But really, I’ve never been that kid that threw the ring around the Coke at the carnival and won a big teddy bear, or got my name drawn for the gift basket each classroom would put together in grade school. That wasn’t me. I spent years (more like 5 minutes) holding a grudge against my fellow elementary schoolers that would continuously win prize after prize…A cake walk here, a meet and greet with Smokey Bear there, but the years of constant losing, have made winning this internship competition all the more sweet! Now while all my peers are filing papers, running silly errands, and other boring intern tasks, I am sitting here basking in my one great win: the Shure Artist Relations Get the Gig Internship Competition.

While maybe some of them can say they’ve met Smokey Bear, I can say I sit next to and get to work with some of the coolest guys out there! Cory, Rich and Nelson have been incredible colleagues so far, making sure I know what to do and that I meet a lot of people to make my summer more enjoyable. The great thing about interning here is that they really make you feel like you’re a true employee. I don’t feel like an intern. My first day at Shure included your standard orientation, but want to know what I did next? I was immediately thrown into a meeting on social media with the team and asked for my input.

The atmosphere is so relaxed here, my days of increased heart rate over landing on the right number in the cake walk are over. I’ve found a place where everyone is friendly, has a smile, and talks to you! It’s kind of like the town of Spectre in the movie Big Fish if anyone has seen it (but a lot less creepy). Everyone at Shure is so happy and friendly it’s almost not normal, in the best way possible.

I couldn’t have asked for a better week to start my summer with Shure. I’ve already learned so much about the company and the Artist Relations department. I even got Mic 101 with Nelson and Rich! I am so intrigued by every aspect of work here. I go home each night listening to my two roommates (Shure interns as well) geek out talking about the engineering side of all this stuff and it’s so cool.

This summer is definitely going to be a memorable one. It feels like I’ve already done so much and learned enough information to write a series of books, but then I have to remind myself…

This is only the beginning.

–B

Here is a playlist I put together for my first week at Shure. It’s 10 tracks that I’m super into right now! You can also find a little about me section, so you’ll know who’s writing these things!

 ABOUT ME:

Name: Brooke Giddens

School: Truman State University

Hometown: Rolla, MO

Position: Artist Relations Intern

Top 10 Shure Endorsers (In no order): Matt & Kim, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Foster the People, The Black Keys, Atlas Genius, Alabama Shakes, Ben Folds, The Civil Wars, and Young the Giant

Favorite Things: Ultimate frisbee, music, frozen mango smoothies with rasberry drip from Panera, The Family Feud, harmonica solos, and cats (I know, controversial topic, but I like dogs too).

Twitter: @Intern_ShureAR

What Shure Artists, you say?   OK, so here’s the rundown:

fun., Luke Bryan, Maroon 5, Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry, and newly signed Shure Artist Hunter Hayes all performed on the show. Shure Artist Sheryl Crow appeared to announce along side Chris Young.  To top it all off, Maroon 5 performed a 40 minute set after the hour long broadcast.

Let’s talk nominations!  Several Shure Artists are up for awards including: Mumford & Sons, fun., Arturo Sandoval, The Civil Wars, The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Maroon 5, Chris Botti, Megadeth, The Roots, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Dunn, Little Big Town, Al Jarreau, Casting Crowns, TobyMac, Fonseca, Lila Downs, Dailey & Vincent, and Dr. John.

A big CONGRATUALTIONS to these and all who are nominated. Best of luck in February 2013 !

I’d also like to give a big shout out to all the crew who work this show.  Joel Singer, Jay Vicari, Mark King, Jeff Fecteau, Mikael Stewart. Steve Anderson, Andres Arango, Jackie Brooks, Danny Breedan, and so many more. You guys ROCK!!!

Ryan

I woke up Friday, August 3rd with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning. I immediately shot out of bed, got ready, and headed over to Grant Park to meet Rich Sandrok to pick up my 3 day pass. When he handed it to me I swear it was glowing. It was a wonderful sky blue with gold sparkly thread that spelled out “ALL ACCESS”. I had to rub my eyes because for a second I thought he handed me a 50 pound gold key that opened the door to my wildest dreams.

As we walked over to the entrance, I could hear music coming from all different directions. My heart was racing. I wanted to take off running, but the voice in my head saying, “Dude… deep breath,” acted as my invisible leash. It’s a good thing too because Rich gave me a tour of the park. He showed me where the stages were and all the places I was allowed to go. His quick rundown of things was a lifesaver… without it I would have been completely lost.

After Rich left I met up with two friends and from that point on the weekend went by in a flash. We started by going to see The White Panda at Perry’s stage and at that moment the presence of the Sun hit me. HOLY MOLY. It was like having your own personal fire breathing dragon following you around all day. How thoughtful of you Mother Nature. But it was going to take a lot more than that to stop me from having a good time!

