PAX concerts
Srenaeb
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What are your thoughts?
for example:
line ups prior--wrist bands or no? was there enough in-line entertainment?
location--which venue did you like best, if you've been to other ones? What did you like about each?
bands/musicians--no flame wars, but did you attend the concert only to see one in particular, or were you happy to see everyone?
time--they kind of take up an entire evening, including line ups. is that okay?
sound--does anyone else think that the base is turned up way too loud? I'm a cellist, and I'm used to string quartets that sound...quite different. Can anyone else hear MC Frontalot's lyrics?
other thoughts?
for example:
line ups prior--wrist bands or no? was there enough in-line entertainment?
location--which venue did you like best, if you've been to other ones? What did you like about each?
bands/musicians--no flame wars, but did you attend the concert only to see one in particular, or were you happy to see everyone?
time--they kind of take up an entire evening, including line ups. is that okay?
sound--does anyone else think that the base is turned up way too loud? I'm a cellist, and I'm used to string quartets that sound...quite different. Can anyone else hear MC Frontalot's lyrics?
other thoughts?
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2)First Pax, but I really enjoyed the Paramount.
3)This one came as a surprise, but I went to the Saturday Night Concerts to watch JoCo, but for me, Paul and Storm completely stole the show
4)Since the concerts are six hours long, I think I can justify waiting in line. And you didnt have to wait in line that long if you didnt want great seats.
5)Frontalots lyrics were WAY too hard to hear. Everyone else I could hear, but the only songs Frontalot sung that I could understand was First World Problems, and the one about being eaten by a Grue.
That also describes my first experience with Paul and Storm. They really are very awesome. I've since been to a few Joco/P+S concerts, but I was still very pleasantly surprised to see P+S performing for Acquisitions Inc; it was splendid...I wish all my D&D games had them as bards.
Paramount was great, but I didn't stay for that long on Saturday night.
For taking up the whole evening, yes I definitely think that is fine. It is a great way to wind down (well, sort of) after the day.
My one wish is that band lineup order was a bit more clear, and if possible, the length of their sets.
Yeah, this would be great.
I have no other input since I didn't go this year
Paul and Storm were awesome- I bought Om Nom Nom, then went back to get it signed. (Before the show, all I knew of them was that they were in Da Vinci's Notebook. Which I also loved.)
Was it the base? All I knew was that I couldn't hear any of the lyrics from the MC Frontalot and JoCo sets because the sound balance was kind of off.
Yeah I really really like Paramount as a theatre for the bigger events, and the concerts.
My taller companions didn't like the smallness of the seats either, it seems. But perhaps folding chairs could fix that next year. Some sort of advance warning to taller folk in the programme.
The bass is way too loud in most instances, I think. (for my taste) String instruments require different set up from the average rock pieces. It's really too bad that MC Frontalot's songs are really really difficult to pick out with this much bass.
Also, as a rabid Goes-to-PAX-for-concerts guy, and as "media", I can't say much about the lines, because if I'm not in the first 10 or so at line up, I will not be able to film at the front of the stage like I want. I can live without the wrist bands. Never really saw the benefit anyway. I just want there to be a clearly stated official line up time and enforced clearing of the line up area before that time period. Was not as bad Saturday as it was Friday, but at least Assassin's Creed pushed the concert line up time to 5:45 or so. Acquisition went in at like 3:45, which is when I was in line Saturday withounly 10 people for like an HOUR... Also, and no disrespect to the Enforcers, but there was ZERO entertainment in the lines beyond pipe cleaners and that one dude with the Power Glove, IMHO. Everything else I just tuned out. They need to mirror what was done at East.
Can I haz more Paramount?
I loved them ALL. Big ups to VGO and Supercommuter for being the big surprises of the shows. Loved the "Lullaby" extravaganza of Paul and Storm, the premier of Je Suis Rick Springfield from JoCo, the antics of Black Lotus in MC Frontalot, ALL of Metroid Metal, and that that EXCITE BIKE band
Sound was PERFECT for me compared to Benaroya. Maybe it was because I was right up front, but Frontalot was clear as crystal. Oh well, we scored the soundboard this year so Community DVD audio will be AWESOME!!
It would be awesome to hear The Sun at PAX.
I'm pretty sure you could sit anywhere and it sounds great. The acoustics in the Paramount were amazing, especially during the panels where we sang happy birthday to people.
In response, I've seen MC Frontalot in an old victorian before and couldn't understand what he's saying. Just got to know the lyrics from being a fan, I guess. Though I think Paramount is specifically bad for only having speakers in the front. I sat in front for keynote and it was too loud, and sat in back for DnD and couldn't hear well at all.
I assumed the theater would fill. I had guessed(??) they did it specifically for that reason: that they'd both be full so instead of maybe getting to see neither you at least get to see the 1 you most want. But cmon, I would happily have gone to the wolfman to watch the livestream if K&S weren't at the same time.
krisandscottiloveyouyou'rethebestpartofpaxmostfunniesthappyfuntimesawesomeyou'regreat
As for Paramount as a venue, I do believe PAX needs the biggest thing they can get 1st and foremost, and Paramount is pretty much that. I searched and searched for a solitary open seat for DnD and managed to find one, and there were others still searching after it started. I'd say capacity was pretty much as met as it can be without preselling assigned seats.
