#239 - Jeff Cranfill from SES & Concert Stuff Group

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Hello and thanks for joining me
today on Geese of Gear episode

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#239.
Today's podcast is brought to

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Well, hi again.
And so, yeah, today's episode

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#239 and I'm looking forward to
it.

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Like I'd say every week, I, I
just love getting to do this.

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I love that I'm in a position to
do this and that I get to be

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your host and bring these great
guests to you each and every

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week, Twice a week now.
And so, yeah, I really

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appreciate it.
I appreciate you taking the

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time.
I appreciate you giving a damn

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and listening to me every week
and also supporting all of our

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amazing sponsors.
You know, again, it's not cheap

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to do this.
It's not easy to do this.

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Not that we're brain surgeons
or, you know, changing the world

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or anything, but we do try to
put forward the best podcast we

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possibly can in the best quality
we can.

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We've expanded to video.
We've banded to all kinds of

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different things.
So we do appreciate you

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supporting the sponsor that
keeps them coming to us and keep

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them supporting this podcast for
you.

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Speaking of sponsors, this week
Elation won an award at Nabi

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think it was for the KL Psych.
And you know, Elation really

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dove deep on on this market, on
the TV and and broadcast and

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film market.
The KL series stuff is really

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good stuff.
It it's obviously, you know,

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hits a price point.
And so it's really nice to see

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them get that kind of
recognition.

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I know Eric Loader looked really
happy about it.

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I've seen his pictures and stuff
on social media.

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So congratulations to our
friends and sponsors at Elation.

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I'm very, very happy for you on
that award and recognition.

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And I got to apologize again.
I know we've been all over

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social media and stuff
apologizing for this, but the

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Glenn Rogeman podcast, which
actually I really enjoyed it.

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It was a lot of fun.
And we're still working really

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hard in the background to figure
out a way to get you some of

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that content, if not all of it.
But basically what happened is

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the recording platform that we
use recorded it and then crashed

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and somehow in crashing at the
end, it corrupted the

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information, the video and and
audio.

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And so video and audio don't
sync up.

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There's parts of audio cut out,
there's part of video cut out.

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It's just really a disaster.
And I've had two or three

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different companies working to
try and recover it for the past

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week.
And we will be able to recover

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part of it, but probably not all
of it and haven't even told

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Glenn yet.
So if you're listening to Glenn,

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I'm sorry.
You know, it really was a great

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talk and and it was during his
vacation to he was in Portugal.

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And so, you know, I always hate
breaking up people's vacations.

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Anyways to do this podcast to
record it, but recording it and

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then losing it due to some
technology failures is is even

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worse.
So we do plan to get part of it

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up at least.
So for that, there was

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especially a really great
discussion on one of my favorite

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topics, which is AI, especially
AI as it relates to our

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industry.
And by the way, Speaking of AI,

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I heard the funniest thing
today.

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I was having a conversation with
a technology company about AI

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and there's a new tech out
related AI.

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Get this, it's called Aieo.
Reminds me of a song we sang

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when we were kids, right?
So more on AI in a couple

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minutes here.
Actually, no, I'll keep going on

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AI right now.
I'm going to try and update you

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each and every week with some
new stuff that I'm figuring out

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or learning or hearing about.
AII know that I dive more into

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it than most of you in the
industry, and that's OK.

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I'm not saying everybody should
be using AI right now.

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I do think everyone should aware
everyone should not be afraid of

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it.
You should probably find ways to

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embrace it into your daily grind
and to make things easier for,

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you know, that it's coming.
And, and like I keep saying, you

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either get on the bus or the bus
will run you over.

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And so it's, it's, you know,
obviously sort of ever evolving

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thing as it relates to our
industry.

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And I get it.
I mean, I understand the the

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complications and the potential
job losses and, and changes to

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people's income and livelihood.
But, you know, we can't put the

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genie back in the bottle.
As I keep saying, you know, one

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industry that I've been reading
about a little bit is

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translators.
You know, if you think about

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translators, that's probably an
industry that's that's nearly

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over at this point because
primarily because of AI.

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But yeah, I mean, probably
really because of AI because,

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you know, until AI, you needed
translators for all kinds of

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things, translating documents,
translating live conferences or

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speeches.
And so that is moving very

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quickly and becoming replaced
very quickly.

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But apparently complex and
nuanced literary translation is

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is still predominantly human
driven.

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And so when you talk about
documents and things in our

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industry that are technology,
you know, that is stuff that

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probably AI isn't going to
quickly replace.

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But yeah, translation is is a
big one that's getting hit.

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Couple of the things that I've
seen recently.

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One is news that Microsoft, who
has been going deep on AI up

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until now, continues to invest.
They just invested at 1.5

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billion into a company, an
Emirati company called G42.

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Not exactly sure what they did
'cause I didn't feel compelled

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to go down that rabbit hole, but
feel free to check it out.

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Another interesting one is deep
fake porn.

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I don't know if you guys have
been hearing about this, that

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there was one with AOC last week
where she's just losing her mind

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because there's some kind of a,
a porn image going around or

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something of her head.
And, and it's a pretty good deep

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fake from what I've heard.
I haven't seen it, but there's

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full on porn videos with with,
you know, that would really fool

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you into believing that that
really is whoever they say it is

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in the video.
And you, you always know that

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that porn is going to find their
way into any new technology

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pretty quickly.
You know, it's like that.

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I think I've mentioned this
before, but there I saw a meme

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about cell phones and it showed
them starting out really, really

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big on one side.
And then it was going down,

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dropping, dropping.
And it showed like the timeline,

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the years.
And then when it got to its

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smallest, it said, you know,
streaming porn becomes a thing.

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And all of a sudden you see the
phones getting larger again.

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But it's true, you know, porn
when it comes to things like

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compression, you know, video
compression and just delivery of

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video, higher resolution, better
streaming bandwidths, better

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speed, Internet speed, a lot
porn drives a lot of those

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things.
It really does.

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And porn pays for a lot of those
things because they're they've

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got pretty deep pockets, these
porn tech companies.

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So let's clean that up a little
bit, but just a little bit.

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And now we're going to talk
about Patrick Dearson.

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So Patrick Dearson and I
recently had a conversation

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talking a little bit about AI
and I just kind of gave him some

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information that he didn't know
and told him here's how you

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could use it for some different
things.

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And if you know Patrick, you
know that that's gonna get him

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deeply into a rabbit hole.
And so if you follow him on

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social media, you've probably
already seen it.

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But if you don't, please go
follow Patrick Dearson on social

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media because if you look at his
Instagram posts that he's made

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of like his dogs carrying
machine guns and, and all these

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weapon, I don't know what
they're called, but belts and

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backpacks and stuff, riding
sharks through the ocean and

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like a in attack mode.
And it's this real apocalyptic

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looking thing And it, it's just
awesome.

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He's created like a whole bunch
of these things that just look.

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And there's one where a bunch of
Frenchies are are in a band,

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just really, really cool stuff
that he's created.

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Completely useless, probably.
Like, I don't know how you'll

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ever use it.
He'll probably find a way to get

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it onto a T-shirt or something,
or a company logo.

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But you know, and so he's
discovered all of this through

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Vectorworks has an AI
visualizer, I guess.

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And this is where he's creating
a bunch of these images.

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But yeah, check that out.
And if you haven't, if you

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haven't seen the Vectorworks AI
stuff yet, you might want to get

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into that as well.
So moving on, today's guest

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again, it is episode #239 and
we're extremely happy to welcome

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back Jeff Cranfill, who's been
on the show before.

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He was on the podcast in April
of sort of the pre pandemic year

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2019.
Unless you talk to some people.

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Some people, like even Glenn
Rogeman last week said, Oh no,

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we knew all about COVID in 2019
and we were developing product,

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UV products, UVC products to get
rid of the germs and stuff.

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So but yeah, he was on back in
2019, April 2019, episode 15.

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You can find that, of course, on
Spotify, Apple Podcast,

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orgizesofgear.com, which is our
website that is up now.

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It's nothing terribly special,
but it does have every single

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one of our podcast episodes on
there in audio only, and you can

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listen to or download those for
free right from our website.

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There's going to be more stuff
on our website in the future.

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We're actually talking about
some of those things this

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morning on In a Meeting.
But yeah, so Jim's initial, a

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lot of these older podcasts, by
the way, are audio only.

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We just started doing video in I
think August or September of

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last year, 2023.
So anything prior to that is

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going to be audio only.
So to read Jim's bio, Jim

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founded Special Event Services
in 1986 with, I'm sorry, Jeff,

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what am I calling him, Jim all
of a sudden?

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So Jeff Cranfill founded Special
Event Services back in 1986 with

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Jim Brammer in Brammer's Winston
Salem Garage.

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Special Events Services is an
industry leader in audio,

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lighting, video design, staging,
and live event production for

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businesses, religious
organizations, and major

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recording artists.
Jeff worked as a musician and

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technician for bands, recording
studios and production companies

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across the USA before starting
his own production company in

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his hometown of Winston Salem,
NC.

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Since 1987.
Jeff has provided scenic show

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and lighting design for special
events services clients

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worldwide.
Jeff has also toured with many

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of these clients as their
lighting director for over the

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past 30 plus years.
This also includes being the

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lighting designer and director
on several music videos and

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television broadcast that SES
provides production for.

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Jeff is also the owner of Oak
Valley Productions, which is a

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recording studio that he
operates from his home in North

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Carolina.
OVP provides audio and video

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recording services for music and
spoken word along with musician

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services, producing, mixing and
mastering.

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So I am really looking forward
to catching up again with Jeff.

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Nice guy, smart guy.
Really enjoyed our our last

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podcast and so yeah, let's get
this going.

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Hi, Jeff.
Hi.

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00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:15,240
Little blip here this morning on
our or this afternoon, I guess

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on our technology between us
somehow we couldn't get audio to

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work, so there must be a couple
of lighting guys.

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00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,840
Yeah, absolutely.
We're, we're, we're showing our

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true colors right now, yes.
There you go.

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00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,240
Yeah, it's working good now
though, so I can hear you and

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you sound good and and you look
fabulous.

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Oh well, thank.
It's the lighting.

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Represent the SES shirt on.
I like it.

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I like it.
We got the logo in the

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background here.
How new is?

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This building, we moved in well
during our, as some people call

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it COVID, we call it the unpaid
vacation.

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Yeah, we the, so the building
was being built and right around

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20/19/20.
And of course, we had only

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waited, you know, 20 some years
for our dream building just to

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start getting phone calls that,
hey, by the way, we're shutting

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down.
We're not going to do anything.

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And we got some great advice
from our builders and, and some

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other folks who said, you know,
don't stop, finish.

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And so we actually finished it
with no.

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00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:36,080
And the, I guess some of the,
the positive notes of that are

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we, we didn't have to get out of
our old building as well.

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We just sort of a truck at a
time, move gear over there.

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And it gave us a chance to
really work on how we were

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putting things inventory squared
away.

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But we did it with an extremely
small group of people that stuck

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in there with us.
Yeah, I apologize.

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We got the tech working now.
I hope so.

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00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:00,440
Yeah.
You were just telling us about

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this building and how it was
being built during COVID and you

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00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:07,360
got some good advice to instead
of stopping construction like I

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think so many people did because
that was a scary time.

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I mean, so I was constructing a
web platform at the same time

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because we were re platforming
my company And you know, it

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wasn't what you paid for this
building, but it was pushing,

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00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,560
you know, 7 digits or whatever,
right?

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Like it was, it was a real
number.

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00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:32,160
And and again, everyone was
like, you should stop, just keep

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whatever cash you have.
Stop, stop, stop.

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And I just said, no, you know,
we got to push ahead like it's

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00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:39,520
the only way to do it right now
because you want to come out of

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COVID with something to sell.
You know, you.

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Don't want to?
Come out of COVID in trouble so.

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00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:49,440
Well, I think and the one of the
big payouts for it is I don't

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think we anticipated how busy we
would be coming out.

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And so we were so landlocked in
our old building.

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We've been there for so long and
just we couldn't move

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efficiently.
So the good part was when

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everybody called it once and
said load the trucks, let's go.

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00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:10,599
Well, we were.
We were able to manage that

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00:17:10,599 --> 00:17:12,599
pretty well.
That's pretty cool, yeah.

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00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:15,680
And it had to be a fun time too,
because you're loading trucks

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00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:17,839
from the new docks in the new
building.

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00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,160
Oh yeah.
With all that extra space for

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00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:25,760
prepping stuff and.
Yeah, I don't know exactly, but

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00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:30,040
I think we're on version two or
three of the the rearranging in

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00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,440
the shop because, you know,
we've got enough room now it's

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00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,440
got you work, you work 1
workflow for a while and then

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00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,200
you decide let's move all of
these over here and you know,

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00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:41,240
make more room for things and.
You haven't already outgrown it.

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00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:48,840
Then absolutely we have, yeah.
It was just this past weekend.

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00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:53,240
We had a lot of festivals come
out it it looked very empty and

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00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:55,520
three days later you couldn't
see the floor again.

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00:17:55,600 --> 00:18:00,080
So yeah, it's.
That is such a challenge for all

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00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:02,840
of you guys.
I mean, our industry, every time

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00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:07,640
I go visit someone's shop, it
seems to be the biggest

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00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,080
challenge right now.
And you can't just go get twice

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00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,480
as big a building because you
you don't know that this is

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00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:15,720
going to keep going at the same
rate, right?

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00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,120
Well, it's, you know, and it's
funny when we went out to see

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00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:24,200
this one and it was just
concrete and steel and we were,

298
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,360
we were leaving and Jim turns to
me and says, you think we're

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00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:32,200
building too big of a building?
I'm like, you know, maybe I mean

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00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:37,000
the, the thought occurred to me
and, and of course it's not

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00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,400
even, you know, two years later
and you're sitting there walking

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00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:42,160
around going, where can we put
this?

303
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:45,560
Well, especially having that
thought while you're going

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00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:49,360
through this whole COVID thing
and we don't know, you know, who

305
00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:53,080
knew exactly when there was
going to be a live event and

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00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:55,400
what were the regulations going
to be like?

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00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:59,200
Were you going to have to do a
year at 1000 people maximum and

308
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:01,680
then another year at 5000 or
whatever?

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00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:06,440
And and by then half the artists
are getting jobs at Amazon, you

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00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:10,960
know, they can't sustain it, so.
We were fortunate to be able to

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00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,480
figure out a lot of things
during that time and we did.

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00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:19,640
We we helped with the drive in
theater locally in town that was

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00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:22,080
just a pop up two screen
theater.

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00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,400
We did the projectors and the FM
transmitters and then they

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00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,200
wanted to have live shows out
there and we did them actually

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00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:34,040
via FM transmitters to your car
to only take it to what I think

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00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:37,560
we probably hold the record on
the biggest concert of that

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00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,360
level.
We did a couple of shows at

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00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:45,080
Charlotte Speedway with The
Avett Brothers and we they, we

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00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:50,120
set up a stage underneath their
big giant LED wall put put the

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00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:52,960
stage on the track.
So there was the band underneath

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00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:57,640
it brought in a camera, you
know, a video company to, to

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00:19:57,640 --> 00:19:59,920
imag it all onto there and to
stream it.

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00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:04,840
And all the audio was sent out
via FM transmission and pretty

325
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,240
much anywhere within about A.
203 hundred mile radius rented

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00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,320
every pickup truck there was in
North Carolina and South

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00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:15,320
Carolina and these folks set up
in the beds of their pickups

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00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:19,360
with these amazing speaker
systems and their chairs and

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00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:23,240
tables and they sat and enjoyed
The Avett Brothers via FM radio.

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00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,680
How?
How many people actually showed

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00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:30,160
up at that one?
I don't, I don't remember the

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00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,520
number of cars.
I don't know that how many

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00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:37,640
people were in all of the cars,
but I do know it was, it was, I

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00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:42,360
want to say this somewhere over
1500 and 2000 cars.

335
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:45,880
So there's a lot of people.
Yeah.

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00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,280
They all parked in the infield
of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

337
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:50,600
That's cool.
And and of course, there were

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00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,280
several more thousand on the
streaming.

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00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,720
And so those those are little
things we learned to do during

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00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:56,600
COVID.
Yeah.

