The PJ boys were hired by the Pacer Organization to
play during their season ticket holder appreciation
night back on Feb 8th. We didn't know what to expect
when we showed up... and boy were we in for a treat!
Our old friend Fuzzy was their setting up the lights,
so it was great to see a familiar face. But as it turns
out, we were set up on a great big stage at one end of
the arena, just like a concert! The stage was about 6ft
off the ground too. Then in front of us were a bunch of
tables, games, dinner buffet area's, etc. We were a
little stunned because our little smokey bar smelling
PA was to provide the sound to fill an arena! That's a
tall order!!! Especially since we don't have a sound
man and have mastered the art of running sound from the
stage. That being said, we weren't really prepared to
fill an arena with sound so we had to improvise.
Fortunately we recently added two more subs to our PA.
But since we thought we were playing in a smaller area,
we didn't figure we'd be mic'ing up our amps. As a
result, we didn't have any amp mic stands or anything
like that. We did the old "drape the mic over the amp"
trick, and got them to sound great. We spent a little
longer than usual doing our sound check, because a room
that size really plays tricks on you. It turns out that
our mix was heavy on the vocals, so we spent a good
amount of time dialing our mix in until it was just
right. Our 13yr old tinker toy PA did the job! Fuzzy
said that our PA sounded really good, and filled the
room up quite nicely. We fantasize about having a bon
fire with our PA as the special guest, but as it turns
out... it still gets the job done. We'd certainly kill
to have a new PA with active tops, awesome subs, power
amps, etc... but that stuff is just super expensive.
So, if any of you out there who have money to burn
would like to sponsor Punch Judy, then by all means DO!
At this stage in the game, it's much harder to cough up
$5,000 for a PA, when you've got kids in school,
mortgage payments, etc. It's too bad that sound guys
charge so much. I realize that their value is worth
every penny, but we know many bands that pay the sound
man more than they bring home per gig! Since we seem to
do just fine playing the same rooms, and making the
same money, by running our own little PA, it makes it
hard to want to cough up the dough. That's not to say
we don't care. We DO care, but it's just hard these
days for everyone.
Playing at Conseco like that was a dream come true for
me. Granted, there were about 800 people there, and not
18,000, but it was still awesome. What sealed the deal
for me was hearing my voice reverberate throughout the
arena as I sang this little acapella bit at the end of
one of our songs. To hear my voice slapping back at
me... in Conseco Fieldhouse... was once in a lifetime.
How many musicians can say they know what that is like?
Lots more who can't, then can that's for sure! I also
go to meet Larry Bird, which was great. I didn't have
anything for him to sign, so I shook his hand and told
him it was a pleasure to meet him. He towered over me
too. But he looked me in the eyes, and vice versa, and
said thank you. So, I can also say that I shook Larry
Bird's hand and looked him dead in the eyes. TOO
COOL!!!
We also got to see all the players as they were
introduced. Thing that stood out the most to me was
just how nice looking, polite, and clean cut these guys
were. All the "white boys" had baby faces BIGTIME,
which I never noticed on TV. I was also surprised at
how "short" and wirey some of the player were too. They
all came out and then went to different "stations" that
were set up on the floor and interacted with the fans.
I saw a couple of them playing "Pop a Shot", and it
wasn't even fair. Their arms were so long that they
barely had to use any energy to sink those shots. HA!!
In the end, we played a 45min set, then about 90mins to
finish out the night. It was a great time and a
wonderful experience. So a big THANK YOU to Indiana
Pacers for hiring us, and especially to our agent
Michael George.
See you soon!