Whew that "acoustic" stage post was lllllooooonnnnngggg
So here goes. Ben's thoughts on Indy Fest 2009.... somewhat chronoligical in order but also most likely somewhat convoluted.
Earlier in the week. Exchanged a couple of emails with Michael about what I should bring. I ended up bringing a hand truck we didn't use and the coolers I could conger up. One full sized with handle and wheels. I used to think wheels on such a small cooler was kind of pointless. A midsize, a couple of 6 pack coolers, and a styrofoam cooler I received medicine in along with some ice packs. I also brought my sleeping bag, 2 roadie towels, a pool/ hot tub towel, a couple of shower towels, 1 gallon of decaf sweetened blackened tea, 1 gallon of decaf unsweetened blackened tea, some diet Mountain Dew, some caffeine free diet sodas, my 3 black Klipsch t shirts, plenty of clothes.
Arrived at the House of Klipsch between 11:00 AM and noon maybe. Michael and Steve (Customsteve01) were busy at work in the shop. Michael gave me a quick intoduction to cable building and we ended up loading the trailer with most of the PA gear after Michael and Steve comleted the mixer rack.
Brian (Nola) arrived while Michael was working on cables and I think after Steve left for an interview bringing some fried chicken and other food. The friend chicken ended up being lunch for Michael and myself and maybe Brian also. Brian and I listened to a jazz LP before we headed off to the Klipsch open house with Professor Thump as tour guide.
Klipsch was celebrating something so there was free beer (and soda) along with elephant ears in JJ's cafe. We got a demo of an Energy home theater in a box system retailing for approximately $500 which was a very good sounding $500 HTIB systme though I was a little bummed we didn't get to hear the new Klipsch HD500 but someone had swiched out the demo room. We next did a little demo of a Palladium 2 channel system but cut it short as the amplifier or preamp was having problems. This didn't really bother any of us as we moved on to demo the Palladium HD home theater sound system. Simply stunning of course. I forget what all we watched but I suspect the Legends of Jazz track with John Pizzarelli and Jane Monheit. I've heard or read about both of them but not sure I've heard their music before... Jane's vocals just smoke at least in the cut we listened to. Another artist to add to the list of those missing in my collection.
Then it was time to go buy some food for the crew. We decided to just hit Kroger on the way back to the House of Klipsch rather than Sams Club as the Sams Club is way out of the way. Brian was probably a good influence as I think Michael and myself were in the grab some frozen burgers and maybe hot dogs and whatever else was on the list while Brian thought of other things which tasted really good late Saturday night though we never got to it at the park... but watermelon and mixing boards in hindsight just don't seem like such a good idea...
On to Roger's (IndyKlipschFan) place. What can I say that hasn't been said? This year we got to give a listen to Roger's new TSCM bass bins with Industrial LaScala top hats. One heck of a sweet garage / patio system. We muched out on some Hungry Howies pizza and sodas. The Red Wings game was on the TV upstairs and down though most everyone was upstairs. We were all pretty disappointed as I think everyone was for the Red Wings.
Professor Thump brought along a headphone demo case so I finally got around to trying the Custom 3 which are extremely sweet sounding, Image X5 (still my favorite - awesome sound and really easy to use) and the new Image S4 and Image S2 which are still not available. I was impressed by the new S4 and S2 - naturally they didn't sound as good as the Custom 3 or Image X5 but they also retail for $80 and $50. Extremely good sound for the $. The differences to me with only a couple of minutes with each is that the S4 and S2 are less refined sounding. The S4 and S2 I'd kind of compare like the Image X10 and Image X5 - the S4 has deeper bass maybe but the S2 sounded a bit better to me though maybe just inclined to like it better as it looks kind of like a fattened up Image X5 while the S4 is just even chunkier. At $80 retail the S4 should sell really well. At $50 retail the S2 should sell even better.
I couldn't believe there were still seats in the downstairs home theater. Hockey is quite impressive in Indy's home theater. Bone crunching hits sound, well, bone crunching. I could've sworn I felt a couple of ice shaving's hit below my knee when they were flying on the screen. The Red Wings seemed like they just didn't have the fire so we switched off to another thing or two and checked back a couple of times and finally put on some of the demos Mark had brought with him so we got to see Jane again and a few other things including the beginning of "Shine A Light". I didn't realize that it was also so funny. I think somebody made a comment about it being something like "Spinal Tap" with old dudes. We finally heade back to Michaels before midnight I think as Saturday was going to start early. Very early.
Back at Michael's we watched part of "Spinal Tap" before crashing for the night to get us in the proper mood I guess for Saturday. Was a lot of fun and to be truthful I'd not yet seen more than a few small parts of "Spinal Tap"
Saturday morning came early. Steve (from Chicago, actually Oak Forest I think) pulled the trailer as Michael was afraid his pickup would likely get stuck if the ground was too soft. I ended up loading up the coolers with Brian's help I think and off we went to the park at about 8:10 or so after the trailer left with Professor Thump trailing around 8:00. A flurry of activity unloading the trailer and setting up the Roadie's main PA rig. I helped out with that a bit and unloaded the coolers, food, water and whatever was left in our minivan. Once thigs were underway, Brian and myself went and got some ice as we forgot on the way. I was also going to get somre breakfast burritos and stuff from McDonalds but missed breakfast by 3 to 4 minutes. Naturally I hadn't really had anything for breakfast. We arrived back at the park as the finishing touches were being put on getting the PA set up and the first band ready. I think the first band actually started playing at 11:00 AM and they were surprisingly good.