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00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,960
Well, you know, it was, I've
said it before on on this

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00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:04,320
podcast, but it was sort of a,
it was something that was kind

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00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:06,680
of depressing to me.
Like when people were trying to

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00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:12,840
do these drive in movie concert
things and you would see like 20

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00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,400
cars and maybe 80 people or
something.

346
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,640
And, and they had like,
sometimes they had these boxes

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00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,920
marked out where you couldn't go
outside your box, your, your

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00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,120
little group could stay.
And then there was other ones

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00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:26,400
where you couldn't even leave
your car.

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00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,520
And I'm thinking, you know,
where are you going to the

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00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,400
bathroom?
You know, like what's going on

352
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,480
here?
And I don't know, like to me, I

353
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:36,600
was just like, this ain't
working, this isn't going to

354
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,080
work.
But I guess when you can scale

355
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,240
it to the size of a Speedway,
it's totally a different model

356
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,520
at that point, right?
Well, it was, and I think that

357
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,840
what, what really was one of the
great things about it was this

358
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:53,320
just to see how inventive and
how resilient the average person

359
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:59,160
is that goes to a concert
regardless, you know, of

360
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:03,560
whatever the restrictions were,
these folks made the most out of

361
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,920
it.
And I think the, I think that's

362
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,960
the thing to take away from it
is that here we, we are in this

363
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,120
business of where it can't be
big enough.

364
00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:14,400
It can't be bright enough, it
can't be loud enough.

365
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:16,520
We can't have a big enough LED
wall.

366
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,760
And these folks were making it
work.

367
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:21,920
Yeah.
I mean, that's one of the things

368
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:25,280
that was so much fun to watch
with our industry was just, you

369
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,000
know, we're a figure it out
industry.

370
00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:29,720
And, you know, like one of the
other ones that I thought was

371
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:31,480
pretty cool.
I can't remember exactly who it

372
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:32,520
was.
It might have been Christian

373
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:37,080
Jackson.
Somebody in Seattle did a an EDM

374
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,520
concert out of the back of their
shop.

375
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,240
So they opened their roll up
doors and all the lights were

376
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:46,200
set up in all their their roll
up doors and their docks and

377
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:51,920
cars just all pulled up behind
their warehouse and you know, it

378
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,440
was really cool.
I don't think they made any

379
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,240
money, but I think they just had
fun putting on a show.

380
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,120
We did that.
We did a similar thing.

381
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:06,200
We did a, a, a YouTube stream
for not only an EDM set of

382
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:11,440
shows, but we just locally, we
here, we had a, we had emptied

383
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,520
out our old building and it's a
beautiful old tobacco warehouse

384
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:19,200
with beautiful brick walls.
And someone made a mention

385
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,600
about, have you thought about
anything we could do to help the

386
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,200
local musicians?
I'm like, I absolutely have.

387
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:28,680
And we started this little
YouTube series and we went in

388
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,360
there and set up a few cameras
and some gear and we videotaped

389
00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:35,360
these folks playing their songs
and, and, you know, mostly

390
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:40,680
originals that they did and
posted on YouTube with contact

391
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,480
information on how you could get
in touch with these artists.

392
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,600
That's cool.
And, and a lot of them actually

393
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,440
got some revenue out of it or
got some work out of, you know,

394
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,880
later dates and things.
So I I just another thing we

395
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,520
could do.
Yeah, I enjoyed some of those,

396
00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:00,080
like collaborations where the
drummer was like in New York and

397
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,240
the singer was in London and the
whatever and you couldn't really

398
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,640
do it live because of the
latency, but but they would

399
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,160
recorded and then put it out
right, right after they recorded

400
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,600
it or whatever.
And I enjoyed a bunch of those,

401
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:20,240
like some really cool sort of
mega groups got put together

402
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,120
that way where it was the
drummer from this band and the

403
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,200
singer from this band and they
recorded, you know, a song

404
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,200
together.
And what's his name?

405
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,040
Tommy Shaw from Styx was doing
songs like almost every day

406
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,760
where he was just sitting in his
living room with an acoustic

407
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,200
guitar and his dog.
And, you know, he would do a

408
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,720
beautiful stick song or whatever
and just do it live on YouTube

409
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,400
or Facebook or something.
And so some of those were kind

410
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,920
of fun.
You know, it was, it was, it was

411
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,760
better than watching Netflix or
whatever for a lot of people, I

412
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:52,920
guess.
But but yeah.

413
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,200
Well, it's, I think it's just a
part of us.

414
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:02,480
We, we all have that, that need
and we got to, we got to figure

415
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,160
it out some way.
We, we had for the longest time,

416
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,840
we have a rehearsal space in
the, in the new building.

417
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,560
So we've got the ability to have
a rigging grid in there and put

418
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,240
up a relatively large tour
system.

419
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,320
And we took one of our tours and
we put the entire lighting rig

420
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,920
and the video wall rig up, made
it work.

421
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,280
You had everything turned on or
and basically anybody that just

422
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,720
wanted to toy around with the
console or play some videos or

423
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:31,560
or whatever else we could think
of, we just we just had to have

424
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,960
gear out and turned on for.
You, you know, I don't remember

425
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,760
if you got involved or not, but
when we did that red alert

426
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:46,440
restart thing, the how happy
people were companies were to

427
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:50,000
work for free and go light up a
building in red.

428
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,920
You know, it was just it was so
exciting and so much fun to be a

429
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,040
part of, but people were just so
happy to put on their, you know,

430
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:02,360
there's show blacks and and go
out and program a console

431
00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:06,800
lighting up a building or a
bridge or a whatever it was and

432
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,520
it was just cool.
You know, nobody was making any

433
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,760
money, but it was just cool.
It was fun and people were so

434
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,280
happy to be doing something
again that involves.

435
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:19,720
Yeah, we, we sent out a few 100
fixtures throughout the city of

436
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,360
Winston S We basically lit up
the whole city of Winston South.

437
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,280
Yeah, yeah.
Red and it was great.

438
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,000
Yeah, no, that was that was fun.
Every year in September when

439
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,800
those videos start coming back
up in my feed, I'm like, yeah,

440
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,880
God, that was interesting.
I remember as we were doing it,

441
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,240
I was like, you know what, this
is costing me money.

442
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,840
And it's probably the most
incredible thing I was ever a

443
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,400
part of.
Like, it's just incredible.

444
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:48,080
It not just the the, the art of
it all, but just the camaraderie

445
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,720
and pulling it all together as
quickly as we did and, and doing

446
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:53,880
it.
It was just really a cool moment

447
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:56,640
for for me and and for the
industry too.

448
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,480
For us, it was great because it
was amazing how many people want

449
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:02,000
to be a part of it.
Yeah.

450
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,720
And people just kept calling me
going, hey, if you need help,

451
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,320
you know, setting up, doing
whatever, that's so cool.

452
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,080
I'm here.
And so that was really great.

453
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:11,400
That's so cool.
Yeah.

454
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,760
And I mean, we were getting
calls left and right.

455
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:16,200
Hey, we've got fixtures.
If anybody needs anything, let

456
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,360
us know, you know?
And yeah, I mean, it was just,

457
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:21,880
it was insanely cool.
I'm getting goosebumps just

458
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,520
talking about it again.
So you've been in the industry,

459
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:28,360
I think 45 years now, right?
Yeah.

460
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,720
You've been doing this a while.
I don't want to go through your

461
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,040
life story because people can go
back to, I think it's episode 15

462
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:38,160
where we had you on before.
But you started as a as a

463
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:42,360
musician much like I did, and
except you call yourself a

464
00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:44,640
professional musician, although
I got paid.

465
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:46,320
Well, I got, I got paid.
I wouldn't.

466
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,840
Have called myself a
professional musician though I I

467
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,240
got paid you know but that's
about as professional as it got

468
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:57,360
you know getting money at the
end of the night and so you and

469
00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:03,240
your you're still partner Jim
started the company in in 86 is

470
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:03,680
that.
Correct.

471
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,960
Yep.
And you're still together now,

472
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,240
which is incredible because
partnerships, like marriages,

473
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:15,360
don't generally last a lifetime.
And so it's nice when they do,

474
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:20,280
that's for sure.
So I read a stat and I, I just

475
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:23,320
wanted to find out if this is
true because it just sounds

476
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,400
insane.
I read a stat that SES worked on

477
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:31,560
46 tours, 850 shows,
entertaining more than seven and

478
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,640
a quarter million people in
2019.

479
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:38,160
Yeah, I would say that's
accurate.

480
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:44,840
We were 2019 would have been
yeah, 2019 would have been at

481
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:49,080
that time the biggest year of
SES knowing that we were going

482
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:53,760
to roll into 2020 with the
biggest ever.

483
00:28:54,280 --> 00:29:00,840
And yeah, but yeah, I mean,
well, the the thing about, you

484
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,360
know, SES you, you mentioned
Jim, I think one of the things

485
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:11,320
that has maintained us for this
many years as we, we both, we

486
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,400
both do what we're good at.
Yeah.

487
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:17,360
And it's not the same thing, so
that's all so.

488
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,440
Perfect when that happens.
Yeah, yeah.

489
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:26,120
And and and it is true that kind
of stay in your lane, but you

490
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:30,120
know, do what you do and and and
you and you know, and you trust

491
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:35,040
there's someone else that's
handling the other part that

492
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,520
especially heavily credited to
Jim about all of the other

493
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:43,840
companies that you know, came
came post SCS that are now

494
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,480
coming under the new new heading
of concert stuff group.

495
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,280
Yeah, which I want to talk about
that one.

496
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,120
Too.
Yeah, you know that when you

497
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:55,160
start looking at how many people
it is and how widespread we are.

498
00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:00,080
I did not know that stat,
honestly, but I wouldn't be

499
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:01,160
surprised about it.
That's.

500
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,720
An incredible stat back back to
the partnership thing.

501
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:09,920
So I, I, you say, you know how
like it's a great partnership

502
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,800
because you know, your, your
skill set or, or the things that

503
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,120
you're really good at and where
his start and you know, it's,

504
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:19,640
it's peanut butter and and
chocolate or whatever.

505
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,040
I had a similar business
partnership and the thing that

506
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,480
went wrong in mind.
It was amazing until that time,

507
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:34,720
but what went wrong was the the
partner and the partner's spouse

508
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:40,800
became envious of of my half.
And it was weird.

509
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:44,200
It was like my half suddenly
looked more appealing than the

510
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,920
other half.
And I said, you want to switch,

511
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,800
you know, no, but you know, this
isn't reasonable.

512
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,000
This isn't fair.
And and I mean, it wasn't a 5050

513
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,320
partnership either.
It was just like, suddenly they

514
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:59,000
wanted, you know, their dinner
plus my lunch and breakfast too,

515
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,360
you know, And it was like, wait
a SEC, this ain't going to work.

516
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:06,800
So I think you're exactly right
until, I don't know, until

517
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,200
somebody either forgets to trust
their partner that they've spent

518
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,280
all these years with or.
That's important, Yeah.

519
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:15,640
It's it's paramount.
Yeah.

520
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:23,520
And and you know, the other part
about that is too you, I hope at

521
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:26,080
least everyone, especially
younger people that are getting

522
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:30,520
in this business get into it
because they love it thinking

523
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:34,520
you're going to get into it to
get rich, being greedy obviously

524
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:39,960
never got anybody anywhere.
And that's something that we

525
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:45,640
just we don't, we don't do with,
we don't that's never come into

526
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,080
contention.
So if someone had something more

527
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,920
than the other, well, it's, it's
still the same family.

528
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:56,400
It's still the same.
It's still it's it, it, it

529
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,880
started in a garage.
And who would have dreamed that

530
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,720
what it became?
I know I didn't.

531
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:07,160
But you know, at the end of the
day, I know I can be proud of my

532
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,160
contributions to it.
And my contributions to some

533
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:15,040
things are less than others and
or, and then others might be

534
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:19,840
more than than others.
And I just, I just think that's

535
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:24,560
people doing what they're good
at and, you know, and, and, and

536
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:28,400
creatively communicating
everything, you know, making

537
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,520
sure that even if, even if this
doesn't interest that person,

538
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,640
we'll still go over the details
of it, you know, And I, I think

539
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,440
that's, that's everything.
There's, there's just nothing

540
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,080
about this business that I don't
take an interest in.

541
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,280
I'm not, I'm not the kind of
person that's just going to sit

542
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,960
behind a lighting console and,
and that's all I do.

543
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,480
I every, every little thing.
And, and that's why all of the

544
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,800
different entities that have
come out of it, you know, yeah,

545
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:01,680
I've set up chairs, I've built a
stage, I've built a roof.

546
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:06,760
I've, I've done all that stuff.
And I was and, and typically one

547
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,480
of the first people to do it,
you know, as, as those companies

548
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:16,480
were being built, did I want to
stay as an active part of that?

549
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:20,640
Well, no, not really.
So those have become other

550
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,760
companies that are, you know,
doing well on their own.

551
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:29,480
And there's a possibility maybe
tomorrow I get a phone call and

552
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,400
it's, hey, can you come look at
this roof and help with

553
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,400
something?
OK, Well, absolutely I will.

554
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,080
Yeah.
So that's the other part about

555
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:41,240
it is not drawing those lines.
I'm not AI, don't think we've

556
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,280
ever been any.
And when I say we, I'm talking

557
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:48,680
about not, not just jamming
myself a lot of people, I don't

558
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:50,200
think any of us have ever been
that.

559
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,440
That's not my job type, people.
Yeah, no, that's.

560
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,360
That's amazing and we wouldn't
ever ask somebody to do

561
00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:58,960
something we wouldn't do
ourselves.

562
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:03,680
Yeah, Yeah.
Did you guys did anything change

563
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,760
coming out of COVID as far as
like you learn something during

564
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,719
COVID and then became a
different company because of it

565
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,880
or stuff like that?
Like did you find different ways

566
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,000
to to shape your business based
on what you went through during

567
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,760
COVID other than keeping, you
know, 29 months of reserve

568
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,159
capital available or whatever
COVID done?

569
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,360
I, I think so.
I think one of the biggest

570
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:35,199
things, you know, that this
coming out of it help was figure

571
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:41,840
having the time to figure out
how to structure certain things.

572
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,840
I don't know that there's any
kind of model management model

573
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:50,120
that a business like this fits
center.

574
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:52,920
I think pretty much anybody that
has a production company would

575
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,840
say, well, management is done
trial by fire.

576
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,160
You know, it's OK, that doesn't
work.

577
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:04,080
We're moving on another plan.
I think there was enough time to

578
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,160
really go through that.
The other part was to really

579
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:11,560
analyze and look at everything
we have, you know, gear, gear

580
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:17,440
wise, it was said years and
years ago that we'll never own

581
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,480
anything that we have to
apologize for and policy.

582
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:26,360
I like that one.
And and so it also gave us the

583
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:32,000
ability to think about what we
have, how diverse, especially in

584
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,280
lighting, where lighting had
become the thing of you're

585
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,080
reading people's writers and
you're accommodating writers.

586
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:40,640
And you get into this habit of
this is my method over and over

587
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:43,120
and over again.
And the next thing you know, you

588
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:47,200
own 32 of every kind of brand
fixture there is made.

589
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:51,880
And the next tour goes out and
they use pieces and parts of it.

590
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,160
And the next tour goes out and
uses more pieces and parts.

591
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:57,880
And then you're sitting around
with oddball numbers of stuff

592
00:35:57,880 --> 00:35:59,280
going, I can't do anything with
this stuff.

593
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:03,800
Yeah, yeah.
And and so, you know, thinking

594
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:09,880
smarter about big picture views
of that we we do.

595
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:14,960
So what's that you know, Jeff,
like did, did you minimize the

596
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,960
number of of products that
you're carrying and just go

597
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:19,720
deeper on them?
We did.

598
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:24,240
Yeah, we did.
We, we, it's kind of an old

599
00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:27,040
school philosophy.
You know, back in the day when

600
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,160
I, and when I say back in the
day, I'm talking to analog days,

601
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,400
you kind of owned, whether it
was audio or lighting, you owned

602
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:41,040
the piece from the company that
you like to have and whoever was

603
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,160
coming to town to do a show or
were needing your services.

