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Behind The Board – The First Challenge Met

As we discussed in the previous post, the NEXT Charity Concert Series had moved this past Thursday, August 23rd. Now some environments can be particularly harsh to music. A warehouse certainly fits the title of “Hostile Environment” for putting on a concert. When it’s Black Taxi with all their dynamics, well, now we’re really being challenged. We met with the people of Captain Lawrence early in the month to get a view of the place and what we were facing. Concrete floors, metal roof panels, cardboard, beer bottles, beer kegs, huge beer brewing equipment. Really, a very reflective venue. Night of show we came in thinking we were prepared for it, but there were some changes. Bottles. A lot more of them. Right next to the staging area. Ever blow into a bottle to make it whistle? If you’ve done this you have an idea of how they resonate sound. How would it react to 8,400 watts and 102 db of Black Taxi? We were about to find out.

Ok. Enough of the build up. It really wasn’t that tough. It was tough, but we caught it. The place was very peaky, so equalization adjustments in the mid to mid-high range were very touchy. The place, as expected had a lot of natural reverb. One adjustment we will be making at the next NEXT show is to bring in another se of our top end speakers. This will give us a better field of sound to overcome some of the reflections. Anyone in attendance for the next show shouldn’t notice much difference. It’s more for us than the concert goers.

Now, about the show. Holy crap! A sold out show! This crowd was treated to two sets by the Black Taxi crew. The energy level was like building fire. By the middle of the first set it felt like it could explode. The highlight of the evening was to see Ezra climb up a ladder at the side of the stage that lead to a storage area, and then finding a step ladder there, he climbed to the rafter to play his tambourine against the steel frame of the roofing. And no we did not have a mic there. I say this every time when discussing Black Taxi, If you haven’t heard them then you need too. Get on ITunes or Amazon and pick up their albums. Catch a show. Get on their website at blacktaxi.com and find out when they’re playing in your area. Then get over to allthingsnext.com because you really need to learn more about new music, and Chris Bro of NEXT is the professor of new music. Listen to the podcast.

September brings another great show in the long running NEXT Charity Concert Series with another amazing band. My Pet Dragon. Stamford people may be familiar with them from their performance at the Alive At Five opening for Hot Chel Rae. We will discuss this show more in an upcoming post.

Pics of the Black Taxi show will be posted shortly.

For more about the Black Taxi show go to NEXT’s review here.

*Black Taxi is managed by Mezzoforte Productions.

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Behind The Board – NEXT Charity Concert Series And Captain Lawrence Brewery

In a couple days, we will be working at a new venue (as previously mentioned) with the NEXT Music Charity Concert Series. We’re really excited by this one. We will be working at the Captain Lawrence Brewery in Elmsford, NY on August 23rd, inside the brewery enjoying craft beers and one of America’s greatest bands, Black Taxi. Originally this was scheduled to be outside, but there are a few factors preventing an outside show there at the moment. We  are working towards returning to that plan, but in the mean time we have a huge warehouse full of beer to play with!

This will however, present us with some new challenges as we will be in quite the harsh environment  for a sound production company. Nothing we can’t handle! Most specifically, we need to dial in a venue that is designed for brewing beer and storing boxes. Concrete floors and metal ceilings. Brewing vats and countless bottles and kegs everywhere. Reflections will have to be dealt with from numerous areas. Environments like these have a tendency to reflect severely high notes. One factor that will help is cardboard. The stage area is actually going to have stacks of cardboard boxes on both sides. Equalization will be vital here. There will be sections in the sounds you hear that will be drastically reigned in, while others are severely boosted. We’ll follow up after the first show on this blog.

Black Taxi, in case you are severely musically challenged enough to not have heard of them, are the modern answer to the Rolling Stones. Dance-able, creative song writing with high entertainment value. These guys are a lot of fun to watch. Honestly, if you don’t know who Black Taxi is, then you’re definitely not listening to NEXT Music on the radio or on ITunes. So head on over to www.allthingsnext.com and click on “podcast”. Pick your preferred method of listening (Stitcher, ITunes, Stream it right from NEXT) and catch up already! You’ve got till Thursday!

Here’s a little help:

 

Food will be provided by Bridgeview Tavern and The Cookery pizza truck.  So, you got great freaking beer, an awesome band, great eats, and Chris Bro to talk music with. Why  anyone would stay home this Thursday I do not know! It’s kind of like the keg parties of our youth. Only! We’ll be partying at the kegs house. And with better food than most parties.

*Captain Lawrence Brewery is so easy to find you have to be careful not to drive past it. (Come on. Admit it. You’ve done that before!) 444 Saw Mill River Road, Elmsford‎ NY. Exit 2 on I-287 West (Route 9A).

 

 

*Black Taxi is managed by the super capable Nicole at MezzoForte Productions . Please visit their website if you book bands. She works with some great talent.

 

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Matt O’Ree Band At Stamford’s Alive At Five Party

BNK Productions has been working with one of the most amazing musicians for a long time now.  One of those bands, The Matt O’Ree band we have bringing to New England for quite a few years now. People are always left breathless and and in awe after a Matt O’Ree Band performance. Remembering back to our first show with them on a rainy Friday in May years ago, it had looked like the weather was going to keep us from a good crowd. About 80 people were in attendance when the guys hit the stage. 2 songs in and you could see everyone there grabbing their phones calling people. “Hey, it’s me, you got to come down here and see this!” “hurry up, you gotta hear this”. Last year we held a performance in a parking lot in Wilton, CT to commemorate the 10 anniversary of 9/11. It was wild to hear people screaming for an encore.

The Matt O’Ree Band is a blues rock band fronted by the virtuoso Matt O’Ree on guitar and vocals. Matt brings back visions of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix with the roots of Robert Johnson. Backed by Eric on the B3 organ, Scott on bass and John on the drums, this group puts on a show. A real show. A show based on a musical performance rather than some hit songs. Their music has drive an energy to get people moving, with the talent to get you lost in a world of musical notes. These guys have been steady touring the country (and the world) for a long time building a name for themselves in a world of one hit pop wonders and hardly great wonder boys and girls.

Now we have a chance to see them play on the big stages they’re used to playing. Alive at Five, a summer concert series in downtown Stamford, CT has asked the guys to come back to New England and play on the Heineken Stage. The boys will be opening for Foreigner sponsored by NBC Universal and Skytop Lodge, on August 2nd 2012. If you haven’t heard of the Alive At Five please follow the link here for all the important information and rules of the concert area. Stamford Downtown Special Services District works hard to put on a great series of events each year and The Matt O’Ree Band intends to reward their work on August 2nd.

http://youtu.be/xGxnPmlKHKc