There are days and then there are great days.
For the second year in a row, and eerily, around the same time, I got to record Mr. Billy F’N Gibbons of ZZ Top fame. This time around it was for the show Whisker Wars on IFC. He is sort of an astral guide of theirs. We were shooting the 6th Annual Misprint Beard and Moustache Competition at The Mohawk in downtown Austin, TX. I was warned it would be a busy affair and indeed it was, with at least 1000 attendees over the course of the evening. Many categories of facial moss were showcased and I found myself laughing out loud many times during the gig. Based on the phone conversations I had with the brass a few days prior, I had over-prepared in a big way, bringing a 788t with several channels of wireless. We also included my trusty boom op and colleague Patrick Wiley as they were going to be using an F3 along with two Z1’s. This really was an OTF-fest due to the sheer volume of participants, which made it mostly a boom gig for both of us. We bugged the judges table and ran a direct line of it as well as the house output to a stationary Z1 and that covered the event itself. Sadly there was an onstage DJ that boned at least 90% of the event stuff, due to copyright issues. Not sure how they’ll sort that out.