604
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:49,520
Well, they just used that, that
it was brand X speaker cabinet

605
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:52,440
today and whatever company they
used tomorrow with brand Y.

606
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:58,880
And, and so at that, you know,
I, I can remember back to those

607
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,600
days and think we had these
consoles, these speakers, these

608
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,840
lights, these dimmers, that and
you, you didn't hear someone

609
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:11,000
say, Oh, I, I can't use that.
And and so kind of, you know,

610
00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:15,560
try to adapt some of that
philosophy of it to be able to

611
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,920
say, you know, here's the,
here's the brands that we carry,

612
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,640
here's what we have of their, of
their stock.

613
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,680
Surely that's good enough for
you to make something work out

614
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,360
of it.
And so far so good with that.

615
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:33,240
Well, you know what I mean.
It also it gives you a better

616
00:37:33,240 --> 00:37:36,280
relationship with your suppliers
'cause you have less suppliers

617
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:39,160
who are are maximizing your
dollars.

618
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:43,360
I guess in instead of having 30
of each moving light, you have

619
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,440
300 of 1 or 500 or whatever the
number is.

620
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,640
And, you know, that makes a lot
of sense.

621
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:52,560
I mean, that Huntley Christie
did really well with Martin

622
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,160
doing it that way too.
And I mean, I know now he's a

623
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,680
lot more diverse than just
Martin, but he still goes heavy

624
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,200
on Martin and he still gets a
special deal that we all know

625
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,440
he's paying less than everybody
else for Martin's stuff.

626
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:05,560
Sure, even though Martin will
tell you he's not.

627
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:11,200
And, and so I I agree with that.
And it used to be like you said

628
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:14,520
back in the day, you were a high
end house or you were a Martin

629
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:18,280
house or you were a claybacky
house or Vera Lite, but you

630
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:22,760
weren't all 17 of them.
And and I.

631
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:26,000
Well, you couldn't be.
Yeah, I, I, I think the other

632
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:31,680
part too is I, I got asked this
question at LDI this year.

633
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:34,880
Someone said, what have you seen
that was interesting?

634
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:37,360
And I'm like, well, it's all
interesting.

635
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:42,760
I said the biggest thing is
there's so much of it of it like

636
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:46,120
each other.
And I said and someone said,

637
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,240
yeah, I've noticed that I'm
like, well, don't it's, that's

638
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:51,840
not a bad thing.
I understand that these

639
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:56,360
companies are making good
products and they perform well.

640
00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:01,160
So this was a grand opportunity
to kind of get that more

641
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:05,000
allegiance back to being, I'm
this kind of house, that kind of

642
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:10,160
house because there's several
manufacturers that make all the

643
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,960
things that you might need for
the, you know, the, the basic

644
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,280
staples of, of putting stuff
together a lot.

645
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:19,960
Of wash a beam like all of the
different parts.

646
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,600
Of the family or whatever in in
earlier years it was just who's

647
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:28,640
park in do you like?
But you know, now I mean, I

648
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:31,480
don't and I never thought of it.
I never thought of moving lights

649
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:37,600
that way that we would get into
such AI guess, you know, formed

650
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,800
type of model.
But you know, there's

651
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,400
manufacturers out there making
good spot fixtures, good wash

652
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:48,560
fixtures, good strobe fixtures.
Well, they're kind of the three

653
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:54,720
start to everything and and and
so it's funny how I, you know, I

654
00:39:54,720 --> 00:39:57,920
can look at it now these decades
later and go, well, we're just

655
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,280
back to who's park and do we
like the best?

656
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:02,280
Yeah, but it's.
It's such.

657
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,000
A big topic, it's a really,
really important topic because

658
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,560
we got so far away from that.
And unfortunately or fortunately

659
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,800
or whatever you want to call it,
but today or recently and

660
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:17,680
probably still today, I think
lighting designers decide what

661
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,760
lights are in your shop as much
as as anyone does.

662
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:22,960
Because they're.
Like, hey, for this tour, I've

663
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:27,600
got to have this fixture and you
know, they'll, they'll convince

664
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:32,400
you through prodding and and
whatever to put that into your

665
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,520
inventory or else you might lose
that show or that tour or

666
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:40,560
whatever.
And you know, I understand that.

667
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,960
I understand they want what they
want and they need what they

668
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:44,920
need.
But at the same time, I don't

669
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,640
know that that's really
sustainable.

670
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:51,560
You know, like I just, I think
it's a bad, I think it's a bad

671
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,080
way to do it to have a dozen of
everything in your stock and and

672
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:58,520
not 200 of any one thing.
You know, it's dangerous.

673
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,040
Well, I think we, I think we
fell victim to that.

674
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,320
Not, not out of anyone doing
anything wrong or or not.

675
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:09,760
It was just the fact of business
was rolling in.

676
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,080
Things were getting bigger.
Things were more and more and

677
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:15,240
more and more.
And so at one point it became

678
00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:19,240
easier just to sort of say yes
to every writer that came

679
00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:22,160
across.
And then we had time to sit down

680
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:25,920
and talk to people and say,
well, hey, if we had this

681
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:27,520
instead of this, would you use
it?

682
00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:31,920
And you find out, Yes, I would.
And and I think I think part of

683
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:36,200
that comes from I hope I'll
probably get some people that

684
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,960
don't like this one, but some
some of my thinking about where

685
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,480
we are saying that people make
so many of the same things.

686
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,280
As far as manufacturers go, I
think we've really quit.

687
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:48,600
A lot of companies have quit
making sort of their one trick

688
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:53,440
pony type lights.
And there was a really long time

689
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:58,080
during moving light technology
where every like you, what you

690
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:00,840
said earlier about the the
designer says I have to have

691
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:03,640
this.
Yeah, and I and I saw it more in

692
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,640
that type stuff where it was the
things that was oh, that's the

693
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,040
IT does this gobo thing that no
other fixture does and I have to

694
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:11,720
have it for my shows.
I know and.

695
00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:17,200
We're, we're all a bunch of, you
know, product gear nerds, you

696
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:18,120
know?
So somebody.

697
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:21,760
Comes into your shop and goes.
But ours has 12 gobos, you know.

698
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,560
And then?
Suddenly you're like, oh, I only

699
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:26,600
had 11 before, you know?
Yeah.

700
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:31,880
But that's sort of what I mean
it was, it was that where we

701
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,160
were those we were buying the
one trick ponies, that's what we

702
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:38,720
were doing.
And now not just one

703
00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:41,360
manufacturer, but several
manufacturers, you go through

704
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:44,440
and you look at their spot
fixtures, their wash fixtures,

705
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,560
etcetera and you go, well, these
are good.

706
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:47,960
They all.
Are they're good?

707
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:51,320
They're good lights.
Can you design A show around it?

708
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,400
Well, Are you a good designer?
Yeah, you know what, Jeff?

709
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:59,160
I'm not putting anybody down,
but yeah, you could have a

710
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:04,240
killer looking lighting rig
made-up of American DJ fixtures

711
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:05,400
today.
You.

712
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:06,880
Know based on what I saw this
year.

713
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:11,120
That ain't putting down American
DJ because they're like the

714
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,960
little stepbrother of of
Elation.

715
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:18,560
But you could, you could
absolutely have a killer rig and

716
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:21,640
it would perform well and it
would probably be damn reliable

717
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,720
too.
And, you know, that's just where

718
00:43:24,720 --> 00:43:26,480
we're at right now.
The other.

719
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:31,000
The problem is though, like, I
think in a sense we've become a

720
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,840
little bit boring, you know,
the.

721
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,920
Industry from a standpoint of.
Supply the gear anyways.

722
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,120
Is a.
It's all good, but it's a little

723
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,480
vanilla.
It, it is.

724
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:52,440
And I, I'm going to say not all
the credit goes to this factor

725
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:58,320
for, but for what I see with a
lot of designs this day, I think

726
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:03,240
the the driving force about that
is the fact that video has taken

727
00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:06,280
over lighting's job and so many
things.

728
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:10,800
Yeah, there's.
I mean, I go out and I see some

729
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,160
great tours and and great shows
and great.

730
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:18,840
And I, I think that how someone
almost had to battle against the

731
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:23,360
LED wall with lighting to, to
make a stand and be and be

732
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,240
purposeful and make a, make a, a
difference.

733
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:31,280
Yeah, again, that's, that's
takes a level of creativity that

734
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,320
you got to really think through
different than just how many

735
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,080
lights do I want.
And I think that there's a lot

736
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:43,680
of that being done.
But you know, just it's, it's

737
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,200
the big elephant in the room
when you walk in and there's

738
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:50,480
something that's 60 feet wide by
40 feet tall where they don't

739
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:53,480
make lights that big.
Yeah, well, and then there's

740
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:56,800
also the brightness battle, you
know, and it's getting to a

741
00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:00,160
point where, like, I can't even
stand it front of house and look

742
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:03,160
at the stage, you know, with got
without getting fatigued, you

743
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:06,600
know, 'cause it's just, it's
like a really bright screen and

744
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:11,040
a whole bunch of gazillion
blooming lights and it's just

745
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:14,200
getting so ridiculously bright
every.

746
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,280
Few, A few years back I was
teaching a class and someone

747
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:19,880
asked me and said, well, what do
you, what do you do first when

748
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,160
you're talking to someone about
a design and, and trying to

749
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,720
figure out what it is they want?
I was explaining to them in this

750
00:45:25,720 --> 00:45:30,800
course about being able to speak
musician talk versus lighting

751
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:34,760
talk versus tech talk, because
the people bringing you their

752
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:39,320
vision maybe don't have that
much tech savvy knowledge.

753
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:42,600
And so they're trying to draw
this picture in the air to you

754
00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:46,280
that you're trying to decipher.
And I said, oh, well, it's

755
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,400
usually a good way to break the
ice on it.

756
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:50,600
Just ask them how big they want
their LED wall.

757
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:54,040
Yeah, because I said that's the
one thing that's called.

758
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:56,320
Around.
Yeah, that's the one thing that

759
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,360
they've considered is like, oh,
I've got an incredible LED wall.

760
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,760
Yeah.
Video used to be secondary, it

761
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,840
used to be imag and and that was
it you know, we it was a

762
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,680
necessity.
You put them out by the sound

763
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,200
wings or whatever and and you
just showed the band bigger for

764
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,000
the guys in the cheap seats.
But, you know, now it's just

765
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,240
such an integral part of the
show.

766
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:21,080
And, and I don't, I don't, it's
OK.

767
00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:24,080
I mean, I'm not knocking it.
I don't, I, I think it's one of

768
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,600
these things that you do have to
really rethink how you're going

769
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:32,920
to do your lighting design.
And it may be that you don't put

770
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,480
up as many.
I see lighting rigs that are

771
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:39,480
seem to be smaller now and I
think, well, that's probably

772
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:43,360
because a lot of the budget went
to video and there's really

773
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:46,040
great content and it looks great
and the show looks great and the

774
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:50,000
lighting's doing its job.
But I'd hate to see us go to the

775
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:55,560
sphere design where it's like
all video and key lights.

776
00:46:56,240 --> 00:46:58,600
It's white key.
Lighting and video.

777
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,520
That's it.
Yeah, well, I don't know if we

778
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:03,800
have any content creators.
We've got to keep that going.

779
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,600
But maybe a lot these days, I I
don't know.

780
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:10,320
But no, you're right.
And some of the some of the more

781
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:15,200
refreshing shows that I've seen
lately are ones that don't have

782
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,920
a video element or ones that use
a video element sparingly.

783
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,040
I mean, you know, I, I tell
people all the time, if you use

784
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,440
a, a good product, as far as LED
walls go, if you turn it off,

785
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:31,640
it's just black.
So doesn't hurt anything to be

786
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:33,200
back there.
Yeah.

787
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:37,760
So I, I, I do like that element
of watching shows where I can

788
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,240
see the designer was thinking,
OK, we've worn them out for a

789
00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:43,000
few songs now, let's give them a
break.

790
00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:45,800
You know, turn the LED wall off
and just have a rock'n'roll

791
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,280
lighting show.
Yeah, I like that.

792
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:51,760
You know, and, and I'll get
accused of, of being, you know,

793
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:55,760
a, a traditionalist or a old
fashioned or whatever when it

794
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,560
comes to some of these things.
But you know, for me, video is

795
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,160
just another element.
It shouldn't be something that

796
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:06,200
just completely takes your eyes
away from either the band or, or

797
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:08,040
the rest of the show or whatever
it is.

798
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,480
It's just one of the elements of
the show, right?

799
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:13,800
And I try to remind people off
and it's just the backdrop.

800
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,320
Yeah, exactly.
It's where the backdrop used to

801
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:19,000
hang.
Yeah, so it was.

802
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:20,760
Just the backdrop, it's.
Not anymore.

803
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:23,520
Yeah, right now.
So it's it's still back.

804
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,680
It's still all the way upstage
typically.

805
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:27,520
True, true.
Yeah.

806
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:34,200
So I, I wanna learn about this
concert stuff thing 'cause I

807
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,720
know you say nobody gets into
our industry to make money, but

808
00:48:37,720 --> 00:48:40,640
here you are with the, you know,
however many companies under

809
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:44,200
that banner.
So I don't know if you did like

810
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:45,960
a lot of these.
Like I saw there's a chair

811
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:49,280
company which I want to
understand the motivation behind

812
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,200
that and, and a, a barrier
company.

813
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:56,680
And certainly I can understand
the festival company, but I want

814
00:48:56,680 --> 00:49:00,720
to talk about that one as well.
You've got tour buses, you've

815
00:49:00,720 --> 00:49:05,080
got trucking, you've got
fabrication.

816
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,240
You know, I know I'm missing
probably 10 things, but.

817
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:13,920
Well, I well, first, you know,
but I always tell her baby, it's

818
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:16,760
not about making, it's about
getting, you're not necessarily

819
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:19,200
going to get filthy rich, but
you make money.

820
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:25,320
You know, it's a lot of it's
birthed out of the early years

821
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:33,960
of at the SES where at the
beginning Jim's, Jim has a lot

822
00:49:33,960 --> 00:49:36,800
of contacts as far as concert
promoters, people like that go.

823
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:41,560
He was in concert promoted
originally as as well and

824
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:45,120
extremely knowledgeable about
how that end of the business

825
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:48,480
works.
A lot of these things were were

826
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:53,320
born out of that trucking, you
know, SET special event

827
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:58,760
transportation trucking came
along originally as a way to

828
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:04,480
service SES just because at some
point you get so many trucks,

829
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,160
you know, permits and licensing,
all the things you have to do

830
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:11,360
for that.
That becomes a company because

831
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,840
you're hiring all these people
to run all these trucks and

832
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:20,040
drivers and everything else.
But as time went on, well, there

833
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:24,680
was no, you know, it wasn't like
a, a rule that it had to be SCS

834
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:30,760
gear in ASET truck and, and
trucking flourished because of

835
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:35,520
that because, you know, very
smart about putting the business

836
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,920
together with what you call real
rock'n'roll drivers.

837
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:42,600
You know, truck drivers that
that understand how to get back

838
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:45,320
there and help load the truck
and make sure the gear is safe

839
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:47,840
and it gets from point A to
point B in one piece and things

840
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:52,000
like that.
The chairs, same thing.

841
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:59,920
Prior to chairs, we received a
call to do some ground cover.

842
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,760
It was basically built some
plywood roads for the steel

843
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:09,440
wheels tour.
And Jim had a great vision to go

844
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:12,280
out and buy several 100 sheets
of plywood.

845
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:17,080
And here we go off to a stadium
and we built plywood roads for

846
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:20,720
forklift to drive on.
And of course that that over the

847
00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:25,200
years then turned into a product
that was called Incommat that

848
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:27,200
you could roll out over the
field and it could keep the

849
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:32,040
grass a little alive longer.
And of course then into what you

850
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:36,080
see now, the plastic flooring,
so that you know, that's a

851
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:38,240
company called Fuel Protection
Agency.

852
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,400
The same thing with the stages
and the roofs.

853
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:47,120
SES originally had nothing major
mind you, just a typical

854
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:50,280
standard old 4 post roof and
stage.

