Kickass week & 200!!!!

This past week at Freakheim seriously kicked ass, and ended with a bang!! Inked Jewell did her first Freakheim set on Tuesday with a Retro event, and did an awesome job rocking the place!! Lots of new faces were in attendance, and everyone had a killer time!

On Thursday, Rosie Barthelmess made her Freakheim debut, and wow, what a set!! Rosie exposed her previously hidden Rocker side, and even the bodies downstairs were dancing! If you missed either of these two sets, make sure you catch them this week!!

Ishi also rocked the house, doing the 6-8 on Thursday and the 4-6 on Friday. Every time she plays, she continues to introduce me to more killer tunes I've never heard!!

Saturday was an unusual day at Freakheim, and the Rockinest one all week!! We started out by hosting Guen & Oz's wedding reception, and Kaedy did her usual phenomenal job of decorating the front lawn.


I got on the stream for an hour, then we were treated to killer live Blues from the UK provided by the awesome Blindboy Gumbo!! I had neglected to tell him that he'd be playing at a wedding party, but he jumped right in and kept the place hopping, including playing some incredible acoustic slide!! If you missed his set, make sure to watch the calendar, we'll be having him back again soon!

After Blindboy's set, I got on the air for another hour, and we moved the party inside the club. OZ took over at 4PM, and man, what a set!! We decided to have a Formal event so folks wouldn't have to change, and we had enough participation to boost the prize to L$1000!! Everyone looked great, and OZ was on such a roll that he played clean through till 7PM!! I enjoyed every minute of his set, just one kickass tune after another!!

Now for the "200" reference in the title: On Saturday evening, the Band of Freaks went over 200 members!! I know, there is always a little attrition from folks dropping the group for work reasons, etc., but it was still a major milestone. I appreciate each and every one of you who make the effort to stop by & let us rock you. Especially those who have Group membership issues due to their SL jobs. As I have said from the beginning, it's all about the music, and you Freaks have voted with your teleporters time and again by coming to Freakheim! We hope to continue bringing you the best music in SL, whether it be one of our kickass DJs or a live musician. If you hear a live musician or a DJ that you'd like us to bring to Freakheim, let me, Kaedy or Sly know & we'll try to get 'em in here. Thank you for beleiving in the music and making Freakheim a happening place!!

New shows on the schedule!!

As I mentioned in my last post, April Coswell will be doing the Monday Decapitation on a semi-regular basis from 4-6 PM. Tuesday will start out with tunes from the owner of SL's loudest insane asylum, Inked Jewell!! She'll be bringing her punked-out mayhem to Freakheim from 4-6 PM on Tuesdays, followed by the incomparable Trident Runningbear from 6-8 PM.

Myn Delling will have Myn's Mid-week Mayhem every now and then, so keep an eye on the calendar. Thursday brings yet another fresh set of tunes from Rockin' Rosie B.!! Rosie Barthelmess is no stranger to the turntables, and she'll be rockin' the dead from 4-6 PM, followed by the unique mix from DJ Ishi from 6-8 PM

Friday starts out with DJ Ishi from 4-6PM, and Trident Runningbear plays 6-9PM. This coming Saturday we have another live Blues set from Blindboy Gumbo from 2-3PM. If you missed his last appearance, you missed a killer show....don't miss this one!! Following Blindboy, I'll be kickin out the tunes for 4 hours straight!! It's Guen & Oz's wedding day, so I gave him the night off. He won't be far, though, because the reception is at Freakheim! Come on out & congratulate the happy couple and jam with The Freak Magnet from 3-7 PM!!

Wild, Rockin' week at Freakheim!!

The week started off with a new show, "Monday Decapitation", with tunes from April Coswell. Since it was Bastille Day, the songs had a theme of revolution & rebellion. There were an interactive guillotine & gallows set up, and quite a few of us lost our heads, including April! Monday Decapitation will be a regular set, it has also been called "The .44 Magnum of Music...guaranteed to blow your head clean off". Drop by Mondays 4-6PM SLT and listen for yourself!!

Wednesday roared in with Christmas in July, with tunes spun by Myn Delling! Myn does an occasional Wednesday set, so watch the calendar for when she's scheduled. Kaity outdid herself with the decorations, and Myn played all sorts of holiday tunes, from the heartwarming to the truly bizarre! Myn came by her Sick Twisted Freak tag honestly......make sure you catch her set, it's guaranteed fun!!

Thursday started off with my Metallic 80s set, which is going on hiatus for a while. The place definitely was rockin', and DJ Ishi picked up where I left off and kept the tunes blazing!!

Saturday started off with a live set from Texas Bluesman kelvinblue Oh. There was a great crowd for the early hour, and no wonder! This dude can seriously wail!!! Nothing like live electric blues to get your weekend rockin' n' rollin'!!!


This Rocker bunny won the contest at Oz's set by a landslide...what a cool avie!! Yep, that's our own Ishimaru going undercover and rockin out to some seriously wicked tunes!

Ah yes, Oz's set....in a play on last week's theme, this week's theme was "Kinks & Queers". There were a bunch of interactive toys on display, and the costumes were outrageous! Oz was the construction worker from The Village People, I was in a poodle skirt, and leather & latex were abundant! Things didn't get too freaky until Guen showed up wielding a giant spork...oh, the horror!!
I never did come up with a theme for the Shred, so we just had a "Best in Rockerwear" contest. The contest board filled up, and yes, the prize doubled!! Nothing like an extra L$1000 just for being a Rock-n-Roll Freak!!

Royal fun at Freakheim!!

This past Saturday started off with a "Kings & Queens" theme and the tunes were provided by none other than King Oz himself. As usual, his set seriously rocked out, and contained numerous tracks you'll only hear at Freakheim. I snapped this pic below of the King on his throne...seriously, he should use this in his profile!! Kaedy outdid herself decorating the place, it looked awesome!!


