Sunset Strip Half Marathon

Shortly after our performance at the 2015 LA Marathon, we were asked by the same person if we would perform at the Sunset Strip Half Marathon on April 19th. I wasn't sure if the band would be up for another early morning gig, so I ran it by everyone, and the verdict came in as yes!

 

 

Fairly quickly into the process, some issues started popping up that made me slightly worried about this event. I hadn't heard about this race before, and it turned out that it was the first time they were attempting it. But know that some of the same people behind the LA Marathon were behind this race eased my mind somewhat.

 

We were told early on that we would be playing roughly from 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. somewhere along the race route, which was centered in West Hollywood, very near to my home, so that sounded great! However, the race day was growing nearer and nearer, and we still hadn't been told what our location would be. The only reason I even really cared was because during the LA Marathon, we had to rent (read: borrow) a generator because our location had no electricity; unfortunately we had an issue with one of our speakers blowing which may have had something to do with the generator. So I had agreed to perform with the caveat that we would need to have electricity provided to us.

 

We were ultimately told 3 days before the race that we were to play on Sunset Boulevard at Stanley Avenue, in front of the FedEx Office store, which I knew very well from back when it was a Kinko's. Many Shitting Glitter flyers were copied at this store! Anyway, I had a rough couple of days trying to get approval from management there that we could use their electricity, but it finally worked out on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, we'd also been asked to perform at the event's expo, which would be taking place the day before at the West Hollywood park. I was slightly concerned about this because there was no mention on the website or the race's Facebook page that an expo was even taking place, but it seemed like a good time and I love playing in the WeHo park.

 

Our flyer to promote the two shows.

Jarod and Liana weren't available on such short notice, so it was just me, Brandon and Myles performing that day. HUGE thanks to Angie, Dylan, Hess (aka Stephanie), Moni, Lexi, Jennn, Geoff, Brad and Alf for making it out for the show! As suspected, there weren't very many people in the park. It was kinda sad because it was a free event with bands and exhibitors right there in the heart of Boystown, and if it had been promoted as such, there would have been tons of people there! 

 

Me and my keytar at the Expo.

The stage was great, as it was sponsored by House of Blues, and had a great sound crew working who were really nice to us. We had some problems with the bass rig, but they got it solved quickly and we were off to the races. We played an abbreviated set but it was a lot of fun!

 

Brandon, myself and Myles at the Expo.

That night, I had to go to FedEx to plug in an extension cord and tape it down across the entrance so that we would be able to access the electricity in the morning, since the property would be gated shut at that time. Unfortunately, the cord wasn't long enough so I had to rush to Rite-Aid to buy another one before they closed up for the night!

 

Brandon was the first to arrive in the morning to begin setting up the PA. Getting everything all up and running is a lot of work, so big thanks to Brandon for having not only all the equipment, but also the knowledge of how to make it all sound good!

 

An oddly deserted Sunset Boulevard!

Brandon hard at work setting up the PA.

 

Perhaps the biggest mistake the organizers of the race made was not making sure ahead of time that they would be able to have live music throughout the route, as had been advertised to the runners. Apparently, the City of West Hollywood would not allow any amplified sound along the route within their borders. So, rather than having music all along the half-marathon, all of the bands were scrunched on Sunset Blvd. between Crescent Heights and LaBrea, which was the only span of the route that was within the Los Angeles borders. Even Los Angeles would not allow amplified sound until 8:00 a.m. Because of our distance (mile 6 - plus the runners turned around at LaBrea and ran back by us a second time) many of the runners had already gone by us before we were allowed to start playing. This made some of them angry at us, as several shouted "WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING?!?" I'm sure it was frustrating for the runners who had paid to run in an event which was supposed to feature live music, in the tradition of all the music that has been associated with the Sunset Strip, only to be halfway finished with the race before hearing anything.

 

 

 

We actually didn't get started until about 8:05 as one member of the band was late (if you know us, then you know who it was!) but once we got going, the runners seemed to love it! We played the same songs that we did at the LA Marathon, and then eventually started repeating a few of them, although by 9:00 a.m. the runners had almost all gone past us for the second time. Finally, a butch lady in a van drove up and told us we were done, as there were no more runners left. We still had a few songs on our set list but obviously that was the end of that!

 

Thanks to Moni Marx for the photo!

All in all, it was a fun weekend, and although there were obviously a lot less runners than in the LA Marathon, I really appreciated that it was a lot more laid back. Just being able to drive up there casually at 7 a.m. was much easier than getting ready for the Marathon. It was great to be associated with the Sunset Strip and House of Blues, which was the major sponsor of the event. I wish the expo had been publicized more so that there would have been more people watching us than just our friends that came out to see us and the handful of people who were already in the park (we even had a couple of homeless fans). As for the race, if we had been able to start playing a little earlier that would have been great too, but we really only missed the really fast people who would have just sped past us anyway! Will we be playing at the 2016 edition? Will there even be a 2016 edition? Only time will tell...