String Babes & Betty Boop for King Features Syndicate 100th Anniversary

If there’s one group of people who know how to have a great time, it’s the entertainment media! King Features Syndicate is one of the largest distributors of print media, including columns, cartoons, puzzles, and games, and they own some of the world’s most recognizable characters. Two of these – Popeye the Sailor Man and Betty Boop – were in attendance alongside Phat Strad at the King Features Syndicate 100th anniversary party! As an acoustic quartet, the ladies of Phat Strad performed their favorite tunes with no tracks, and still wowed the crowd with their technique and solos. Beatles arrangements were a particular favorite of the attendees, and the girls were even able to take a few requests for other classic rock anthems! By the end of the night, everyone was dancing and singing to the music – Popeye and Betty included. Now that’s entertainment!

We’re Lovin’ It! Phat Strad Strings for McDonald’s at Sands Expo

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One great thing about being based in Vegas is that we are often the first call for entertainment during convention season. Companies love bringing their employees to Vegas as a reward for jobs well done or as an escape from the daily grind, and we love to be a part of that escape by providing a style of entertainment many of the guests have never seen before! The Sands Expo in the Venetian, with over 2,000,000 square feet of space, is a prime destination for conventions and a venue we play in regularly. McDonald’s recently took over much of that space for a huge event to highlight all the different facets of their business and show how they are making progress in today’s fast-paced world. The ladies of Phat Strad were stationed around the main entrances of the space to greet the guests as they arrived, and we provided an upbeat soundtrack for them as they browsed the many booths and displays. We loved to see them smile!

Salon Strings: Phat Strad Grand-Opens HUE Salon and Spa

What better venue is there for a fashion-forward female band than a salon? The ladies of Phat Strad, performing as a trio, felt right at home at the grand opening of Las Vegas’s brand-new HUE Salon and Spa. Playing our sets standing in between manicure stations and styling chairs, we had a blast entertaining the well-coiffed guests, providing an upbeat party atmosphere as they snacked on tasty hors d’oeuvres and browsed the salon’s trendy fashion and jewelry boutique. HUE’s website describes it as “a place where exceptional guest service, talent, and beauty come together,” and we like to think that describes us too…so with such a perfect combination, it’s no wonder the night was wonderful!

Phat Strad Electric String Girls: Happy In Hawaii For Hyundai!

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It’s nice work if you can get it! The ladies of Phat Strad were very excited to pack their instruments AND their swimsuits and hop on a plane to the beautiful island of Maui, HI. This exciting destination wasn’t just a getaway – the girls were honored to be chosen as the gala dinner entertainment for the Hyundai PGA Tournament of Champions, held at the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua. There, Phat Strad began the night with some mellow background music and gradually transitioned to an exciting rock n’ roll finale, providing the perfect lead-in to the night’s guest-of-honor entertainer, Kelly Clarkson. We had so much fun playing for some of the world’s top golfers, and soaking up the sun, sand, and surf was a spectacular way to spend our downtime, too! We can’t wait to go back!

Stars, Stripes, & Strings – Phat Strad at American Airlines Sky Ball

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We’d played many events in the past for Wounded Warriors and the various branches of our military, but getting to perform at the Black Tie Gala during Sky Ball XII was truly an experience like no other! The American Airlines Sky Ball is an annual benefit event for the Airpower Foundation, an organization started in 1999 to help raise funding for veterans, Wounded Warriors, current members of our military, and their families. Held in a massive airline hanger festooned with colorful airplanes and decorative military regalia, the Sky Ball is a celebration and tribute to our men and women in uniform. Phat Strad was fortunate enough to be invited there to entertain the troops and their families, serenading VIPs at a cocktail event and performing a song on the big stage for the thousands of attendees in the hangar. It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of this wonderful event!

