John Mellancamp

It is not often that the world of corporate media offers anything up more than a week long series of talking heads and shiny happy people videos, but even the button up suit and tie crowd need to let loose of all that number crunching, online conferencing, and annual sales goals life in the business world can bring, so with all the resources of any billion dollar company why not go out and hire a world class music act to perform in the wonderful confines of an open bar convention ballroom in some mega Las Vegas strip hotel as the patrons wander amongst Gold Circle sales achievers and the eventual slippage of formerly discreet office romances that binging on a week of the "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" mentality can facilitate. I must admit being able to work around rock and roll musicans has always been a soft spot, sort of an attempt to live that on stage lifestyle such types perform on a nightly basis. Music really seems to transcend all boundaries on whatever level one can imagine and even a fringe hack like myself can't resist getting all emotional when Mellancamp comes out on stage and kicks right off into "Check It Out", just being able to shoot camera gives me the chance to be a few feet from the band with no one around me dropping beers on my shirt or singing fucked up lyrics like a banshee on acid while wasted on Southern Comfort in a desperate effort to create some sort of the eternal bond as they put their arm around me to join them in a chorus of "Rock You Like a Hurricane".

The only other real annoyances while shooting bands of this stature can be the post beer brawl aftermath littered along the floor of a ballroom upon which I have found at times will cause me to go flying in a myraid of directions with gravity at the controls, the audiences tends to finds this humorous but can only offer me a sense of hostily and embarassment, speaking of such, the camera groupies are always a fun bunch. They tend to be late 30's to early 50's mostly female, but not always; I am merely a conduit in their eyes for them to get closer to the band. I remember shooting a Huey Lewis concert brimming with camera groupies who felt compelled to grab at me every chance they could, the type of shit guys pull on strippers, I have been reduced to nothing more than a neon thong wearing piece of meat by a bunch of middle aged horn dogs, thankfully Huey and his band members were all too willing to take them off my hands and back to his suite up in the Playboy Towers at the Palms Casino and Hotel.

Conventioneers always seem to be facinated on how someone like myself lucked into such a great lifestyle and can make a living from it. I just usually thank them for the complements but sometimes admirers have the need to offer me business cards with links for their own web based You Tube like video drivel to critique, well fine, give me the card, anything, another beer would be great as well. No one seems to have a problem with the crew getting loose during the performance either, the first few times I thought it was a setup, the fact the client insists on me partying was surprizing but after a few shows of the same manner, walking over to the open bar to request an unopened bottle of wine for the "client" wink, wink, feels no different than bumming drinks at the local bar, just something you develop like any other craft, the bar staff doesn't care, with case after case of booze, already paid for, putting it into play is like dealing cards at a poker table.

Caught awash in the hour long set of John Mellancamp remembering I actually have to be involved in the production of this live event and not become an entranced spectator, luckily being able to visually tell a story with a camera offers me a way to get further into the music as well as the event while performing, all those years of watching MTV rock concerts and other more well season camera operators than myself have given me an arsenal or visual pallete in which to draw from like a well, an artistic resevoir that can even have me shaking my head at times on how I pull off some shots. This camera eye, zooming into identities, facial expressions, and bad ass guitar solos has become some what of a voyuer which in a few respects defines my job in various capacities, when the crowd is paying more attention to the screens than the artists themselves, then maybe the crew has done too good of a job, but overall there is very little that can compare to the face to face interaction with a musician you respect or admire, fine enough to leave it at that, keep the fourth wall up. Mellancamp looked please to take that 6 figure payday to play for a crowd of pharmasudical sales people during the next hour, as he stood up there in his best motown, blues, and rock pose to give the crowd what they needed, an outlet from everyday life, still Mellancamp felt a bit mailed in, from the white ceramic Jesus statue sitting a guitar amp to unforeseen acoustic mini set placed abruptedly in the middle of a preceeding rocking twenty minutes of music. The schmaltz was out, get folky and a bit reminicant of the good old days, then take the check to the bank. The conventioneers were feeling it, mixed with some drinking and possibly a joint, everyone looked to be having fun, myself included a smile fixed upon my face, the guitarist started to laugh at my naive nature, like a kid at a concert, overwhelmed with the rock star fixation, the dream to be larger than life, cooler than everyone else, and fulfilling some poetic itch, all the literary text books in school failed to achieve. Soon enough though, Mellancamp was out of there, take the money and run, of course the band could have played longer, someone of his accomplishments, had another couple hours of material, yet he could smell the corporate rat and had endured as much of it as possible without breaking into some personal tirade against global business model, yet not everyone had the priviledge of existing their own personal fantasy, so those in the crowd who could not, shouted for an encore, but after 5 minutes went back to the bars for last call and more receptive pleasure seekers of the Las Vegas night.