A Barking Dog

Except for the crew, the rest of the party handed their passports and luggage to Carlos the previous night, actually only a few hours before. They were to leave an hour after we did. We were given that option, but I only give up my passport under extreme conditions and this wasn't one of them. It didn't matter, I don't really dig checking in with a large party. I guess the TSA doesn't have a Mexican division because as long as you have the ID and ticket, you can check that person's luggage and get them a boarding pass. We gathered everything, crammed it into one van and set forth on the "8 to 10 minute" ride to the airport. We were only about 10 mins behind, which on this trip was pretty good. On previous jaunts, the crew moved with military precision. If there was a call time, damn it we were there, ready to go, though in some case a bit doughheaded from the previous night. A lot like a pilot for Northwest Airlines. We buckled in, something that we found rare with the locals and split. The stroll was still active, just before 5 am. That's pretty hardcore. For anywhere. We hauled ass with no traffic and 24 minutes later we arrived at the departure terminal. Carlos, Chucho and the skycaps schlepped the bags and gear into the terminal.

I started counting gear, getting a final tally with assistance from FOH dude. The ear mon cases, my workbox, the Wholehog, a couple of LCD displays in duct taped ragged cardboard boxes. Real gaff is hard as hell to find down here, though Chuco has the connect. "What the fuck" was the next thing out of my mouth. "Carlos, what is that doing here?"

The skycaps had just unloaded the six foot folding table we bought the other week at Costco and were preparing to check it as baggage. All four of the US crew busted out in laughter. We were checking a fucking folding table, that, by the time we flew it back from these two dates were paying more than it was worth. The only reason we had the Hog and displays was because there was no other transport for the gear and there was talk of switching the lighting company once again. Squint boy had it rough the last few shows. They had wanted us to ship our luggage nearly a week ahead to Mexico City but were checking a table as baggage. That pretty much summed it all up. As we checked our stuff the crew made sure to get their own baggage claim checks, in their own name. We made a master piece count, left the locals with the gear and headed for the gate. It took us about an hour to check everything in and the others were starting to arrive. We hit the Dunkin in the airport, pondered a stop in the Herradura gift shop, but thought better of it. Not because we were against drinking tequila at 6:00 am, but because we had a show that night.

Shortly after the Dunkin stop, we took our seats on the regional jet and settled in for the hour or so flight. Uneventful, fortunatly for us. We were awaken on arrival at Mexico City, changed planes and headed to Chihuahua. Since I only had maybe three hours sleep, I slept like a rock on both flights. I'm pretty good at that and can generally do it under some pretty hectic circumstances. I'm good like that.

The aero puerto in Chihuahua is pretty, well, let's call it rustic. It looked they were building two jetways and a proper terminal, but the current incarnation reminded me of Meadows Field in Bakersfield in the late '60s when my family was living there. Still have relatives there, in fact. It's one of those small, third world airport disembark from the rear kind of vibes, walk across the tarmac and into the terminal. Chihuahua, not Bakersfield though if you ask some in So Cal, Bakersfield is worst than third world. Once in the terminal, there as a Mexican immigration kiosk and point of entry. Lighting dude was the first through. They asked him what he was doing and asked to see his visa, pretty common practice. Except that he didn't have a visa. Basically, none of us did. A couple of days after arrival, HLB took them to get our work permits. That was a little different than what I normally did down there. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, the visa was on our minds, not working down there, we were with a gringo band (though legally we needed work permits) but our concern was getting back. They tend not to let you leave the country without one. Since it only took a couple days to get them, we were wondering why it was nearly two weeks since we had them. Technically, the Federallies or other law enforcement could stop you at anytime, search your person or vehicle and demand your "papers". It seems they "don't need no stinking fourth or fifth amendments" down there. We'd really find that out in about 24 hours, little did we know.

But the issue now was visas, A few days prior, Mr Friend told us we didn't need them. Wrong. Dead fucking wrong and I wasn't going to take immigration info from a guy traveling on a Mexican passport and using a US Green Card. As lighting is questioned for his visa, further back in the line we notify tour manager that we need to produce papers. In the meantime, remember that FOH dude wasn't in the original party and didn't apply for a work permit. From the back of the line, he saw what was happening, pretended he didn't know us and went to the second line with his original visa. He glides right in. Meanwhile, Carlos fumbles for paperwork. Why do we have to check in again some were asking. Because they were telling us to, that's why. Mr Friend and Carlos were habla-ing some espanol to the now two immigration officers. At one point the conversation stopped, and the two agents and Carlos just looked at Mr Friend. He took his place back in line and the three of them continued. A minute or so later, we'd been there a couple of minutes at this point, they lined us up and went down the list, checking each one off as we passed. We were back in the country, but we never really left.

We were met by a new batch of locals. HLB and Carlos seemed to know everyone. A few days prior, we did learn how the gigs were going down. A few months ago the agent was contacted by a couple of South American promoters from Argentina, infact one was traveling with us. He seemed like a nice guy, pleasant though very little english. Also, when he was around, HLB's bullshit factor seemed to vanish. Due to reasons no one could offer an explaination for, the South American dates turned into Mexican dates. Just as well, a few of those places were pretty hot. Bogata, who in there right mind goes there, particularly well healed gringo entertainers. Equador, I was there once before. The climax on that tour was the entire party being held by armed guards, military police after a dispute with the promoter on when to go on. The funny thing was the band at the Equador gig was the one we were coheadlining the next two shows with. Argentina is a mess, Bolivia was about to explode. Probably not too good for a bunch of high profile white guys right now. Anyhow, after the dates were brokered to the Mexican promoter (who is really from Chile), he either sold them outright or brokered deals for about half of those dates with other promoters. That's why some of the other stuff was so inconsistent. Some of the locals were pretty good, some just didn't know. The gig was stepped on so many times it was nearly pure Manatol. If you understand that last reference put the Deering down before you hurt yourself. Anyway, good thing Bogata was off the schedule.

