Well this is a fairly long tale about how I happened to hear one of the best sound systems of my life, so although it is not so much so about music, it is indeed about how my ears were treated to an experience that will probably never be topped.
My wife Irena and I were out for a stroll around downtown Sydney on April 7th, checking out the sights and enjoying this incredible city. As we passed by Hyde park on our way to Circular Quay, Irena noticed three black limos and one black suv parked together off to the side and commented that maybe someone important was in town. Little did we know how right she was and how much of an adventure we were about to have.
We made our way from Circular Quay over to the famous Sydney Opera House, and as it came into view I noticed that a wide pathway of red carpet was fenced off and lead up the steps into the main entrance on the top floor. Banners of fabric draped on the fencing had in large letters "Star Trek", and there were numerous lighting stands and security staff and people with cameras and microphones all over the place. My first thought was that it was going to be the Australian premier for the new Star Trek movie, and also thought that it would be a somewhat lesser version of what the actual premier back in the US was going to be for it so although it all seemed interesting I did not expect to see anyone famous.
Irena on the other hand was very excited as she is really big into celebrity news, gossip and spotting, so for her to see a real red carpet for the first time had her pretty bright eyed and wanting to find out more... and being the sci-fi fan that I am I was curious to see what it was all about. I struck up a conversation with one of the guys who was djing the event and he let me know that there were 15 pairs of tickets that would be given away to those who submitted the best questions for the producer/director JJ Abrams (who also does LOST, as well as the Mission Impossible movies). Not only that, but he also told me that the event was actually the world premier for the show, and that nearly all the lead actors would be walking the carpet.
Well now Irena I were realizing what a cool thing it was that we had stumbled across. We made our minds up to do everything in our power to get in to see the show, and after finding out that it was impossible to buy tickets (of course) we knew that winning tickets was our only option. To increase our chances, we went up as many times as we could to get more entry forms and in the end we managed to submit seven, each one with a different question for the director. We also got our hands on a full sized poster which Irena took to the side of the carpet to get signed and once the stars began to arrive she was front row and managed to not only get it signed by them all but also to have a chat with a few of them while I snapped some pics and then the camera battery ran out. Fuck. I have to admit that I am not the best at who is who in the acting world, but one fella I recognized was Zachary Quinto who plays Sylar in the tv show Heroes, it turns out he is the new Spock, so that was pretty cool. They were all really friendly people, taking a lot of time to sign autographs and say hello to people which was also really nice to see.
Because the battery was dead in the camera, I decided to go off and see if I could influence the selection process of the free tickets as by this point I was pretty keen to see the movie. What kind of mega disappointment would it be to have come across this whole situation only to go have to head home without seeing the film? Not gonna happen!! So after more chatting with the dj, he points out the woman who is in charge of giving away the tickets and I immediately begin to plan and implement my cunning attempt to chat her up. I casually sidle up and see that she is trying to phone those who had won tickets, and when I see she is between calls I say hello and ask if she is the woman who is selecting the winning questions. She laughs and says no, she is just the person who delivers the good news. I don't believe her and so I then say that I just happen to be here on my honeymoon with my wife from Canada who is down below in her own private heaven meeting the stars and that she is a HUGE Star Trek fan (which she is completely not) and that if there was any way possible I could somehow come up with tickets for the show I would be the worlds best husband and so of course I had to try...
The woman gave me a big smile and said she agreed that I was absolutely doing my husbandly duty, and then she said again that she was not picking the winners but then asked me what our last names were just in case. Perfect!!! I mentioned that I would stay close also in case someone who won did not answer their phone to claim their tickets and she said that was a great idea also. The minutes dragged on and the red carpet began to die down and I was getting more and more bummed as our phone did not ring and the woman at this point had walked off to a little tent on the other side of the carpet which we could not get to.
I just could not let us give up, and although I really did not want to push the situation, I decided to take Irena with me down to the tent the ticket lady was at as they had now opened access to that area and when we arrived we found around 30 other people eager to hear if they had won or not. Instead of calling cell phones, the ticket lady began to call out names and when she flipped to the second page both Irena and I saw at the same time that my name was the fourth on the list and when she read it out we let out a scream and voila, we were in!!!! So I pull out my ID to claim our tickets, and just then the ticket lady calls out Irena's name! What?!??! We now have four tickets!!! Immediately these two girls to our left yell to Irena for them and she says yes to them before I even had a chance to register what was going on... and then one of them had their names called so they also scream and of course no longer need our extra tickets. Now we have a small mob of people yelling at us for our extra tickets, and right away I think that this should be done fairly, so I yell back at everyone to think of a number between 1 and 50 and get Irena to do the same and then I turn to the first guy to our right and ask him his number. "23" he says, and then Irena says "it was 23!". Perfect! So we give the stunned guy the tickets and leave the sad silent crowd and head off for what we thought would be a side door entrance to the theater.
