When we got the call that it was once again time for the legendary MCPHS Harvest Ball, we broke out our huge Mythbusters-style design paper and some silver sharpies. The task was to turn the Boston Park Plaza’s Imperial Ballroom into an INTENSE club experience for 1,000 students — no sweat.
After some time hard at work, the design team sat back amongst a pile of discarded apple cider cartons and pumpkin pie tins (had to get into “harvest” mindset) and looked down at the final design. It was a masterpiece, complete with multiple packed lighting trusses over the dance floor, LED fixtures rigged in the balconies, video screens, and, of course, BANGIN’ audio.
Just one thing left to do… call up and let the hotel know we’ll need the standard 8+ hours to build this bad boy. Unfortunately, that’s not what the Park Plaza (and the erectile dysfunction seminar they were hosting that afternoon… not kidding) had in mind. “You guys should be all set,” they said. “You’ve got all the time you need between 5:30 and 7:00PM” … oh boy. (more…)
It had been cloudy all day, with a little rain here and there. No big deal, though; we got the generator in, built the truss, flew a bunch of speakers, and put amber gel in the lights to give the bar tent that warm, inviting feel (sounds pleasant, doesn’t it?). Once again, the BC Mod Lot had been converted into a village of tent awesomeness, and was poised for another killer Homecoming party.
Last Thursday morning, we headed out on a long day of leaf peeping, stopping occasionally to pick up sound and lighting gear. The ride would leave us in Amherst, poised for an early start to our Friday build at UMass.
BobbyD and Springer check out some hoops before the UMass Amherst show
It would have been a relaxing evening at the hotel (we don’t get many of those!), except the Red Sox swept us up in their emotional roller coaster. After 11 minutes at Applebees (they closed early), we caught the end of the magical comeback, did some intense high-fiving, then, ultimately, retired to rest up for a big weekend of dance parties.
Too bad Game 7 didn’t turn out as awesome as our shows last weekend.
Wah waaaaaaaah… But seriously, our shows were awesome, and that’s what this is about. Read on.
We heard through the grapevine that RWU’s Chameleon Club theme was going to be “The 60s,” and while we’ve heard that it was a crazy decade… well come on… dance music has come a long way since then. So we were relieved to hear that the theme would be only visually-oriented: A few thousand college kids rocking tie-dyed outfits, and a killer stage setup reminiscent of the main stage at Woodstock ‘69. COOL.
[sigh of relief]. Sorry “Twist and Shout,” I think Flo-Rida’s got us covered. (more…)
At 6pm last Friday, the GB crew sat down to a tasty, outdoor Italian dinner. Not bad, right? It had been a long day, with gear coming in by the truckload from far and wide, but we were on-schedule, and a BEAST of a system was standing by inside Tufts’ Gantcher Center.
