How this party got Started
The Discovery
One night while walking home from a show at the Hi-Dive, in Denver Colorado, Sean and Todd heard faint humming in the dumpster behind Famous Pizza, one of their favorite post-rock-show eateries on Broadway.
Curious, they dug in the dumpster and uncovered a steely, yet tarnished little metal machine. It had seen better days; his little arms and legs were bent and twisted. One arm was connected only by its frayed internal wiring, hanging out of it’s shoulder socket. Oddly, the cables looked like were amplifier cables. It was lifeless and cold. Interested, and not yet tired. They carried it home.
When the two arrived at Sean’s house, they dropped some Eggo waffles in the toaster, and inspected little robot. Todd’s dog Prada was there, and took a keen interest, licking the little red feet, like she does to Todd’s early each morning. When the eggos popped in the toaster, Sean put one on his favourite albums on the stereo, Come and Get It, by Rick James.
They stayed up late into the night enjoying their waffles and reassembling the robot. Sean’s basement is full of computer equipment, spare parts for his web hosting company, Ideanode. Extra server sleds, soldering irons , stray sticks SD-RAM and WI-FI antennas were all employed as they performed an ad-hock surgery on the little driod. They patched the robot back together with an unusual concoction of these parts. A first generation iPod Sean received as a gift from his aunt for passing his GED was even used as the battery pack. They worked on it for 3 rounds of Eggos, until it looked about right, at least as they saw it in the wee hours of a Saturday night.
As the sun began to rise, Todd grew tired of Sean’s music tastes, and instead put on some CCR. (he loves watching the some come up to “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”.)
…A few hours later, Todd woke up on the couch to Prada barking. “Bad Moon Rising” was playing on the stereo. Todd sat up, wiped the syrup from his hair, and looked to see what the barking was about. To his surprise, Sean’s Entire record collection (over 1,300 albums, 300 Disco LPs alone, and 200 Musicals) had been organized, alphabetized, and stacked in the shelves, with color coded post-it notes identifying each genre. As he continued to look around, he noticed bookshelves had been ordered as well, Prada was wet from a bath, and the sweet smell of cooking bacon filled the air. Most mysterious of all was a sheet of paper on the coffee table, full of addresses and dates. The little bot was nowhere to be found.
The Delicious Dawn
Todd walked into the kitchen, expecting to see Sean cooking breakfast in his “Kiss the Chef” apron. Instead, he found him standing in his Bon Jovi print pajamas and white tube socks, staring speechless towards the stove. There, in the early morning light, the little robot was busy frying eggs and bacon, washing dishes, grinding coffee, and organizing the spice rack in order of the indigenous country of origin for each herb and spice!
Speechless, they stood and watched the golem, working silently and diligently. Suddenly, when the music stopped, so did the robot. It’s little green light turned from green to red, and it sat down in the middle of the kitchen, motionless. Sean and Todd were dumbfounded, but as the story goes, there was hot bacon on the skillet, and neither could resist the thought of a skillet full of bacon going uneaten. They eagerly stepped over the miracle machine and filled their plates to enjoy a hot breakfast.
They carried their breakfast to the living room and turned on the tube. They began watching the DVD box set Sun Record Company – Where Rock ‘N Roll Was Born – Volume 4 Todd bought with a gift receipt from returning set of cutlery last christmas. When Jerry Lee Lewis began playing on the TV set, the robot walked into the living room and handed Sean a note with an address on it. Curious, he typed it into Google Maps on his laptop. It was for a music club in Texas. When he went to the music venue’s website, he was shocked. Jerry Lee Lewis was playing that very night at the club! Astonished, Todd grabbed the paper full of addresses from the coffee table. He searched for those locations in Sean’s laptop. Low and behold, each location was a music club, and each were hosting Creedence Clearwater Revival on their revival tour! The bot had listened to each song while Todd slept and found where CRR was playing!
Excited, they switched to the radio. With every song that played on any station, – from top 40 station, to rock, to the morning bluegrass show on radio 1190 AM, the robot wrote out an address and date. Each was searched, and each proved to be the date and locations of that band’s next gigs (in Denver)!
“How cool is that!?” Todd exclaimed. “We are always wondering about where good music is being played. This thing is sweet!”
“Do you think it can make some more bacon?” Sean asked.
“What should we call it?” asked Todd.
“Bacon-Bot” Sean replied.
“Good idea.” exclaimed Todd.
Sharing and Improving for a Better Night at the Show
Ever since, Sean and Todd have continually improved the Bacon-bot, often spending long nights experimenting with different configurations to improve and expand it’s abilities and reach. Soon they decided to share the wonders of the little machine with their friends and neighbors. They wanted to build a website and show the robot how to use it, but www.baconbot.com was already a website. Stumped, their friends persuaded them to rename the robot Gigbot, and thus Gigbot was born.
With tweaking, and every improved design, Gigbot continues to improve it’s abilities to find music shows, songs from the bands performing, photos, and news about each artists. Additionally, Gigbot started providing (area) fans other ways to figure out great aspects of live music shows, by offering them ways to see what other fans are interested in each show, who they are, and ways to share photos, opinions and comments on the shows, to help others better gauge their interests in the bands and their performances.
With improved battery life, circuitry, and lubrication, Gigbot continues to search and report on live music events and on the people who go them. Day and night, the music is playing in the basement, and Gigbot is working! Find your favorite shows and keep your beat at Gigbot!
Let the bands play on the bacon fry…
