Showcase 2006

Showcase 2006, The Pride's second videotaped performance, took place a couple of weeks ago and it was a tremendous success. Because we were so well treated at Bourbon West for the first one we decided to shoot our second promo video there as well. This time we settled on a Thursday evening for the show, figuring we would have more people and we were not disappointed. The crowd was there to have fun and they were solidly on our side, dancing to every song in both sets.

The repertoire was chosen carefully to both showcase the band's musical and vocal abilities and to please the audience with a good variety of music, all danceable. This time around I expanded my musical performance with a wide array of percussion instruments and a keyboard as well as my main instrument, guitar. Clearly, the crowd liked the show we gave them and, as is always the case, we responded with an energetic performance, brimming with enthusiasm.

Manny Da Mota, our official photographer, was on hand once again and he took nearly 400 pictures. For this showcase we had two videographers, which meant a good range of distance and close-up footage. I'd like to thank John Martin and Tammy Pieters for their excellent work shooting the show. Neither of these two are professional cameramen (camerapeople?) but both gave me such good shots that I might suggest they consider career changes. Hats off to both of you.

Finishing the show meant that the real work would be starting for me. I had to choose the photos for the website and crop them to fit the site - and going through almost 400 pics is a lot of work, particularly as there were so many excellent shots. Next up was editing the video footage. This time around we had taken the sound straight from the console, ensuring a consistent, not to mention better quality soundtrack. It also meant that the audio track had to be aligned with the footage from both cameras. Choosing which camera angle to use for a part of a song is also a lot of work because I have to go through each tape from both video cameras several times, comparing the look. I should mention at this point that I quite enjoy editing video and though Spielberg's career is safe from the likes of me, I think I did a respectable job of putting it all together. You'll need a fast net connection for the 40 MB download but the link to the demo is available on the Audio/Video page of our web site. Also available is the Showcase 2006 photo gallery - here on our pics page.

I'd like to wrap up this post with a big thank you to Samara, Brian and Kevin; the members of The Pride who donated their time and talents to this showcase. You guys are the greatest and I'm always pleased to work with you. I would also like to thank all those who came out to the show to support us and, last but not least, thanks to Steve, owner of Bourbon West, and to all the staff.

Marc C.