He rocks the rink

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This article was published 02/12/2016 (3546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He will, he will rock you.

Paul Duque is the Winnipeg Jets’ music operator, a job that requires him to play tunes for puckheads who attend National Hockey League games at the MTS Centre.

On Nov. 15, three hours before the Jets were scheduled to square off against the Chicago Blackhawks in a Central Division matchup, Duque was in his usual perch high above the downtown rink’s ice surface, studying his notes as he tried to decide what songs he should entertain the crowd with during that evening’s pre-game warm-up, intermissions and various stoppages in play.

“To me, this is a dream job,” Duque said, just before he plugged his laptop into a mixing console that, with its plethora of faders, buttons and knobs, wouldn’t look out of place on the deck of the USS Enterprise.

“When I was a kid I took organ lessons and I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to play at a Jets game one day? This is a bit different than playing the organ, obviously, but at the same time, it’s still surreal that 30 years later here I am.”

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Although one might assume Duque got his start as a mobile DJ at weddings and socials, that isn’t the case, he says. Rather, he was an account executive for the Winnipeg Goldeyes who, in July 2008, happened to be in the right rock ‘n’ roll place, at the right rock ‘n’ roll time.

“When I was in my office, I always had music softly playing in the background and I guess word got around that I listened to a wide range (of music),” he explains. “Because when the Goldeyes DJ told management that summer he needed to step away from his job, my boss approached me and asked if I wanted to give it a shot.”

Duque quickly gained a reputation for matching the ditties he played over the loudspeakers at Shaw Park to the action that was taking place down on the field. If the Fish were having an especially productive inning, he’d go with crowd-pleasers such as KC & the Sunshine Band’s That’s the Way (I Like It) or Kool & the Gang’s Celebration.

If a manager stormed out of the dugout to argue balls and strikes, he’d fire up We Can Work It Out by the Beatles, or, cheekier still, Let it Go from the soundtrack of the Disney movie Frozen.

“I’ve been told that’s one of my strengths, how instead of relying on sound effects for comedy, I use a lot of song segments,” he says.

At the end of the 2015 American Association season, Duque got a call from Kyle Balharry, senior director of game presentation and broadcast services with True North Sports and Entertainment. Balharry, whom Duque had gotten to know through Balharry’s wife, was in the market for a new music man at Jets games. He asked Duque if he would be interested.

“I was super-nervous,” Duque says, recalling his first day on the job, which just so happened to be the Jets’ 2015-16 home opener versus the Calgary Flames. “When it’s the first game of the season, everything needs to go right and I definitely didn’t want to be the guy who clicked on the wrong song when the Jets scored, or didn’t fade a song down quickly enough after a faceoff.

“I remember thinking about 10 minutes into the first period how much faster (hockey) was than baseball and I’m not going to lie, there were definitely moments when I thought ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ Honest to God, the relief I felt at the end of that game — after the Jets had won and I hadn’t made any glaring mistakes — was immense.”

Duque guesstimates he has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,000 selections — everything from Harry Belafonte to the Beach Boys to Blur — to choose from.

At the drop of a hat, er, puck, it’s his responsibility to have his next song cued up and ready to go in the event there’s an icing call or TV timeout — a task made more difficult given his vantage point, or lack thereof.

“You can see there’s a big, catwalk beam is in my direct line of vision, which means I can’t see much of what goes on at the far side of the rink,” he says, touring a visitor around his “office” in the downtown rink’s press box.

“So during the game, I’m mostly watching the game on the main scoreboard, or relying on one of the other guys up here to warn me when the referee’s about to blow his whistle.”

As for choosing songs he hopes will energize a sold-out crowd, inspiration can come from anywhere, he says. For example, he recently added the Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter to his catalogue after hearing it at the tail-end of an episode of the Netflix series Stranger Things.

He also has an application on his phone that instantly identifies song titles and artists, in the event he’s parading through a mall or sitting in a bar and hears something that grabs his attention.

Also, in much the same way as Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler studiously watch tape of the Dallas Stars or Minnesota Wild in order to get a skate up on their competition, Duque, who, over the course of a game, plays snippets of close to 100 tunes, routinely PVRs out-of-town matches so he can study what his counterparts around the league roll out when their squad is down a goal or two, or about to go on the power play.

“Some of the DJs also post their playlists (online) so I can get ideas from that, too,” he says. “But yeah, with the amount of games they show on TV these days, it’s an effective way to do your homework.”

That said, it’s a safe bet other music operators around the NHL were paying attention on March 30, 2015, when one of the Jets’ biggest fans, Len (Kroppy) Kropioski, who died Sept. 13, 2016, attended what turned out to be his final Jets home game.

“Probably my favourite moment at the rink was when Kroppy came back for that one game against Ottawa and we knew ahead of time we were going to honour him during our ‘Fan of the Game’ promo. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the precise song to play when we showed him on the scoreclock and, after a lot of back and forth, decided on Heroes by David Bowie, which turned out to be the perfect soundtrack for the moment.”

By the way, Duque still plays music at Goldeyes games, too, which could present a problem if the ball club’s season, which kicks off with a game versus the expansion Cleburne Railroaders on May 18, 2017, was ever to coincide with the NHL playoffs, which, last season, didn’t wrap up until the middle of June.

“Normally the (Jets and Goldeyes) schedules don’t clash, but I suppose the only conflict that could arise would be if the Jets make a deep playoff run, at the same time baseball season kicks off,” he says.

“But hey, that would be a pretty good problem to have, and I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca