Chapter 50

I was a bit surprised when the next evening Lucy called me, and we chatted for about two hours. And when I asked her to dinner the next night, she accepted. I spent a couple of hours cleaning my place up before heading to bed.

The next day I headed over to New Dawn, and Becky came over and hugged me, thanking me again for taking care of her DJ problem that weekend. I told her it was not a problem, but I was actually there to see Mike. He came over, and I told him I needed him to show me a bit about how the lights worked.

I told him what the controller was like, and he smiled and went into the back. He came out with a road case, and inside was a controller similar to what was in the club. He spent about twenty minutes running through the controller and how it worked, and showed me how to call up and program it.

“George, why are you needing to know how to control lights?”

“Well, I just got hired at a club and this is the controller they use. The DJ that was showing me their setup gave me some basics, but I had a feeling he did not know the system very well.”

“Well, it could be. At clubs, a lot just learn a few of the programmed routines and don’t go much beyond that. What club is it?” He laughed when I told him it was Jet Strip North. “OK, I actually know that setup very well, I installed that about six years ago. Here, come with me.” We went to his desk, and about five minutes later left and came back with about thirty pages.

“Here, these were the scenes we programmed into it, I imagine they have not changed them. We put in about fifty of our standard ones, and a few others in addition to that.”

“Fifty? He only showed me about six of them.”

“Yep, that is about the most that an average DJ will use. One second.” He left, and soon came back with two pages. “Here, what I gave you is also the programming instructions, the manager should still have that somewhere. This is more of a cheat sheet we made for the DJ booth. I suggest putting those in there, and maybe even show the others as I bet they all are only using those same settings. They actually got a pretty good setup, for 1996 or so when we put that in. And if you see Ben, you might want to drop my name and tell him we got some new things he might be interested in.”

Mike then showed me one of the things he had was a laser display. And it looked pretty good, but he said he would need to add another controller. “Ben got a unit like the one I showed you, just push buttons and no slides, right?” I said that is what it was and he nodded. “These use a more modern DMX controller, with slides like a mixer. But once we set it up, we can program it so you can change everything with the slides. You will not want to use them all the time, but it will really update their lighting.”

I went ahead and grabbed one of his cards, and decided to head on over to the club. I hit the buzzer, and Ben looked at me puzzled when he opened the door. I told him nothing was wrong, and we went into the office.

I told him I had just come from seeing Mike at New Dawn, and he smiled and nodded. “A few things, first he asked me to tell you to stop by then you get a chance. He has some new things you might want, including laser lights you can add to the setup here. He also gave me some sheets about the programs he had installed to the light controller. Is there a reason they only use a few of the settings?”

He actually laughed and shook his head. “Naw, other than most are likely lazy and that is all they know. So how do you know Mike?”

I explained that my brother used to date Becky, and Mike was a family friend. And that while I was primarily a keyboard player, Mike had helped get me into doing DJ work also. And I suspected the light controller could do more than it was doing, so went to him to ask how it all worked.

“Yep, he’s the one that set it up for us. Here, let’s go up front.” As we passed through the club he introduced me to everybody working, then to the DJ that was working. And when the current dancer on stage was finished he had the DJ announce a pause for two songs. He got on the mic and announced the dancers were taking a short break and would be back on stage soon.

I started running through the light programs, and not only were they all the same ones that Mike had put in almost a decade earlier, there were more than ten times more programs than I had been shown. Even the other DJ was impressed, saying he had been there for two years and did not know those were in there.

“I mean, I know there are a dozen of them. But I had no idea there were over fifty. How do you change between them”? I showed him how to bring the extra banks up, and he nodded. I handed him the sheets Mike had given me, and Ben grabbed them and waved to the bouncer on the floor.

The guy came over, and Ben told him to go to the office and make two copies. “Put one on my desk, bring the other back here.” He then looked through them again as the next girl got on stage, and asked me if there was anything else I would change.

“Well, how about a boom for the mic? Right now we have to hold it in one hand, and that only leaves one hand free for lights and music. Put in a movable boom, and that gives us both hands free.”

The DJ said that was a good idea. “I actually like holding it in my hand most times, but on occasion I’m rushing a bit when a girl wants more complex lighting as I am starting her music.”

He said he would go to see Mike soon, and we went back into the office. “Tell me, George. How much of a kickback would this mean for you?”

