10/23/2023
Hey guys! Rhey here for this week’s issue of The Blackhat Buzz. This past weekend was a WILD ride. Matt was booked for stage management out in Vegas at the Sunset Station Casino, while I ran the sound for Rockin Halloween Havoc at the Rustic Tavern hosted by Joshua Tree from Order of the Fallen Stars. Matt shuttled members of the Bob Marley and the Wailers tribute called One Drop Redemption to Vegas on Friday for their casino show the following day. Apparently Saturday was the universal day for sound equipment trouble. Out in Vegas, the stage box at the venue was having some technical difficulties. It caused connection issues which resulted in quite a few of those super loud pops that nobody ever wants to hear at a show. After a significant amount of diagnosing, the folks at the venue realized they needed to replace the box with a backup which required someone leaving and getting one from another location. The show was delayed for an hour or more and the crowd started getting restless. When it was announced that the show would be postponed until after 9pm the crowd booed and demanded free drinks to which the announcer agreed. It worked out for them in the end, but what a stressful start to the show. You expect bigger venues to have well kept, reliable equipment, but stuff like this can happen at a moment’s notice. You can’t fight entropy folks. I was having a little bit of difficulty working with the new system BUT it all started smoothing out. A couple breakers ended up getting blown which was unfortunate, but the bands just kept rocking along. That’s all you can do in situations like this.
Coming up on the 27th we have the Halloween Party hosted by Star Castles Entertainment at Frogee’s Bar. Twenty Dollar Prophets, Desadera, Marty Calderon, and more will be performing including the High Desert Rockstars of Tomorrow‘s first pro band Heavily Discounted! These kids have some insane talent you don’t wanna miss! Also don’t forget, November 7th is the first Acoustic and Art Showcase and we hope for there to be many more. Well that’s all for now. Until next time, thank you for reading!
-Rhey
Meanwhile…in the art cave….
“Working in this industry can be a lot like herding cats…”
anonymous
I, Pi, spent a little time editing photos of Doug Strange’s face. I only did some preliminary selective edits though. Nothing is ready to show anyone. After a whole lot of tries with that neon look and a change in direction, Troy and I have finalized the designs for the stickers and shirts for Troy Story Band’s upcoming merch line. I don’t have much to show you folks this week, as I prefer to keep the designs to myself until much closer to the actual release. It is more fun that way. I ordered the dyes, vinyl, and blades for my fancy cutting machine. Next step is picking up the dyes at the post office (they arrived yesterday). I already have all the blanks I need to get started, but I intend to do that work at the Apple Valley home base. I’m actually hoping to use the opportunity to host a few of our artists for a fun little tie dye party so I can get a bit of an interview with our top streaming artist Ma_Du. I intend to also do an artist spotlight with Troy for his upcoming release if he is agreeable. He’s had quite a lot going on recently and we, along with the rest of the high desert music community, would really like to be able to help lift him up a bit. This blog isn’t just for giving you some basic details about what we do every week. It’s also a platform to introduce you to the collective of talented artists we work with on a daily basis. We are honored to call these people friends and clients, and sharing them with you is what we are building blackhat Studios for. I don’t like stuffy, formal interviews. They make me anxious as an interviewer which is not conducive to an open, or interesting discussion. I like to participate in activities with people instead of arranging formal interviews. Bringing them into my art projects, or even joining in theirs, is a fun way to connect and create and it gives me more interesting things to report on. I hope to give you folks one artist spotlight per month or as new music is released. Perhaps at some point we will even be able to offer you some video of the events. Big dreams… I know.
In closing folks, keep your eyes peeled for the impending release of Haunted, Ma_Du’s latest single, hitting all major streaming platforms on October, 31st.
That’s all for this week. I know this isn’t always terribly interesting, but I’ve got bigger plans for this in the future. We are just getting started. Thank you for joining us and supporting us on our journey into the indie music scene.
Until next week folks!
-Pi
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