2008 has been an amazing year in the magical world of the Mobile Club.  As we settle in for a little holiday down time (and the fabled GB Holiday Crew Party), I want to thank everyone with whom we’ve crossed paths with over the past twelve months.  In our craziest year yet, you’ve given us the opportunity to work on some amazing projects, in an incredible industry.  We have the best job in the world.  Thank you!

With some BIG new projects already under way for 2009, I’m confident that GrooveBoston will continue to rock you guys like never before.

See you on the other side.

The GB Crew

**For those of you playing the home-game of “Name the GB Crew” the faces on the card are (drum roll): Matt, Ed, Jason, Ben, BobbyD, Springer, Jordan, and Chris

If you got them all right, feel free to get as excited as this guy when he guesses the exact value of his showcase on The Price is Right.

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.

So we had 2 obvious options here:

1. Cut back on the show and build something simple in the amount of time it takes to watch an episode of House, MD
2. Decline the show and leave an awesome college crowd hanging out to dry

We’re not big on modest shows, and we certainly weren’t going to bail on MCP, so we decided on option #3– build a crazy huge dance club in an impossibly short time.

I’ll spare you all the technical details, but let’s just say it involved hoisting truss over the awning outside of McCormick & Schmick’s and building a big portion of the system in the crowded hotel kitchen. I must have blacked out for the craziness, but somehow we pulled it off. The system was ready, the crowd was juiced — chalk another legendary party up for MCPHS.

Always a blast guys, see you again soon. Hopefully with more time to build, but still.

You put the finishing touches on the stage system, the house lights are off, and you retire to the green room to change into “show blacks.”  You can hear the entry music through the walls:  down-tempo, bassy, “quiet  before the storm” tunes.  You do some stretches, and maybe a few pushups, and talk with the crew about what’s about to go down.  As guests stream into the venue and are juuuust starting to get antsy, you walk back onto the stage, put on your headphones, do a final check on the mix gear, and drop the first big song of the night.

It’s go time.  WIth the Bambossa remix of Lady Gaga’s Just Dance pounding through 30+ speakers, this party had officially begun.

OK, so you get the picture.  On occasion, though, we’ve been known to share the stage, especially when a guest artist will add to the mystique and heighten the energy of an event.  In this case, the PC juniors didn’t know exactly what the night would entail — but they knew that the Junior Ring Weekend Club Night had a lofty legacy to live up to.  After an hour of dancing, Talib Kweli took to the stage to add a live, mid-dance-party hip hop concert.  A very cool surprise twist.  Well done, PC!

After that, it was back to dance mode.  It was like having the biggest, craziest after-party you’ve ever seen, without having to switch locations.  Great concept for an event.

Thanks for having us, PC!  See you soon.

Our first attempt at cool seating was the inflatable couch.  We ordered a prototype and took it for a test drive.  …Yikes.  If you ever have the opportunity to take a seat on an inflatable couch… well, don’t.  It’s really awkward.  But man, it would have been easy to transport.  Luckily for all you booth visitors, we scrapped the idea and opted for a less inflatable seating solution.

Springer and BobbyD test-drive an inflatable couch

After some 3D modeling and a trip to IKEA, we rounded up some truss and a couple of plasma screens and headed to Hartford to build the hottest booth in the history of the universe.

On Thursday night, the booth was up and running, complete with little bamboo sticks and shiny knick knacks that really took things to the next level.  While it would have been nice to relax in shiny comfort, the weekend was just getting started.

With a GB contingent holding down the NACA booth and chatting with college reps about the future of dance party awesomeness, another one descended on Providence College to prep for Friday night’s show.  On Saturday morning we’d reconvene in Hartford for the final marketplace sessions, and to squeeze our beautiful booth back into a truck — after some un-bolting and industrial Saran wrapping of course.

Onward!

We’re not talking a Google Maps, get-right-where-you’re-going, detailed-and-to-scale version… oh no. These bad boys look like an oil painting where Bob Ross (RIP my curly friend) went a little overboard with the happy trees.

