By Rodney Brown

So you’re set up to show off your tech product to the press and public at one of the greatest venues in New England — Patriot Place at Gillette Stadium — before the season opening game of the New England Patriots. Crowds are milling all about you in the plaza right in front of The Hall and interacting with your street team crew by the handfuls. What could possibly go wrong?

How about a deafeningly loud sound check by a rock band?

Lansdowne
Photo by Rodney Brown

That was what the folks from Verizon had to face yesterday at the house the Krafts’ built, when the Boston band Lansdowne fired up their grinding emo-esque guitars on a balcony next to the CBS Scene restaurant — across the vast echoing canyon that is the main plaza of Patriot Place from Verizon’s leather couch-enabled, 60-inch flat screen-displaying FiOS booth.

In between power chords and mic checks, Phil Santoro, head of media relations for Verizon in New England, said, “We just found out about the band two hours ago.”

While Lansdowne tweaked its sound levels — seemingly trying to figure out how to both get more volume and more clarity — Santoro shouted out the schedule for the press demo of the latest FiOS features to the assembled reporters and bloggers. When Lansdowne finally appeared to get the perfect balance of deafness and sound quality, Santoro said, “OK, we’ve got until 5:15, which is when the band actually starts playing.” (more…)