Posts Tagged ‘Heavy Cello Thunder’

2-6-09

Hi BoR Friends! We interrupt this week’s blog to bring you a true story from a true BoR fan: Vaguy Peterson. Vaguy and our very own Patrick Laird have been lifelong friends, and Vaguy was one of the very first BoR fans. He is an awesome guy: fun spirited and always up for a laugh. Anyway, Vaguy, Patrick, and the boys recently ditched Super Bowl Sunday for something better: A live METALLICA concert at the Prudential Center in New Jersey! Below, Vaguy retells his Metallica experience, more specifically, his plan to get Break of Reality goods into the hands of Metallica!

METALLICA AND THE BEAST

“I’m flying high over Tupelo Mississippi with America’s hottest band, and we’re all about to die…”

Far from the truth, but close to the realities running through my head as the crude, makeshift, emergency Break of Reality street team sprang into action on the night of February 1, 2009. Ah the day had come, Metallica makes their return to New Jersey, a night not worth missing, especially if you’re a Break of Reality fan with a master plan at hand.

So, where to begin?

Possibly the best guerilla marketing tactics begin with the simplest of ideas, followed with careful planning, and of course precise execution, like that of a puma in the circumstance. Much credit goes to the notorious “J-Drew”, mastermind to possibly the greatest plan ever. What was it you ask? Well Pinky, the plan goes like this: to deliver BOR gear to the most influential metal band/rehabbers in the world: METALLICA. My favorite 6’9” cellist delivered the goods: BOR authentic T with a CD wrapped securely inside, and a piece of paper rubber banded to the entire package with the words “FOR METALLICA, SHIRT AND CD.”

Step 1 of 3 complete.

Blue Team, (consisting of J-Drew and P-Cakes, aka Patrick from Break of Reality), have prepared the package and carefully hid it inside a jacket for CO-OP delivery through security at the Prudential Center. The package made it through the security checkpoint, however the whiskey did not have such luck. Shall we say, a leaky cap and wet shoe was the outcome of evading a manly pat down.

Moment of silence for the whiskey…..

OK, Blue Team unfortunately runs into quite the snag. The seats are too far from the stage to deliver the goods. Not bad planning, just an unforeseen circumstance when you have 8th row seats that just happen to be 100 feet from the stage. So it’s time to call in the General Admission, who just so happened to be there out of dumb luck ‘cause we love Metallica. I speak of the oh-so-cool, RED TEAM, consisting of myself (V-Guy), and my friend ERI-O.

A new reason to love the world of cell phones and TXT MSGing is that RED TEAM was easily reached inside the stadium for rendezvous at the tallest wall. The handoff of goods was executed flawlessly amid flashlight-armed guards and merch hungry Metallica Fans. Blue Team has completed their mission successfully and has left the execution of Project “Give Metallica the Break of Reality T-Shirt and CD” to the well-trained, intelligent, highly sophisticated and herbal tea drinking RED TEAM. So as Captain of RED TEAM, I quickly recruited scouts among the crowd for execution. ERI-O secured the goods until the moment was right. We waited and waited, then forgot that we even had the package because a few $8 beers and an amazing performance knocked myself (probably should be “us”) off track. However, Mr. Anheuser Busch himself could not keep me from fate.

The moment had stricken: METALLICA just finished a set. I’m front and almost center. The band is walking just off stage but still visible to everyone, and a guitar tech is running across the stage right toward them. This was my moment, better yet our moment. I quickly called ERI-O for the package, called my scouts to watch for security, and at that moment, when all was clear, shot putted what looked like a small explosive onto the stage. Some people looked fearful as it slid across the floor and came to a gentle rest at the feet of the fleeting guitar tech. Sure enough it landed note side up and was quickly hand-delivered to the man himself, James Alan Hetfield. Delivery was perfect. Metallica was taking a minute break and switching guitars for freshly tuned ones, plenty of time for each member to see the BOR T-Shirt as they unfolded it after reading the attached note.

BOR GEAR WAS IN THE HANDS OF METALLICA.

