My wife was out of town last weekend so I took the opportunity on Friday evening to have 13 male friends over to my house to watch music DVD’s. I recently invested in a plasma screen so this was a good chance to show it off. The result was a really successful evening which I can recommend to any bloke who finds himself in a similar situation and wants to put on a big night for his mates.
It’s still cold here in the South Island of New Zealand so I lit the two log fires in the house and got the brazier going outside for the smokers. Blokes love fires. I put drinks on from 6pm and served a simple meal (pasta / meat sauce / salad) at about 8pm.
The first DVD went on at about 8.45pm. This part was the biggest challenge of the evening. One of my friends writes music, another four have played in bands at times, and at the other end of the spectrum a couple of my friends don’t know much about music at all. How do you keep a group like that entertained and interested?
I decided to go for a mix of rock, blues and country, and to limit each DVD to two songs only, or sometimes only one song if it was a really long track. I sorted out all the music selections before anyone arrived. I was concerned about the delay between DVD’s (loading, menus etc) but that worked out really well because it provided a brief opportunity to talk about each act or grab another beer or wine etc. On a couple of DVD’s I had to play more than two tracks because I got so much stick when I went to take it off!
The concert finished at 1.15am, with a 30 minute break half way through to sing happy birthday to one of the guys and eat the birthday cake that I bought at my local bakery (making pasta sauce is OK, baking cakes is not…).
I had my laptop hooked up to the hi-fi / plasma so at halftime I played a song sent to me by one of my friends who couldn’t make it that evening. If you want to see / hear my friend (who also happens to be my doctor) playing the old Freddie King classic “Hideaway” then just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purhTNPdKrs.
This week I’ve had plenty of positive feedback about the evening. My social group parties up a lot so it was great putting on an event that really hit the mark.
Here is the list of DVD’s played on the night, in alphabetic order because I can’t remember the actual sequence. All I can tell you is that we started with “Born on the Bayou” by John Fogerty and ended with “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin.
Albert Collins - In Concert (2003)
Asleep at the Wheel - In Concert (2003)
Blues Masters (1965)
Crossroads Guitar Festival (2004)
Dixie Chicks - An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (2002)
Frank Zappa - Does Humor Belong in Music? Live (1991)
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock (2005)
John Fogerty - Premonition (1989)
John Hiatt - Live From Austin Tx (2005)
Led Zeppelin (2003)
Little Feat - High Wire Act Live in St. Louis 2003
Peter Green - Splinter Group in Concert (2003)
Rolling Stones - The Stones in the Park (Hyde Park) (1969)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Live at the El Mocambo (1983)
Taj Mahal - Live at Ronnie Scott's (1989)
Ten Years After - Live at the Marquee (1983)
The Old Grey Whistle Test, Volume 1 (2001)
It’s still cold here in the South Island of New Zealand so I lit the two log fires in the house and got the brazier going outside for the smokers. Blokes love fires. I put drinks on from 6pm and served a simple meal (pasta / meat sauce / salad) at about 8pm.
The first DVD went on at about 8.45pm. This part was the biggest challenge of the evening. One of my friends writes music, another four have played in bands at times, and at the other end of the spectrum a couple of my friends don’t know much about music at all. How do you keep a group like that entertained and interested?
I decided to go for a mix of rock, blues and country, and to limit each DVD to two songs only, or sometimes only one song if it was a really long track. I sorted out all the music selections before anyone arrived. I was concerned about the delay between DVD’s (loading, menus etc) but that worked out really well because it provided a brief opportunity to talk about each act or grab another beer or wine etc. On a couple of DVD’s I had to play more than two tracks because I got so much stick when I went to take it off!
The concert finished at 1.15am, with a 30 minute break half way through to sing happy birthday to one of the guys and eat the birthday cake that I bought at my local bakery (making pasta sauce is OK, baking cakes is not…).
I had my laptop hooked up to the hi-fi / plasma so at halftime I played a song sent to me by one of my friends who couldn’t make it that evening. If you want to see / hear my friend (who also happens to be my doctor) playing the old Freddie King classic “Hideaway” then just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purhTNPdKrs.
This week I’ve had plenty of positive feedback about the evening. My social group parties up a lot so it was great putting on an event that really hit the mark.
Here is the list of DVD’s played on the night, in alphabetic order because I can’t remember the actual sequence. All I can tell you is that we started with “Born on the Bayou” by John Fogerty and ended with “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin.
Albert Collins - In Concert (2003)
Asleep at the Wheel - In Concert (2003)
Blues Masters (1965)
Crossroads Guitar Festival (2004)
Dixie Chicks - An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (2002)
Frank Zappa - Does Humor Belong in Music? Live (1991)
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock (2005)
John Fogerty - Premonition (1989)
John Hiatt - Live From Austin Tx (2005)
Led Zeppelin (2003)
Little Feat - High Wire Act Live in St. Louis 2003
Peter Green - Splinter Group in Concert (2003)
Rolling Stones - The Stones in the Park (Hyde Park) (1969)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Live at the El Mocambo (1983)
Taj Mahal - Live at Ronnie Scott's (1989)
Ten Years After - Live at the Marquee (1983)
The Old Grey Whistle Test, Volume 1 (2001)
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