855
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:55,720
And it was back when we would go
out and do some of these

856
00:51:55,720 --> 00:51:59,280
festivals, we would drive the
trucks in and the same people

857
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:03,040
built the stage, built the roof,
then hung the hung the audio in

858
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:07,000
the Bay and the lighting.
Then we ran the festival as the

859
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,280
engineers and then reversed all
way.

860
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:16,440
So we were everything and and
you know, again, that that

861
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:21,400
became something bigger just
through, you know, Jim going out

862
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:27,000
there and and working hard to
get the business for for these

863
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:32,760
these things with bigger roofs,
bigger structures, and it's just

864
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,360
continued to grow and grow and
grow.

865
00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:39,480
But that's a that's.
A rental company, not not a

866
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,200
manufacturer, right?
Like you're not making.

867
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,600
Stages.
Yeah, well, that's part of the

868
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:47,000
fab.
The fabrication company builds

869
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:49,760
all of these things.
Oh, really?

870
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:53,640
Yes, for for G2.
So you're building, you're

871
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:55,680
building your own stages, mobile
stages too.

872
00:52:56,400 --> 00:52:58,920
No, not mobile stage.
That's all stage line stuff.

873
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,640
But there's obviously there's a
need for mobile stages.

874
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:06,440
So there's a, there's a mobile
stage division of G2 as well.

875
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:10,800
Yeah, that has the different
sizes and varieties of stage

876
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,640
line stages.
Can they deliver faster than

877
00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:18,000
stage line?
Well, I guess depending on where

878
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:20,840
they're at.
Oh, you mean as far as that?

879
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,320
Well, you know, everybody only
owns so many.

880
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:27,280
But there's there's, I don't
know how many people have them

881
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:29,120
throughout the United States.
Yeah.

882
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:33,560
No, I just, I know a couple
people who who are waiting for

883
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:36,720
stage line stages for quite some
time now.

884
00:53:36,720 --> 00:53:37,960
Oh.
OK, from.

885
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:41,280
The manufacturer, right, Yeah.
So I think like.

886
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,000
Everything else they're.
Just backed up a bit.

887
00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:47,680
But yeah, and all of these
things, of course that rolls

888
00:53:47,680 --> 00:53:50,960
into needing, you know,
alliances with the proper

889
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,240
engineering companies and
everyone else.

890
00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:59,160
And, and so it's it's, it's a
lot of work and a lot of people.

891
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:04,680
And so every, every one of these
entities, you know, even though

892
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:08,480
maybe the, the smallest,
simplest version of it was

893
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:15,080
originally done by SES or, or a
part of SES, it's it, it, it all

894
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:20,960
fortunately grew it just.
Sounds very organic too, like

895
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:23,600
it's not like you went out
looking for a hole in the market

896
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:26,600
and when we're going to create a
business doing this, it was, it

897
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:28,920
was that you were already using
the stuff for the most part.

898
00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:32,520
Well, I think that I think the
key was is that first of all,

899
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:37,640
not shying away from something.
You know, nothing wrong with

900
00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:40,640
saying I'm an audio company or
I'm a lighting company.

901
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:45,560
I guess if someone wanted to ask
how did we start?

902
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:50,360
We one of the, we, we kind of
owned a little bit of audio and

903
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:54,040
maybe at some point more lights,
but then we needed more audio

904
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:56,560
than lights.
So you see what I'm saying?

905
00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:00,120
We ping pong back and forth over
the years about which one do you

906
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:03,840
have more of?
And then, of course, the same

907
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:08,040
thing was when video projectors
and that, yeah, then it's was

908
00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:12,520
getting into some video gear,
you know, when, when you're

909
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:18,120
sitting in the middle of North
Carolina and that's what you're

910
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:20,560
that's what you're doing for
your livelihood.

911
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:24,320
But someone calls and says, hey,
if you're willing to come set

912
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:30,320
up, you know, 10,000 shares in
a, you know, in a football

913
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:31,320
stadium.
Yeah.

914
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:38,040
Well, you can set up the chairs.
You don't just tell somebody,

915
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:40,760
Oh, I just do audio.
No, you can set up the chairs.

916
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:44,480
That's at least I should say.
And I were thinking that's

917
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:48,760
that's what you do.
But out of this, what you create

918
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:53,080
is a one stop shop.
And, and I think that's the

919
00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:57,160
biggest, the biggest thing to
look for is that we, we get a

920
00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:03,880
lot of, a lot of the things I do
anymore are basically large

921
00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:08,080
format 1 offs.
And these can be, we've got one

922
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,720
coming up just next year that
will be in the why I call it,

923
00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:13,440
still call it the Super DOMA,
but in New Orleans.

924
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:19,280
But we'll go in and we will
build a stage and a roof and we

925
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,360
will do all the audio, the
lighting, all the video.

926
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:30,240
Yeah, delay towers, any anything
that needs to be done in that

927
00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,680
football stadium.
That's the same exact thing

928
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:38,360
that's going on right now coming
up in in Buffalo in a few days

929
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,440
with the Luke Combs tours where
they'll be next.

930
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:47,360
You know, that's we're there in
that case, it's it's staging,

931
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:54,960
audio and lighting and you know,
it's, it's one phone call and

932
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:59,640
and that's sort of where trucks
and buses and you know, that

933
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:06,240
buses came along in the same
sense of, you know, let's help

934
00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:09,520
out these people, these artists
with some buses.

935
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:14,120
And it worked.
And so now it's OK, go get some

936
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:21,000
more buses that we have A we, we
have a lot of different, I guess

937
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:23,160
everybody's got a lot of
different irons in the fire at

938
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:26,840
one time.
But to me, the big payoff is

939
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:30,880
when we all have the same ones.
Yeah, in the same fire.

940
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:34,240
And that's what you see on
things like the Luke Combs Tour

941
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:36,920
or what will be coming up this
year on the Hootie and Blowfish

942
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,360
Tour.
Yeah, so.

943
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:42,560
Do you that time?
Do you promote these companies

944
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:46,520
outside of SES clients?
Like in other words, you know,

945
00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:51,840
could could Christy or four Wall
or somebody come get buses or

946
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,720
trucking or whatever from you.
Yeah.

947
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:57,200
Yeah.
Yeah, and and that happens.

948
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:02,800
There's I, I don't keep up very
well with everything.

949
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:05,640
So some of these companies are
doing, but I could like this

950
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:09,240
past year SET the trucking
division.

951
00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:15,760
They handled the Eagles tour and
interesting I don't even know

952
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:18,200
who all the vendors were on
that, but they were all riding

953
00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:20,680
around in SET trucks.
Yeah, Yeah.

954
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:22,720
Interesting.
Yeah, that's cool.

955
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:26,720
And so are they all shared
ownership like, like is it

956
00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:29,520
basically you and Jim in this
top company in that?

957
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:31,560
Top company.
Owns 100% of all the other

958
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:35,240
companies, or.
No, it's, it's, it's owners

959
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:39,000
within and it's divvied up and
they say and there's a, we have

960
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:43,640
a another division that's
thinking of too that it's

961
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:48,840
integration where that has also
been a big part here in the last

962
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,120
few years.
You were talking about during

963
00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:53,680
the COVID time integration was?
Yeah.

964
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:55,960
Busier than ever?
Yeah.

965
00:58:56,480 --> 00:58:57,720
Carrying.
The weight for everybody.

966
00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:01,160
Yeah, that's like solo tech.
I think Solo Tech was telling me

967
00:59:01,160 --> 00:59:06,480
that there they were at 50% of
their revenue and 100% of that

968
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:10,640
came from integration.
Yeah, yeah, it was, of course.

969
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,280
Well, you know, these churches
had time to figure things out

970
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:17,680
and there was also a lot of them
needed to get up to date to be

971
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:19,680
able to stream and other things
like that.

972
00:59:19,720 --> 00:59:21,120
So.
Yeah, yeah.

973
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:23,560
Very, very busy.
But yes, there's, there's

974
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:28,520
multiple people involved in all
of these different, yeah,

975
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:31,320
different companies.
Yeah, I figured there might be.

976
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:33,920
Yeah, yeah.
And, and, and it's only, you

977
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:38,600
know, and the whole idea is to
keep, keep bringing more into

978
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:44,680
the concert staff group, you
know, umbrella as as far as,

979
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:48,840
like I said, being more of a one
stop shop.

980
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:51,960
And so you like you mentioned
the festival stuff.

981
00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:58,440
You know, we for a long time SES
did festivals and then we got

982
00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:01,120
more into touring and a little
less into festivals and

983
01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:04,960
festivals take a little bit of
different mindset about how you,

984
01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:10,040
how you package your gear, the
crews that you get, everything.

985
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:14,000
Especially now because there's
so many people that carry gear

986
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:17,800
for these festivals, it's a lot
more work these days than it

987
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:19,840
used to be where everybody
walked up and played on the same

988
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:25,640
drum kit.
And so that takes kind of, and,

989
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:27,120
and that's what the reason I was
bringing that up.

990
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:30,160
It's like an integration.
Both take a kind of a different

991
01:00:30,160 --> 01:00:34,720
mindset than say your typical
SES production would.

992
01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:40,360
So the biggest thing about all
of it is giving not just a few

993
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:44,320
of us, but everyone within the
company the tools to work with

994
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:47,280
so that if someone comes to them
and says, Hey, I have an event

995
01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:50,480
and you know, what do you need?
And they say I need everything,

996
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:52,440
you know, Oh, well, we have
everything.

997
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:56,880
Let's it's an easy, I can say
that except for except for

998
01:00:56,880 --> 01:00:59,280
catering.
And I don't think, I don't think

999
01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:02,840
we'll, we'll get into that.
But if an artist does come and

1000
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:07,040
say just we just need buses or
we just need trucks or whatever.

1001
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:08,800
Oh yeah, you'll still do that.
Yeah.

1002
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:10,680
That's an interesting,
interesting, interesting

1003
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:14,160
business.
And and so the festival business

1004
01:01:14,160 --> 01:01:19,600
does what?
It's it's mainly based on being

1005
01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:26,280
able to cover the festivals.
In other words, we may pull from

1006
01:01:26,560 --> 01:01:29,840
two or three different companies
that we have, you know,

1007
01:01:30,160 --> 01:01:33,600
alliances with to cover, you
know, let's say it's a multi

1008
01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:36,400
stage festival.
And so we need to divvy up the

1009
01:01:36,400 --> 01:01:38,920
love amongst a few different
companies.

1010
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:44,360
But but it gives us this outlet
where everybody's crews can work

1011
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:47,360
together.
We can we can flow really

1012
01:01:47,360 --> 01:01:49,560
smooth.
Like I said, festivals are

1013
01:01:49,560 --> 01:01:53,560
really turning into major
concerts these days.

1014
01:01:54,240 --> 01:01:58,280
And, and it's just a lot more
detailed work, a lot, a lot more

1015
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,800
crew that you have to think
about where you put them, how

1016
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:07,040
you, how you get them from point
A to point B It it's just a lot

1017
01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:13,440
of lot more legwork 24/7 to make
the festival run versus say,

1018
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:16,040
what we do in rehearsals.
And then we get a, you know,

1019
01:02:16,040 --> 01:02:18,240
once you're out of rehearsals
and the tours on the road, it's

1020
01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:21,520
just kind of, yeah, set it and
forget it, you know, it's like

1021
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:24,080
a.
Specialized like project

1022
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:26,280
management company.
Exactly.

1023
01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:28,440
Exactly.
And that's exactly what it is.

1024
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:29,000
You.
Yeah.

1025
01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:32,560
You have people that take on
those those roles to, you know,

1026
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:35,720
put their arms around the big
picture of it and then bring

1027
01:02:35,720 --> 01:02:39,640
into the festival all of the
different possible entities that

1028
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:41,040
we can offer.
Yeah.

1029
01:02:41,040 --> 01:02:43,360
So it's like an interest rate
again.

1030
01:02:43,720 --> 01:02:45,120
Yeah.
No, it makes a lot of sense.

1031
01:02:45,160 --> 01:02:48,280
I mean, it it because usually
there's so many people involved

1032
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:53,040
and you know, there's not
necessarily one group who's

1033
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:54,960
responsible for pulling it all
together.

1034
01:02:54,960 --> 01:02:57,120
So makes a lot of sense.
I like it.

1035
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:03,480
So yeah, I think we covered all
the companies in, I like the

1036
01:03:03,480 --> 01:03:04,760
name.
Who came up with the name

1037
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:11,000
concert stuff?
Jim did he's, it's kind of funny

1038
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:14,760
how he did it.
He we, we as much as the, those,

1039
01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:20,640
those of us that are older, we,
we love to mentor and teach the

1040
01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:24,600
young ones 'cause they, they
definitely don't have the

1041
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:27,880
benefit of the education.
We, we got in the early years.

1042
01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:33,760
At the time he was, we had a
person that was handling website

1043
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:37,360
things and stuff and they were
having a little bit of a

1044
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:41,920
discussion, maybe a little
heated about website names and

1045
01:03:41,920 --> 01:03:45,160
things.
And, and I think the young man

1046
01:03:45,160 --> 01:03:48,520
was just wanting to show that he
was very smart and talented and

1047
01:03:49,080 --> 01:03:52,000
was expressing that well, it's
just not as easy as you think.

1048
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:55,440
And Jim's like, sure, it is type
in concert stuff group and he

1049
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:57,760
does and the name's available
and he's like, yeah, get that

1050
01:03:57,760 --> 01:04:00,160
name.
And that was hilarious.

1051
01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:03,880
So, you know, it was it was the
IT was the old guy teaching the

1052
01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:06,400
young guy that maybe sometimes
it is just as easy as just,

1053
01:04:06,800 --> 01:04:09,880
yeah, apply a little bit of
common sense and let's let's get

1054
01:04:09,880 --> 01:04:12,600
on with this one.
Concert stuff group isn't really

1055
01:04:12,600 --> 01:04:15,040
like a brand that you're.
Going on and.

1056
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:18,040
Promoting, you're promoting the
individual companies, not not

1057
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:20,440
necessarily that overriding
brand.

1058
01:04:21,320 --> 01:04:24,840
To to me it's just where we keep
everything yeah.

1059
01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:31,080
And and that's that that way
from certain promoters that

1060
01:04:31,080 --> 01:04:34,160
would definitely grasp all of
this quickly would be like I'm

1061
01:04:34,160 --> 01:04:37,520
calling concert stuff group and
they don't have to worry about

1062
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:40,880
getting into the details of
which branch of it.

1063
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:45,560
It's just that that's who
handles this because you guys.

1064
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:48,080
Figure that out, you guys.
Figure out which branch of it

1065
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:49,320
needs to do.
What?

1066
01:04:49,320 --> 01:04:51,720
Yeah, yeah.
And, and, and that's what that's

1067
01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:54,080
what cause just like with the
stages and roofs, there's all

1068
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:56,840
sizes and shapes and they all
obviously have come with

1069
01:04:56,840 --> 01:04:59,600
different cost and, and
requirements.

1070
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:03,960
And it's a lot better to help
somebody put some, you know, an

1071
01:05:03,960 --> 01:05:07,880
event together based on what
what is available.

1072
01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:11,280
Yeah, at at the time.
And so that's where it comes in

1073
01:05:11,280 --> 01:05:15,440
really handy to know that, OK,
we need needed one big stage,

1074
01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:18,240
but three little ones and stuff
like that, you don't have

1075
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:20,400
everything right there at that.
Building though, do.

1076
01:05:21,600 --> 01:05:24,600
You.
No, not, not yet.

1077
01:05:25,080 --> 01:05:29,320
Some, some things are going to
be moving in to other buildings

1078
01:05:29,320 --> 01:05:33,640
that are being built.
Yeah, most of the most of the

1079
01:05:33,640 --> 01:05:38,640
staging is just down the road
promise in north in Morrisville,

1080
01:05:38,640 --> 01:05:41,560
NC or in Tennessee closer to
Nashville.

1081
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:48,400
The trucking is still in Winston
Salem, which was our original

1082
01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:52,680
home base.
We're we're in the metropolis of

1083
01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:55,040
Mocksville, NC now.
I don't know where that.

1084
01:05:55,480 --> 01:05:57,720
Is.
Well, it's only about.

1085
01:05:58,480 --> 01:06:00,640
My son's a racing driver and and
he.

1086
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:02,640
He Well, there you go.
Yeah, going.