Here at GrooveBoston, we appreciate the beauty of these works of art. However, they make it IMPOSSIBLE to figure out where to GO on a campus. So, we have to re-work them a bit to suit our purposes.

Take our show this past weekend at UNE for example:

That’s right, folks. This was an actual oil-on-canvas painted from the GB helicopter as it hovered over the University of New England last weekend.

If you look closely, you can see over 1,000 people packed into the Mobile Club we built for their annual “Halloween Rave” held on campus. Lines were out the door by 8PM… and with good reason. The mix was so hot it was SPOOKY (ok, not my best joke). For serious though, bangin’ audio, lights everywhere, glowing dance platforms, and one CRAZY rave.

Oh, and peanut butter crackers in the green room. Thanks UNE. You guys rock.

For the next few hours, we were focused completely on the crowd and the music.  Only after the last echoes of Rihanna and Eric Prydz had died down did we realize that the weather — like the two thousand students under the tent — had been building up some crazy energy.  Rain was pounding down on the roof of the tent, angered by our obliviousness.

The load-out would not be pretty.  But for you, BC, we’d push cases up the highest mountains in the toughest storms; we’d solve the hardest riddle, and slay the most fearsome beast.*

Because we KNOW, at the end of the day, the party will be nothing short of LEGENDARY.

*(… Figuratively, of course.  Slaying beasts isn’t really in line with our business model.)

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.

The UMass event was part of their Midnight Madness lineup.  They offered me a spot in the dunk contest, but my left ankle was feeling a little weak, so I had to keep my towering 5-foot-four-inch physique parked backstage.  After the b-ball festivities, people were pumped up and ready to party.  A few hours later, we kicked off “Club-U” with a sold-out crowd.  Welcome to GrooveBoston, UMass!

After quick nap, we were back on the road, to do it all over again.  By noon, we were rolling cases into the field house at Providence College, getting ready to “party down in friar town!”  according to the welcome sign on our green room.  And a little tip for future GrooveBoston clients:  If you include a hand-made banner and a mascot bobble head, we are likely to hook you up with a little upgrade situation.  I’m just sayin’.

After another killer show, and another load-out, we made it to the hotel by 4am, and settled in for a real night’s sleep.  My bed was a little firm at first, but luckily the equipment was fully-customizeable:  Sleep number beds.  Cool.  Mine’s only 45.

Great weekend!

[sigh of relief]. Sorry “Twist and Shout,” I think Flo-Rida’s got us covered.

We did, of course, dip into the oldies of Ultimate Dance Party 1997, true classics like “Jump Around,” and even a new mix of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” but we managed to steer clear of Doo Wop, and thankfully, we did NOT “go to the hop,” as they say.

Wise choice, Roger Dubbs!

Up on the Tufts hill, four thousand students were carbo loading too.  …OK, I don’t actually know that for sure, but based on the intensity of the dance party that ensued, I’m sure they prepared accordingly.

A few hours later, the final ingredient had been added:  One hundred million college students.  Roughly.  It got REALLY hot in there (literally; not the usual “super hot dance party” hot), but everyone powered through, staying hydrated — and environmentally friendly — via biodegrabale cups.

Assisted by a small army of student volunteers (thanks guys!) we had once again turned Gantcher into Boston’s biggest dance club, for one crazy night.

It’s officially ON for 08-09.

It’s been a beautiful summer.  In addition to some much-needed down time after the spring craziness, the team has been working hard to perfect and enhance the machine that is GrooveBoston.

After the GB Team Summit and the International DJ Expo, we’ve got new gear, new crew, and new ideas to make this year on the GrooveBoston dance floor the best one yet.  Not that you’d spend all year on the dance floor, of course; that would be ridiculous.

We’ll kick off the 08-09 season at Tufts University this Friday, for their annual Fall Ball.  This party has been years in the making — and it shows.  We’ll roll in bright an early on Friday to build one of GrooveBoston’s hottest realizations to date, complete with a stage setup that’s sure to turn some heads.  About 4,000 of them, to be exact.

Welcome, freshmen.  This is what college dance parties are supposed to look like.