Show: Relay For Life National Collegiate Summit After-Party – Dallas, TX

It was practically an afterthought. Ben, Springer, and I had been working on the new, flight-ready system all day, and when I saw a little empty nook in the back of the case, a little voice in my head said, “Couldn’t hurt to have a screwdriver…” So I put it in.

Best. Decision. Ever.

After arriving in Dallas late Friday night, and claiming our 86-pound “baggage,” we opened it up to make sure the gear had survived its first trip. Overall, things looked good. There was just one problem: The headphone jack was missing — there was just a hole where it should have been. It was a small hole, and cosmetically, not a big deal. As you may have noticed, though, we DJs are all about headphones. They’re always on our heads — backwards, sideways, on one ear, or at least around our necks. And while extremely stylish, it’s also pretty important that they work.

So, fortified by a hearty dinner from room service, we set out on a mission to rescue the headphone jack from the depths of the mixer. We removed all 37 knobs from the control surface and dove into the underbelly, armed with that glorious screwdriver, a modified coat hanger (special thanks to MacGyver), and a hotel pen. After an hour, we were back in business.

The next morning, we went to see the venue for Saturday night’s show. COOL space. It was a nightclub in the hotel that hadn’t been functional for years — but it was about to get a free upgrade. Ben went to work on the lights, and I traced the cables from the DJ booth back to a locked amp rack that had no key. Whipped out that trusty screwdriver, popped the hinge pins, and opened the door backwards. A few hours (and a lot of screwdriving) later, we had that dance floor ready to ROCK, with eight subwoofers and eight mains, awakened from their slumber.

When the doors opened, college students from all over the country (representatives for their respective Relay for Life committees) were ready to finish off the weekend with a dance party. With our new toys — er, professional mix gear — we were more than happy to oblige.

Good stuff, Texas! Let’s do it again sometime.

{ gallery [RFL Collegiate Summit - Dallas 2007] }

[tags]GrooveBoston, Relay For Life, mixer, repair, Dallas[/tags]