Once The White Panda ended we headed over to see Dr. Dog and they were AWESOME. Definitely worth frying in the Sun for the hour they played. But after they finished, it was time for some much needed water and down time. We entered the Artist Lounge area and stayed there for a while. I even ran into Cory Lorentz and we sat down with him and his family for a bit.

Finally 5 o’clock rolled around and it was time to go see The Head & the Heart. I had been waiting all day to see them so I made sure to get there early and I was the first one to be on the side stage. They put on a phenomenal performance. The best part was that they were just a few feet away while they played. It was unreal. I got a great video of them playing “Down In The Valley”. No I take that back… it was great until I sat down to watch it. You see, I was unaware you could hear me singing (terrrribly) along with them. So there goes that.

THEN IT CAME. 8:30 p.m. What’s so special about this time you ask? Three words… The. Black. Keys. They played for an hour and a half and what a marvelous hour and a half it was. I had my arms in the air the entire time and didn’t stop belting out every word to their songs once. Yes, I was THAT person. When they played “Your Touch” I squeezed my friend’s arm so tight she had a bruise the next day. Whooops… But besides my bad singing and bruising my friend, the first day was a success. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep with a smile on my face that night.

Day 2. The day Mother Nature successfully stopped people from ‘Paloozin for a good chunk of time. The park closed down from 3:30-6 p.m. because of severe thunderstorms and a tornado warning. My hopes of seeing Alabama Shakes were crushed by the 70 mph winds. But they were quickly raised back up because we showed up to the Red Bull Soundstage 2 hours before the Red Hot Chili Peppers went on and got PRIME spots for the show. I could see Anthony Kiedis and Flea perfectly. It was epic. When they played “Around The World” and “Can’t Stop” I’m almost 100% sure I transformed into a wildebeest because I went NUTS. And so did the crowd. I don’t think I’ve ever been tossed around so much in one night. By the time the concert was over my legs and shorts were coveredin mud, but it was completely worth it. There were only 2 ways the show could have been better… 1. If Anthony Kiedis still had long hair and 2. if it had rained while they were playing. Other than that it was a night for the books.

Sunday… the final day. First stop on my list was the Red Bull Soundstage to see Bombay Bicycle Club and of course, they didn’t disappoint. They started off playing “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep” and from that point on I felt weightless (although my feet would disagree). The fact that I was on the side balcony looking down at them probably helped, but hey, it was still a glorious feeling. Once they exited the stage I mentally switched genres and hurried over to see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. To say I was “blown away” by his performance would be an understatement. I was more “exploded away” if that makes any sense. He was like the Energizer Bunny never slowing down once. After we escaped the crowd, we made our way to see Little Dragon at Perry’s stage and they had the most colorful audience I had seen yet.

From 6:15-7:30 p.m. my ears were held hostage by the sound of Florence Welch’svoice. I had high expectations for Florence + The Machine and they exceeded them in every way. I’m convinced Florence has magical powers. She somehow controlled the wind so that her red and black dress flowed perfectly on stage. Now if I could only figure out how to look that graceful when walking through a wind storm…..

I ended up staying at the Bud Light stage to see Justice even though I planned on seeing Jack White. I was able to get a spot dead center in the very front row and I was not about to give it up. It turned out to be a good decision though because Justice put on an amazing show. It was one BIG party and a perfect way to end the weekend.

Sooo… only 354 days until Lollapalooza 2013, but who’s counting?

Twin Shadow @ Logan Square Auditorium

NERO @ Perry’s Stage

Little Dragon @ Perry’s Stage

Little Dragon @ Perry’s Stage

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Red Bull Soundstage

The Head & the Heart @ Sony Stage

Since it adopted its current format in 2005 the festival has undergone some expansion and refinement.  This year broke out of the mold.  More ground was annexed, upping the space from about 80 acres to around 110.  Attendance, which started in 2005 around 65,000/day, also jumped up to around 240,000 for the weekend.  That’s a record for those keeping score at home.

We here at Shure have also refined our format as it comes to making sure our artists playing this giant festival are happy lads and lasses.  Back in 2005 I would load up a Rock’n'Roller and beg and plead at any and every entrance to give me five minutes to off-load our gear before hitting a parking lot and walking all the way back down to that stage.  That could be in excess of a mile, depending on the lot and the stage.  Nowadays we make sure to get things done early and get the right shipping info.  Let the cross-load trucks do the work, I say!

Our festival actually started the day before the gates opened.  Shure played host to a recording session in our Performance and Listening Center (which if the fancy name for “the studio”…but when you’ve got a room like we’ve got you can’t do it justice just calling it a studio).  Local organization The Happiness Club joined up with Ralph Covert (Ralph’s World), ex-Porno for Pyros guitarist Peter DiStefano and members of Recess Monkey and The Verve Pipe.  The session was managed under the watchful eye of skillful producer, Tor Hyams, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working for a few years now.  Shure employees Dean Giavaras and John Born ran the audio.  We wrapped the session before too late and all went our separate ways to get rested up before the fest.

