I went to work with The Sound Source at the Chackbay, LA Gumbo Festival in Oct. Three day event with swamp pop bands all day. It was my first time working with the QSC Wideline system and I have to say I like it. The weekend went great bands like The Topcats, Don Rich, Van Broussard, Junior and Sumtin Sneaky, and many more performed for the huge crowd. Now I can’t mention this festival without talking about the food. WOW… I ate so much that weekend I think I went up 2 pant sizes in one day. Perfect Gumbo and they had these things called Crawfish Balls, I could literally eat my weight in those. I’ll be glad to work for Mr. Tim Killbride any day, The Sound Source is LA number one Production company in my mind top notch work.
Category: Lighting
Oct 5-7th was lets say a busy weekend for BNP.
Starting Friday we setup for the 2nd Annual St. Matthews Jambalaya Festival in Dedeaux MS. A great family festival with 2 great bands Friday and Saturday featuring Shea Michaels and Easy Street. Good food family and music.
Saturday we started the day off early in Waveland, Ms. The 12th Annual Waveland Wavefest put on by the Waveland Community Coalition was a HUGE success. Teaming with Pelican Events; BNP provided production for some great acts that day. Starting with Renegade a local band out of the Waveland area, then The Bucktown All Stars brought the funk, followed by The Topcats and headlining the night The Molly Ringwalds. Great crowd, beautiful day, and awesome music.
Also while Wavefest was going on other BNP crew members were setting up a Private event for the Gulfport Mayor. Featuring Elmo and The Shades from Memphis, TN. The turn out was great and everybody had a fun time.
Should we mention this is also Crusin The Coast weekend!!!! Sunday BNP helped kick off Crusin The Coast in Gulfport with “View the Crusie” with the band Elmo and The Shades again. We rocked downtown Gulfport for 4 hours, people looking at cars, dancing in the streets some awesome food and a great time had by all.
We followed Sunday up with a Roof and Sound System for the Biloxi Crusin the Coast event as well with multiple performs on Weds. All in all what a busy weekend for BNP but we love it!
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- Halfway down the Cruisers Lane looking at the stage
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- Waveland Wavefest Featuring The Mollys
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- Elmo performing for the early cruisers
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- Nothing left but us sound guys!!
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- Jones Park
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- Looking at City Hall waiting on Elvis to take the stage
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- Amazing crowd for the Mollys
Not a lot of time this week having to prep for other shows so I’ll keep this short…..
This past weekend I had the pleasure of assisting Tim Killbride and The Sound Source at a private event featuring the band America… You know “Horse with no name” “Sister Golden Hair” yes they are still touring. Started out Friday morning at 8am loading in. Vertec, PM5d, M7 4 Screens, 1 TV, 2 Cameras and a bunch of lighting. Long day but not too hard. Saturday we arrive back at 9am to complete setup and prep for show at 6pm. I got my hands on a PM5D for the first time and I’m proud to say I did a pretty good job on the opening band. The show goes off perfectly ends at 11pm and we begin load-out. 4:30 I head home to get in my bed at 6am to do another show for me all over again. Overall a successful weekend I thank Tim for allowing me to come work with him and hope to do more in the future. I met a bunch of great guys on his crew and hopefully made a good first impression.
Time to get ready for Wavefest and the wonderfully busy weekend of Oct 6th. See you out there stay safe and have fun.
Few mobile pics from the gig:
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- This is the opening band I mixed on the 5D
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- Catalyst Lighting (Earl Lennie) programing away
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- Loved this rig.
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- Tim got a pic of me working the 5D.
The Crab Fest, always a wonderful event. Great food good music and lots of friends you haven’t seen in a while. Friday night as always The Chee Weez brought their best show video screen and all… This was a first for me I was excited to have a video screen… We brought out the big system we wanted to try and knock down the Oak Trees if we could. Though it was hot the shade of the Oak Trees and those lovely mister fans kept it tolerable all weekend. Saturday however was not a good day at all. The Bucktown Al Stars were doing a great show when I got some terrible news. I had to rush to the hospital my grandmother was not doing well at all. I called my right hand guy to come fill in for me. Unfortunately I did not make it there in time she passed away before I arrived. Funny thing how I deal with death… I don’t… after a while with family I couldn’t take it I couldn’t sit there sulking and thinking I had to get away from it. I went back to the Crab Fest, like most people were you’re shocked right nobody could believe I came back, I had to keep my mind off of it. Clay had Brandon Foret sounding phenomenal of course I knew they were in good hands when I left. Sunday I arrived as usual around 11am to setup for Barbara and Company who were great then that night Junior and Sumthin Sneaky. Both bands were awesome. The whole weekend as far as the Crab Fest goes was great. I had nothing but compliments all weekend, kind of made up for the issue stirring in my head since Saturday evening. Looking forward to next year…
RIP Vivian Seal Lee 12-21-1928 to 6-30-2012
Vivian Seal Lee
You always wanted to know when I was playing music or running sound and wanted to come, well now you can make it to all of them.
