damomoo

Sleeping with the enemy

There's one kind of gig that deejays can make some good money and that is a corporate event and on Tuesday I went out to Chevron's corporate office in Concord for their United Way campaign kickoff. Mrs. Atendido was the organizer for the event so of course who else would she get but Bring That Beat Back. What she did was amazing as Chevron put on their own American Idol event. We provided the audio and the karaoke. This would take place at lunchtime for the whole campus and each singer would represent different groups as their was a total of six.

On Monday we held a run through and I got to hear all of the singers. The first lady sang the "Titanic" song which was ok. She wanted a reverb and I was able to accomodate her since my new Behringer mixer has special effects on it. The next gentleman, the oldest of the group, sang "That's Life" like Frank Sinatra and was very good. He had a strong voice and good hand movements. Another guy, very overweight, sang "My Girl" and was decent. One girl sang "We are Family" and was the only one who could dance and sing at the same time. The last girl sang "I'll Be There" but when she got there she left the notes somewhere else. Yikes! Our last gentleman sang "The Greatest Love of All" and forgot the words. He was like Mr. Randy Watson from the "What's Going Down" episode of "That's My Momma", good and terrible.

On Tuesday, the big day, the event took place in their outdoor area under the bright sun. There is an airport nearby and early we would hear planes fly over so we were hoping that it would settle down closer to lunchtime. As the event took flight of it's own, I experienced slight technical difficulties here and there. A couple of times I would get feedback. When the very first singer came up I couldn't get her song running but it was my fault since I didn't setup the mixer levels properly. As each singer came up we would play the American Idol theme song that I got online. They all did well but it was obvious who the winner was going to be and that was Jack, the Sinatra-style singer. His group put together signs like they do on American Idol, marched around the area yelling for him and and he delivered. I actually think that the "We Are Family" singer was probably the best but you know everyone has a soft spot for older folks who sing Sinatra. There were other performers to fill the time as a guest from United Way came and sang "Wind Beneath My Wings". She was really, really good. When you hear that song at a karaoke bar you're always weary of how they'll get through that last part "... flyyyyyyy... flyyyyyyy... flyyyyyy away...." and she pulled it off and then some. Another girl act sang along to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" in 70's garb, including an Afro wig for the lead singer. The last set of performers lip-sync was to Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" which was pretty good too. Although the background dancers/singers were a little off, the Ike and Tina imitators were decent. One thing though, she had the "Private Dancer" look, more than the "Proud Mary" look and with that wig she actually looked a lot more like Rod Stewart. I don't know if anyone caught that.

Overall a very fun gig with some different challenges. It's the first all-karaoke event I've done. I've had parties where someone or some people was going to sing but there's always dancing involved afterwards. Plus it's hard to monitor people who are walking all over the place with cordless mics and keeping the sound at a decent level. It was really nice to see Mrs. Atendido get a lot of props for her event. There must have been about four different times where she was acknowledged for her work. Hopefully she'll get me other corporate gigs as well. And even though it's gasoline mogul Chevron, it was for a very good cause.

posted by DJ John @ 7:16 AM