The McCune Mansion

My latest electronic addition has been the EV wireless mic system. I absolutely love it. For this gig the client asked for us to serenade the tables at a large party. This would require walking away from the band (Hayley the singer and I) to "serenade" each table as we performed.
I'd done this before with backing tracks and a DJ at the Hotel Westin Dallas, but never with a live band, nor in multiple rooms rather than one big ballroom.
I was apprehensive at first, because I wasn't sure how well our sound would carry and if the band would hear us.
I set up my Mackie powered speakers and monitors, and hooked up the EV for a test run before anyone arrived. It was crystal clear all over the mansion, in different rooms.

The serenading was a big hit, and I think I'll talk to future clients about the option. I'll get a wireless system for my saxophone, though, as Hayley had to hold the mic up to my sax so the band back with the PA could hear.

We were able to lend the mic for speeches by the client, and overall I am extremely happy with my PA and wireless setup.
Here's the McCune mansion, we played our first set on the first floor for cocktail hour, then went upstairs for the dinner set with our serenading, then back downstairs as the guests had dessert. In order to make this work, we set up two seperate pa systems, with two drumsets, two bass amps, etc. When our first set was over we just carried our instruments upstairs and played there.
Set up and tear-down took forever, but it was great to have the flawless changeover between sets.

Here's the room on the 3rd floor where we performed for dinner. We were set up right in front of the balcony window, with a nice view of the temple.

There were a few stressful moments during the night, like when 3 of my band members called to say police had blocked off both state street and west temple because of the prop 8 protests. Luckily the band was able to get through the traffic and we were set up with about 15 mins to spare before downbeat.

The other stressful moment is actually pretty funny . . . just as we were to begin our first set and the guests were arriving, I bent down to pick up my flute and rrrriiiiipppp there went my tuxedo trousers, right in the front. Luckily my Brandon had an extra safety pin and I got it pinned back up. Denson told me that I should always wear black underwear underneath the tuxedo in case anything like that ever happens. Time to either lose some weight or get bigger tuxedo pants I guess.