Pure bliss hit our hearts and the plan was completely successful. Metallica received the goods, they opened the goods, and they enjoyed the goods. Scouts around the stage reported back to V-GUY that the package was meticulously folded back together and placed on the stage, safe and sound with the CD on top of it next to Metallica’s Guitars. This was assuring, knowing that the BOR gear was not thrown away, but placed at one of the safest places on the stage. Throughout the night, we watched as great interest built around the BOR gear as guitar techs and sound engineers all seemed to be drawn to the crazy design of the BOR T-shirt. We caught them reading the back of the CD and all seemed very pleased as they each gave everything not a once over, but the assuring twice over. So that’s my story. I shall call it “METALLICA and the Beast.”

-V-Guy

1-16-09

“Don’t believe it until you see it.”
My mom’s been preaching that motto to me since I was young. She was right.
I never really knew what she meant though, until I moved out to the Big Apple with Break of Reality and got exposed to the music industry, and just how strange the industry is.
As mentioned in previous blogs, our street / park performing allowed us to meet all sorts of people, including producers, record executives, and managers for major companies. They would see us performing for large crowds and immediately see potential, or at least dollar signs. “Here is my card – let’s talk!”
“Maybe THIS is it”, we thought.
Nope.
I can’t tell you how many cups of coffee we had with industry reps, and how almost each meeting left us feeling emptier than the one before.
Many of these reps were flat out weird, more exaggerated than any music industry character in any movie. I smelled something, and it wasn’t pretty.
Each one talked an unbelievable talk, and tried to make us feel like we were lost without their help. Each rep thought they knew what was best for Break of Reality, and was pushing the group to go in different directions, such as:
“A Broadway Show with talking cellos!”
“A stage show with dancing acrobats at Disney World!”
Or the dreaded “Consider changing your sound to easy listening…”
They tried to feed us a large amount of you know what. We heard every line in the book. “You guys are the next Beethoven.” That one makes me pretty sick.
This is a good one, from a potential manager: “What’s Myspace?”
Haha…
No.
Although we weren’t quite sure what we wanted, we knew it wasn’t “talking cellos”, rocking out with Mickey Mouse, or being managed by someone who didn’t know what a social networking site was.
More importantly, we never met an industry insider who was as excited about BoR as we were. Our fans were the only ones who really understood what we were doing.
We were keeping instrumental music alive and relevant, whether playing in the parks, subways, schools, or music venues. That was our mission, and it still is today.
The Joshua Bell Article
During our subway days, The Washington Post wrote a very interesting article about Joshua Bell, who is one of the world’s most famous classical violinists. The article was about a social experiment Bell attempted at the Metro Station in D.C. Bell decided to do what we were doing: busk in the subways.
Being THE violinist of our generation, it is easy to assume that Bell’s playing attracted swarms of people.
Not the case. Not the case at all.
On January 12th, 2008, Joshua Bell (incognito) performed classical music in the subways of D.C., and made a total of $32.17. He never built much of a crowd, and was practically ignored for his entire performance.
I’m sure this speaks volumes about classical music in our society, (a subject for another blog in another life), but it brought something to our attention: In the most humbling way, we realized that in the land of subway musicians, we had a leg up on Joshua Bell.
(In the land of concert halls, however, he makes about $20,000 more a performance than we do, haha). But still, we were glad to hear we were doing something that the world’s greatest violinist couldn’t do: make an instant musical connection with real people.
The press in NYC began taking notice of what we were doing as well.
For example, Steve Smith, a columnist for Time Out New York, met us while we were performing in the subways. He enjoyed our performance and always agreed to publish our “real” performances in Time Out New York:
“Break of Reality puts the classical in classic rock, with is heavy, exotic original compositions and instrumental arrangements of hard-rock standards. If you’re one of the many commuters who’s seen this group in the Times Square subway station, you already know its secret weapon: It plays with genuine technique and solid intonation, but rocks out like it means it.”
- Time Out New York (August 23-29, 2007, Issue 621, page 120)
We were also featured in The New York Post, The New York Press, and the Baruch College Newspaper.
With the press on our side, we had already begun booking real gigs, and our fans came out to support us, one subway commuter at a time.
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Next week on BOR Blog: Photos, Videos, and memories from “real” NYC performances! Want to see BOR’s Cello-Over-The-Head stunt? Stop by next week!

1-9-09

Central Park is hot in the summer time, especially at Bethesda Fountain, where we became a regular weekend attraction.
The heat took its toll, on our instruments and us. I remember once when Erin asked me to put my hand on her cello – it was as hot as an iron. Not a good sign, especially since her instrument is worth more than some cars.


