2009 Beach Scene Rockfest
Hey everyone. So I told ya I’d report back with full detail on the events that took place for Friday May 15, 2009 Rockfest, so here we go, it’s a long one...
The day started off with a lot of running around like a headless chicken and finally arriving at The Wavehouse in Mission Beach here in San Diego, CA. After finally getting everything situated, the table set up, etc, I finally had a few short moments, to say hi to a few familiar faces, meet quite a few new people, then try and start to videotape the event. Unfortunately due to the sheer craziness of the day, we were unable to videotape and take as many pictures as we would have liked, but it is what it is. Firstly I have to thank the people that did come and help me out for the day. If it wasn’t for them I probably wouldn’t have even been able to do as much and even get 2 bites of my whole fuckin meal for the day or a sip off my one drink. Yes that’s how busy it was. Thanks to Diane, Kaeci, even Nathan, others, and the biggest help from our model Josh Poe. He busted ass doing tons of promo work, taping stuff, etc, I couldn’t be more relieved to know he’s working with us, awesome guy! Then of course there were those who had more lame excuses than a crack whore in church. We had no shows, help bailing, assistants running late; ya know the typical joys of business shit. But somehow we all managed to pull it together and made the best with what we had to deal with.
Around the time of trying to get my wits about me, was the time my good friend and event promoter Johnny (AKA Jimi Fist) asked me to do him a huge solid. I agreed hesitantly and wound up being hired to be a full blown slave for the day... Yes folks, I became the event Emcee! Haha. I’m not quite sure still what happened to the original emcee for that day but who better to rile up the crowd than crazy metal New Yorker Nee!? For those who don’t know what an Emcee does, I was responsible to announce each band between two stages at each end of the venue, and then do the raffle giveaways between each set, while trying to plug bands, business, merch shit, etc. Oh this happens about every 20-30 minutes give/take, if the bands stick to the time sets and all with a 3 minute stringent time window to speak and not being really allowed to curse! What a task, fuck! Hahahaha.
Sooo… While running around, trying to man my own booth, my assistants, talk to people, etc etc etc …I somehow made it through the event alive and standing, but extremely thrashed after the fact. I’m actually writing this from my bed, I haven’t moved much since Friday as the day royally kicked my ass! … Now some things that need to be addressed. Due to the location of the sponsor & merch tables no patrons in this venue really knew we were over there, or anyone else for that matter which of course was horrible for us. We hoped to get a good turnout over at the tables, but it wasn’t going as well as planned. No amount of stage plugging could have helped with so many people getting drunker by the minute and when you don’t have much say on where your gonna be, etc, you gotta go with the flow. So live and learn, and we’ll know what to expect and prepare for in certain situations in the future. While it wasn’t the best day for us, it was taken lightly as it was such a good event, good times, and it was just a preview/pre-launch for us, so we’ll do it up and do it right next time! Onto another major issue that went down. For those that know me or are getting to, people know I’m brutally honest, real, will take a bullet for ya, but if you disrespect me or cause havoc for anything or anybody that’s held personal to me and my life, you better get to running! I’m not the type to easily hold back or get stupid over stupid things, whether by fault or not, some things just cross the line in my eyes. If you don’t know me well enough to know how I am when pissed trust me, you don’t want to. So, a few days before the event I noticed via myspace that 2 bands had made their own event flyers and had made errors that did not include our business on them. I’m not sure how long these had being posted on myspace but this came as a shock to me. I tried to handle this as best as possible but some didn’t seem to understand the repercussions of doing this. You never fuck up on fellow musicians, businesses/people who are sponsoring an event that you’re being invited to play at and overall never act like an unprofessional, disrespectful dickless ass clown that thinks they know anything about life, business or the way things work. We had major issues, some miscommunications that were not addressed properly between many people and circumstances, even to the point of verbal chaos and assault tendencies from yours truly and a few others. Now one of the bands that we had pre-issues with came and spoke with me directly at the event to further discuss