My husband works for a music company, and as I type this he is attending the first day of winter NAMM in Anaheim, California. NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchandisers, and it's a big yearly convention where all the music dealers that are part of the association come together to introduce their new gear.
Basically, it's a trade show for rock stars.
All sorts of artists troll up and down the aisles of the convention center looking at and trying out gear. Musicians who are endorsed by particular companies play in that company's booth and hold autograph signings. Local venues and hotels host gigs by all sorts of bands. It's a veritable who's who of the music world.
Naturally, it's a place where I would kill to be.
This year I confirmed that Slash, Lemmy, Kerry King, Joe Satriani, Rudy Sarzo, Nikki Sixx, Jason Mraz, Adrian Vandenberg, Tommy Shaw, Neil Schon, Nuno Bettencourt and Dave Mustaine will be attending. Can you say holy guitar hero? And those are just the people I know for absolute certainty will be there. I'm sure I'll hear of so many more during my nightly phone call with my husband that the shade of green I turn will be visible for miles.
My husband is attending for the fifth or sixth time this year and he's become a bit jaded. The first year he was there he saw Stevie Wonder and he was so excited when he called me he could barely get out a coherent sentence. Now he's all, oh yeah, I already met so-and-so. I asked him if he had time to please go get a picture from Nikki Sixx since I'd read his book recently and fallen in love with his side band Sixx A.M., and he said, "Well, I saw him last year, but if you really want it, okay." But put Jonathan Cain within 10 feet of him and he'll be hyperventilating. He also comes home with photos and autographs of all these esoteric jazz and fusion players that are beyond me, yet he could pass Rob Thomas in the aisle and have no idea who he was. Our views of who and what is cool vary just a bit.
In my past life as a marketing "executive" I used to handle all the details of the trade shows my company participated in and work the shows. I worked with snotty interior designers asking for free samples. A show like NAMM just boggles my mind. Maybe one year he'll actually invite me to go along...hint, hint.
No comments:
Post a Comment