Any PPUSA folks gonna be at Dragon*Con?

[Pellaz]

All kinds of fun, although not entirely drama-free, as you may have heard about Harlan Ellison groping Connie Willis. I know his schtick is all about being a disrespectable old geezer, but jeez.

Hmm, interesting, since his last visit to D*C also involved drama and intentional disrespect. I'll note that the popular guests who Harlan insulted have returned both years since....and Harlan has not returned.

And yep, all of the upcoming years' Worldcons won't conflict with D*C.

My guesstimate, assuming last year's published figure of 30,000 was accurate, would be 35,000. We are kinda drowning in our success, but short of raising prices or intentionally producing a lower quality event, it continues to grow.

Musical highlights:
-- The Cruxshadows, Sat. night. 2,000+ attendance, capacity crowd, great performance, 900 copies of their new EP sold. I'll be getting a call from SoundScan in (checks watch) about 9 hours on THAT one....
-- Godhead, Sunday night, c. 900 attendance, great performance that even the band was satisfied with
-- The Last Dance, Sunday night, c. 650 attendance opposite the popular live-cast Rocky Horror performance, great show
-- The Last Dance, special acoustic performance on 'my' stage, great show even though the band thought it wasn't (it was their first acoustic gig ever)
-- nightly drum-circles, which now apparently includes Thursday night, and why not? There were 5,000 people there the night before the convention started. (!) I managed to pound on my djembe 3 out of the 4 nights, and it was hella fun!

I'm beat, but it's been hella fun!

 

[Magius]

-- The Cruxshadows, Sat. night. 2,000+ attendance, capacity crowd, great performance, 900 copies of their new EP sold. I'll be getting a call from SoundScan in (checks watch) about 9 hours on THAT one....

They were a lot of fun to watch. It will be intersting to see if their single charts. If you find out please post the news.

 

[Pellaz]

I definitely will!

 

[Cheiron]

I enjoyed Emerald Rose and Hannah Alexander. Hannah's set was disrupted with various sound issues, but still she kick ass. Emerald Rose sounds better live than on CD. In every way. Was glad to get a chance to listen to them. I wanted to go to the concerts at night, but didn't have any reason to be there for some of the hours, and no hotel to retreat to. That, and by the time it was nearing 11ish, the girlfriend was falling asleep while I was playing the Xbox360, so .. didn't go.

 

[Pellaz]

I enjoyed Emerald Rose and Hannah Alexander. Hannah's set was disrupted with various sound issues, but still she kick ass.

Yep, Heather (!) has a lot of talent. I think I'd like to see a violin-playing contest between her and Paul Mercer (DP3, Ghosts Project, ex-Changelings).....to the death!

Emerald Rose sounds better live than on CD. In every way. Was glad to get a chance to listen to them.

No question about it. They're a band who really shine with their audience participation, and they have a very strong, devoted following, as well they should. I was almost moved to tears during "Lucky Man."

I wanted to go to the concerts at night, but didn't have any reason to be there for some of the hours, and no hotel to retreat to. That, and by the time it was nearing 11ish, the girlfriend was falling asleep while I was playing the Xbox360, so .. didn't go.

Darn shame, that. For myself, I'm really sorry I had to miss Abney Park's performance -- their recent material has a delicious Dead Can Dance-ish flavor to it -- but they were up against Godhead, and in this case, 'family' wins.

 

[Cheiron]

I wrote Hannah.. wow. Not sure where my brain was. Oh it was 7am nevermind.

 

[Pellaz]

Cheiron, I'm still working on pics and I have more video than I want to make room for, but check this out for some acoustic performance vids (from digitla camera), including one including Heather and the Brobdingnagian Bards:

http://www.paulcashman.com/dc2006/

I've uploaded Emerald Rose's "Lucky Man" already. Glad I caught most of it.

Also uploaded one song from The Last Dance's acoustic set for Emerald Rose, since Clyde from ER told me he wanted it.

 

[Pellaz]

They were a lot of fun to watch. It will be intersting to see if their single charts. If you find out please post the news.

A bit late on this, 'cause I only just heard the news. Apparently it has made a big splash in other places, though!

For that week... The Cruxshadows' Sophia single charted at #7 in the Billboard singles chart, and at #1 on their dance charts, on sales (at Dragon*Con, anyway) of 900 copies. They sold all the copies they brought, and would have sold more.

I got two phone calls from SoundScan to verify those numbers, and also the figures for labelmates The Last Dance and Ego Likeness. "It was a 35,000-person festival, ran for 4 days and the performance venue holds 2,000...and was full. What part of this picture doesn't make sense?"

 

[Magius]

A bit late on this, 'cause I only just heard the news. Apparently it has made a big splash in other places, though!

For that week... The Cruxshadows' Sophia single charted at #7 in the Billboard singles chart, and at #1 on their dance charts, on sales (at Dragon*Con, anyway) of 900 copies. They sold all the copies they brought, and would have sold more.

I got two phone calls from SoundScan to verify those numbers, and also the figures for labelmates The Last Dance and Ego Likeness. "It was a 35,000-person festival, ran for 4 days and the performance venue holds 2,000...and was full. What part of this picture doesn't make sense?"

Well, how about that. Good for them.

 

[Pellaz]

Well, how about that. Good for them.

This story just gets better, as I talked to Rogue (lead singer and frontman for Cruxshadows) earlier today.

Turns out that they ousted Beyoncé from the #1 slot on Billboard's Singles chart (!)...which has prompted several stories on the entertainment newswires. Check this out:

Yahoo! Finance article "Indie band replaces Beyoncé at top of singles chart"

Very cool of Rogue to get in a mention of Dragon*Con in the article, too.

The part about the CDs being mis-made, the parts being shipped overnight to Atlanta and then assembled by the band and fans really says a lot about their dedication.

Interestingly, they still charted the following week and the week after, which was far more than they were expecting. <--- err, we don't have an appropriate 'dance' icon

Here's the actual Billboard page:

http://www.cruxshadows.com/billboard.html

 

[Magius]

Heh. Well, the concert was fun though I may never listen to this CD. I'm glad buying it helped a band out anyway. Cruxshadows may not be Metal, but anything that flies in the face of corporate is most Metal. Sputtered latte indeed.
Oh, here's your icon. :danceboy:

This story just gets better, as I talked to Rogue (lead singer and frontman for Cruxshadows) earlier today.

Turns out that they ousted Beyoncé from the #1 slot on Billboard's Singles chart (!)...which has prompted several stories on the entertainment newswires. Check this out:

Yahoo! Finance article "Indie band replaces Beyoncé at top of singles chart"

Very cool of Rogue to get in a mention of Dragon*Con in the article, too.

The part about the CDs being mis-made, the parts being shipped overnight to Atlanta and then assembled by the band and fans really says a lot about their dedication.

Interestingly, they still charted the following week and the week after, which was far more than they were expecting. <--- err, we don't have an appropriate 'dance' icon

Here's the actual Billboard page:

http://www.cruxshadows.com/billboard.html