Contact us
Back to All Posts

Pink and other star musicians might see red if not for local man’s Super Bowl production venue work, just wear the right boots for the job

(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.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Urban Table has solo and duet acts already in the books, and the tunes put in its vault, as they’ll soon be brought back for more music events. and positioned practically tableside tonight in their designated intimate enclave, has been enlisted an acoustic ensemble, turning it into an ample stage, and then another band next Saturday, just for starters. Bluesy, yes, and even jazzier. And always eclectic.
This about all that soft jazz, and a whole lotta related offerings, taking a renewed seat at the table, like a not-seen-for-a-while relative at Thanksgiving dinner, as they have plenty of quick eats or full meal to go with the music too, at a venue that adds another element to the local song scene. It’s an intimate setting, where you can be not much more than an arm’s length or two from one of the players as the regele you with their sung stories — and still stay out of reach and vocal range of that odd uncle, but close...
Read More
  • Clarity. Craft. Better together. Like a guitar harmony. Or Clarity & Craft Co., for penning business proposals that turn old notes and rough drafts into persuasive plans for your client’s action. Like a concerto. Choir to double down, on composing ditties.
Business writing, and even life, is like penning a song. It moves through the various seasons, like The Rain Song. (Snow coming soon.) But the very season at which we choose to begin is telling. And it may vary. For each client’s, or band’s needs. Or the second side of an album. They say keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your bandmates closest, because they are the ones you hole up with for long periods and churn out the creative process. One of those for me, is the pen during the day, and voice at times at night when...
Read More
  • Nicolas Cage has been around locally for weeks filming one of his latest projects. Could ‘Parish’ be considered a cage match between he and St. Michael the Archangel, a local parish, with sword slitting sinner’s neck, considering his bent for projects of a spiritual and apocalyptic nature?? But farmhouse famously. Read on, or see it in a theater soon …
When I first heard that star actor Nicolas Cage was in town for an extended stay to film one of his new movies, it didn’t take too much of a deep dive to discover that the film and its protagonist takes the name of Parish, which made me think it had something to do with things post-apocalyptic and churches, like some of his past flicks. (Spoiler alert: It actually is not a parish in the sense of the name of a church, but has that end of the world and eternity vibe, as it’s about a man who decides to hole up in his adapted...
Read More
  • MAGA goes South, and everyone from South Park to various ends of St. Croix County ‘can plainly see’ it. Yes, Republicanism may have won the day in the county, but in the final tally in the state, and country, it was curtains for them keeping a majority, being tied too closely to Trump. aberations in that county voting were Knoke vs. Zimmerman, and the early tallies in Town of Hudson absentee voting.
Mr. Hat, meet Mr. Reality, meet Mr. Mandate. Via Mr. Crowley. If you don’t get that post-election humor, then there’s no hope … When it concerns the latter, check out the Ozzy song and it’s message, “won’t you ride my white horse” and “did you think you were pure,” see if you then get the gag, as a U.S. dictator’s realm falls in a landslide rarely seen. “Your lifestyle to me seems so tragic.” As the last midterm election tallies are being, well, tallied, South Park (and later SNL too) roared on with its satire on Wednesday night, getting going at it...
Read More
  • Sick of getting flyers in the mail, as many as five a day, and leaving no room in the box for the postman? Even if they happen to target a political interest of yours? I went through more than 100, so offer this synopsis, which got very detailed, as your primer for when you go to the polls today. (See results here in coming days.)
The divide in politics these days is not still as much left vs. right, with granted little center, it’s become the informed vs. the uniformed or downright ignorant, and by the flyers politicians put out, you can see they are catering to this predilection. So I propose a solution, though radical, as long as these days we’re throwing that word around all over the place even when it’s not merited, and it’s mentioned literally hundreds of times in Republican flyers across the state: If you are not going to educate yourself, don’t vote. If you think about it, this is very Darwin-ish. Another...
Read More
  • Few inflatables? Just Chip away at the beyond-rigatoni-like-structured (Penne please?) them plastic bones? Halloween has come crashing to a sugary candied conclusion. But not before the alley cats were spooked, if they were not caught with their costumed tails between their legs, (no prizes), or by a pirate that’s DEPP-osed, (maybe.) Or, did Zappa do it? Double, double P. —– But hence, tomorrow is Election Day, and I will provide detailed coverage and how-to-fight-through-the-chaff analysis that will include the local polling numbers. You will see that much sooner here than in the local paper, as they do not staff elections firsthand.
Hark Halloween has been buried, as the big inflatables are now being sacked and stored — they were slowly being replaced anyway by some bigger creatures of all, very tall types and rounds lengths of plastic, currently used as the centerpieces, not the ones that often end up laying flat on the ground, strung out. As far as the bigger than gourds, such pumpkins were seen around town at the bars and antique shops, such as three of carefully chosen shades set in a triangle, of all different colors were the shapes painted on — they being squares and circles of...
Read More
Scroll to Top