Held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with several segments over at the Orleans Arena, Las Vegas was again overrun by the most loyal fans in music.  People were hanging out everywhere to catch a glimpse and possibly an autograph of their favorite stars.  As in years past, we got to hang out behind the scenes and check in with all of the engineers and A2′s who work so hard to make this show happen.  By we, I mean one of my Shure Associates, Jenn Liang-Chaboud and myself.  Jenn works for Market Development and has done a fabulous job at maintaining many key relationships on the West Coast and in Vegas.

We arrived on Wednesday and made a few visits to some local shows, namely Blue Man Group and the Shania Twain show.   The folks at Blue Man gave us a quick behind the scenes tour, which was amazing.  So much creativity and design goes into the many “out of the box” ideas that they create.

Thursday, April 4 was the first rehearsal day for the awards show.  If you caught the show, you saw the amazing performance by Shure Artist Little Big Town of their new single “Your Side of the Bed.”  Today, they just planned to rehearse the acrobats. The group showed up to watch and ended up singing along with the track.  Karen said to the crew “Please forgive our vocals on this as we have no ear systems.”  They were RIGHT ON PITCH!  Such talent!

Next up was Shure Artist Hunter Hayes rehearsing his new single “I Want Crazy.”  For those of you who don’t know Hunter, he learned and played over 30 instruments on his current album as its sole performer.  Quite a feet and he played them well!  This segment would segue into his introduction of the legendary Stevie Wonder, who would join Hunter and band on stage for “Sir Duke.”  Hunter and Stevie had met previously and discussed performing together one day.  That day would be April 7, 2013.  Hunter uses a UR2/SM58 on tour and that’s what he and Stevie used on the show.

The day closed with the legendary George Strait who, for this performance, also used a UR2/SM58.  He would later be joined by Garth Brooks on stage, who used the same, for a tribute to Dick Clark.

Friday Morning, we headed to the Orleans Arena to visit with Shure Artist Brad Paisley and crew. Brad would be hosting the Fan Jam concert on Sunday after the awards show.  In addition, Brad performed several slots on the show, including with Hunter and Shure Artist Dierks Bentley. Brad and Dierks both sang on a UR2/beta 58.    After that, we headed back to MGM to catch Kelly Clarkson’s rehearsal of her new single “Baby Don’t Rush” – such a great song!

Following Kelly’s rehearsal, co-hosts Blake Shelton and Shure Artist Luke Bryan were joined on stage by the Pistol Annie’s and Shure Artist Sheryl Crow for the show’s opening number called “Boys Round Here.”  Both Luke and Sheryl were on UR2/SM58′s.

Saturday’s rehearsal featured a number of Shure Artists including Dierks Bentley (UR2/SM58), Little Big Town (UR2/KSM9HS), Florida Georgia Line (UR2/SM58), The Band Perry (UR2/KSM9HS and UR2/SM58) and then Hunter Hayes w/Stevie Wonder.

All Artists on the show used the PSM1000 system for ear monitors, which were provided by ATK Audiotek in addition to the UHF-R systems.

Shure Artists that took home awards that night included: Luke Bryan – Entertainer of the Year, Little Big Town – Vocal Group of the Year, and Florida Georgia Line – New Artist of the Year.

This was a fabulous trip and it is always a pleasure to be able to maintain these great relationships and show our support at these events.

Ryan

PSM1000'S

Luke Bryan & DR. Pepper

SM57's on Brad Paisley's cabinets

UHF-R at Orleans Arena

PSM1000 packs

ACMA's from Front of House

Jeff Peterson (FOH), Ryan Smith, and Steve Anderson (Announce Mix)

Brad Paisley at Orleans Arena

Luke Bryan's Kit

Although, my first task when I showed up on Sunday morning for rehearsals was to try and solve a feature issue with our PSM1000 system.  Monitor Engineer Mike Parker had accessed a certain menu to take advantage of some of the “special features” of the system but could not get the unit back into it’s regular operating mode after doing so.  I called up to Shure HQ’s on Monday morning and a few emails later we had the solution.  I find it exciting to learn something new every single day!

As in the past, ATK Audiotek provided over 20 channels of UHF-R wireless systems for both vocals and instrument packs.  They also sent a rack of the aforementioned PSM1000 systems for monitors.    Shure Artists that appeared on the show this year included Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, LeAnn Rimes, and one of the shows hosts Trace Adkins, who performed alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Mixing the music for the show was Randy Faustino and sending it all out to the public was production engineer Klaus Landsberg.  FOH for the venue was Mikel Stewart with ATK Audiotek.

Shure Artist Luke Bryan took home 9 awards that evening and Little Big Town brought home the Video of the Year award.  Congratulations to all of the artists that were nominated and those who won.

Ryan

A couple of exciting aspects of this years’ show included the fact that PSM1000′s were relied upon as the only system for ear monitors and Shure’s new Axient wireless system made 2 appearances on the show.  The first was with artist Chris Young and then later in the show with Shure Artist Sara Evans.  Both artists used the SM58 capsule and the system sounded incredibly clean.

One emotional point during the show was when Shure Artists Little Big Town sang a song with a children’s choir written by newcomer Hunter Hayes entitled “Here’s Hope.” The group started and ended with verses from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Another magic moment came in the form of an actual wedding ceremony, performed during the song “Marry Me” sung by Shure Artist Martina McBride who was accompanied by Pat Monahan of Train.

Rascal Flatts debuted their new hit single “Banjo”, joined by Steve Martin whose banjo was captured using a KSM137.  Toby Keith brought out his “Red Solo Cup” for Vegas and sang while wandering through the crowd, joined by the one and only Wayne Newton and comedian Carrot Top. The Band Perry debuted their new single “Postcard from Paris” singing on a trio of KSM9′s.

Another big highlight for me was when KISS walked by backstage, a couple of times.  They were there to present the award for Vocal Group of the Year.  I grew up listening to these Rock Icons and to see them that close was pretty awesome.

The crew for the show worked extra hard this year as they were rehearsing 2 shows at once.  The next day after the awards show was a special concert – Lionel Richie and Friends – to be broadcast later this month.  It’s always a pleasure hanging with this crew as they are so professional and offer great advice/commentary on current and future products.

Click on this link to see some highlights of the show and all the Shure products in action.