ambientbuzz: January 2008

NAMM Convention 2008

So we just got back from the huge NAMM convention in Anaheim. NAMM is the National Association of Music Merchants and is the 3rd largest convention in the United States. It is freaking huge and ridiculously intimidating. Last year was the first year I went with Kevin and I had a blast. Last year I met a couple of cool people like Nikki Sixx and got to see Earth Wind and Fire and Richard Marx in concert. But this year was the SHIT.

Yamaha throws a huge concert for all their dealers and has artists who are associated with Yamaha come play at it, hence Earth Wind and Fire last year. This year the show didn't seem like it was going to be that great with the headliner being John Legend and that was about it, but they said they had a special guest who they weren't announcing... At the end of the show they wheeled out a new piano so Kevin and I started speculating that maybe it was Alicia Keyes or Elton John (both of which have done the show in the past), but then they wheeled out keyboards and we started getting excited because we both immediately thought of Stevie Wonder. Lo and behold out he comes and starts playing. It was awesome. He played superstition and a bunch of other songs. He was amazing.

Then the rest of the weekend while out of the show we saw a plethora of artists both milling around and signing. We saw Dave Mustaine of Megadeath and then the best part was walking around and happening upon Jason Bonham of Led Zepplin as he was arriving for a signing engagement. I was pushy enough to get close enough to him to take a picture with him. It was awesome. Someone in the crowd asked if the new tour was going to happen and he said "he hopes so but depends on the fans." I never really know what that means.

I ran into Malcolm-Jamal Warner AKA Theo from the Cosby show. I asked him if I could take a picture with him and he was pretty rude. I saw him again the next day and he was mostly just loitering and we decided he was just trying to be recognized. Bleh.

Saw Dave Navarro but wasn't going to wait in line for his autograph, got my picture taken with the playmate of the year again this year. Got a bunch of other random pictures of band members of other groups that I couldn't for the life of me tell you who they are now.

Saw Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins sitting in a booth tuning a guitar chatting with the proprietor with pretty much everyone walking by him not noticing him. He looked pretty chill and unassuming.

I'm kind of bummed I missed seeing Santana, he was apparently roaming around but it's a big place and there are always lots of people you miss and hear about later. Overall it was an awesome trip, tiring but awesome. I can't wait until next year.