1087
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:05,920
To the cart track there in
Mooresville, GoPro, which I I

1088
01:06:05,920 --> 01:06:08,080
think it's called something else
now, but it used to be called

1089
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:11,840
GoPro and.
That's all, all racing country

1090
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:14,400
right there.
Yeah, yeah, it's fun place.

1091
01:06:15,240 --> 01:06:19,400
Well, Mocksville is about 15,
maybe 20 miles West of Winston

1092
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:24,320
Salem, directly on I-40.
We're, we're not, We're maybe,

1093
01:06:24,320 --> 01:06:29,240
maybe a mile from I-40.
So as far as transportation

1094
01:06:29,240 --> 01:06:32,840
goes, it's great.
But it's a nice little town with

1095
01:06:32,840 --> 01:06:35,320
great people.
We love it.

1096
01:06:36,840 --> 01:06:39,520
Any of the artists that we have
so far that have come and used

1097
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:44,840
our rehearsal space, they fell
in love with just the, the cool

1098
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:48,720
small town vibe of everything.
And, and so we're hoping to do

1099
01:06:48,720 --> 01:06:52,920
much more with the with that,
with rehearsal spaces and stuff

1100
01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:56,600
as well so that we can, yeah,
ultimately much like the rock

1101
01:06:56,600 --> 01:07:00,640
Lititz model, which again, in a
little, a little cornfield town,

1102
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:02,160
you know, with that makes
chocolate.

1103
01:07:02,280 --> 01:07:05,720
Or a slightly smaller scale
version of that upstaging in

1104
01:07:05,720 --> 01:07:07,040
Sycamore.
You know, same.

1105
01:07:07,080 --> 01:07:07,920
Thing.
Yeah, yeah.

1106
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:12,920
Small cornfield town.
Yeah, that's basically what

1107
01:07:12,920 --> 01:07:14,720
we're going for in Mocksville.
Yeah.

1108
01:07:15,720 --> 01:07:19,640
And and you know again, it's
kind of that one stop shop.

1109
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:25,440
So at some point most of well, I
know all the transportation

1110
01:07:25,720 --> 01:07:30,560
which includes buses, they will,
they will relocate to the same

1111
01:07:31,200 --> 01:07:35,640
property where SES is now.
We're going to have to expand

1112
01:07:35,640 --> 01:07:39,440
the building to make room for
more gear and and the same thing

1113
01:07:39,440 --> 01:07:41,560
goes with our current rehearsal
space.

1114
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:44,040
We'll have to expand into
something bigger as well.

1115
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:46,880
So those are some future
projects.

1116
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:51,960
So hopefully that that building
behind us on the screen here is

1117
01:07:52,000 --> 01:07:55,480
on a huge plot of land.
There's a lot of land.

1118
01:07:55,640 --> 01:07:57,560
Yeah, Good, good.
Yeah.

1119
01:07:57,560 --> 01:07:59,040
So you can build whatever you
need to build.

1120
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:01,280
It's just money.
Time and money.

1121
01:08:01,280 --> 01:08:02,920
Yeah.
That's all it is.

1122
01:08:02,920 --> 01:08:05,240
It's really you can fix it if
you just throw enough at it.

1123
01:08:05,440 --> 01:08:08,600
Yeah, Yeah.
So you've just done something

1124
01:08:08,600 --> 01:08:13,120
that I was a big fan of you.
You hired Jason Alt and.

1125
01:08:13,640 --> 01:08:15,720
Oh yeah, I.
Really like Jason a lot.

1126
01:08:15,720 --> 01:08:22,080
I, I, I have some relatively
recent history with him that he

1127
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:23,920
could tell you.
I probably won't talk about it

1128
01:08:23,920 --> 01:08:28,600
here on on the air, but I really
like the guy.

1129
01:08:28,600 --> 01:08:30,600
Like he's just a super smart
dude.

1130
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:35,840
He he loves making systems work
properly.

1131
01:08:35,840 --> 01:08:40,000
He's so nerdy when it comes to,
you know, all the Gazintas like

1132
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:41,840
this one goes into this one and
stuff.

1133
01:08:42,520 --> 01:08:44,520
I just, I, I love how the guy
thinks.

1134
01:08:44,520 --> 01:08:46,439
Like I just think he's a super
smart guy.

1135
01:08:47,720 --> 01:08:52,240
Yeah, for me, for me personally,
it's been great.

1136
01:08:54,160 --> 01:08:56,479
I don't.
I never claimed to know

1137
01:08:57,720 --> 01:08:59,760
everything.
I'm still learning every day.

1138
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:03,960
I still read manuals, I still
watch tutorials, try to learn

1139
01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:07,520
new gear every day.
But obviously I've handled a lot

1140
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:10,920
of gear over the year, much,
much like Jason has.

1141
01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:14,560
And so I always tell some of
some of the folks when they're

1142
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:17,200
in the shop doing things, I'm
like, you know, if you got

1143
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:21,279
questions on, on any of this
stuff, I can probably tell you

1144
01:09:21,399 --> 01:09:23,720
how the wrong way to do every
bit of that.

1145
01:09:24,520 --> 01:09:27,520
And, and I mean that in the
sense of let me just go ahead

1146
01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:31,600
and stop you so, so that I can
show you the right way to do

1147
01:09:31,600 --> 01:09:33,160
things.
And I love the fact that he

1148
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:37,960
comes from that same, that same
type of mentality of, you know,

1149
01:09:37,960 --> 01:09:40,600
let's do it.
Let's, let's not worry about the

1150
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:44,040
200 ways there are to do it.
Let's just do it the right way

1151
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:50,560
that we all can live with it.
It's very nice to always have

1152
01:09:51,399 --> 01:09:56,320
people that think on that, what
I call that common sense type

1153
01:09:56,440 --> 01:10:01,800
type of, you know, thinking.
Well, it's not.

1154
01:10:01,840 --> 01:10:05,200
And I, you know, I attribute a
lot of that to, to some of the

1155
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:09,120
younger folks on the fact that,
like I said earlier, they just

1156
01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:13,840
haven't had the experience.
They, but there is no real

1157
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:16,160
history for them.
I mean, even there's some great

1158
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:19,320
schools teaching great
production stuff now, but

1159
01:10:19,320 --> 01:10:22,080
they're not, they're not telling
you where this stuff came from

1160
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:23,720
there.
They, they don't, they don't

1161
01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:26,680
have time to dig into the
history like we do.

1162
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:31,640
And, and so having, you know,
having people like Jason that,

1163
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:34,880
that get that same big picture
view, you know, I, someone can

1164
01:10:34,880 --> 01:10:37,960
send me an equipment list or a
needs list.

1165
01:10:37,960 --> 01:10:40,400
And it doesn't take me long to
dissect the whole thing and

1166
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:42,200
figure out here's all the parts
and pieces.

1167
01:10:42,480 --> 01:10:45,800
And that's what I love about
what I see him doing is that

1168
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:50,880
it's, it's exactly that.
It's like, oh, this, it's this

1169
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:52,920
event.
And here's what we need to do.

1170
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:56,280
Now it is up to us, just like
every single event.

1171
01:10:56,280 --> 01:10:59,920
We always should, we always want
to go by what the client is

1172
01:10:59,920 --> 01:11:01,520
asking for.
We definitely want to help

1173
01:11:01,520 --> 01:11:05,520
service the needs, you know, and
do everything we can possibly

1174
01:11:05,520 --> 01:11:09,480
based on their wishes and wants.
But also we have to interject a

1175
01:11:09,480 --> 01:11:14,440
little bit of wisdom sometimes.
And that and that's that's

1176
01:11:14,440 --> 01:11:17,160
another great thing that I've
watched Jason do so far as you

1177
01:11:17,200 --> 01:11:20,600
know, to talk to people and say,
yeah, that's good, that's good,

1178
01:11:20,600 --> 01:11:22,640
that's good.
But here, let's do this instead.

1179
01:11:23,480 --> 01:11:27,080
And I think, I think that's
really important because it's

1180
01:11:27,080 --> 01:11:32,240
the relationships that you build
through that that and and

1181
01:11:32,240 --> 01:11:37,720
that's, if there's any one thing
about SES in general, it's going

1182
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:41,720
to be relationships.
I mean, we've got multiple

1183
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:44,040
artists.
When you name those great stats

1184
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:49,240
that you you named, there's a
lot of those artists that are

1185
01:11:49,240 --> 01:11:52,720
not just in the double digit
years of relationships, but

1186
01:11:53,320 --> 01:11:56,400
some, you know, approaching 30.
That's wild.

1187
01:11:56,480 --> 01:11:58,600
And I know for sure Hootie and
the blowfish you.

1188
01:11:58,680 --> 01:12:01,720
Guys have been doing since the
beginning of time I.

1189
01:12:01,720 --> 01:12:04,720
Think this, well, this will be
this year is the 30th

1190
01:12:04,720 --> 01:12:07,880
anniversary of summer camp with
Trucks cracked review.

1191
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:10,320
And of course we were there two
years prior to that.

1192
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:17,080
So for us, yeah, it's 30 plus.
But it's the same thing with,

1193
01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:20,160
you know, Lynyrd Skynyrd who's
still out there doing Joyce

1194
01:12:20,160 --> 01:12:23,600
Meyer Ministries, Franklin
Graham Ministries, you know, the

1195
01:12:23,600 --> 01:12:27,840
list goes on and on of, of
people that it's building those

1196
01:12:27,840 --> 01:12:31,000
relationships and taking you
back to Jason.

1197
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:34,840
That's exactly what I see his
ability to do is help forge

1198
01:12:34,840 --> 01:12:42,120
those relationships and, and you
know, in new people that 'cause

1199
01:12:42,320 --> 01:12:44,480
you know, sooner or less we, we
need new people too.

1200
01:12:44,480 --> 01:12:47,040
We need the ones that were, the
ones I've only been around one

1201
01:12:47,040 --> 01:12:49,880
or two years that we're working
towards those 27 year

1202
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:54,560
relationships and the special.
Talent that he has is a little

1203
01:12:54,560 --> 01:12:57,800
bit different.
Like I agree on the relationship

1204
01:12:57,800 --> 01:13:03,200
thing, but I've just seen him,
you know, sit and calmly watch,

1205
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:06,160
you know, three or four things
roll in or whatever.

1206
01:13:06,560 --> 01:13:09,520
And you can see that he's
thinking already about how am I

1207
01:13:09,520 --> 01:13:12,360
going to piece these together?
Like how does it all fit

1208
01:13:12,360 --> 01:13:14,120
together?
Because that's what's important

1209
01:13:14,120 --> 01:13:15,920
to him.
It's not how pretty they look.

1210
01:13:15,920 --> 01:13:17,720
It's not what brand name is on
them.

1211
01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:21,360
It's not any of those things.
It's how are these four things

1212
01:13:21,360 --> 01:13:24,840
going to work together
successfully and not 'cause the

1213
01:13:24,960 --> 01:13:28,960
client a bunch of problems.
Well, I understand the nuts and

1214
01:13:28,960 --> 01:13:33,240
bolts of anything like that.
I still think is, is a huge

1215
01:13:33,240 --> 01:13:38,160
important part that we can't, we
can't teach enough of it to, you

1216
01:13:38,160 --> 01:13:42,680
know, younger people.
I see how so many people these

1217
01:13:42,680 --> 01:13:46,280
days I'm, I'm, I'm seeing people
that are actually apprehensive

1218
01:13:46,280 --> 01:13:51,440
about running a console, whether
it be audio or lighting.

1219
01:13:51,440 --> 01:13:54,360
It's just like, well, I'm fine
just flying the PA every day.

1220
01:13:54,360 --> 01:13:57,400
And it's like, yeah, but don't
you want to mix a band too?

1221
01:13:58,480 --> 01:13:59,960
Don't you want to kind of dive
into this?

1222
01:14:00,200 --> 01:14:04,120
And I, and I get it because they
never had to do it before they,

1223
01:14:04,520 --> 01:14:08,760
they started in the industry
once we were so segregated into

1224
01:14:08,760 --> 01:14:11,760
our departments and our, and,
and the breakdowns of our

1225
01:14:11,760 --> 01:14:15,720
departments that they weren't
the person that had to go do

1226
01:14:15,880 --> 01:14:19,480
everything.
And, and I think that, and

1227
01:14:19,480 --> 01:14:24,560
that's part of that, like I
said, that big picture view, you

1228
01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:27,440
know, where it was, you know,
Jason definitely has.

1229
01:14:27,440 --> 01:14:30,840
You have to be able to look at
something and go, well, here's

1230
01:14:30,840 --> 01:14:32,920
all the things that are going to
make this tick.

1231
01:14:33,920 --> 01:14:38,560
And whether or not your job is
flying the PA or your job is

1232
01:14:38,560 --> 01:14:40,840
running the console, you should
both know how to do the other

1233
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:41,840
jobs too.
Yeah.

1234
01:14:41,920 --> 01:14:44,000
Because that's going to, that's
how you're going to truly

1235
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:47,080
understand what the nuts and the
bolts of this are.

1236
01:14:47,320 --> 01:14:49,320
Yeah.
It's, it's funny you say that

1237
01:14:49,320 --> 01:14:54,560
because I, I grew up a musician,
I know how to run a console.

1238
01:14:54,560 --> 01:14:58,040
I could mix a band if I needed
to and I knew how to do it and

1239
01:14:58,040 --> 01:15:00,600
how to make the kick drum sound
real good and how to make all

1240
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:02,800
the different and the effects
rack and stuff.

1241
01:15:03,080 --> 01:15:07,280
Put me on a digital console.
Now I wouldn't know anything.

1242
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:10,920
I wouldn't even know how to turn
it on, let alone make things

1243
01:15:10,920 --> 01:15:13,440
happen.
You know, all this Dante stuff

1244
01:15:13,440 --> 01:15:15,760
and all the built in.
I don't get it.

1245
01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:17,560
I just don't.
Know well I have to stare at

1246
01:15:17,560 --> 01:15:21,240
them a little bit, but what I
still do when I see a new piece

1247
01:15:21,240 --> 01:15:25,320
of gear roll in the shop, I
definitely make a time where I

1248
01:15:25,320 --> 01:15:27,800
can just go.
I'm just going to need a little

1249
01:15:27,800 --> 01:15:31,440
bit of time to just go through
this thing and I do I still have

1250
01:15:31,440 --> 01:15:32,800
to touch it.
I got to push the buttons.

1251
01:15:32,800 --> 01:15:35,000
I got to watch it work.
I want to see.

1252
01:15:35,280 --> 01:15:37,720
I want to see where things go
from input to output.

1253
01:15:39,360 --> 01:15:40,880
Yeah, same thing with lighting
consoles.

1254
01:15:40,880 --> 01:15:46,040
I don't claim to have a special
need to just for one, one type

1255
01:15:46,040 --> 01:15:47,920
of lighting.
They all spit out DMX.

1256
01:15:47,920 --> 01:15:49,240
So learn how to make them all do
that.

1257
01:15:49,480 --> 01:15:51,760
Yeah.
What is it?

1258
01:15:51,760 --> 01:15:53,400
You know, but is it is.
It MA.

1259
01:15:53,480 --> 01:15:57,360
You guys primarily use MA.
Yeah, primarily MAS and and of

1260
01:15:57,360 --> 01:16:00,320
course a lot of people jumping
over to three, three software

1261
01:16:00,320 --> 01:16:06,800
now and yeah, finally.
Yeah, Well, yeah, a while, but

1262
01:16:07,560 --> 01:16:10,720
but yeah, primarily that's,
that's the number one console

1263
01:16:10,720 --> 01:16:14,720
that anybody would use.
But, but, you know, thinking

1264
01:16:14,720 --> 01:16:21,360
through a system of I was with a
couple of of folks of the week

1265
01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:24,600
that I was helping put something
together and I said, OK, now you

1266
01:16:24,600 --> 01:16:26,560
just need to go over your
checklist and they're like,

1267
01:16:27,040 --> 01:16:28,640
well, where's my list?
I said, well, it should be in

1268
01:16:28,640 --> 01:16:31,360
your head.
I said, let's just start with

1269
01:16:31,360 --> 01:16:35,480
what do you need first?
And, you know, and they didn't

1270
01:16:35,480 --> 01:16:37,760
understand what I meant.
Well, you need to say feeder.