The Black Keys show off from their new album, Brothers.

The festival itself opened up on Friday.  That’s the easy day to get around, mostly because it is still a weekday.  The backstage hasn’t filled up to its insane capacity.  The first day involved a lot of running around, getting familiar with our newer, larger, yet slightly more crowded surroundings.  To the wonderful sounds of Devo I jumped on a large golf cart (known as the “Fest Express”) up to the Kidzapalooza stage, where Tor was running the show.  Recess Monkey was up and playing.  After a quick “hello” I shot up North to the Budweiser stage, one of the two main stages.  I got in a chat with Patrick Carney from The Black Keys before they went up on stage and showed why they deserved to be on that big stage.  I was whisked up to the side of the stage and got to catch most of their set from there.  I got a brief snippet of video and some pics.  As soon as we get the video figured on this site out I’ll put up clips.

After they were done it was to the North Lolla Lounge to catch up with a few industry contacts.  There I stayed until it was time for The Strokes.  It had been a few years, but they put on the show much like I remembered.

Day Two I hopped the train down to Grant Park again.  Thanks to some slightly less than fun delays I didn’t get down there until most of Blues Traveler’s set had been done.  Ah, well.  Some things you can control, others you cannot.  And I did get to catch up with the crew for a bit.  After some chill time on their bus…and I mean “chill time” as in it was air conditioned…I wandered out to hear a bit of Against Me! on the adidas MEGA stage.  (Man, who names these things?).  As I was making my way on the hoof across the field Gogol Bordello started up.  An interesting act, that.  I first caught them about three years ago at a club.  Now they were on the South main stage pouring it out to the sun-soaked crowd.

I arrived back at the Kidzapalooza stage to see who was about.  You never quite know who will be showing up in addition to the scheduled talent.  The Happiness Club had already wrapped up and Dan Zanes was up on the stage with members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.  The backstage was packed though, everyone clamoring to catch that special vantage point of the next act up: Chrissie Hynde.  I was able to grab a song from the front.

I went back North to hear a bit of Metric and then Spoon from the backstage lounge area, but it was an early day for me.  I had to get back up to my place to get cleaned up for the night’s big aftershow: The Black Keys and The Morning Benders at the legendary Metro.

After getting showered and grabbing a bite we headed down to the Metro and in as The Morning Benders were wrapping their set.  Our access stickers afforded us a seat belly-up to the balcony on the stage right side, so we planted ourselves there and let the Keys do their thing.  Afterward we ran to the backstage to say hello to our friends and meet new ones.  Before you knew it, we were at 3 AM.  Time to head back…still one more day to go.

Sunday was rough.  By then most people who could figure out how to get backstage did, so the lounges were packed full of band members that had played over the weekend, industry insiders, and friends of friends who belonged somewhere between those categories.  I ran in to more people I knew on Sunday than the other two days, combined.

Again I went up to the kids stage and was rewarded with a special treat.  Perry Farrell and Peter DiStefano, backed by Thenewno2 played through “Pets” and Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane”.  That little surprise made the day.  Following that, we grabbed some eats and made our way to the expanded West end of the fest to see what Perry’s was all about.  This area had a great stage, lights and speakers artfully arranged for those that wanted to get away from the bands and go dance to the wide array of DJs.

I caught a few minutes of JFK from MSTRKFT and then tried to walk through the crowd to see some Mutemath.  As Sunday was seemingly the most crowded day, I was caught in a sea of humanity and missed that opportunity.  I went to the North lounge again and from there got to hear some MGMT.  I was not long there, though, for it was getting to be time to meet up with some friends and figure out where we wanted to be for what I really wanted to catch over the weekend: the return of Soundgarden!

I caught that set mostly from behind the stage, which did not have the best audio, but there were decent screens set up in the lounge area.  The audio quality at that spot did get to me though, so I went out to the field for a bit.  I went and stood with tens of thousands of others as they went through a set list that those who had waited so long for a reunion would be happy to hear.

Before the end of their set I wound my way back to hang out with many friends and colleagues throughout my years in this wacky business at the Lolla afterparty.  After a brief relocation to allow for set-up, we were back at the lounge and dancing to the beats of Felix da Housecat.  It was close to two in the morning when we finally called it quits.  Another epic festival in the can.  I’m sure Lollapalooza 2011 is now in the works.

The Lolla jewelry. The last thing I do after the fest is cut it all off.

Sandrok

Buddy Guy is the featured artist in this issue, in which editor Cory Lorentz bemoans the current glut of reality shows and gives a shout-out to those talented folks who are still driving the long road to fame, with all its blood, sweat, and tears.

View and download the full On Tour With Shure Fall 2008 Issue on shure.com.