NAMM Part II

First off, I am happy to announce that the Jessica Prouty Band won 2nd place in the SchooljamUSA/NAMM battle of the bands, winning 1,500 dollars for our school's music program as well as a coveted place in the top teen bands of the USA. Cam also won the best percussionist award, getting Evans drum heads and a SHU bass drum microphone holder, and I won the best vocalist award, getting a Phonic 18 input mixer with USB wiring! As much as I love saying I won something, I feel like I brag too much if I say something about it. Ever get that feeling?

Before we get into the competition though, I need to talk about NAMM on Thursday and Friday. IT WAS INSANE. So many industry reps were on the floors, and there were so many awesome companies. We went around to a lot of the sponsors of SchooljamUSA, and they were very pleasant and welcoming. I have quite a few photos, so I'm going to add them and talk as the visual elements are displayed. I'm using a combination of my Kodak camera as well as my cell phone camera, so some photos might have higher quality than others.

Top and Bottom: Pictures of the NAMM floor! We got lost so many times our first day there. The bottom picture is from the Roland area of the NAMM convention in the arena. Everything from keyboards, synthesizers, bass amps, electric drums, keytars, and recording programs are all featured there. Roland is really pushing the limit on new music technology.

Speaking of Roland, guess who this handsome man is? I was able to watch a presentation of the SONAR X1 software program featuring Sean Murray, composer of the Call of Duty: Black Ops video game. I got to shake his hand too!

This is the last photo of the Roland area, I promise. Cam's just chillin', playing some Roland V-drums.

No... wait... there's one more. These two sick nasty musicians one Swedish, one Belgium, performed a live concert completely using electronic drums, synthesizers, and keytars. (Even a voice modulator box!)

Here's a shot of Cody and Cam at the T-REX booth trying out some guitar pedals.

I LOVED these bass guitars. They sound great, and they're soooo pretty. ;)

Here's a picture of my favorite one! -drools-

Oh hey, I'm trying out some BOSS pedals. The bass wasn't bad either! My favorite was the synthesizer pedal. x) Not that I'd use it in my music... well... maybe I should find a way to use it...

Here's Cam trying out more pedals on the main floor. I believe they're Taye drum pedals. >.> Taye drums were also used for the SchooljamUSA battle.

Just a few members of Poison hanging out in front of the John Lennon Educational Tourbus. Speaking of the tourbus, we were able to catch up with our buds Kevin and Ryan who run the bus! They're the guys that filmed/produced our music video Escape as well. I wish I got some pictures of them. D:

Look at the expression on Cam's face! teehee! He looks absolutely fascinated with the Pearl kit. What was really cool about this kit was that it was completely electric. I asked Cam what he liked about this kit later, and he responded that he wasn't interested in the kit, he was more interested with the Pearl Demon Drive double bass pedals that were on the kit. :o He was on that thing for 15 minutes.

NAMM really opened my eyes to the trade of music industry. Sure, the convention had quite a few instruments to play, but the real purpose of the NAMM show is for store and company owners to communicate and cooperate with the manufacturers to create a harmonic music industry for the rest of us who purchase these products. I was suprised that NAMM decided to open itself to the public on the last day of the show. I spoke to a few businessmen around the hotel, and they weren't happy with that at all. :o 

Well, that's it for NAMM! I didn't get a lot of photos of Andy for a few reasons - one being he wasn't there on Thursday, and the second being he didn't want photos of him. He was being a poop head. I will write another entry about the competition after I take a break. It takes awhile to put these together! :)