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Mob Madness, 1996

30 Comments

I ran sound for a comedy troupe called “The Garrens” back in the mid-90’s, and one of their largest performances was to be held at a Brigham Young University freshman orientation event. There were about 2,000 kids (even then they looked like kids to me) in attendance.

There was a dance before the show, and the huge floor area was packed. The DJ’s stage was in the middle of it all, and I was up there with him setting up the gear for The Garrens while he dropped jams, or mixes, or beats, or whatever you kids call that stuff. The heads and shoulders of 2,000 freshmen were a tumultous, rhythmic sea that came up to my knees.

Then the DJ dropped in “Macarena,” and there was order in the chaos. Like iron filings in Hell’s own magnetic field, 2,000 freshmen aligned themselves and oscillated in unison.

It was amazing, and just a little frightening. This was the sort of power supervillians crave, and it was being used as a party game.

30 thoughts on “Mob Madness, 1996”

  1. I absolutely *loved* the bit with the installer drones. Will Ennesby be keeping four or five of them as a back up singer/dancers?

    That is, assuming they’re not all destroyed in The Doom(tm) that is sure to follow. 🙂

  2. I absolutely *loved* the bit with the installer drones. Will Ennesby be keeping four or five of them as a back up singer/dancers?

    That is, assuming they’re not all destroyed in The Doom(tm) that is sure to follow. 🙂

  3. I personally was quite happy to see a reference back to Ennesby’s origins as a holographic boy band. Sometimes it’s easy to see his depth, logic, and intelligence and forget where he came from. Remembering it made me giggle a bit today. 😀

    Also, I had no idea you ran sound for The Garrens. I was introduced to them in their twilight season but thoroughly enjoyed them through that season.

    I DO remember the unholy power that the Macarena once held, however… *shudders*

    1. That was YOU!

      There was an improv comedy bit I was at, and someone started swinging something around and quoting Star Wars. Then you made the speaker squelch for sound effects! You got a standing ovation for that.

  4. I personally was quite happy to see a reference back to Ennesby’s origins as a holographic boy band. Sometimes it’s easy to see his depth, logic, and intelligence and forget where he came from. Remembering it made me giggle a bit today. 😀

    Also, I had no idea you ran sound for The Garrens. I was introduced to them in their twilight season but thoroughly enjoyed them through that season.

    I DO remember the unholy power that the Macarena once held, however… *shudders*

    1. That was YOU!

      There was an improv comedy bit I was at, and someone started swinging something around and quoting Star Wars. Then you made the speaker squelch for sound effects! You got a standing ovation for that.

    2. At (I think) Katsucon 2, during the dance, Rob Lantz put on “X”, from the X:1999 trailer (great trailer, great music, movie sucked), and the entire ROOM was screaming “X!” and making the X symbol with their arms for the whole thing, while dancing. This included me, and I normally don’t dance.

    2. At (I think) Katsucon 2, during the dance, Rob Lantz put on “X”, from the X:1999 trailer (great trailer, great music, movie sucked), and the entire ROOM was screaming “X!” and making the X symbol with their arms for the whole thing, while dancing. This included me, and I normally don’t dance.

  7. I saw an episode of some TV show – can’t recall which one – where the villain used the whole “call and response” thing, getting the crowd to repeat back to the singer on stage, for evil purposes, summoning demons or soemthing I think. Neat!

    Crowds are weird things.

    1. One of the best, and excellently spine-tingling examples of this I know of is the version of Master of Puppets on the Symphony & Metallica album. A stadium full of people yelling “Master! Master!” at James Hetfield.. it’s an excellent version of a good song.

    3. My brain wants to say they did something similar in “Hocus Pocus”, that movie with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as witches?

  8. I saw an episode of some TV show – can’t recall which one – where the villain used the whole “call and response” thing, getting the crowd to repeat back to the singer on stage, for evil purposes, summoning demons or soemthing I think. Neat!

    Crowds are weird things.

    1. One of the best, and excellently spine-tingling examples of this I know of is the version of Master of Puppets on the Symphony & Metallica album. A stadium full of people yelling “Master! Master!” at James Hetfield.. it’s an excellent version of a good song.

    3. My brain wants to say they did something similar in “Hocus Pocus”, that movie with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as witches?

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