1271
01:16:38,160 --> 01:16:39,920
And so.
Yeah, yeah.

1272
01:16:39,920 --> 01:16:43,560
Time power.
So I walked through the ABC's

1273
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:47,880
with them and, and, and got them
to where they they and then they

1274
01:16:47,880 --> 01:16:50,080
went to the show.
One of them sent me a text and

1275
01:16:50,080 --> 01:16:52,880
said, you know, that really
helped putting the list in my

1276
01:16:52,880 --> 01:16:56,920
head.
And, and, and again, I think

1277
01:16:56,920 --> 01:17:01,040
that's the biggest thing about
getting people like Jason and a

1278
01:17:01,040 --> 01:17:04,320
few other folks that we have,
you know, in, in the department

1279
01:17:04,320 --> 01:17:10,840
head type roles of being able to
really mentor and mold a lot of

1280
01:17:10,840 --> 01:17:14,400
folks now a lot more than it
than it had to be years ago.

1281
01:17:14,680 --> 01:17:17,880
Yeah, well, the shows are so
much bigger now.

1282
01:17:17,920 --> 01:17:19,560
You know it.
I was talking to somebody about.

1283
01:17:19,560 --> 01:17:20,120
This.
Oh yeah.

1284
01:17:20,360 --> 01:17:23,840
Yesterday or something, like you
remember when we were selling

1285
01:17:23,840 --> 01:17:28,000
moving lights and there were 40
on a show or big one or 24?

1286
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:30,800
Oh, it's David Miley.
I had David Millie on the

1287
01:17:30,800 --> 01:17:34,560
podcast and, and we were talking
about that like he had, he

1288
01:17:34,560 --> 01:17:37,240
started with, I don't know, 12
intellibeams or something.

1289
01:17:37,240 --> 01:17:40,520
And next thing you knew he had
24 of them, you know, and that

1290
01:17:40,520 --> 01:17:43,640
was that was good enough for
pretty much any country artist,

1291
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:47,280
you know, 24 Intellibeams and a
bunch of park hands now.

1292
01:17:47,440 --> 01:17:52,600
I mean like, doesn't the average
show have hundreds of moving

1293
01:17:52,600 --> 01:17:56,120
lights these days?
Oh yeah, it, it, you know, I, I

1294
01:17:56,120 --> 01:17:59,880
don't really sit down with a lot
of them and count up everything,

1295
01:17:59,880 --> 01:18:04,760
but oh the definitely the
numbers always range over 100

1296
01:18:05,160 --> 01:18:09,120
and, and these are shows that,
you know, might be playing

1297
01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:12,400
smaller markets.
Yeah, it's incredible.

1298
01:18:12,400 --> 01:18:14,720
To some others.
So yeah, it's but it's the same

1299
01:18:14,720 --> 01:18:16,840
thing with the video gear we
were talking about.

1300
01:18:16,840 --> 01:18:20,520
I mean, I we've watched it over
the over years, you know, there

1301
01:18:20,520 --> 01:18:23,280
was a time when only the biggest
of big shows have video.

1302
01:18:23,520 --> 01:18:28,800
Yeah.
And I'll watch, you know, things

1303
01:18:28,800 --> 01:18:32,920
go out the door that are more
video heavy than anything we're

1304
01:18:32,920 --> 01:18:34,680
doing.
We've, we've got clients that

1305
01:18:34,680 --> 01:18:38,400
will take out video screens
before they'll take out APA.

1306
01:18:40,280 --> 01:18:42,200
You know it's funny.
Because I, I completely

1307
01:18:42,200 --> 01:18:48,240
remember, you know, the, the two
like Barco rear projectors and

1308
01:18:48,240 --> 01:18:51,040
two screens above the speakers
or whatever.

1309
01:18:51,040 --> 01:18:54,680
I mean, it was just like not
that long ago, and now all of a

1310
01:18:54,680 --> 01:18:57,040
sudden it's just become such a
different thing so.

1311
01:18:57,560 --> 01:18:59,040
It's big.
It's big league, yeah.

1312
01:18:59,280 --> 01:19:06,200
Yeah, what what are you thinking
on on like so live events

1313
01:19:06,200 --> 01:19:10,040
obviously have changed a lot
since not just since COVID.

1314
01:19:10,040 --> 01:19:14,120
Like I think COVID definitely
played a role in in how how much

1315
01:19:14,120 --> 01:19:17,120
bigger they are now.
I think you know, when when you

1316
01:19:17,120 --> 01:19:20,240
start to take something away
from people, I think it just

1317
01:19:20,240 --> 01:19:23,760
created this this frenzy for I
better go see this concert.

1318
01:19:23,760 --> 01:19:27,680
It could be the last one.
But the other thing that has

1319
01:19:27,680 --> 01:19:30,960
happened is just the growth.
And again, COVID helped drive

1320
01:19:30,960 --> 01:19:35,320
this to the growth of these
artists on social media and the

1321
01:19:35,320 --> 01:19:39,560
fact that many of these artists
now have 5610 million followers

1322
01:19:39,560 --> 01:19:42,800
on social media.
And I've referenced it a bunch

1323
01:19:42,800 --> 01:19:47,080
of times before.
But Rapino, the CEO of of Live

1324
01:19:47,080 --> 01:19:50,360
Nation, says, you know, our job
is easy.

1325
01:19:50,360 --> 01:19:53,200
All we have to do is sell
tickets to 5% of their

1326
01:19:53,200 --> 01:19:57,040
followers, you know, and that's
a huge number of, of tickets.

1327
01:19:57,480 --> 01:20:02,480
And so do you see it continuing
to grow?

1328
01:20:02,480 --> 01:20:06,480
Like he, he seems to think that
we're still sort of at the

1329
01:20:06,480 --> 01:20:08,360
infancy and it's going to keep
growing.

1330
01:20:08,760 --> 01:20:11,840
I find that a little bit hard to
believe, especially when you

1331
01:20:11,840 --> 01:20:14,920
know there's nowhere to rehearse
right now and venues are both

1332
01:20:15,040 --> 01:20:18,760
solid for the next 12 months and
so.

1333
01:20:18,920 --> 01:20:24,800
Well, I, I definitely agree with
the growth and, and part of that

1334
01:20:24,800 --> 01:20:29,960
is you can just go and look and
see how you, you can go back and

1335
01:20:29,960 --> 01:20:33,760
look.
Pre COVID, how many tours were

1336
01:20:33,760 --> 01:20:37,280
in stadiums, you know, and
through in, in NFL and MLB

1337
01:20:37,280 --> 01:20:40,560
stadiums throughout the United
States or, or the world as far

1338
01:20:40,560 --> 01:20:43,160
as you know, soccer stadiums,
whatever, but not very many

1339
01:20:43,160 --> 01:20:45,320
major stadium size shows.
There weren't.

1340
01:20:45,680 --> 01:20:46,840
There just weren't.
And now everyone.

1341
01:20:46,920 --> 01:20:49,640
Is now now everybody.
I mean, it's just expected.

1342
01:20:49,680 --> 01:20:52,120
Artists are in stadiums now,
which is unbelievable.

1343
01:20:54,320 --> 01:20:57,440
And, and they're in those
facilities because that many

1344
01:20:57,440 --> 01:20:58,720
people are coming to the show.
Yeah.

1345
01:21:00,600 --> 01:21:01,840
Yeah.
So it's true.

1346
01:21:02,200 --> 01:21:03,560
Yeah, the.
Appetite, yeah.

1347
01:21:03,680 --> 01:21:07,400
So I mean, I, I, you know,
they're not they're not in there

1348
01:21:07,400 --> 01:21:09,080
just for the sake of saying they
did it.

1349
01:21:09,080 --> 01:21:15,360
That's they sold the tickets.
So, yeah, if that's that 5% in

1350
01:21:15,360 --> 01:21:20,600
that sense, well, that's great.
Because if it's if it's only 5%,

1351
01:21:21,360 --> 01:21:24,400
well next year when this tour
rolls out again for another

1352
01:21:24,400 --> 01:21:28,760
stadium tour, well, there's
another 5% waiting to get

1353
01:21:28,800 --> 01:21:31,640
tickets.
And, and so, yeah, based on that

1354
01:21:31,640 --> 01:21:35,560
theory, yeah, I absolutely
think, you know, the growth.

1355
01:21:35,560 --> 01:21:38,440
The growth is there.
I think you bring up a great

1356
01:21:38,440 --> 01:21:43,960
point about rehearsal space
production in general.

1357
01:21:44,280 --> 01:21:46,560
And when I say production, I'm
not just talking about gear.

1358
01:21:46,560 --> 01:21:48,800
I'm mainly talking about people.
Yeah.

1359
01:21:51,000 --> 01:21:55,360
You know, it, it may become a
challenge to do some things like

1360
01:21:55,360 --> 01:22:01,360
that, but I also see a lot of
these artists that are going

1361
01:22:01,360 --> 01:22:07,480
into venues where multiple days
are just a regular thing now.

1362
01:22:09,120 --> 01:22:10,480
Yeah, if you would have.
Told me 20.

1363
01:22:10,480 --> 01:22:16,000
Five years ago that Metallica in
2024 would be playing two nights

1364
01:22:16,160 --> 01:22:18,800
in stadiums.
Exactly, Yeah.

1365
01:22:18,920 --> 01:22:21,920
On the two nights, two different
set lists and stuff, I would

1366
01:22:21,920 --> 01:22:25,360
have been like, hell no.
We had Dan Brown on couple weeks

1367
01:22:25,360 --> 01:22:29,120
ago on the podcast and we were
talking about that.

1368
01:22:29,120 --> 01:22:33,040
It's just mind blowing.
The the size of these shows just

1369
01:22:33,040 --> 01:22:34,840
keep getting bigger and bigger.
It's crazy.

1370
01:22:35,280 --> 01:22:35,880
It's.
Wild, yeah.

1371
01:22:35,880 --> 01:22:39,280
And I think I think some of the
things that you, you know, you

1372
01:22:39,280 --> 01:22:47,000
might see is a a lot not not
just more stadium based events,

1373
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:50,760
but you know, if, if yes, if
they can find, if we can find

1374
01:22:50,760 --> 01:22:54,360
the people and we can find the
production and get these tours

1375
01:22:54,360 --> 01:22:56,640
out here.
The other thing that we're we're

1376
01:22:56,640 --> 01:22:58,840
already seeing, but I think
we'll just see more and more of

1377
01:22:58,840 --> 01:23:00,760
it.
We had, I felt like as a

1378
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:03,880
culture, we had all become
weekend warriors.

1379
01:23:04,840 --> 01:23:10,640
And I know tours had for sure,
but people are selling out

1380
01:23:10,640 --> 01:23:14,560
Monday and Tuesday nights now.
You know, there's people are

1381
01:23:14,560 --> 01:23:16,880
going to sold out arena shows on
a Wednesday.

1382
01:23:17,400 --> 01:23:22,960
So that's that's like it was
when I first started that that

1383
01:23:22,960 --> 01:23:26,080
was the norm back then.
That's also back when you had

1384
01:23:26,080 --> 01:23:28,800
artists that would tour and play
five nights in a row or six

1385
01:23:28,800 --> 01:23:33,200
nights in a row, which which
most artists now that that would

1386
01:23:33,200 --> 01:23:36,320
prove well, it feels like we're
going.

1387
01:23:36,440 --> 01:23:38,760
Back there right now, like it
feels like well.

1388
01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:41,760
Absolutely.
That we're going to see more of

1389
01:23:41,760 --> 01:23:43,960
these residencies and we're
going to see.

1390
01:23:44,920 --> 01:23:46,720
And and that was the other part
I was going to say the

1391
01:23:46,720 --> 01:23:52,360
residencies are just going out
the roof with great talent and

1392
01:23:52,880 --> 01:23:55,840
obviously they're selling the
tickets and making the revenue

1393
01:23:55,840 --> 01:23:59,920
that they expect.
So yeah, I think it's I think

1394
01:23:59,920 --> 01:24:03,840
it's only going to grow.
I think you you might see more

1395
01:24:03,840 --> 01:24:06,840
and more because of this.
That's why I was talking about

1396
01:24:06,840 --> 01:24:12,240
earlier about the festival
details is that festivals are

1397
01:24:12,240 --> 01:24:16,600
just popping up out of nowhere.
It seems like there's there's

1398
01:24:16,600 --> 01:24:19,800
just festivals everywhere.
And I think you'll see a lot

1399
01:24:19,800 --> 01:24:23,920
more of really, really big, you
know, high name festivals that

1400
01:24:23,920 --> 01:24:29,680
just keep keep popping up around
the country to help service this

1401
01:24:29,680 --> 01:24:33,080
as well.
But yeah, for for an artist to

1402
01:24:33,080 --> 01:24:35,400
go out and say I'm going to play
a Tuesday night or a Wednesday

1403
01:24:35,400 --> 01:24:37,760
night sold out.
I don't know that that was

1404
01:24:37,760 --> 01:24:39,760
necessarily the case a few years
back.

1405
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:42,680
Yeah, no, I, I, I think you're
right.

1406
01:24:42,680 --> 01:24:45,120
I think you're completely right.
Like, you know, one of them that

1407
01:24:45,120 --> 01:24:50,360
I keep seeing popping up is the
Billy Joel at, at Madison Square

1408
01:24:50,360 --> 01:24:52,600
Gardens.
You know, like how many dates

1409
01:24:52,640 --> 01:24:55,160
has he done at Madison Square
Gardens in the past couple

1410
01:24:55,160 --> 01:24:57,920
years?
Just wild, crazy nuts.

1411
01:24:58,320 --> 01:25:00,280
The appetite is just
unbelievable.

1412
01:25:00,280 --> 01:25:02,320
I mean, you got to have people
who are going to see him

1413
01:25:02,320 --> 01:25:06,080
multiple times like this can't
just be, you know, all

1414
01:25:06,080 --> 01:25:09,720
individual visits, you know,
these are people going to see

1415
01:25:09,720 --> 01:25:11,200
him.
Oh, let's go see him again.

1416
01:25:11,200 --> 01:25:13,200
It's, it's, you know, it's April
now.

1417
01:25:13,200 --> 01:25:14,880
We last time we went was
February.

1418
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:17,800
Let's go again.
But I love it.

1419
01:25:17,800 --> 01:25:20,520
I mean, it's, it's obviously
fantastic for our industry.

1420
01:25:20,520 --> 01:25:24,320
It's just like if I, I was in
your position, I just don't know

1421
01:25:24,320 --> 01:25:26,480
what the hell I would do.
Would I keep building bigger

1422
01:25:26,480 --> 01:25:30,400
buildings expecting it to
continue growing 25% year on

1423
01:25:30,400 --> 01:25:34,200
year or or would I just I don't
know what the heck I would do

1424
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:37,440
you know it's.
It's, well, I think you, you

1425
01:25:37,440 --> 01:25:40,000
definitely go with the flow, but
you know, there's also a,

1426
01:25:40,640 --> 01:25:47,800
there's, there comes a time when
the bucket gets full and yeah,

1427
01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:53,920
I, I mean, we have not hit that
yet, but sure it's possible.

1428
01:25:53,960 --> 01:26:00,200
And one of the things that that
you keep it from being that way

1429
01:26:00,200 --> 01:26:07,200
right now is, is the reality of
some of us are getting older and

1430
01:26:07,200 --> 01:26:09,160
that includes the artist as
well.

1431
01:26:09,800 --> 01:26:13,520
And so some of those artists
that we have these long term

1432
01:26:13,520 --> 01:26:18,120
relationships with, well, they
may not do as much anymore.

1433
01:26:18,120 --> 01:26:23,680
They may cut back and or were
she at retail?

1434
01:26:23,720 --> 01:26:27,720
You know, but it's it's a thing
of that's where you know,

1435
01:26:28,320 --> 01:26:31,120
getting in right now with a lot
of younger artists like we try

1436
01:26:31,120 --> 01:26:35,480
to do on the ground level and
work with them on the way up.