I actually felt a bit offended, and shook my head. “Ben, not a penny. As I said, Mike is an old family friend, I actually used to date his daughter a year or so back. And Becky was dating my older brother when she started that store, I’ve called her ‘Aunt Becky’ for most of my life. I know pro sound, and mixers. I suspected that the lighting could do more, so went to Mike as I know he’s the expert in stage lighting. He asked me where I was working now, and he still had all of those documents on his computer.”

“OK, sorry but I had to ask. And I can see why you did what you did, Mike is indeed an expert when it comes to stage lighting and sound. I was referred to him when I first bought this club, and the setup was horrible then. He had us close for two nights, and had a crew here for eighteen hours a day for two days replacing everything with what you see there now. And I may just have him come back in, it’s about time to replace a lot of this stuff.”

He asked if I had Mike’s number, and I smiled and handed over his card. And after about ten minutes on the phone he smiled at me. “OK, can you be here tomorrow morning at eight? I’ll pay you for two hours, but Mike will be here and I want to get the opinion of a DJ as to what might be nice to add.”

I told him I would be here, and after shaking my hand again I left and headed home. And at six, I got into slacks and a blue button shirt and headed to pick up Lucy. She lived over in Arleta, and I took her to a seafood place I knew in the area.

We talked and flirted as we ate, and I learned she was actually a student once. But on a dare in her Sophomore year had danced in an “Amateur Night” contest, and found she liked it. “And it was not bad, take off my clothes and dance, and I made several hundred dollars a night. I was doing so good I dropped out and worked there for Ben ever since. I don’t make as much as I used to, but I don’t have to spend as much for shoes and costumes as I did then either.”

I laughed at that, and after we finished eating I drove us over to the park in North Hollywood that I had played at that first night with the Crutknackers. It was almost dark, and we spent about an hour walking through the park and talking, and it was actually a nice evening. She asked what I was doing that weekend, and laughed when I said I was going back to the club.

“What, you need more than two nights a week of seeing naked girls?”

“Naw, I’m gonna be there at eight. Turns out that a family friend is the guy that did the lighting, and Ben wants my opinion on things to improve at the club.” She said that actually sounded great, and she was just going to chill out at home. We got back in my truck, and I drove her home. And when I walked her to the door of her apartment she gave me a hug and headed inside.

On the drive home, and I pondered if that had actually been a date or not. It had been fun, but rather causal. And other than the flirting I could have been out with one of my friends back home. I finally got to my trailer, and still had not been able to make up my mind what it all meant.

The next morning I got up and after some cereal headed back to the club. I went ahead and took the bike, and as I saw a car in the back that I parked next to. And as I was removing my helmet Mike pulled in. We had just greeted each other when Ben opened the back door and waved us over.

The two shook hands, and said it had been a while. And it was a bit surrealistic walking through the club with all the lights on. It looked smaller than it had in the darkness, and a bit more run down. Mike had a clipboard in his hand, and first we went to the DJ booth. He whistled at what was there, and said it looks like it had not changed since he had put them in.

“Well, it’s not been changed. This has been working great, no reason to make any changes.”

Mike shook his head, and told me to turn on all the lights. “Ben, think of this like most other things in business. You spend money on music, you spend money on advertising, I bet you spend money on newer security cameras. You gotta put money into the lights and sound also, or you will look outdated. This stuff here, it was kinda old when you got it. But now, it’s practically ancient. Let me ask you first, what kind of budget are you looking at?”

They talked for a few minutes, and settled on $25,000. “OK, I can easily work within that and still have some wiggle room.” He then walked around the stage, directing me when he wanted the lights changed to a different setting. He spent about a half hour doing that, moving to different areas around the stage as Ben stood on it and having me change the lights.

He then tossed me his keys and told me to go get the “Wayne’s World” CD out of his car. I dashed out and grabbed it, knowing exactly what he wanted. I came back in and handed him his keys, and without even being asked I put it on the deck and went straight to track 8 and hit play. And as expected, “Ballroom Blitz” came out through the speakers.

He then waved me over, and had me walk the floor with him. He would make more notes as he did, and pointed out to me what he was listening for. And like when he had first shown me this song and why he used it, I got it right away. It was indeed a perfect song for checking how an area would sound.