Not able to find our way in right away and still bouncing around with glee at our good fortune, we come across the ticket lady again and thank her for helping us out. She first tells us that we won our tickets fair and square (sweet, no guilt!!) and that to get into the show we have to walk up the red carpet. WHAT?!??! The stars were still giving interviews at the far end, photographers and fancy dresses everywhere, and here we are in our runners, jeans and t-shirts about to do what is most likely to be the only "Hollywood" red carpet walk of our lives (as nobodies but hey it still counts!). Irena was freaking out about what she was wearing while I was not too worried about it and just trying to enjoy every moment of the experience. I was adamant that we document the moment with a picture on our camera phone and she tried to get out of it because she was so embarrassed by what she was wearing. "Whatever!! You are going to enjoy this if I have to kick you in the bum right here and now!" I said, and then I snapped her picture under the lights beside the movie stars, took her hand and with a kiss we made our way into the Opera House.
The front area was a very funky bar, with loads of people dressed to impress all schmoozing around, and of course we stuck out like sore thumbs. We ordered some wine and did some people watching and then made our way into the theater. It was nearly 7pm so off we went to get a good seat and found ourselves right in the middle of the bottom tier, pretty much exactly where I wanted to be. People were a buzz all around us and even though the start was pushing towards being 30 min late, the whole place was totally energized with excitement. Finally JJ Abrams came up on stage and thanked everyone for coming, and explained that tonight's premier was the very first of it's kind in the Sydney Opera House, and that because it had never shown a film it did not have a screen, projector or sound system to do so and everything for tonight's show was custom built for this night only. He said that the sound itself was a huge task, and that engineers from Dolby Surround Sound and the engineers who mastered the movie score from Paramount Pictures had personally installed and tweaked the sound system. When I heard this, I was really having a hard time containing my excitement. For a person like me who has a passion for sound, the thought of hearing a custom installed sound system in a room with some of the best acoustics anywhere in the world, and then tuned to perfection by some of the best sound engineers in the world, and to top it all off, to hear the sound score of a sci-fi movie that was sure to have some of the most intense and creative sounds that technology and skill can produce today.... ok yeah, I was feeling like I was about 8 years old and about to to have every gift I had asked for for Christmas AND my Birthday all at once. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!
After the producer introduced each of the main actors on stage they went above to the front row of the second tier to take their seats just above us, and the lights went dim. The screen itself was HUGE, as wide as any IMAX screen, and from where we were seated it nearly perfectly filled my entire field of view. Even before the opening images were finished, I could tell that the sound was impossibly intense and the image was crystal clear. The movie itself was very well done, with loads of action and eye candy and a story line that had me fully entertained. The crowd was very responsive, with lots of cheers and applause whenever a scene or line would happen that was a clear reference out of respect to the original Star Trek series... there were many moments for the die-hard Trekkies to get a kick out of, the biggest for me being when Leonard Nimoy makes his first appearance as the original Spock, that really had the crowd excited. And the sound... the sound was impossibly perfect. The volume, the clarity, the concert hall itself brought every auditory gem directly to my ears and nearly had me crap my pants in a scene where a bunch of star ships jump to warp. The sound was almost like a reverse gunshot that was both a sucking and and exploding blast. I actually bobbed my head to the sound of the last ship jumping away, as if the sound had smacked me in the face. Sweet!!!!!!!!
At the end of the film, the credits roll by, and then the lights go up and just above us the cast and producer/director stand up and the whole place explodes in a standing ovation, man it must have felt good for JJ Abrams and the caste and crew, what an awesome way to celebrate the final product after so many months of hard work. Talk about the perfect way to roll out a killer film.
I have always been a guy who likes a great night out to see a killer action and/or sci-fi film, and now I think I have pretty much had an unbeatable night at the movies. As cool as it all was however, the one thing that makes me sad is that I may never in my life ever again hear a sound system as sweet as the one I heard during this movie. Now that I have heard it once, I can't help but want to hear my movies like that all the time.