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- Vivian Seal Lee
The Dedeaux Bazaar. What more can you say be WET! Kind of like todays weather actually. Friday night was suppose to be Aaron Foret Band but it rained all day and the place was nasty and it kept raining into the gig time. BNP doesn’t give up, we setup a small system so Fantasy Productions and Deuce Entertainment DJ’s could provide some music for the softball players and parishioners attending this event. Saturday looked a little better and The Back Porch Band and The Country Classics were able to play even though it still rained some. Sunday well lets back up. Saturday night we covered gear and we had this bright idea of lets use a 10×10 tent to put over the stacks this way if a little rain comes through we can still have music. Great idea right? WRONG! You’ll see below the picture of destruction during the night when a monsoon came through. It did however mange to keep the system dry sort of. The amps were damp and we had to let them dry before powering back on fully, some back-line got wet over all though nothing major was destroyed unless you count the mangled 150.00 tent. So the last band ended up cancelling anyway but we hung out with everybody and set back up the DJ rig and packed out the rain/mud soaked gear trying to not get the trucks stuck in the mushy mucky mud.
Never fails it always rains at this event. I can guarantee it!
There is a PA under that somewhere.
We were privileged to be a part of such a great event this year. Tasked with providing the production for both the headliners of Juke Joint Jam, a benefit for Habitat for Humanity the night before the Bridgefest, BNP got to work on our plan of attack. The Bay St. Louis Little Theater would host John Mooney. BTW it’s not called the Little Theater for nothing. Jacks Resturant would play host to Sunpie Barnes. Both of these acts were fantastic. Sunpie Barnes was something I’d never experienced and I was by far pleased with the outcome. You can see more here:
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- This guy FEELS the blues
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- What a great band
The next morning we headed to the Chamber of Commerce parking lot where we were to setup for the Silver Slipper Bay Cafe Stage. Little did we know this was across sand. I don’t care if you have wheels or not PA does not roll in sand. We were setup and on a roll with great acts such as. Shea Micheals Band, Pat Murphy, The House Katz, Stagolee, Colin Lake and many more.. The coolest thing about this tent and i’ll emphasize coolest were the 8 misting fans for the crowd that kept the tent on average 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the area. You can see more about Bridgefest at the link below:
The Cinco de Mayo weekend will be one we never forget. It all started Thursday May 4th. BNP provide a small system around 12pm for The National Day of Prayer in Bay St. Louis, MS. Shortly after packing up there we drove to the Kiln Arena to setup the stage and sound system for the 2nd Swamp Boogie and Blues Festival. Friday a stage at El Saltillo Mexican Restaurant in Ocean Springs was tied in as well as power for the two stages for Mayfest. Now what?
Friday night the Swamp Boogie and Blues Festival kicked off with some great acts like Damon Troy
Brandon Foret
The Chee Weez
The bands were great the crowd was good and we were tired. Show ended at 12am by the time we cleaned up and got in bed it was time to wake up for our 4:30am call to drive to Ocean Springs.
On site in Ocean Springs for Mayfest at 5am setting up two complete stages and sound systems before 10am is a daunting task be we always get it done. The day went great (HOT) but great. While myself and a few guys were in Ocean Springs kicking off at 10am, the 2nd Day of the Swamp Boogie and Blue Festival was getting underway at 12pm. Around 7pm just before the headliner setup at Mayfest the storms started to threaten and it began to rain. We pulled the rain gear over the speakers and waited it out. A quick sound check and Sera Bee was ready to go. Yes it started raining again but nothing heavy just the edge of a shower. While the headliner on the Main Stage was rocking downtown Ocean Springs the second stage was being taken down by the worn out crew. 11pm Load-out for the Main Stage is complete we’re on our way back to the Kiln to see how the guys there are doing. We arrive just in time to hear the last 3 songs by Wayne Toupes. Then guess what. Yep help load-out that gig too. It’s approx 12pm Sunday afternoon every stage is down except the one in the Kiln. The crew gathers every bit of energy they have left to pull it off.
A very successful weekend but LONG we will surely never forget Cinco de Mayo of 2012.
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- Wayne Toupes knows how to fill a dance floor
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- Reggae out of this world
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- The crowd loves these guys!!
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- What a view
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- Wayne Toupes
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- Beautiful Ocean Springs Mayfest Main Stage
March of 2012 BNP was proud to be a part of a great 1st Annual Stella BBQ and Blues Festival. Teaming up with Pelican Events to provide top notch production with a great music line-up and good food. An estimate 8k were in attendance throughout the day to see such bands as:
Phil Williams Gospel Blues Band
Rochell Harper Band
Rockin Dopsie and The Zydeco Twisters
It was a beautiful day, good food people and music. Rockin Dopsie brought the house down that night. Another great combination of Pelican Events and Big Noise Productions doing what we do best.
April 2012 BNP had the pleasure of once again providing the production for St. Stanislaus’s Rockin The Globe 2012 “Gettin Down In Greece.” This year BNP ramped it up a notch by adding a large sound system and lighting show. The show began 2 days earlier preparing the stage and roof on site. On the day of the show BNP crews arrived and began the tedious task of setting up the lighting and PA system while keeping an ever watchful eye on the weather closing in on them. The stage was going to be filled with The Swags from Fort Worth, TX
Barbara and Company from Biloxi, MS
Five Finger Discount from New Orleans, LA
Bag of Donuts from New Orleans, LA
Despite the threat of weather the show went great. Huge crowd the bands performed phenomenally everybody was happy. It is now 1:30am… Time for Load-Out.
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- Awesome Job by our lighting guy
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- What a band
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- Awesome shot of Dario from 5 Finger Discount
Can you hear me now? 