Exciting news on my front. As many of my friends know I have a history of good luck at finding last minute tickets to concerts I want to go see — Nirvana, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, U2, Prince, and Stevie Wonder are among artists I saw having woken up a day or two before the show saying to myself, “I really should see that” and tickets miraculously appear for me.

This week I topped myself in the concert karma.

I’d been lamenting all week not getting tickets to see Beck this Sunday in Bend, OR. I’ve seen Beck a couple of times and just didn’t want to pay for gas in addition to tickets drive the nearly 4 hours on top of trying to get tickets last minute. Oh, but fate had other thoughts. Earlier this week, my favorite local radio station KNRK 94.7 sent an email to listeners offering to send one lucky person to “make a documentary” (Beck-umentary they called it) of the show. I filled out a quick form online and thought nothing of it. Until the station called me Thursday to say I won.

They’ve outfitted me with:
• 2 tickets to the show
• A backstage pass
• A 10-minute interview with Beck
• Permission to take video of the first three songs of the show
• A camcorder to take the videos — I get to keep the camcorder once I’m done

Since the camcorder retails for $180 and the tickets are $35 a piece (more once Ticketmaster gets their share), it’s a fairly significant prize.

What do I have to do for all this? Not much really. I’ll be shooting a little bit of footage to start the journey, and then get to talk to some of the crew at the show in addition to the interview with Beck and live concert footage. The finished “Beck-umentary” will be posted by 94.7, either on their website or in an email link to their fan club.

I’d like to thank KNRK and the people at Beck’s label for hooking this up.


Related Notes
• The camcorder they gave me is this cool thing about the size and weight of an iPod mini that comes with a built-in USB adapter and editing software included on it’s 2 GB flash drive. It’s called a Flip Minio and it’s pretty rad for such a small device. Tests at home (starring the cats) were pretty good, we’ll see how it works in the field — if I get time, I’d like to do a review of the camcorder separate from the concert review once I put it through it’s paces in the unique environment of a concert where lights are low in the crowd but flashing on stage, we’ll also see how the little mic handles the concert’s sound system. 2 GB at the quality it shoots will be about 60 minutes of raw video, meaning that I should (hopefully) get about 30-40 minutes of usable stuff for the “Beck-umentary”, including a few songs and the interview.

• As part of this, every time KNRK played a Beck song today they mentioned this thing and congratulated me on the air on winning it. There’s something very awesome and creepy about hearing your name on the radio; at least they pronounced it correctly which honestly never happens.

• Naturally, after the show I plan on posting a review of the whole shebang and once I have it, a link to the footage.

2 Responses to “Beck-umentary my dear Watson”

1. DrunkenDumbshow.com » Blog Archive » Beck, post-game commentary Says:
   August 25th, 2008 at 4:34 am

   [...] got back from the fabulous Beck-umentary experience (see previous post). What a whirlwind day. It’s about a 3.5 hr drive to Bend, but when you have free tickets, [...]

2. Jon Says:
   August 25th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

   I f’n wish I was there to hear it, as I listened to 94.7 alot - they’re definitely the ‘best’ P-town has to offer, especially when you consider their special programming (passport approved, etc).

   I’m wondering, did Sat Bisla ever say your name, and if so, did it sound especially funky? He has a…New Zealand…?…accent that always somewhat…irked…me.

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