Sound Connection participated in the BHS International Convention in July. The convention took place in Las Vegas, across the Planet Hollywood, Paris and Bally’s casinos. The lead up to Convention was exciting enough as we had members coming from all over the USA and directly from Australia on the Monday and Tuesday. Many members had taken advantage of the school holidays and did some exploring prior to Convention, while the balance of the chorus arrived on the same flight, with the same connections. Well, that was the plan. The plane from Australia arrived late into LAX and everyone missed their connecting flights. Some were squeezed onto slightly later flights, some waited nearly 12 hours and some took the opportunity to hire a car and do a road trip!

After all the excitement getting into Las Vegas we were looking forward to getting into town and relaxing until our performance. That never really happened. Las Vegas is complete madness and the buzz associated with an International Convention is huge. All of the stars from the world of barbershop are there, along with thousands of Joe Barbershoppers (like us) and there is always something on. When there’s nothing on, there are tags. And then the sun comes up and you need to get some sleep before the daily rehearsal session.

In the end we didn’t put on the performance we hoped to. The whole week took most of us back to that feeling you had when you attended your first BHA National Convention. We walked on stage, the lights, the buzz and the thousands of faces were waiting for us. We blinked and it was over. Despite initially being a little disappointed that we didn’t do our best, the overall feeling was one of real gratitude for the opportunity and a burning desire to come back and taste that experience again.

I’m sure that every single one of our members would recommend a trip to the International Convention for anybody that loves barbershop music, or indeed anyone that just loves music. Apart from everything else that happens at Convention, the consistent level of performance is something to be seen and heard. The passion, emotion and intensity in some of the performances has to be seen live.

We would like to thank all of those that helped to get us to Las Vegas and we look forward to someday doing it again. We’d also like to thank our barbershop brothers Ian, Dan, Rob, Richard and Darin for singing with us on the risers in Las Vegas.

David Reid – President