alantig
Zombie Four, DFZ
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 14,955
Well, now that the event is over, I guess it’s time to recap what happened at Experience PRS 2014. Given the somewhat secretive nature of this year’s event, I won’t be surprised if this thread gets nuked and I get banned, but I think everyone deserves to know what went on, even if you weren’t able to be there.
As I mentioned above, this was a secretive affair, unlike the previous versions. Invitation only - but with accommodations paid for at a hotel on Kent Island. It seemed a little odd that parking was valet-only for the guests, but given that we were told all transportation was being provided “due to restrictions in the industrial park”, it made a bit of sense - they were able to control attendance a bit better that way.
“Control” seemed to be the key word around this year’s event - when it came time to board the buses to the factory, we were reminded that no cameras or recording devices were allowed - in fact, we weren’t permitted to take anything with us to the event. Seemed odd, but a lot seemed odd about this year’s event.
It was also a smaller scale affair than in years past - everything was inside the factory this year, with a presentation/performance area set up on the first floor where the sales area has been in years past. Since attendance was probably under 300 people, it didn’t make much sense to have the full sales presentation like we’d seen before. But before the performances, we were ushered upstairs, where banquet tables had been set up with a pretty decent buffet - crab cakes, BBQ, chicken, and some pasta dish that didn’t look familiar to me. And tons of free beverages, which was good because it was a bit stuffy inside the building.
After dinner, we went downstairs for the performances and such. We had the usual greeting from PRSh, including an apology for this year’s event being so low-key.
Then came the first surprise of the evening - Ted Nugent making his Experience PRS debut! But it wasn’t the Nuge I’d expected - get this, an acoustic performance! He did his tribute to fallen rock stars, covering songs by Nirvana, Janis Joplin, Hendrix, the Doors and a new song paying tribute to Keith Moon, Bon Scott and John Bonham. Not what I would have guessed.
Derek St. Holmes announced his new band, simply named The Derek St. Holmes Band. Get this - the band features Nugent on guitar. Derek said they would have an album out in October, then go out tour to support it. The band played a short set featuring a few songs from the upcoming album - “Look Who’s Out Front Now”, “Egomaniacs To The Rear”, “This Time I Get The Chicks And Money”, “Hard To See You Without Your Spotlight”, and “Who’s Got The Big D*ck Now, Motherf*cker?”.
That was followed by the announcement of the new colors. There are six new colors, all production line (not PS!), but with a twist - they’re not being treated as individual colors, and the guitars aren’t being made in advance, only by special order. Sounds confusing at first, but it works like this - you order your guitar and specify that you want the Tag Pomegranate Collection finish. You get a guitar with one of the six colors (no individual names, but there’s a pink, a blue, a green, a purple, a gold-ish burst and a grey). If you don’t like the color, you can return it for a refin, but you can’t specify your next choice. It’s meant to bring a bit of excitement into the process - a little bit of the “surprise of Christmas morning” was how it was stated.
Next up was another acoustic tribute performance - this time, Tony McManus performing a tribute to Slayer. I’m not good with their titles at all, so I can’t tell you what was what, but I can tell you that Tony is an absolute monster! He totally delivered.
Finally, closing the show was a set by David Grissom and his band. Always a joy to see him, even in a shortened, lower-key format. As the set was ending, I realized I’d had too much Coke and water (and even a few beers since I wasn’t driving) during the evening, and if I didn’t hit the little boys’ room before I left, I was going to mark part of the bus as my territory. I shot towards the men’s room just as the last song ended so I wouldn’t miss the bus. Not sure what happened next, but I heard Paul say, “Sit tight, we have one last surprise for you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple guys in what looked like Blues Brothers suits. Didn’t get a good look at them, but one of the guys looked like that federal marshall chasing the guy who claimed a one-armed guy killed his wife. Whatever that was.
Anyway, when I came out of the men’s room, everyone was just sort of moseying towards the bus looking totally spent. I waved at one of the employees on the way out, and he said, “How’d you like that last bit, huh? Pretty ‘memorable’ (he did the air quotes thing), wasn’t it?” I don’t know - I was in the bathroom. I must have had a dumbfounded look on my face or something, because he kind of chuckled and said, “I just love the look on people’s faces after that” and walked away.
