If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
David J. Hahn
David J. Hahn is a Broadway conductor and keyboard player. He co-founded MusicianWages.com with Cameron Mizell in 2008. Visit his new project, Songwriter.fm and sign up for his songwriting newsletter.
Obamamania continues. I will assist any musican who contacts me through this posting to navigate the DC parties. I just want to attend.
This is the opportunity to showcase live entertainment to opinion makers for the next 50 years! Party on.
I played the 2001 Bush coronation . . . er, Inaugural Ball. We were one of maybe five Austin cover bands hired to play this thing. I had to miss work for three days–one day in, the day of the gig, and another bonus day, for $200 and a hotel room. Security was pretty damned tight. Remember that the Supreme Court had ruled on Bush v. Gore the month before, and feelings were running really high. There was nonetheless a good deal of disorganization at the venue, like they weren’t prepared for any of this. We played the Wyoming Ball, where Jenna had her wardrobe malfunction. As far as I know, the bandleader got no gigs out of playing this ball, despite his constant pandering to the audience between tunes. The room we played in was huge beyond measure, so big that there were bands at every corner and in the center playing all at once, and some of the bands were LOUD. My most pleasant memories of going to D.C. were the demonstration in Dupont Circle where the snowballs were hurled at the motorcade, and taking the Metro to Trader Joe’s. Remember the Clinton second Inaugural had Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams as a quartet!
I remember that Clinton Inaugural lineup. It’s probably fair to say the scene at Obama’s could be very different than Bush’s in ’01. Who knows if it’ll be a good place to network or not, but it’s always worth trying.