The Saturday Shred got off to a slightly late start, as Kaedy & I were part of my Li'l Sis' rededication ceremony. The reception was the Saturday Shred...how cool is that!! The main color was purple, so I had a Purple contest so folks wouldn't have to change. There was a great turnout, and everyone helped themselves to the goodies & wedding cake! Tunes kicked ass and ran the gamut from serious Metal to David Allan Coe.

Next week, Oz's theme will be a slight variation on this weeks..."Kinks & Queers". Use your imagination, I know there are definitely some kinks among the Freaks! I haven't decided upon a theme for the Shred, but I do know the tunes will rock your 2L!!!

Defeating The Purpose

One thing that clubs do to attract patrons is to have themed contests. It can be a great deal of fun, and it's a way to give back to the folks who regularly attend. There are a couple of problems I've noticed lately, and they tend to defeat the whole purpose of having a contest.

One of these is the group of organized contest cheaters. They will scan the Events listings for contests with large prizes and pop in just before voting begins. Once voting has opened, they TP in a bunch of folks who vote for them and immediately disappear. In this manner, they steal the prize from the loyal patron who has been at the set since the beginning. A quick profile scan of unfamiliar avies shows that they have at least one group in common to all of them. When you pull the group info, either it is not listed or it is blank. This is a dead giveaway that this is a cheater group. Another one is if the person has more votes than are avies in the club.

To stop this from happening, I have the contest boards at Freakheim set so that only Band of Freaks members can vote. It has worked pretty well, but we did have an instance of 3 or 4 folks from a cheater group joining BoF just to get around this. They were caught, however, when we tried to engage them in conversation. BoF has nearly 200 members, most of whom I know personally. Also, enrollment is by invitation only just to prevent this sort of cheating. If someone shows up with a BoF tag that neither myself, Kaedy or Sly knows, we will IM them to say hello, especially if they are not participating in general chat. When they fail to respond, we do a profile scan to check their groups and compare those groups to the groups of other unfamiliar avies. The last time we did this, we successfully thwarted a cheating attempt and ejected & banned those responsible.

I realize that posting this info may serve to give the cheaters a heads-up, but I'm hoping that it is helpful to my fellow club owners & managers as well.

The other behavior that defeats the purpose of the contest is the person that we like to refer to as "furniture". At one of the clubs I play, voting begins at 20 past the second hour. This person will rezz in at the top of that hour, dressed for the contest, and remain motionless until the end of the contest. They do not dance, and act offended if someone else happens to be occupying "their" spot. This has been going on so long that Kaedy & I sync my thrasher chim right in this very spot when I begin my set. When the furniture arrives, we end up Chuck Norrising right through her. She knows better than to say anything to me, but if other people come close she has a very nasty gesture. In addition to being a sofa in the middle of the dance floor, this person NEVER tips any of the staff. Ever. I realize that everyone likes to call attention to themselves during a contest. That's kind of the point. However, showing up just for the contest, not dancing, being rude to patrons & staff and expecting people to move out of "your" spot is annoying & juvenile.

The Infamous Ghost Host

I originally wrote this as a comment on UCBlack's blog, but decided to reprint it here:

My biggest complaint about hosts has been lack of communication.Let me acknowledge that I have never had this problem at SR. At several other venues, however, it was like pulling teeth to get the host to talk to me.

The host & DJ are a team. I need my host to keep an eye on the crowd, spot requests in open chat, make sure nobody's griefing my avie, etc. Not to mention the usual duties of spamming for me & keeping the convos going in chat. When I have a lot of requests pouring in, I have to concentrate on getting them in queue, replying to IMs from requestors, etc. There are huge periods of time when I'm not paying attention to what's on screen in SL. A good host keeps me updated and makes sure everything is running smoothly at the venue so I can concentrate on providing the tunes.

I should never have to ask the host who the dancers are (if any), and we need to consult on contest times, on-air announcements, etc. I guess I've been spoiled by the fantastic staff at SR, since I measure all hosts against these professionals.

The lack of competent hosting has actually led me to the point where I often bring my own staff when doing a guest slot at a venue. I need someone I know I can rely on. I realize that there are many great hosts all over SL, but the quality of my show depends on me being able to concentrate primarily on the music.

Embarrassed To Death

This past Saturday, Oz decided to host an Embarrassme(v)ent....where the theme was to show up in an outfit you swore you'd never wear again!! Amazing how some of us never throw that stuff away, just in case we may need it someday! Oz changed several times throughout the evening, and finally settled on a Naughty Nurse getup. In the pic below, he's wearing the reddest coat I've ever seen! And Guen has grey hair!! The tunes were kickass as usual, one thing about Freakheim is you're guaranteed to hear tunes played nowhere else inworld!

And now for the death part.....since many people think it is possible to die of embarrassment, the theme for my event was Murder. Most of the songs had themes of killing, or at least death in general. Amazing how many musicians have murderous thoughts!! We even had a train parked on the front lawn in case you needed to throw someone in front of it. Inside were an interactive gallows & guillotine, as well as several corpses, both fresh and stale. The cops never did show up though...I guess the payoffs worked! The costumes ranged from mild to wild, and once again we had a 4-way tie in the contest

Even after my autopsy, someone felt it was a good idea to make sure I was good and dead and hanged my corpse. Oh well, I guess you'll have to find another DJ for the Saturday Shred!

Riiiiight! Remember......I'm undead? Just needed to put the ol' neck in traction for a few minutes is all. See ya next Saturday, when we'll have Inked Jewell as our special guest DJ following the Shred from 7-9PM SLT!!