Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Boston Party Makers Go To the Pollstar Show

Hello Hollywood...

All photos taken by Darcy Lynch unless she's in them!


Boston Party Makers recently teamed up with Stage Hands Massage http://www.stagehandsmassage.com/ . We can offer massage services throughout the country. Stagehands is quite the interesting venture to be involved with as they massage backstage at major concert venues throughout the U.S.

I've tagged along at several shows as a trusty assistant and equipment lugger. As a music lover it's great (and surreal) to hang out backstage. You can mix and mingle with the artists, eating in catering with them, watch the show from the side of the stage and occasionally hang out and chat with them.

I've been lucky enough to go backstage at Blue Man Group, Jason Mraz, Judas Priest/Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath), Boston/Styx, Blue Man Group and Megadeth among others. It is always strange to be standing next to a rock and roll icon you remember from your youth and they are just a few feet from you and your accepted into their inner circle for the night.

It's always very professional and low key backstage, quite different than a lot of people envision. The performers always seem to appreciate the Massage services. I've seen drummers with planter fasciitis, guitarists with whiplash from flinging their hair back too often over the years and bass players with sciatica. The drummers, especially the metal guys, really put their bodies thru a pounding every night.

Party Makers (ok, me!) recently went to the Pollstar http://www.pollstar.com/ convention in Los Angeles with Stagehands owner Darcy Lynch, where we had a booth and provided massage services to the music industry attendees at the convention. We want to thank Donny Marvin and Michelle Lawson from Pollstar for being so nice and hospitable at the convention which was held at the Hyatt Regency in L.A.

The one thing that really jumped out at me is that everyone there, particularly the tour promoters had a true love of music. Person after person that I talked to who was working in the music was working their dream job and many had changed career paths mid stream to be there. I spoke with the promoter of the Regeneration Tour http://www.regenerationtour.com/ and he was teaching school just a few years ago and decided to change career paths. In a matter of minutes of talking to him I was out in the lobby with him looking at video of another great tour of theirs..From The Jam http://www.redentertainment.com/Artists/FromTheJam/index.html.

The most amazing story I heard was from a promoter who was living a hippie like life style in Vermont almost 25 years ago. His sister and her husband imported bedding items form Ireland and were self made millionaires. He was godfather to his sister's daughter when the sister and her husband tragically died in a small plane crash. When he asked who was going to raise the daughter he was told it was going to be him.

Leading a lifestyle that was anything but conducive to raising a daughter he didn't know what to do. At the funeral he couldn't take his eyes off a woman in attendance. He went up and said hello to her and they ended up getting married and raising the daughter together!

At the age of 50, not involved in the music business at all, he sold a machine shop business he owned and due to his love of jazz music, began interning for promoters and now is the biggest promoter in Vermont. This is a movie waiting to happen, he was a very special guy who said "it's never too late to do whatever you want in life".

Convention Photos













































Darcy on the Ashiatsu Bars, Stagehands therapists Kim in red and Jennifer in white.


I stayed in San Diego for three days prior to going to the convention in L.A. and right away realized that I am just not a California guy. I don't like the general vibe there, I'm just an east coast guy. We did go to a really funky, time warp 1963 bar/restaurant called the Turf Club http://entertainment.signonsandiego.com/places/turf-supper-club/ which I loved. The San Diego Zoo, Pacific Beach et al were very nice.

Nonetheless, I've been to many big cities from Manhattan to Chicago to Dublin and Paris and I thought San Diego proper was beat down and depressing. It's a huge city and the tony suburbs like La Jolla are nice but why people rave about the city is way beyond my small level of intelligence. Nice weather ain't everything.If you are reading this and feel differently feel free to comment on why I'm wrong!

San Diego Photos












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Seals in the harbor, A State Park on the beach, the Turf Club and the San Diego Zoo.



The convention had night time parties at famous venues on Hollywood Boulevard. The Troubadour http://www.troubadour.com/ where all the famous Hair Bands such as Guns N Roses and Motley Crue started out. Actually had very good food there. They also had events at The Roxy http://www.theroxyonsunset.com/ another famous rock and roll venue which had very good site lines..it was everything the similar sized Paradise in Boston should be (ie. no gargantuan pole in the middle of the room).
We also checked out Mann's Chinese Theatre and Venice beach, which by virtue of the photos is quite a trip. We went on a corny tour of the Hollywood homes which was an unexpected pleasure due to our corny tour bus driver. He did tell us that all the drivers hate David Spade and that David spade throws rocks at the tour buses.

L.A. Photos



































































Beverly Hills Excitement, Darcy with one of the many impersonators patrolling Mann's Theatre, Outside the Kodak Theater, home of the Grammy's and Academy Awards, Mann's Theatre, The world's oldest Gene Simmons Impersonator, Mann's Theatre, Rodeo Drive, the many faces of Venice Beach.


The most interesting event we went to was CIC Pollstar Awards, an award show where they present awards in a very rewarding fashion to the "Major tour of the Year", "Most Creative Tour Package", "Manager of the Year" etc. The event was held at the Nokia Theatre which is located in a complex with the Staples Center and Nokia Live, a thousand plus person nightclub where the after party was held.
Some of the presenters were quite funny including Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon who had some inside the biz war stories, Monkee Davey Jones who said he had a twenty something girlfriend who wanted him to run upstairs and make love to him when he got home one night to which he replied..."Honey, at my age it's got to be one or the other".
A sober Steven Adler was also presenter and got a warm round of applause from the audience . Steve Harwell from Smashmouth was raunchy and funny. When we parked our car in the garage next to the theater Corey Feldman and his entourage walked by us. Only in L.A.

































































Corey Feldman and Benny Mardones, Art Alexakis and Kevin Cronin, David Hasselhoff, Steven Adler and Gary Hoey,Pat Travers and Judy Tenuta, what's left of The Sweet, Ryan Starr and Steve Harwell, Bonnie Pointer and Yingwie Malmsteen.

Best line of the night from host Jeff Garcia when The Jonas Brothers won an award for Best New tour.."Don't worry, in twenty years they'll be here again...as presenters."