ridiculous.

Not much time for a real blog...

But wow.

The Hot Topic show last night?
The crowd?

Amazing. There were about 40 people standing around outside the store.

The set up?

Ridiculous! If you've ever been in a HT store.... here's how it was set up.

Visualize the store.

Walk in the door, look to your IMMEDIATE left.

That's where they were set up.

No merchandise was moved, no anything. There was room for a few people to sit, but thats it.

*sigh*

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this, could very well be disastrous.

Tonight, the band my husband is tour manager for, is playing a semi-acoustic in-store gig at Hot Topic.

I admit, I laughed when they told me.

When you hear about Hot Topic, the usual picture that comes to mind, is a goth looking band, black outfits, spiky hair, piercings, lots of eyeliner, and girl pants. Yes?

Okay. This band, is anything but. Their appearance is pretty slick, very carefully styled hair, they usually play in suits or equally nice outfits, always equipped with a scarf or a tie, with shoes shinier than anything I've EVER seen. And the music? Sure it's alternative, but its anything but Hot Topic's usual genre. They use a lot of electronic effects in their music, ala the Postal Service and the like...

But HT approached them, and was apparently very adamant that they play. So, I suppose hurrah to HT for branching out.

Problem.

Hot Topic... is on the second floor of the mall.

Which, normally, wouldn't seem like a problem. Acoustic guitars aren't heavy... and it's not like you have a drum set to lug up to the Hot Topic store, right? At least that was my thinking when I first saw this band play acoustic.

Now, after helping the band carry in everything, I know better.

Not so much. There's the acoustic guitar and bass.... a small PA, speakers, little semi decorative columns for the speakers to sit on, lots of cables, three microphones, microphone stands, a little sound board its all connected to... or maybe that's on the PA.. I don't recall.... then there's the all important merch tub, the stools the band members sit on (one of which, doesn't latch right,) the projector that plays the videos that match up with the songs, and the DVD player that has the videos for the acoustic shows on them.

All for just an acoustic show.

And I'm sure I'm missing something. I've only helped them load in for two of these shows, and the first time, I was worried about meeting everyone for the first time, and afraid I'd make a bad impression.

And this is all getting loaded in through JC Penneys... which, I'm not completely sure that we can even enter on the second floor.. I can't imagine trying to get all this stuff up an escalator... and then through the mall, to the Hot Topic store, while little psuedo-goth kids stare at the clean-cut musicians.

Wow. Just thinking about that... the JC Penney sales people are going to love us.

This... should be interesting.

hmm. this is new.

Just a disclaimer... I have no idea how to work my way around Blogger. So.. this should be interesting. I'll click my way around, should figure things out pretty soon.

I'll try not to ramble too much on here... but I've been in writing moods lately, and often, it seems like theres so much going on in my life (married to a musician, thats like, a lifetimes worth of stories right there, no?) between my husbands musical career, customers in my coffee shop that are convinced they know what they're talking about -- when they really don't, and even the occasional lesson in church that for some reason, struck a more personal note than the rest.

So, feel free to follow if you like. Can't promise anything amazing, but... keeping a blog may help me save my sanity, and prevent me from killing an ignorant customer, or random well meaning musician. So, here goes.

<3