I’m not too surprised there hasn’t been more chatter about this, but even after a few PMs, I can’t find out about that last announcement. Everyone seems to be rather tight-lipped about this.
Ah well, at least *I* had fun...
As I mentioned above, this was a secretive affair, unlike the previous versions. Invitation only - but with accommodations paid for at a hotel on Kent Island. It seemed a little odd that parking was valet-only for the guests, but given that we were told all transportation was being provided “due to restrictions in the industrial park”, it made a bit of sense - they were able to control attendance a bit better that way.
“Control” seemed to be the key word around this year’s event - when it came time to board the buses to the factory, we were reminded that no cameras or recording devices were allowed - in fact, we weren’t permitted to take anything with us to the event. Seemed odd, but a lot seemed odd about this year’s event.
It was also a smaller scale affair than in years past - everything was inside the factory this year, with a presentation/performance area set up on the first floor where the sales area has been in years past. Since attendance was probably under 300 people, it didn’t make much sense to have the full sales presentation like we’d seen before. But before the performances, we were ushered upstairs, where banquet tables had been set up with a pretty decent buffet - crab cakes, BBQ, chicken, and some pasta dish that didn’t look familiar to me. And tons of free beverages, which was good because it was a bit stuffy inside the building.
After dinner, we went downstairs for the performances and such. We had the usual greeting from PRSh, including an apology for this year’s event being so low-key.
Then came the first surprise of the evening - Ted Nugent making his Experience PRS debut! But it wasn’t the Nuge I’d expected - get this, an acoustic performance! He did his tribute to fallen rock stars, covering songs by Nirvana, Janis Joplin, Hendrix, the Doors and a new song paying tribute to Keith Moon, Bon Scott and John Bonham. Not what I would have guessed.
Derek St. Holmes announced his new band, simply named The Derek St. Holmes Band. Get this - the band features Nugent on guitar. Derek said they would have an album out in October, then go out tour to support it. The band played a short set featuring a few songs from the upcoming album - “Look Who’s Out Front Now”, “Egomaniacs To The Rear”, “This Time I Get The Chicks And Money”, “Hard To See You Without Your Spotlight”, and “Who’s Got The Big D*ck Now, Motherf*cker?”.
That was followed by the announcement of the new colors. There are six new colors, all production line (not PS!), but with a twist - they’re not being treated as individual colors, and the guitars aren’t being made in advance, only by special order. Sounds confusing at first, but it works like this - you order your guitar and specify that you want the Tag Pomegranate Collection finish. You get a guitar with one of the six colors (no individual names, but there’s a pink, a blue, a green, a purple, a gold-ish burst and a grey). If you don’t like the color, you can return it for a refin, but you can’t specify your next choice. It’s meant to bring a bit of excitement into the process - a little bit of the “surprise of Christmas morning” was how it was stated.
Next up was another acoustic tribute performance - this time, Tony McManus performing a tribute to Slayer. I’m not good with their titles at all, so I can’t tell you what was what, but I can tell you that Tony is an absolute monster! He totally delivered.
Finally, closing the show was a set by David Grissom and his band. Always a joy to see him, even in a shortened, lower-key format. As the set was ending, I realized I’d had too much Coke and water (and even a few beers since I wasn’t driving) during the evening, and if I didn’t hit the little boys’ room before I left, I was going to mark part of the bus as my territory. I shot towards the men’s room just as the last song ended so I wouldn’t miss the bus. Not sure what happened next, but I heard Paul say, “Sit tight, we have one last surprise for you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple guys in what looked like Blues Brothers suits. Didn’t get a good look at them, but one of the guys looked like that federal marshall chasing the guy who claimed a one-armed guy killed his wife. Whatever that was.
Anyway, when I came out of the men’s room, everyone was just sort of moseying towards the bus looking totally spent. I waved at one of the employees on the way out, and he said, “How’d you like that last bit, huh? Pretty ‘memorable’ (he did the air quotes thing), wasn’t it?” I don’t know - I was in the bathroom. I must have had a dumbfounded look on my face or something, because he kind of chuckled and said, “I just love the look on people’s faces after that” and walked away.
I’m not too surprised there hasn’t been more chatter about this, but even after a few PMs, I can’t find out about that last announcement. Everyone seems to be rather tight-lipped about this.
Ah well, at least *I* had fun...