matters. They understood where we were coming from and we squashed everything out. They know who they are and I give them props for handling the situation with awesome professionalism. They scored an A in my book and we will be happy to work with them again in the future. But then was the one and only person/band who decided to cause a massive amount of trouble for everyone at the event, and even got so ballsy as to get up in my face! Let me tell you Vorlik, you fuck, while this is in essence a complete waste of time I feel it should be addressed and for a mere moment I will sink to your level, stop being professional just for this and make my fuckin point! You don’t ever treat anyone the way you did. As a musician, a business owner and event sponsor, I know like most others exactly what to do and what not to do. You fuckin blew it! I’ve never seen so much audacity and horseshit whining from a string bean douche bag that almost got beat down by more than one person to include one pissed off woman! Let it be known, that now on top of you blowing any chance of working with us on any future events, we will ensure that the few who don’t already know within the music/business community about you and your disposition will be gladly informed of exactly who you are and what type of garbage you will bring to them. You better hope I don’t ever have to personally deal with you again, and I hope for anyone else’s sake they don’t have to either. You’re a joke to musicians, and human beings in general. Grow up, grow a sac and well just go fuck yourself. Maybe now you can go bitch & moan about this to someone else too. Better yet, why not call someone who cares! Whew… Now that we’re done covering all that BS. On behalf of everyone who feels the same way I do on this matter, this is all for you!
Let’s get back to better event stuff shall we… We wanted to give a huge thanks to everyone who helped donate to our cause, and to Ultimate Tattoo, who provided us with some awesome raffle shit for the day, you really have helped us and we owe ya! And congrats to all the raffle winners of the day, hope you all enjoyed your gifts!
A very big thanks to all the bands that put on a great performance for everyone, every band was a true pleasure to work with and very happy to work with them in the future. Thanks to all of you!!.... Unset, Magdalene, Etched In Red, Loked, Sunday Girl, The Calvins, Awaking The Fallen, Thrillrazr, and of course our boys Kicking K8. We love ya!
Another thanks to everyone who attended this event, The Wavehouse for allowing us to do this, staff, crew, everyone who helped make this a success and of course major kudos to mister Jimi Fist who put this huge event together, inviting us to sponsor it, excellent work my friend!
So between all the fun, mayhem, craziness, drinking, loud music, stress, crazy drunk peeps, the event was a blast. I have more stories to tell then I thought I would. Between crazy friends, crazy girls dancing topless on stage and some even trying to make out with me, haha, (yes, I’m strictly dickly thank you) and all other bits of craziness I still managed to have wicked fun! The guys and gals, I love ya we had a blast. The friends, friends of friends …everyone, rock on!
Truly appreciate all the support and feedback, compliments and such I received throughout the day, and overall everyone making me feel good for being a part of this event, it really meant so much to me, it made my day, kept me going and thank you all for that!!
Last but not least a big hug for our good friend here in the scene Christen. Also known by many as the Wizard, He came out and celebrated his birthday with all of us. Happy Birthday and much luv to you!!
We will be posting some pics/vid soon from the event and will keep ya posted on all that. Also postings on all upcoming info regarding the site, biz info and events. I hope due to this events success that it will be a yearly thing at the Wavehouse, next year though I think I will leave the biz stuff up to the others and drag the band out to rock the house! So… I’m gonna end here, thanks again and looking forward to seeing you all real soon. ...Here's to us all.
To let you all know we will be formally launching this business by end of summer 09'. We are planning to do an online launch within a month and host 2 physical launch parties one in San Diego and one in LA hopefully around the time of July, to fully launch Lewd & Crude Greetings. We will also be posting in another few days a promo code to all our myspace friends, as a thank you. This code will be good just for your guys & gals and will be for a full one year unlimited membership to our site (a $14.99 retail value). So again, thanks everyone and we’ll be yapping at ya soon. ;)
Renee M. Lopez
Lewd & Crude Greetings™
Shadow Of Seven
And... The Rockfest Hostess with The Mostest! haha ;)
© 05/17/09 Renee Lopez
Comments