NAMM Show

My brother-in-law Myke and I met up with Bob Hartry at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in Anaheim yesterday. NAMM is like a circus for musicians. The entire Anaheim Convention Center is packed with manufacturers of instruments, music software, sheet music, and other random music paraphenalia, displaying their merchandise.

As with most conventions, it is often the place where the "new hot thing" debuts. Some of the merchandisers hire scantily clad women to attract attention to their booths. Sometimes scantily clad women show up "just because." One lady we saw was wearing a black outfit that barely covered her fake boobs. She also had that weird orange color that people get when they spend too much time in the tanning booth.

Current and former rock stars often are walking around and/or signing autographs, which is sometimes cool (Bono was seen by a friend of ours walking around) and some not so cool (most of the new metal-head types). I've seen lots of music stars over the years. This year I saw Tommy Shaw (Styx/Damn Yankees, discography) and George Clinton, among others. One of the guys I see every time without fail is the inimitable Lee Sklar.

He's ubiquitous at the NAMM show. It seemed like every time we turned around he was there. Bobby said that when he was young he took a picture with Lee flipping off the camera. Very rock 'n roll. I wish we had more than 3 hours to look around because it seemed like we barely scratched the surface of what was there. But, all in all, it was a fun day at the musician's circus.