Axpona 2023 Video Coverage Begins Here

lots to see!

AXPONA 2023 was by far the largest AXPONA show yet. Both industry participation and attendance were "off the charts". Plus, it was truly an international show, with visitors and company executives from around the world flying in to be part of a show that's now well more than a "regional event". Products were debuted in Chicago rather than being held until Munich. Many items debuted at last Munich's show made their first American appearance this year at AXPONA.

Day one began for me 10:30 Friday morning moderating a panel discussion "Reissues & Remastering: What's Involved? featuring Chad Kassem (Acoustic Sounds), Shane Buettner (Intervention Records), Abey Fonn (Impex Records) and Julia Miller (Delmark Records). We had a full house and attendees enjoyed a lively discussion about what's involved in 2023 trying to license and reissue major label titles. Unfortunately, I don't think it was recorded, which is a real shame. Perhaps next year?

Covering every room on every floor was impossible. TrackingAngle had a few writers on the scene who will report what they saw in print to augment the video coverage. CDs were pretty much gone from the scene, with streaming and vinyl doing most of the music playing work. The trend towards musical nothingness continues, with most rooms playing little inspiring, or musically interesting. Something must be done about this! I don't know what.

I brought acetates of Patrick Leonard's new album (he produced Roger Waters' Amused to Death and the final 3 Leonard Cohen albums among many others). I'm helping him get the album out on vinyl and it's been a fun and rewarding experience. I tried to "trip up" Charles Kirmuss by bringing two identical RCA classical albums, one cleaned using a 5 minute cavitation cycle on the KLAUDIO machine and one for which I spend about 1/2 hour doing the Kirmuss "restoration" process. I handed them over to Kirmuss in the "Marketplace" and asked him to identify which was which. In the video, you'll see what happened. Friday evening we had our first "staff dinner" that included a few writers, advertisers, friends, website developer/business partners Nick Despotopoulos and David L'Heureux and our vinyl/music loving corporate lawyer.

"Crazy Lenny" had a rack of pristine used vintage receivers and tuners—always a great way to get started in this hobby.