The sound was pretty distorted for those of us sitting in the seats on the sides of the bottom floor (which were the accessible seats). I assume that's just the acoustics of the Paramount? It was hard to make out lyrics, good thing we already know most of them, right? Worse was the lighting that got in your eyes - the Enforcer nearest to me was wearing sunglasses. AT NIGHT.
Also, it's worth noting that those side seats have some crazy no-legroom rows, and watching normal-sized people try to cram themselves into seats with maybe 2-3" of room between the seat and a railing was hilarious. "Why doesn't anyone want these seats? I'm sure I can fit!" Hijinks ensue.
@Srenaeb
Between this year and last at the Benaroya, from what I hear the VIP sections were the best sound wise (lowest balcony row), but the Paramount made that pretty irrelevant since front row was much better than last year (we could hear voices clearly there this time).
Quick preview of our Saturday footage featuring Soundboard/Camera audio mix (for audience cheers) and 2 angles of the 4 cameras we had at the front of the stage (Spoiler: the darker scenes are by some noob called @MJPM. Screw that guy!).
The only thing that saddens me is the shrinking crowd for the Minibosses. They were the primary reason I started coming to PAX in '06, and they are still the only can't-miss item on my schedule. But each year, the pit seems smaller. Maybe there's fewer of us old-schoolers that revel in NES music relative to the greater whole, but still! Long live the classics!
"Fantasy football still counts as fantasy." -DnD Greg
I liked that fact that there weren't wrist bands this year. It was one of my favorite changes of this PAX. It was annoying to see the wristband economy during the day.
VGO is definitely my favorite group. And I like P+S. Most of the other groups are incomprehensible buckets of noise to me. And I'm starting to think whoever PAX's sound guy is, he's partially deaf when it comes to bass frequencies. Even when I was in the top mez, I was using my ear buds as makeshift earplugs except for when VGO did something not involving the drums. (Or maybe it was the fact that every piece of the drum set had its own mic.) Other instruments and voices got completely overpowered.
For me there were some definite benefits to it. One, my eyes are rather light sensitive, so whenever the house lights come up or shine into the crowd, I have to block or close my eyes to avoid a migraine. I didn't have to worry about this watching the feed.
Also, people mentioned the sound issue. The volume wasn't overwhelming on the feed like it can be in the theater.
Plus, it's in the con itself so it was easy to access food or drink or some other function during the show.
That's how you properly mic drums (especiallly to be able to stream them like they did). If there was an issue with them being too loud, it's because the sound guy had their volume too high, not because there were too many mics on the drums.
More suggestions...
MC Chris
Bit Shifter
Glomag
The Advantage
Weird Al
The Black Mages
Nerf Herder
Weezer
Ozma
Also, having seen them three times now (Both Easts and Prime this year) I only want more, more, more of VGO!
We need to be realistic, here. At least one of those (Weezer) are an act that could command a $60 ticket price by themselves. I'd love to see TMBG or other, similar acts but I dunno...I just don't see it happening.
Still, I was a sad panda that Anamanaguchi wasn't back this year. I'm also sad that I missed VGO. And yes, I can agree that to some extent we are in a concert rut.
As for suggestions, definitely post the order of who's playing, and length of set. Wristbands? Meh. I can see maybe handing out some number (<1000) in the morning to give people who are at other afternoon events an alternative. But it sounds like the Paramount didn't fill anyway, so this might be entirely unnecessary.
No, those are done.
The sets have always been 1 hour per band, but that's always flexed some on the night of the show.
"We know that the moment we slip, it will be taken away... and so it is of the utmost importance to be worthy of it constantly."
PAX will always be held on the best weekend for PAX. Sometimes that will be a bad weekend for you; I'm sorry.
To go by my video time stamps for this year's Prime concerts, the set lengths were as follows:
VGO - 52:28
MC Frontalot - 49:30
Metroid Metal - 45:44
Minibosses - 1:02:33
Paul and Storm - 1:08:12
Jonathan Coulton - 1:09:42
Supercommuter - 41:56
So they really controlled the set lengths this year. You could hear Paul and Storm always checking the clock on their monitors (well Paul anyway), so it seemed more streamlined, schedule wise anyway. And yes, the program as well as the online schedule had every band in the order that they played verbatim. I think this has been true for a while, though Metroid Metal and MC Frontalot did swap order at this past PAX East, which sounded like a last minute thing to accommodate the bands.
State it explicitly? When I see:
...I don't assume that Supercommuter will actually be the last band to play (usually reserved for more of a "headliner," as discussed in the Suggestions thread). The bands do indeed seem to have been listed in the order they were to play, but nowhere is it stated that this is the case and in this case one might not-unreasonably suspect that it's not the case. In this case, brevity is not your friend. I might suggest "<Dudes> will be opening up, followed by <Guys> with <Fellas> closing out the evening." Or some other variation.
Alternately, in the schedule actually list each band as a seperate "block" on the Grid, with a note to the effect of "<venue> will not be cleared between shows, and all set start times subject to change." This both gives an estimated set length and order of play...remember, not everybody has done this while "PAX" thing before, and many that have haven't bothered with concerts in the past. People don't necessarily know.
Also, I could swear that the bands didn't actually play in the order they were listed in the program either last year or the year before on one of the nights I went, but I could be wrong.
That was awesome.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
Best concert ever.
INORITE??
A list of things, should you be of the gifting persuasion
If they hadn't shut down the bar so quick after the show, I would have bought all of you a beer for that. That takes guts man
NEW ALBUM OUT, NOW WITH 100% MORE SHEEP!, have a listen will ya