On the upside, the crowds at Central Park were SICK! It made it all worth it.
Never in my life would I have expected to perform for so many people around the world in such a short period of time. The results were instant and direct. People wanted cello rock.
I’ll never forget the look on the faces coming from a group of skateboarder kids when we busted out System of a Down’s BYOB. They immediately jumped off their skateboards and ran over to us while gesturing the “metal hand”. Sitting closer to us in the front was an older man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, and his wife. They were so immersed, if not hypnotized, by the music that they barely noticed the teenage mosh pit that was forming behind them.
Interactions with senior citizens usually went something like this. A little old woman walks up to us and says, “That was a beautiful song you played! What song was that?”
Our usual response: “That was Metallica’s Creeping Death.”
Good stuff.
The listeners in Central Park were even more diverse than in the subways. Central Park is a huge tourist attraction, which helped us build an international fan-base in a way that most bands cannot do.

The Fourth of July
It was a natural high. We were buzzing. As performers, we were feeding off the incredible energy from crowds in the form of smiles, cheers and clapping. We took that energy and gave it right back to them.
As a result, we were playing harder, louder, and faster. Each song turned into a set. Each set turned into hours. The day would go by as the sun continued to punish us.
Before I realized it, I looked down at my djembe and saw my fingers and my drumhead smeared with blood! My finger was bleeding from playing the djembe so hard. I taped it up and kept going.
Fatigue began taking over. My arms were fried. I glanced over at Pat, who was as red as a lobster, covered in sunburns. I looked at Erin who was next to me cringing from the pain in her wrist and shoulders.

Despite the sheer response and the incredible number of CDs we were selling, I simply couldn’t give any more. It was time for us to stop. I had to stop – I was BLEEDING for crying out loud, and I just didn’t feel like making music anymore. Some of the others understood where I was coming from, but insisted on continuing. They had good reason. Money was coming easy that day – we wouldn’t come across another day like that all year.
I didn’t care. I was so spent.
After about an hour of yelling, cursing, hugging, and more cursing, we left without playing anymore that day. The ride home was awkward, to say the least.
On top of that, Erin continued to feel discomfort in her hand and wrist…
Despite all the conflict, we kept heading out to Central Park, every Saturday and Sunday.
[INTERACT: Did you meet BOR in Central Park? Did you take pictures? Videos? Share them with us!]

Yoko Ono and Co.
Usually, we would arrive at Central Park early, eat some granola, and warm up. While the cellists were warming up, I would typically go to the bathroom, call my mom, or sometimes take a walk.
Well, I forgot about the bathroom one morning, and ended up having to go during one of our sets. I ran off, and wasn’t gone for more than 10 minutes.
I ran back, and saw huge smiles on everyone’s faces, especially the guys.
“We just met that lady from Groundhog Day!”, Patrick yelled. “And you missed it!”
Dang it! I missed meeting Andie MacDowell, and apparently that wasn’t the best part.
She was taking a walk with her beautiful daughter, and they happened to walk by our spot. The cellists, who decided to wait for me to play, were just hanging out. Well, MacDowell approaches them and asks about the group. Rather than waiting for me, the cellists decided to play, sans drums. After all, how many chances do you get to play for “that lady from Groundhog Day”?
She dug it, and so did her daughter. They ended up buying a CD and chatted with the group. They left right before I got there.
Jesse said MacDowell was really nice, and the guys all agreed that her daughter was “very nice looking”.
Dang it! I missed it! From then on, I held my urge to go to the bathroom for as long as possible.
Another day, we were playing for a huge crowd at the fountain. We were performing Circles for probably the 15th time that day, when we noticed a small Asian woman making her way to the front of the crowd with her grandson. The little kid was just adorable. He was dancing, jumping, and running with the music. We thought the kid was great, but didn’t pay much attention to his grandmother.
It hit Jesse first.
“That’s Yoko Ono,” he said.
Holy moly.
He was right.

We immediately perked up. We were playing for Yoko Ono and her grandson, and they were both digging it. She left before we could talk to her, but a fan there approached us and said, “I see her in the park all the time. I have never seen her stop to listen to any musician before. You should feel honored; she loved it.”
We were.
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[INTERACT: Did you hear Break of Reality in Central Park? Tell us about it! If you have photos or videos, please share!]
Next week on BoR Blog – Scammers! We met a lot of nice people in NYC, but we also met some interesting folks, some who promised us the world.