1437
01:26:37,800 --> 01:26:41,560
I think that's, you know,
keeping keeping a good stream of

1438
01:26:41,560 --> 01:26:45,440
that coming in.
I don't think you'll run out of

1439
01:26:45,440 --> 01:26:49,560
big shows because some of these
people go straight from playing

1440
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:53,960
the, you know, the opening to
the opening to the opening slide

1441
01:26:53,960 --> 01:26:58,720
on festivals and and just small
bar music venues to the next

1442
01:26:58,720 --> 01:27:01,000
night.
They're in the football stadium.

1443
01:27:01,440 --> 01:27:04,520
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's totally true, totally true.

1444
01:27:04,520 --> 01:27:07,640
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm seeing the
exact same thing and it's, I

1445
01:27:08,800 --> 01:27:10,200
don't know, like I said, it's
fun.

1446
01:27:10,200 --> 01:27:11,760
I, I'm happy I'm in the
industry.

1447
01:27:11,760 --> 01:27:14,920
I'm not, I wouldn't be happy if
I was a consumer, you know, out

1448
01:27:14,920 --> 01:27:17,800
there buying tickets right now.
And like he seems, that's the

1449
01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:22,760
other thing Rapinoe says is that
the average ticket price in the

1450
01:27:22,760 --> 01:27:27,240
market is still only something
like $68 or something, which I

1451
01:27:27,240 --> 01:27:29,920
don't know what tickets those
are because I haven't seen any,

1452
01:27:29,920 --> 01:27:32,040
but.
Everything, well, it's a big

1453
01:27:32,040 --> 01:27:34,360
market.
Everything seems to be over 100

1454
01:27:34,360 --> 01:27:38,560
bucks though, pretty much right.
Well, maybe the things that

1455
01:27:38,560 --> 01:27:42,920
catch your attention right away,
but it's, it's a big market.

1456
01:27:43,320 --> 01:27:48,040
And, and that's true.
I, I, I just work closely with a

1457
01:27:48,040 --> 01:27:51,920
music venue in, in Winston Salem
that just is owned and operated

1458
01:27:51,920 --> 01:27:54,640
by some friends of mine who I, I
admire greatly.

1459
01:27:55,640 --> 01:28:01,960
They have 1000 seat capacity and
when they first opened a few

1460
01:28:01,960 --> 01:28:08,560
years ago, well, having that
once or twice a month capacity

1461
01:28:08,560 --> 01:28:11,480
hit the numbers was or, or even
get close to it.

1462
01:28:13,520 --> 01:28:15,520
They're averaging that every
week now.

1463
01:28:15,520 --> 01:28:18,480
Jeez.
Yeah.

1464
01:28:18,640 --> 01:28:22,760
And I'm just like, hey, this,
this is my little hometown.

1465
01:28:22,760 --> 01:28:26,480
I'm I'm proud that, you know,
we, we got something that that

1466
01:28:26,480 --> 01:28:29,880
can do those kind of numbers.
But that's that's the kind of

1467
01:28:29,880 --> 01:28:33,080
thing where you're looking at
those, those other ticket prices

1468
01:28:33,080 --> 01:28:34,760
you're talking about.
Yeah, of course.

1469
01:28:34,760 --> 01:28:35,840
Yeah.
Yeah.

1470
01:28:35,840 --> 01:28:37,320
But I.
Mean, I think I was happy to

1471
01:28:37,320 --> 01:28:40,280
know that the people came back
as hard as they did.

1472
01:28:40,560 --> 01:28:42,280
That's amazing.
Yeah, it's amazing.

1473
01:28:42,280 --> 01:28:44,000
Yeah.
Well, 'cause there was a part of

1474
01:28:44,000 --> 01:28:46,400
me that was worried that people
would be like, I don't want to

1475
01:28:46,400 --> 01:28:48,160
get around other people again,
you know?

1476
01:28:48,480 --> 01:28:54,200
Yeah, But no, I mean, they're
more rabid than they were

1477
01:28:54,200 --> 01:28:56,080
before.
Like people just want more,

1478
01:28:56,080 --> 01:28:59,880
more, more, whether it's EDM or
country or anything, you know,

1479
01:28:59,880 --> 01:29:03,240
Mötley Crüe in a stadium, you
know, anything.

1480
01:29:03,240 --> 01:29:05,640
They just have such a huge
appetite for all of it.

1481
01:29:06,360 --> 01:29:10,880
You know, I, I, I, I'm happy you
said all that stuff because I, I

1482
01:29:10,880 --> 01:29:14,040
agree with you completely.
I, I think, you know, it is

1483
01:29:14,040 --> 01:29:15,480
growing.
It's exciting.

1484
01:29:15,680 --> 01:29:19,040
I just, you know, the pessimist
in me always wonders, like at

1485
01:29:19,040 --> 01:29:23,040
some point does it just go, you
know, and grind to a slow down

1486
01:29:23,040 --> 01:29:25,600
or whatever.
But I, I don't see it like it

1487
01:29:25,600 --> 01:29:29,840
the again, as long as the artist
have 10 million followers on

1488
01:29:29,880 --> 01:29:34,400
social media and keep growing,
you know, I don't know, I think

1489
01:29:34,400 --> 01:29:36,960
it's going to, it's going to
stay pretty exciting.

1490
01:29:37,640 --> 01:29:39,800
It's going to be interesting at
some point.

1491
01:29:39,840 --> 01:29:44,320
I guess the only, the only
factor you bring up there is

1492
01:29:45,840 --> 01:29:48,280
like there's only so many NFL
stadiums.

1493
01:29:50,120 --> 01:29:55,480
So yeah, there there might be
some little bit of traffic, you

1494
01:29:55,480 --> 01:29:58,040
know, gets bottlenecked.
Awesome.

1495
01:29:58,400 --> 01:30:00,120
Well, the other.
Problem is.

1496
01:30:00,720 --> 01:30:03,480
Most of the stadiums that are
out there today, and I'm not

1497
01:30:03,480 --> 01:30:07,280
just talking about the US, but
especially Europe, we're not

1498
01:30:07,280 --> 01:30:10,080
built for concerts.
And so they sound like crap.

1499
01:30:10,480 --> 01:30:16,640
And, and so I think if obviously
this is here to stay, I think

1500
01:30:16,640 --> 01:30:19,440
we're going to see some new
stadiums popping up to

1501
01:30:19,440 --> 01:30:22,880
accommodate this, or at least
some evolution to the stadiums

1502
01:30:22,880 --> 01:30:25,800
that are out there because they
don't sound very good like it.

1503
01:30:25,800 --> 01:30:29,560
If you love a band, I don't
think a stadium is a great place

1504
01:30:29,560 --> 01:30:33,160
to see that band because not
just because you're a distance

1505
01:30:33,160 --> 01:30:36,160
from the stage and, and you know
your your vision, because

1506
01:30:36,160 --> 01:30:38,600
they'll figure that out by
creating such a great show that

1507
01:30:38,600 --> 01:30:40,160
it doesn't matter how far away
you are.

1508
01:30:40,520 --> 01:30:45,360
But the the sound like to me the
sound just isn't the same.

1509
01:30:46,680 --> 01:30:51,560
Well, I think for a lot of
people, I, I'd love to see the

1510
01:30:51,560 --> 01:30:56,560
look on people's faces like at
the Luke Combs shows when you

1511
01:30:56,560 --> 01:31:02,880
know, some of these people are
300 plus feet away and, and the

1512
01:31:02,880 --> 01:31:05,920
excitement is there because
they're getting a great

1513
01:31:05,920 --> 01:31:08,560
experience.
They're taking it all in.

1514
01:31:10,400 --> 01:31:15,560
I think that's, I think that's
the thing that's important about

1515
01:31:15,560 --> 01:31:18,440
these shows.
And, and from a design aspect,

1516
01:31:19,400 --> 01:31:22,200
you have to think about that,
you know, when you're, when

1517
01:31:22,200 --> 01:31:24,520
you're putting together a
design, you got to think about.

1518
01:31:24,520 --> 01:31:26,440
I got people that might be 400
feet away.

1519
01:31:27,480 --> 01:31:29,680
What are they, What, what's
their expense?

1520
01:31:30,280 --> 01:31:33,920
You know, I'm, I'm fortunately,
I get to sit, yeah, I get to sit

1521
01:31:33,920 --> 01:31:35,600
in front of house.
I usually get a good seat no

1522
01:31:35,600 --> 01:31:39,840
matter what.
But but yeah, I think that's the

1523
01:31:39,840 --> 01:31:42,680
other part is really, where are
we going next?

1524
01:31:42,680 --> 01:31:47,080
Who's what's going to be figured
out next to to make this this

1525
01:31:47,080 --> 01:31:50,560
stadium experience that great?
Because you are right, some of

1526
01:31:50,560 --> 01:31:56,560
them just don't sound good.
But again, not saying that's OK,

1527
01:31:56,560 --> 01:32:01,720
but as long as someone went and
had a great experience, I've

1528
01:32:01,720 --> 01:32:06,320
always been that way about shows
in that sense of I don't want to

1529
01:32:06,320 --> 01:32:08,560
hear.
I don't I don't mind it if I

1530
01:32:08,560 --> 01:32:11,760
hear it, but I don't like
hearing someone just say, oh,

1531
01:32:12,080 --> 01:32:14,440
the sound was great.
All the lights were great.

1532
01:32:14,440 --> 01:32:16,360
I just wanted to leave and say
that was great.

1533
01:32:16,640 --> 01:32:21,000
Yeah, well, you and like in
Europe, you, you read a lot of

1534
01:32:21,000 --> 01:32:25,240
the reviews on a lot of the
stadium shows and they'll say it

1535
01:32:25,240 --> 01:32:28,320
was terrible, the sound, the
band sounded horrible.

1536
01:32:28,600 --> 01:32:30,720
And no, the stadium sounded
horrible.

1537
01:32:30,720 --> 01:32:33,440
The band was fine.
You know, it's just you got this

1538
01:32:33,440 --> 01:32:38,040
big concrete bowl that was made
for soccer, not for, not for,

1539
01:32:38,080 --> 01:32:40,360
you know, Metallica or Mötley
Crüe or whatever.

1540
01:32:41,440 --> 01:32:43,880
You know, the other thing like
talking with Dan Brown from

1541
01:32:43,880 --> 01:32:48,960
Metallica a couple weeks ago, he
talked about because they do in

1542
01:32:48,960 --> 01:32:54,360
the round in stadiums.
And so that's another set of

1543
01:32:54,360 --> 01:32:57,440
complications because where you
hanging stuff, you're not

1544
01:32:57,440 --> 01:32:59,880
hanging anything.
So, you know, to build these

1545
01:32:59,880 --> 01:33:02,520
huge structures or towers, like
he can't just do the the

1546
01:33:02,520 --> 01:33:05,320
clamshell thing for every single
show, like you do it or

1547
01:33:05,320 --> 01:33:06,720
whatever.
So you got to you got to be

1548
01:33:06,720 --> 01:33:10,120
innovative.
And and so he's come up with

1549
01:33:10,120 --> 01:33:12,080
some cool ways to do it with
those big towers.

1550
01:33:12,080 --> 01:33:16,320
But yeah, so.
But I think things like that aid

1551
01:33:16,320 --> 01:33:19,560
to the experience of it.
Just Garth Brooks shows were

1552
01:33:20,240 --> 01:33:25,800
like that, yeah.
Yeah, so Jim got a Parnelli

1553
01:33:25,800 --> 01:33:27,560
award.
That's.

1554
01:33:27,600 --> 01:33:33,280
Pretty he did, yeah, yeah, Well
deserved for sure.

1555
01:33:35,280 --> 01:33:40,720
And it's, it's one of those
things where I was speaking to

1556
01:33:40,720 --> 01:33:45,040
some folks that night after,
afterwards and they were, they

1557
01:33:45,040 --> 01:33:48,920
were talking about it and they
said, yeah, 'cause this is I

1558
01:33:48,960 --> 01:33:52,880
guess we were joking about the
fact you had to be 70 or over

1559
01:33:52,880 --> 01:33:56,640
to, to get one.
And they said, yeah, you still

1560
01:33:56,640 --> 01:34:00,240
got some years to go, but you
know, you, you'll probably get

1561
01:34:00,240 --> 01:34:02,280
one.
And I'm like, well, but I

1562
01:34:02,280 --> 01:34:03,880
seriously doubt that will
happen.

1563
01:34:03,880 --> 01:34:09,000
But I definitely take a lot of
pride in knowing that the one he

1564
01:34:09,000 --> 01:34:13,920
holds in his hands, I was there
for about 99.9% of it all.

1565
01:34:14,240 --> 01:34:16,680
That's true.
And yeah, that's, that's good

1566
01:34:16,680 --> 01:34:17,840
enough for me.
Yeah.

1567
01:34:18,000 --> 01:34:20,080
You know it's one of.
Those things where you know,

1568
01:34:20,160 --> 01:34:24,000
even like your business partner,
your wife, your, your kids,

1569
01:34:24,120 --> 01:34:27,520
sometimes it's every bit as
rewarding and even more so

1570
01:34:27,560 --> 01:34:30,200
watching them get a reward than
it is getting one yourself.

1571
01:34:31,280 --> 01:34:33,280
Around, yeah, absolutely.
So.

1572
01:34:33,840 --> 01:34:38,120
And, and I know, you know, the,
the things of watching the

1573
01:34:38,120 --> 01:34:41,560
testing and the playing around
with things and trying this and

1574
01:34:41,560 --> 01:34:46,880
trying that, just just the, the
creative process in itself,

1575
01:34:46,880 --> 01:34:50,720
which to me, that's, that's the
part that I always tell

1576
01:34:50,720 --> 01:34:55,240
everybody, I hope that no one
ever loses about being in this

1577
01:34:55,240 --> 01:34:58,000
industry is that at the end of
the day, it doesn't matter what

1578
01:34:58,000 --> 01:35:01,240
you're doing and what, what the
job title is.

1579
01:35:02,080 --> 01:35:07,520
You got to be creative with it.
You have to, you can't lose the

1580
01:35:07,520 --> 01:35:11,960
sight of that and just say,
well, this is the way I always

1581
01:35:11,960 --> 01:35:13,960
do it.
Or no, there's always going to

1582
01:35:13,960 --> 01:35:15,600
be a time when you have to be
creative.

1583
01:35:16,480 --> 01:35:21,720
And you know, that's exactly
what taking that technical mind

1584
01:35:22,200 --> 01:35:27,000
of a person like Jim, the
creative mind of a person, the

1585
01:35:27,000 --> 01:35:31,680
experience, the education, and
just the wanting to go for it

1586
01:35:32,440 --> 01:35:35,960
all put together, that's exactly
what you know, how these things

1587
01:35:35,960 --> 01:35:38,280
happen.
Yeah, well, yeah, you were there

1588
01:35:38,280 --> 01:35:40,480
the whole time and.
That's yeah.

1589
01:35:40,760 --> 01:35:42,720
And we just never been people to
say no.

1590
01:35:43,000 --> 01:35:46,360
Yeah, you know, to to something
in that sense.

1591
01:35:47,120 --> 01:35:48,480
Got a few times when we should
have.

1592
01:35:48,800 --> 01:35:52,960
Yeah.
But yeah, it's it is someone who

1593
01:35:52,960 --> 01:35:55,160
says, hey, I had an idea what
about this?

1594
01:35:55,160 --> 01:35:58,520
I'm like, yeah, let's figure it
out, you know?

1595
01:35:58,960 --> 01:36:01,320
I like that.
Are you excited about anything

1596
01:36:01,320 --> 01:36:03,400
outside the industry right now
or?

1597
01:36:08,560 --> 01:36:10,800
Any new AS?
Far as you buy a Harley and

1598
01:36:10,800 --> 01:36:12,280
you're traveling across the
country.

1599
01:36:12,440 --> 01:36:15,120
Or.
Flying airplanes or jumping out

1600
01:36:15,120 --> 01:36:19,800
of airplanes.
I say every year when it comes

1601
01:36:19,800 --> 01:36:23,840
about the time for another
birthday, this is the year when

1602
01:36:23,840 --> 01:36:27,680
I play more golf and this is the
year when I play more music.

1603
01:36:30,160 --> 01:36:34,120
I'm not sure I'm at that year
yet, but I will say that that

1604
01:36:34,120 --> 01:36:36,560
I've got to play golf more times
this year.