And the MCM stack with 684's and KP362s and the K69's on a large JBL horn, besides looking REAL SERIOUS... SOUNDED AWESOME. There were a few glitches here and there which I'll not write about but man it is one SWEET sounding system. It delivers whatever the music called for - all out rockin' out to subtle vocals and violin. Just an amazing sounding system.
Steve (Chicago) and Brian set off to get started on the second stage while I went to get something from the Grand Caravan or park it but I think I did that before the first band played, or maybe check with Michael on the set up for the small "acoustic" stage. I think Steve and Brian had hauled everything from Michaels pickup truck down to the small stage by the time I arrived. We set things up on the wrong end, facing away from the main stage, maybe because the stage was there or maybe because I thought that the further away from the mainstage we could get the better? I think I went to retrieve my mp3 player and the equipment had been moved to the other end of the shelter facing the main stage. This worked better for a couple of reasons - there were some picnic tables at that end and facing away from the main stage would've meant the musicians would probably hear too much of the main stage while they were playing. Anyway, I found that my old Creative Labs Zen xTra mp3 player actually sounds pretty good. We were kind of bummed though as we were expecting a couple of microphones and stands and only had the Shure SM58 in Michael's small rig. Micahel's small rig consists of a pair of KP250's, 2 heavy duty stands (HOSS - Heresies on a Stick Stand as the KP250's are basically vented professional Heresies), 1 Shure SM58, a Behringer (?) mixer, a 300 WPC QSC amplifier, 3 mike cables, a long instrument cable, and a short instrument cable. They had provided a partially filled in band list and we found that the "acoustic" stage included bands. Not that big a problem, except of only 1 microphone. But some of the bands had their own and one of the announcers at the "acoustic" stage had a couple in his vehicle we put to use along with a stand. Those KP250's can crank out some serious tunes.
I ended up playing sound guy most of the day with help from Steve (Chicago) and maybe Brian though Brian snuck off and fixed us some awesome burgers and hot dogs. We made it through the day and only blew one fuse on the next to last act which Steve and Brian changed out with a fuse as Michael had spares in the rack that were easy to find. I'm sure way too many attempts at trying to speak with a British accent after watching "Spinal Tap".
The day is over it's time to break things down and load up. We quickly dismantled the small "acoustic" stage system. Brian went to get Michael's truck while Steve went to assist at the the main stage. We had talked about just carrying things up to the truck but I lifted up the road case and looked at the KP250's and decided we could drive the truck down to the stage to pick them up. Brian apparently thought the same after carrying the crate of cables he took with him up to the truck so shortly arrived to pick up the "acoustic" stage system. We then proceeded back to the main stage where most of the big stuff had been loaded I believe. I retrieved our minivan and we loaded up the coolers and food stuff and the large JBL horns with the K69's. We proceeded back to Michaels and I think pretty much unloaded most everything. I was extremely tired (pooped) and lumbering around like some sort of hunchback. When I went to carry the watermelon in the cooler into the house the handle and wheels didn't seem quite so silly anymore. I unloaded some of the coolers while Michael left to pick up the Some Guys pizza (mmmmmm, Some Guys, mmmmmm) along with a Blenheim ginger ale to take back for Alea (think Vernors with more bite). After pigging out on Some Guys pizza and that watermelon, we retreated to Michael's living room to watch "Shine A Light". I'd not yet seen it other than a bit of the intro Friday night at rogers and never reallized it was so funny. Michael, and OB, may he rest in peace, are right, it is an awesome concert movie. I'm sure we were a motley looking crew. Michael was on the sofa head bobbing enough I thought I should put a pillow under it so he woudn't get whiplash but then I'd have had to get up out of the comfy chair, Steve was even sleeping a bit, and Professor Thump was occasionally full out sawing logs as I'm sure I was off and on though I made it to the end and watched some extra's when next thing I know Michael's returned from getting ready to hit the sack and reminds me I should turn off the movie when done to avoid burn in (plasmas can still get that ya know). I remember thinking a bit before that I should go turn things off or put on a relaxing CD but was too tired / sore to move. So I hit the bathroom to brush my teeth and off to crash in Michael's gallery room...
Sunday morning came way to early but I was pleasantly surprised I could walk and most of the soreness had went away. Brian had left for the airport pretty early, probably before I got up to stay up after an early morning trip to the bathroom. Steve fired up his bike and headed out after I had gotten up but before I showered. I put away the rest of the food and loaded up the stuff I had brought and finally left for home about 11:30 after saying goodbye to Michael.
It was a long and exhausting weekend that was somehow way too short. A lot of hard work that was for the most part fun. And very exhausting as I was on my feet most of the day and my legs were TIRED. I'm sure I has quite the site the way I hobbled around Saturday night.
I returned home and found that we were going to watch our daughter's boyfriend DJ's football team (semi-pro, Indiana Mustangs) scrimmage at Indianapolis Cathedral at 5 PM so I was back in Indianapolis just a few hours after I had left. Cathedral's football field, artificial turf no less, is their practice field so we sat on blankets or I laid on a blanket when DJ wasn't in the game, sitting up to watch his plays. Finally headed back home to crash for the night.
By the way? Did somebody win the Image X5s? I forgot to stuff, er I mean sign up 
and my daughter had left to go shopping by the time I texted her a reminder 
. Michael said they didn't really get a whole lot of people trying out the 'phones. That's too bad as I think the kids will fall in love with them if they'd give them a try. The new Image S4 for $80 and Image S2 for $50 are killer for the price.
(whew... I wonder if anyone makes it this far 
)
Feel the bass in your head! Sticking 'em in my ears since November 2007! - bsam 2007 -
Klipsch - The Environmentally Friendly Speaker Company - bsam 2008 -