St. Clement of Rome Oyster Festival and St. Matthews Family Fair

BNP got the call once again to assist The Sound Source for a weekend.  We headed over to METREE for the St. Clement of Rome Oyster Festival.  What a weekend.  First off FOH is right by Dragos booth so we get to smell all this wonderful cooking all weekend.  Second great bands each night.  Friday night Bag of Donuts, Saturday The Chee Weez and Sunday The Topcats (seems like we’re seeing these guys alot)  Weather was great all weekend not too cold, Friday night BOD hit the stage and were rocking as always.  Saturday The Chee Wheez killed it as well.  Now before we go on I need to mention Saturday the opening band was phenomenal  The NOLA Treblemakers;  If you need a band for an event these guys put on a show.  Rockabilly music for 2 hours straight with a great stage presence.  Outstanding job guys!!!  Got to meet some new people that weekend and make new friends and even learned a few tricks from Brian and Danny 🙂 Can’t wait for next year!

I say once again we got the call because a few weeks prior to that we were doing another festival for The Sound Source.  St. Matthews Family Fair, with The Topcats (these guys again lol)  Five Finger Discount and an upcoming band highlight on Sunday.  The weekend went great and again awesome food.  I’m learning something about these LA festivals, they know good food is key.
The past few posts have been short because I’ve been super busy.  Just trying to catch ya’ll up on what BNP has been up too the past couple months.  I’ll try to stay on top of it better next time!  🙂

Chackbay Gumbo Festival

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.

Crusin on the Wave

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!

Halfway down the Cruisers Lane looking at the stage

Waveland Wavefest Featuring The Mollys

Elmo performing for the early cruisers

Nothing left but us sound guys!!

Jones Park

Looking at City Hall waiting on Elvis to take the stage

Amazing crowd for the Mollys

2 days for America!!!

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:

This is the opening band I mixed on the 5D

Catalyst Lighting (Earl Lennie) programing away

Loved this rig.

Tim got a pic of me working the 5D.

Catching back up….

It’s been over  a month since we posted an update so I’ll try and catch everyone up on the past couple of weeks…..

Two weeks ago… We were at the Country Bluegrass and More in Bassfield, Ms (around Columbia) where we had 4 bands all afternoon who were top notch groups.  The Larry Wallace Band, Delta Reign, and Alan Sibley and The Magnolia Ramblers.  Listening to these great groups all afternoon was a treat, nice AC building good food and people.  The highlight of the day was a group (well 2 guys) who sang and told jokes and I mean some of the cheesiest yet funniest jokes ever.  I laughed so hard at these guys I like to split a gut… While this event was going on, down on the Coast at The 100 Men D.B.A. Hall (www.100menhall.org) BNP had a crew working the Mickey Rodgers show.  As always shows at The Hall are fantastic great crowds and music.  While the Bluegrass ended at 8:45 the Hall went on until 11:30pm.  We packed up in Bassfield by 9:30 and headed south just in time to get to The Hall and help the crew load out that rig as well… Something tells me I got the bad end of the stick I had to pack up 2 systems and I didn’t even get to enjoy the show.  Oh well all in a weekends work.
Last week……  Pearl River County Fair and Rodeo.  This is BNP’s second year at this event and it started off Tuesday with a Talent Show in the arena.  Then Friday and Saturday were concerts before the rodeo.  Friday was Angela Easley and Saturday was Lisa Lee Albritton and Soulshine two great bands put on great shows.  Did I mention only 30 minutes to load out the entire stage, I should also mention BNP 2 man crew did it in 15 minutes each night.  🙂 Yea we’re that awesome.  While this was going on we were also loading into Crickets Honkie Tonk for the D. Jr. Band a 10-2am gig.  So lets piece this together.  Go to arena at 2pm setup for show, show is over quickly pack up (15 minutes remember) head South to other gig to assist crew until 2am, pack up get home by 4am.  Rinse Wash Repeat.  Long weekend to say the least but we love what we do…
Whats next.

Working with our friends at the Sound Source this weekend for the band America also The D. Jr. Band again, and I’m sure there are others that will pop up last minute as always.  Looking forward to it. we hope to see you out there!

5th Annual Bluegrass Festival

July 27 and 28 was BNP’s fifth time to provide production for the Lamar County Bluegrass Festival.  This year was the Festivals first year to be indoors in the AC which was FANTASTIC.  The new building posed a few issues at first but we managed to get them under control and have a fantastic weekend.  Some of the greatest newest bluegrass bands around.  The Rigney Family was fantastic a 15 year old fiddle player could set it on fire.  Great harmonies and a good family group.  Flatt Lonesome the SPGMA 2012 winners were also a great young group.   Some of the best musicians I’ve seen in a group that young.  These bands along with Appalachain Trail, The Gold Heart Sisters, HWY 41 South and The Lost Mountain Girl all played great music throughout the weekend.  I can’t wait for the next festival in March.  Should be something great as usual the Lamar County Board of Supervisors put on a great show.

OLG Crab Festival

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.

Vivian Seal Lee

The Bizarre Bazaar

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.

Bay St. Louis Bridgefest and the Juke Joint Jam

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:

Juke Joint Jam

This guy FEELS the blues

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:

Bay Bridgefest 2012

What a weekend!!!!!

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.

Wayne Toupes knows how to fill a dance floor

Reggae out of this world

The crowd loves these guys!!

What a view

Wayne Toupes

Beautiful Ocean Springs Mayfest Main Stage