1605
01:36:36,800 --> 01:36:41,520
That's cool so far than than I
have in the in the past few now.

1606
01:36:41,520 --> 01:36:44,880
I think the biggest thing that I
look forward to honestly, is

1607
01:36:46,600 --> 01:36:48,240
working with all the young
people.

1608
01:36:51,280 --> 01:36:54,560
I, I, you know, I would never be
that you kids get off my lawn

1609
01:36:54,560 --> 01:36:59,760
type old man as much as I, I
just, I see the looks on some of

1610
01:36:59,760 --> 01:37:02,800
them's faces and that you know,
instantly when, when they look

1611
01:37:02,800 --> 01:37:06,240
at you a certain way, you're
like, OK, you, you need a little

1612
01:37:06,240 --> 01:37:12,920
help and guidance.
And I'm, I am so proud of some

1613
01:37:12,920 --> 01:37:16,240
of the ones, some of the folks
that that worked with years and

1614
01:37:16,240 --> 01:37:18,680
years ago or, and have been
there for a long time.

1615
01:37:19,160 --> 01:37:21,200
And I watch how far they've
come.

1616
01:37:21,880 --> 01:37:23,440
Yeah.
And they'll just look at me and

1617
01:37:23,440 --> 01:37:24,960
say, well, you taught me how to
do it.

1618
01:37:24,960 --> 01:37:29,600
And I'm like, you know, that's,
that's probably the best thing I

1619
01:37:29,600 --> 01:37:34,040
could take away.
I, I lost my father just last

1620
01:37:34,040 --> 01:37:39,040
year.
And, and, and that was I, I

1621
01:37:39,040 --> 01:37:43,480
think that was the biggest eye
opening thing about it was I was

1622
01:37:43,880 --> 01:37:46,680
meeting and people and they were
calling me to just give their

1623
01:37:46,680 --> 01:37:50,600
condolences and they would quote
me quoting my dad.

1624
01:37:52,560 --> 01:37:56,440
And I said, I guess I do that a
lot.

1625
01:37:57,000 --> 01:37:59,440
And I thought, but that's a good
thing.

1626
01:38:00,240 --> 01:38:05,000
So, you know, so it was really
very heartwarming when I was

1627
01:38:05,680 --> 01:38:09,000
talking to one of them recently
and he's like, you know, you, he

1628
01:38:09,000 --> 01:38:10,600
says, you taught me everything I
know.

1629
01:38:10,600 --> 01:38:14,760
And I just appreciate that and I
go, well, you know, my thing is

1630
01:38:14,760 --> 01:38:18,400
I won't, I want everyone to
learn.

1631
01:38:19,080 --> 01:38:23,280
And I look forward to the day
they're getting Parnellis for

1632
01:38:23,280 --> 01:38:27,480
doing something that was better
than what I did, you know, or,

1633
01:38:27,480 --> 01:38:31,200
or, or you're getting the
acknowledgement for being better

1634
01:38:31,720 --> 01:38:35,520
than than what I've done.
The biggest thing I tell all of

1635
01:38:35,520 --> 01:38:38,040
them, though, I said, you got to
keep at it because I'm still

1636
01:38:38,040 --> 01:38:40,560
learning every day.
So I'm still getting better than

1637
01:38:40,560 --> 01:38:45,320
you every day a little bit, but
most of them are whizzing past

1638
01:38:45,320 --> 01:38:49,480
me really quick because I see
the eagerness in certain ones

1639
01:38:49,480 --> 01:38:52,200
that want to to really get out
there and do it.

1640
01:38:52,200 --> 01:38:54,560
So I that that just gives me
great joy.

1641
01:38:54,560 --> 01:38:58,720
It really does just to well, and
that's to know I can, you know,

1642
01:38:58,720 --> 01:39:00,720
remember it's.
So important because we're

1643
01:39:00,720 --> 01:39:02,880
running out of old people in our
industry.

1644
01:39:02,920 --> 01:39:06,280
So, you know, like we're not all
going to last forever.

1645
01:39:06,280 --> 01:39:08,640
We need to bring up really great
young people through the

1646
01:39:08,640 --> 01:39:13,480
industry and, and you know, not
for our own legacies, but to

1647
01:39:13,560 --> 01:39:15,720
just keep things moving along
right like.

1648
01:39:16,480 --> 01:39:19,360
Oh, absolutely, I and, and
that's why I touched on earlier

1649
01:39:19,360 --> 01:39:23,560
about it's no one's fault
exactly, but the fact that we

1650
01:39:23,560 --> 01:39:28,880
don't have places where we can
find enough time to educate from

1651
01:39:28,880 --> 01:39:32,760
the history of the business up.
And I didn't even realize how

1652
01:39:32,760 --> 01:39:36,160
much of some of that I knew.
I, I, I came out of this being

1653
01:39:36,440 --> 01:39:40,320
I, I started as a musician.
I started, I was a music major.

1654
01:39:42,360 --> 01:39:44,880
I just hung out with the design
and production people 'cause

1655
01:39:44,880 --> 01:39:46,240
they were cooler to hang out
with.

1656
01:39:46,560 --> 01:39:50,520
And the little things that I
picked up along the way, just

1657
01:39:50,520 --> 01:39:54,520
about theatrical lighting or, or
just hanging out in a theater

1658
01:39:54,520 --> 01:39:58,000
with them and watching them, you
know, put bricks on a rail or,

1659
01:39:58,000 --> 01:40:01,440
or tie knots on a piece of hemp
and things that they did.

1660
01:40:03,120 --> 01:40:04,520
I didn't realize what I've
learned.

1661
01:40:05,240 --> 01:40:08,800
Until years later when I'm
starting to apply some of these

1662
01:40:08,800 --> 01:40:11,120
things and I go, oh, I actually
know how to do that.

1663
01:40:11,680 --> 01:40:15,720
And, and so I, I think that's
the key part is, you know,

1664
01:40:15,720 --> 01:40:20,320
trying to find the time to give
people this history of the

1665
01:40:20,320 --> 01:40:24,080
industry so that they understand
when they push that button on

1666
01:40:24,080 --> 01:40:28,520
that console and the light pans
and tilts and runs into this

1667
01:40:28,520 --> 01:40:29,680
gobo.
Well, guess what?

1668
01:40:29,680 --> 01:40:33,600
There was a lot of history prior
to to that happening.

1669
01:40:33,800 --> 01:40:35,040
Yeah.
And and you.

1670
01:40:35,440 --> 01:40:37,760
But at the end of the day,
you're still just firing a break

1671
01:40:37,760 --> 01:40:40,120
up through the haze.
Well, do you?

1672
01:40:40,160 --> 01:40:41,600
Ever.
Well, we did that, you know.

1673
01:40:41,600 --> 01:40:44,440
I know it's funny.
Do you ever talk about like,

1674
01:40:44,480 --> 01:40:47,800
well, back in the day, you know,
when we had consoles that were

1675
01:40:47,800 --> 01:40:51,160
not digital and we had lights
that didn't move, you know?

1676
01:40:51,720 --> 01:40:53,240
Yeah.
Yeah, a lot.

1677
01:40:54,080 --> 01:40:55,840
Oh yeah.
I mean, I've shown the pin

1678
01:40:55,840 --> 01:40:59,520
matrixes and things like that.
Or how, you know, Oh yeah.

1679
01:40:59,560 --> 01:41:03,640
The the, you know, the, the some
of the, the museum pieces, I

1680
01:41:03,640 --> 01:41:06,360
guess that we still, I still
find from time to time and

1681
01:41:06,800 --> 01:41:09,320
something I'll see someone
looking at it and I'll just tell

1682
01:41:09,320 --> 01:41:10,720
them.
If you got a minute, let me just

1683
01:41:10,720 --> 01:41:13,120
let me just walk you through
this, you know?

1684
01:41:13,360 --> 01:41:15,160
What?
It'd be really cool for every

1685
01:41:15,320 --> 01:41:19,120
larger lighting company like
yours to have a room somewhere

1686
01:41:19,520 --> 01:41:23,440
in the building where you've got
old technology set up, old

1687
01:41:23,440 --> 01:41:26,720
consoles set up and you can run
somebody through.

1688
01:41:26,720 --> 01:41:28,560
OK, you know, this is how you
did a show.

1689
01:41:28,560 --> 01:41:30,480
This is how you connected
everything together.

1690
01:41:30,480 --> 01:41:33,440
This is how you programmed a
desk or didn't program it.

1691
01:41:33,440 --> 01:41:38,480
It was 2 scenes even, you know,
and, and now we're going to go

1692
01:41:38,480 --> 01:41:40,600
to the real stuff, you know,
and.

1693
01:41:40,880 --> 01:41:43,880
Well, I think it's very
important to understand, like

1694
01:41:43,880 --> 01:41:47,480
when you're making, I tell this
to to people all the time when

1695
01:41:47,480 --> 01:41:50,520
they talk about programming and
they're making their color

1696
01:41:50,520 --> 01:41:56,240
presets and they come to me and
they go, can can you show me how

1697
01:41:56,240 --> 01:41:58,880
you make your color presets?
Because I like the ones you

1698
01:41:58,880 --> 01:42:01,080
have.
And I said I referenced gel

1699
01:42:01,080 --> 01:42:04,600
colors and you know, they don't,
they don't even know what a

1700
01:42:04,600 --> 01:42:05,480
Swatch book is.
Yeah.

1701
01:42:06,000 --> 01:42:07,160
Or a gel?
What's a?

1702
01:42:07,600 --> 01:42:09,080
Gel, yeah.
Or a gel, Yeah.

1703
01:42:09,800 --> 01:42:12,000
So.
So I love those moments when I

1704
01:42:12,000 --> 01:42:15,320
can sit and teach them well.
This is just the way my brain

1705
01:42:15,320 --> 01:42:19,160
puts this together versus the
way you see an RGB fixture.

1706
01:42:20,960 --> 01:42:24,120
It was just coming out of COVID.
You, you talked about that, that

1707
01:42:24,360 --> 01:42:28,000
older technology.
I was on a conference call with

1708
01:42:28,000 --> 01:42:31,840
Joe Bonamassa about designing
his He, he was going to do a

1709
01:42:31,840 --> 01:42:34,640
tour still in COVID a little
bit, but he was bound and

1710
01:42:34,640 --> 01:42:36,880
determined to go out.
We've found places we could go.

1711
01:42:38,480 --> 01:42:40,880
And he said, can you tell me?
He says, I I really want it to

1712
01:42:40,880 --> 01:42:46,160
be just a power trio, kind of a
throwback to the band Cream and,

1713
01:42:46,320 --> 01:42:50,640
you know, sort of that really
colorful park can look.

1714
01:42:50,640 --> 01:42:53,200
He says, what what do they make
nowadays that look like park

1715
01:42:53,200 --> 01:42:55,400
cans?
And I just said just park cans.

1716
01:42:55,880 --> 01:42:57,720
They're the only thing that look
like park cans.

1717
01:42:58,320 --> 01:43:00,600
And and he said, do you have
some?

1718
01:43:00,600 --> 01:43:04,600
I went yes, we still have all of
ours because I refuse to get rid

1719
01:43:04,600 --> 01:43:04,960
of.
Them.

1720
01:43:04,960 --> 01:43:08,440
Oh, that's wild.
And I put together a floor rig

1721
01:43:08,720 --> 01:43:12,280
for him that we were going to
just take out and use house rigs

1722
01:43:12,280 --> 01:43:15,160
of the day.
But it had real park cans in it.

1723
01:43:16,240 --> 01:43:18,400
And I'd said, I want to go with
you.

1724
01:43:18,400 --> 01:43:21,160
So I designed it, I programmed
it, I jumped on the bus and I

1725
01:43:21,160 --> 01:43:22,560
went with them.
That's fine.

1726
01:43:22,560 --> 01:43:26,680
And we went and did these dates
and Joe just said I love it.

1727
01:43:26,680 --> 01:43:29,120
He said I love it when these
things come on and the energy I

1728
01:43:29,120 --> 01:43:32,920
feel from the heat.
Well, now Fast forward three

1729
01:43:32,920 --> 01:43:35,000
years, or probably going on 4
from that.

1730
01:43:35,520 --> 01:43:39,600
Every version of Joe's designs
up to what's happening in Europe

1731
01:43:39,600 --> 01:43:43,360
with him right now have real
park hands in them.

1732
01:43:43,360 --> 01:43:44,040
Oh.
Really.

1733
01:43:44,120 --> 01:43:48,800
I didn't know that.
That yes, and, and, and we've

1734
01:43:48,800 --> 01:43:52,960
made some, you know, some chat.
But it was so funny taking some

1735
01:43:52,960 --> 01:43:55,840
of the younger ones over to one
of our storage facilities and

1736
01:43:55,840 --> 01:44:00,360
digging out the hampers of lamps
and explaining to them what a

1737
01:44:00,360 --> 01:44:03,960
medium to a very narrow was and
how you spin the bottle and

1738
01:44:03,960 --> 01:44:08,680
where.
Oh, I had so much fun just just

1739
01:44:08,680 --> 01:44:11,560
because they they were well,
they were looking at him like it

1740
01:44:12,040 --> 01:44:15,080
did was just this odd thing from
space, you know, they.

1741
01:44:15,840 --> 01:44:21,760
You could have used LED pars.
Well, no, no, we we have some

1742
01:44:21,760 --> 01:44:23,760
LED pars and they look great,
don't get me wrong.

1743
01:44:23,800 --> 01:44:25,520
Yeah, but they're they're not a
real.

1744
01:44:25,520 --> 01:44:27,880
Park parking.
Yeah, yeah, I get it.

1745
01:44:27,960 --> 01:44:30,360
So trust me, I get it.
He's cool dude, too.

1746
01:44:30,360 --> 01:44:33,320
I I love his music.
I I've always been a big job on

1747
01:44:33,360 --> 01:44:37,280
a massive fan.
Yeah, ever since.

1748
01:44:38,160 --> 01:44:41,440
He got big, but he he still
appreciates my older school

1749
01:44:41,440 --> 01:44:45,240
approach to music and and how I
program a show.

1750
01:44:45,240 --> 01:44:47,560
So you ever get.
Yeah, we've been working

1751
01:44:47,560 --> 01:44:51,240
together.
Well, no, he does respect me

1752
01:44:51,240 --> 01:44:55,040
enough to occasionally hand me
his new, new acquisition and

1753
01:44:55,040 --> 01:44:57,920
say, here, try it out.
And I'm like, that's way more

1754
01:44:57,920 --> 01:45:00,080
money than I need to be holding
in my hands.

1755
01:45:00,080 --> 01:45:02,600
I'll just give it back.
But but it's also the kind of

1756
01:45:02,600 --> 01:45:04,680
thing where you just don't
really pick up a guitar and

1757
01:45:04,680 --> 01:45:06,440
start playing around Joe Bottom.
Awesome.

1758
01:45:07,600 --> 01:45:08,800
You know it's.
Yeah, I get it.

1759
01:45:09,480 --> 01:45:11,440
Yeah.
It's like standing next to Tiger

1760
01:45:11,440 --> 01:45:13,120
hitting a golf ball.
Probably not going to do it.

1761
01:45:13,120 --> 01:45:15,840
Yeah, yeah.
Hey Tiger, watch me drive this

1762
01:45:15,840 --> 01:45:19,160
1220 down the center.
Yeah.

1763
01:45:19,440 --> 01:45:22,160
Yeah, that's hilarious.
Well, Jeff, I appreciate you

1764
01:45:22,160 --> 01:45:23,840
taking the time today.
Thanks so much.

1765
01:45:23,840 --> 01:45:25,240
It's been.
Amazing catching.

1766
01:45:25,320 --> 01:45:27,680
Up with you.
I'm super happy for all of your

1767
01:45:27,680 --> 01:45:30,560
success and this great new
building and I'm gonna have to

1768
01:45:30,560 --> 01:45:33,040
get up there and visit you guys
and see this place cuz it looks

1769
01:45:33,040 --> 01:45:34,760
amazing and.
Yeah.

1770
01:45:35,520 --> 01:45:38,040
Yeah, all right, my friend, Have
a good one.

1771
01:45:38,960 --> 01:45:39,920
Thanks.
Thanks.

1772
01:45:39,960 --> 01:45:40,640
Bye.
See you.