs this year - and a ton of other gigs which is why this March post is dropping in the middle of April. David Rodgers and AgenC and Sequoia and a few others had us out to spice up their Glam-Slams, at all the chic joints in town. We were at the Dolby for the Governors Ball and at the Sunset Plaza Hotel for Hugo Boss and Bev Wilshire for Essence Awards and Tao for Fox Searchlight and Piaget brought us to the notorious Penthouse 64 at the Chateau Marmont where Howard Hughes used to stay to spy on starlets at the pool. Apparently time wasn't up back then. Thanks for the soundtrack to this video, Sufjan - You should have won the best original song Oscar.
Has anyone caught on to the fact that every other month our post is about a Kamp Grizzly gig? Seriously - amazing events these folks do. This one was for the NBA All-Star Week that was happening at the Staples Center. The gig was at the old American Apparel factory which is now a beanie-and-beard hipster joint for creative types. It was two days of 15,000 people enjoying a celeb basketball game (spoiler - Snoop was really high), interactive recording opportunities, concert with Childish Gambino and a ton of others including a cameo by Yeezy himself, new sneaker drops all over the joint, and an insane museum-like experience inside the first floor of the old warehouse which you will see in the video. Kamp also had us doing shows at Nice Kicks in DTLA and a big Footlocker show with Rick Ross where we took over the courtyard at Hollywood and Highland. Huge thanks to the hard-hitting creative team working with us including Lighting Designer Kate Stoval and Trevor Burk brewing up insane visuals. LOVE
The Recording Academy celebrated the 60th Grammy Awards this year, and they moved it back to New York for the occasion. Branden and Rex were gracious enough to bring us out to do our thing. Always the best week of the year, 2018 did not disappoint. The Person of the Year celebration was for Fleetwood Mac. Remember last year, it was our beloved Tom Petty to whom Stevie Nicks paid a heartbreaking tribute. Lorde and Miley and Allison Krause and Portugal the Man and many others played Fleetwood Mac tunes, then The Mac themselves came out and tore down Radio City Music Hall. The Grammy show at Madison Square Garden was great, regardless of what the haters say - Miley and Elton doing Tiny Dancer was unforgettable. And our big afterparty was in Times Square and raged until 3am. If you watch this video until the end, you'll see Adam and some of the boys huffing it across Queensboro Bridge - Their Uber had a flat tire on the way to JFK. You think Kendrick got cheated? How about these rock star techs, man!?