Phat Strad Grand-Opens New Inspirada Community in Henderson, NV

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It was a beautiful day for an outdoor banquet in Henderson, Nevada, when VIP guests gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the brand new Inspirada Housing Community! The Inspirada development, with over 85 acres of parks, playgrounds, and pools at its heart, was master planned with outdoor activity and recreation in mind, so naturally the grand opening party took place in just one of many impeccably landscaped parks. Phat Strad had the honor of providing the entertainment for the festivities, and we had just as much fun as the guests! Although the first part of the evening was spent playing background music while the VIPs enjoyed some delicious catering, nightfall brought on an impromptu dance party of kids and grownups alike to our unique Phat Strad renditions of upbeat Top 40 pop hits! Like the guests, we had a great time at the event, and a few months later we were delighted to find ourselves in the newspaper as part of Inspirada’s ad campaigns. Hello, Happy indeed!

Twice as Nice – Double Electric String Quartet in Vancouver

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On most occasions, a single electric string quartet is the perfect size entertainment for any party, convention, or corporate event. However, when your company requires a soundtrack on a larger scale, we can help you out with that too! Canadian restauranteur Keg throws some amazing parties, and this particular event was no exception. Employees flew to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then took a winding bus ride through the mountains to a luxury ski lodge in Whistler. With beautiful weather and amazing scenery, the Canadian town provided the perfect backdrop for the main event: a huge gala banquet set up in the middle of a verdant field. In order to seat all the guests, the table was several hundred feet long – but with a setup that large, how do you ensure everyone gets an equal view of the entertainment? Luckily, the Phat Strad Double Quartet was there to save the day! The girls were set up on multiple stages, which were spaced equally across the venue to ensure that the guests had a truly equal sound and visual experience. The girls rocked the party both as individual groups and as a whole Phat Strad orchestra, providing the party with a sound unparalleled by any other electric string group!

Phat Strad Fights Cancer with Las Vegas Fundraiser

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One beautiful and sunny Las Vegas spring day, Phat Strad headed south of the Strip to the M Resort for an upscale gala event hosted by Gulf Oil. With its stylish and tranquil atmosphere and beautiful views of the desert scenery, the venue was the perfect place for the party – a fundraising benefit to support cancer research. The ladies of Phat Strad, sporting pink accents for the cause, provided uptempo background music for cocktail hour while guests mingled, chatted, and visited the booths of the various vendors in attendance. Once the guests headed inside for dinner, however, the string quartet went backstage to prepare for one last set: joining models on the catwalk for a charity fashion show, with a grand finale performance of Katy Perry’s “Firework” that brought the audience to a standing ovation. Truly a wonderful evening for a wonderful cause!

From Musicians to Models – Phat Strad on the Runway

Tootsies Fashion Show 2Tootsies Fashion Show 4It’s not every day that you encounter high fashion with a wild jungle twist! The ladies of Phat Strad were lucky enough to be special guests at the annual fashion show for Tootsies, a high-end Houston department store similar to Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales. After traveling to Houston, the quartet was surrounded by couture and outfitted in chic white gowns; the morning of the event, the girls arrived at the Royal Oaks Country Club and were styled with “lion’s mane” hairdos to go with the show’s jungle theme. For the grand finale of the fashion show, Phat Strad walked the runway alongside models and animal actors, and amazed the crowd, who thought the beautiful AND talented girls were just too good to be true! The electric quartet stayed on the stage afterward to entertain the guests – influencers, fashionistas, and the majority of Houston’s high society – throughout their brunch. This truly was a spectacular, memorable, and fashionable event!

Phat Strad Opens for Gavin DeGraw in Scottsdale, AZ

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Fall is always beautiful in Arizona, and it was an especially lovely day when the ladies of Phat Strad arrived in Scottsdale for an exclusive country club event. The stage was set on the rolling hills of the club’s perfectly maintained golf course, and guests mingled on the club’s back terrace. The scene was made even more beautiful by an assortment of top-of-the-line cars around the perimeter provided by Maserati, one of the evening’s sponsors. As the sun started to set and dinner was served, Phat Strad took the stage for an evening of well-known operatic themes, classic rock anthems, and sing-along pop hits (and most of the audience was indeed singing along by the end!). After the girls’ rousing sets, special guest star Gavin DeGraw took the stage…but we heard more than a few audience members whisper “shhh, don’t tell, but we liked Phat Strad better!” All in all, it was truly a night of real beauty and real entertainment!