Post Grad

I was flipping through the channels tonight and came across a taping of a Phil Vassar concert. The concert is taped at some Amphitheater in Ohio.

It caught my attention because the song Vassar was singing as I happened to click on the channel was very off key. It surprised me because I’ve seen him live and up-close, and I know he doesn’t normally sing off key at concerts.

I know the acoustics are completely off when you are singing outside. It also seems like they were having some trouble with their in-ear monitoring as I saw Vassar and pretty much all of his band members messing with their ear pieces throughout the whole concert here.

But anyway, stumbling on this brings back memories of my senior year in college when I got to work with Phil Vassar.

I was a Music Industry Management major at Ferris State University and one of the coolest things about the program was that every fall we put on a full scale arena concert called Autumn Alive. The students in the program research bands, book the band, work on the contract, build the stage, help with load-in and load out of equipment for the concert. It’s basically a very cool “practical lab” for us.

I’ve always had a great time working on Autumn Alive, but senior year was special for me because I was chosen to be the Hospitality Coordinator. Basically it was my job to coordinate all of the rider requests, make the dressing rooms comfortable, order catering for the artists and basically just seeing to all of the needs of the artists.

My committee and I worked hard on the dressing rooms, turning two small theater locker rooms into a comfortable space for Phil and his band to relax in before their concert. Phil was really, after the concert he came and thanked me personally for all we had done for him that day.

He was actually very easy to please. Very small rider, simple catered meals, and mostly just wanted to be able to workout somewhere before his sound check. We hooked him up with our school gym and he went and lifted some weights and did the elliptical (I still wonder if any of the students knew they were working out next to Phil Vassar that day haha!)

His band members were hilarious. His bass player is pretty hot, and very funny. He’s my favorite guy in the Phil Vassar crew. The fiddle player is also pretty cool. They all hung out and talked to members of MIM throughout the day. (It’s awesome to see them all on TV right now, great memories!)

Phil’s sound check was pretty cool; he let any of us watch it. During some of our shows we have had artists who request that nobody come in to watch the sound check. Phil was very chill and did it in gym shorts, that man has some very muscular calves!

I never really recognized Phil Vassar’s songs before I saw him perform that day, but I was surprised to find out that I knew quite a few of them! He’s a very good live performer. He engages his audience well and puts on a fun show. He drinks liquor out of the red solo cup you always see on his piano, and he’s always jumping on the piano and sliding across it. If you ever get a chance, check him out!

original locker room

dressing room 1 transformed

dressing room 2 transformed