(For more on these topics, see the Notes of the Beat department, and for a last-minute primer on things to do locally with your Super Bowl experience, see Picks of the Week).

The old, and now refurbished to the hilt and turned into an ongoing night spot, Armory in The Cities has a local man at the forefront of getting the place ship-shape for pre-Super Bowl concerts, which have been held in the highest esteem among those shows available when written up by Twin Cities newspapers.
This local mainstay in the hip hop producing business, who in this latest case is working on the production end such as sound and lighting at the venue a few blocks away from the Super Bowl stadium, says its not as easy as it looks.
The venue in the days before the Super Bowl hosted concerts by Pink, Imagine Dragons and Kelly Clarkston, (who has chimed in about the pressures of performing on this type of weekend), and also showing at the venue, to be seen, are Kanye West, The Arnold and Mike Tyson.
The very young man from Hudson tells story about how some stickler venues have micro-managed the situation that some workers showed up without the obligatory steel-toed boots and were not allowed to go on the job, one where time is money and the lag can cost upwards of thousands on dollars. There are different approaches to such questions by various event venues, and among the many companies they have worked for in arranging large-scale gatherings, Blue Cross Blue Shield proved to be stellar as far as just going with the flow and being practical.
Perhaps the most difficult venue to deal with in such a way, as far as exactingly meeting the letter of the law, is Mystic Lake Casino, he said. The casino got embroiled in some legal troubles over such things in the couple of weeks before the Super Bowl, but the show(s) there did end up going on.
Guitarist Carlos Santana, performing a bit earlier at his venue, already has his $70,000 in pocket, the local man said about 10 days ago, so he doesn’t care, but the show must go on even if others aren’t so lucky. His company is in the loop to get $40,000 for their services, but at that time we talked their money was not in pocket yet, so as far as being corporate …
And my first question for him was the prevalence in their work of ensuring that there isn’t another warerobe malfunction. He said that at there production meetings, it is a constant topic of discussion.
– There have been some folk who wanted to visit Hudson during the past week, but get far out of town before it got nearer to the game and the craziness spilled over. One such couple from the West Coast was at Dick’s Bar and Grill late-night just before bolting ship, as they had been in Hudson for a few days doing construction work, but said on Thursday that they were making it an aim to get out of town pronto after that. They had been at Buffalo Wild Wings earlier, and as one person to another wearing hunting caps, he said as leaving that he was apologizing for some offense that had been taken about a comment that was made: “I’m sorry, but I am from Washington,” since as I was to find out in detail in a later conversation, things are a lot different there.
– Finally, this wrap-up on how the Super Bowl scene has played out in Hudson. After a couple of slow nights midweek locally, largely because of the cold, bartenders said there were a lot of Super Bowl visitors out early on Friday night, although things slowed later. Such things were back to being mostly dead on Saturday night, even slow at a standard-bearer, The Smilin’ Moose, as out-of-towners were mostly out in Minneapolis. This was the top night for partying there outside of the Super Bowl itself, a bit more so than Friday night. Bartenders late Saturday were holding out hope that there would be the not unusual bar time rush from The Cities, even the Minneapolis end.

Fans take their football seriously, which when combined with other local attractions setting the stage, has meant there’s plenty of acrid activity of all types locally. (For a running listing of these things, visit this web site over the next few days, and also see its Picks of The Week Department for things to do outside of Minneapolis):

– And we all thought Philly fans could be Surly, even before they took in some of those brews over in the metro, but in a former time also, before the NFC Championship Game aftermath brought it to light, the wrath was targeted at an (also mildly misplaced?) Purple Person. A time-out was required at the old Guv’s Place in Houlton, right across the river from Viking territory, when an early-season punch was thrown by a Packer Backer during their game against the Vikes, as told by the recipient of the smackdown. I guess that’s why to this day, the two-sided sign shows players from both teams shaking hands, but one on crutches (from a punch?), with the gridder shown as being injured flip-flopped, depending on which part of the sign you were looking at.
– The Hudson Buffalo Wild Wings was hit from three different places, including the Hudson Hot Air Affair and a big annual youth hockey tournament, not to mention the Big Game, like so many local venues last Saturday — as for the first time in years, both morning balloon launches went up, a seeming-to-be good omen. A server said that that when things picked up at her place of work, she had been waiting to go on break for 90 minutes but couldn’t, since a family was lingering at their table. Such long visits were typical in local establishments, which makes one think they were from the ballooning event — timed between its many activities — and not Super Bowl visitors. Yet.
Midday on Saturday, parking spaces for grill and bars were full everywhere around Hudson, with the occasional stall empty because again, people would stay for much longer than usual and occupy a prime location with their car, before bolting to the next activity and leaving the space empty.
– On Sunday night, there were so many strange hangers-on that they just had to be from out-of-town, said a downtown chef. Not viewed as so inhospitable a few weeks earlier was a tip left at Pudge’s, and missed out on from the source of my information because she ended up serving rather than bartending that day, to the tune of $550 on a $30 tab. Such workers are hoping for repeat performances when the biggest and most monied Super Bowl clients arrive in the Hudson area later in the week.
– Also looking to take advantage of the increased customer inflow is local pop and country star Chaunte Shayne, who has landed a gig at the Twin Cities International Airport on Feb. 5. A footnote, as talked about over coffee at the Village Inn early Tuesday morning, is that flights were so booked full there that people were taking their private planes to airports in Duluth and La Crosse — noteworthy again by being one place in each state — then getting however they could to the Twin Cities.
– A Mallalieu Inn placard over the door references the 14th Super Bowl with a theme that has Packers written all over it. Elsewhere in North Hudson, The Village Inn was known for an oversize photo of Coach Mike Holmgren being hoisted on the shoulders of various Packers after the team won their Super Bowl.
– The Hudson Green Mill was already Super Bowl full almost a week in advance, to the point where the manager was too busy to talk, even for a moment, and said this overflow likely would not change throughout the week. And no one I talked to disputed the idea that even at that point, when getting on I-94 and heading on down the highway to Eau Claire, there were no motel rooms left to be found there either. (What there was already had been going for $500 a room in Hudson, I was told by someone who got left out in the cold).
– I know from my time as essentially a bureau person for the Pioneer Press way back when, that on occasions where there was a late evening event or meeting, time was crucial to getting stories (or more likely photos, as a space could be held open for a bit longer) to the copy desk right after 9 p.m. This appeared to be the quandary editors faced when there was the media day (night?) and Prince musical tribute late on Monday. There were photos galore slapped on those pages, and I found myself combing them for any inclusion of an acquaintance to whom I once gave a lift home, again back in the day, a former guitarist for Prince’s backup band. No luck spotting him.
– The Super Bowl has brought an extra presence security all over, and also prompted the local police to step up patrols on certain nights, as the revelry has brought with it a certain amount of stupidity. The height of stupid criminal activity was seen on Tuesday night in downtown Hudson, as a car was pulled over and found to have dozens of “bricks” that local cops laid out on the sidewalk, but there might not have been quite enough light to see them because the car only had one working headlight! These guys might not see the light of day for awhile.
– With the onset, finally, of some warm weather, a woman at The Moose was sporting two of the lowest-cut bare shoulders I’ve ever seen. But not low enough to allow a wardrobe malfunction.