Meanwhile, back at baggage claim the party waited for the luggage to come off. As it did we assembled a piece count. A couple of the party didn't quite get the baggage count thing, and tried to take some pieces. I explained what we were doing and they got the big picture, appreciated it even. When we were almost done and counted, Mr Friend and the locals started loading bags and gear onto carts. We weren't done with the count, but they didn't care. I had to get a little surly. And I thought it was going to be a good day. We made sure the gear was there and took our own bags to the vans. I'm assured that we have everything, even though no one except me and prod dude know the count. He's not sure either, so we just cover the gear. "When you stop counting, shit gets left." Star agrees nodding his head. Once again, not enough transportation. There is a van for the gear, a pickup for the luggage and two mini vans for the people. The non essential locals split off and we won't see them until the gig. They pack the shit out of each vehicle, and we head to the Westin where we grab a quick lunch, shower and head for the gig.

The gig is not bad. The local promoter and guide lives in El Paso (our SUV has Texas plates). They throw shows in Juarez on a regular basis and make it over to Chihuahua every now and again. He's a nice chap, seems willing to help where he can. He's gigged before and it shows. The gig is in a basketball arena in a univeristy in town. Not a bad venue, but a hell of a ramp down into the gig. We arrive just after 3:00 pm. The production for the next two days is there. There are 16 MSL4s per side with 12 650Ps per side. Ton's of PA. There are a pair of Crest X VCAs out front, a pair of LMxs on stage and litterally a stack of processing sitting in a pile upstage. The first LMx has The Other Band's input strip and settings. They had gigged a night or two before in another small Northern Mexican town. The Rock-it cargo guys were just dropping Other Band's gear. Other Band's LMx looks like it's in good shape, mine is hammered. Much of the silkscreen is missing and the last few channels have missing pots, faders or knobs. It's seen better days, but then so have I. A couple of hammered Whirlwind W3 snakes with W2 drives, the first drive and splitter system mults we'd seen down here. My desk didn't yet have a PSU. It "was coming". Or lamps, we would share.

Shortly after arrival, we meet Jose, our production translator. Excellent, no Mr. Friend. Not for the roadies anyway. Jose spoke excellent English, being raised in Chicago by Guatmalan parents. He knew how to gig, he was also a guitar player but I wasn't going to hold that against him. We started on the set up. The first thing we noticed was there was only a single drum kit for both bands. When we inquired, the local backline guy said he talked to both drummers personally and they said it was OK. As Jules might say, that's "pretty fuckin' far from OK". We were explict, as was the other band. Due to the nature of the show and set changes, two kits, two complete backlines. The guy actually tried to argue that he talked to each drummer. Now, I don't know if two guys pretended to be drummers and called him, or if he was just trying to bullshit us. My guess is for bullshiting. We brought most everything else from the last gig, keys, etc. Even the guitar 4 x 12 because they didn't have one. We were cased for checked baggage fly dates. Small cases, minimal tools and accessories and a six foot folding table. They were cased for an International tour, though picked up the drums, guitar and bass amps but had 120 vac power distro and conditioner and the one thing I wished we had, every piece of cable on the stage, just plug the tails into the splitter and go. They also had workboxes, something we had but weren't able to bring on the tour.

As we're setting up, Other Band crew arrives. I'm doing my thing with my rig and try to break the ice with a little humor. After all, we're all steppin' in the same shit. I offer, "at least your's has some silkscreen left".

"What's the problem?" he curtly barks.

Wow, I'm thinking, what's up with this dude. I introduce myself, he introduces himself but is basically blowing me off. Just then, from behind me I hear, "Dave, dude it is you!" It's the backline guy for Other Band that I worked with before. He's an awesome guy, the best. Really good, a real guy. Other mon guy perks up a bit as Other backline guy tells him a bit about me as in I used to do his gig. I was embarassed as hell I didn't remember his name at the time and had to ask. We catch up for a minute or two. About then I see Other FOH and our prod dude start across the stage, plotting how the hell we were going to do this. They had all real guys, we had all real guys, we'd set up and have pretty much a real gig. That was the plan anyway. I reintroduced myself to Other FOH guy and after a second of hesitation, he remembered exactly. It was then we learned that they were told we were to do a 2:30 soundcheck clearing the stage for them at 4:00. It was 4:15 and we were nowhere near done, and didn't plan band until 6:00, which was our normal deal now more or less. We also found out that Fillipe, you know, HLB told them that we "were lazy and wanted to hang out at the pool all day" and were "demanding about the hotels and couldn't make up our mind where to stay". After the short meeting prior to them making it up to the stage, we all were on the same page. We would preset them in front of us, they would close the show the next night. From then on, Other mon dude was way cool and would even save my ass in an hour or two. He'd been told we were fucked, it looked like we were late and he thought we were going to give him 'tude. HLB had told me during one of our console discussions when I told him I could use an LMx if I had to that Other mon was being "uncooperative" and not as flexible as I was. I just think well no shit he's pissed, he's got to work with you HLB. Other mon, as well as the entire crew and band were very cool.

It appears HLB's modus operandi is consistant. Minimal information, of which most of it is wrong, conflicts with other info, or is what he thinks we want to hear at the time. Good, we weren't going crazy, it really was that bad. Now that we had independent confirmation it wasn't so bad. When I mentioned to him that we had a Mexican prod guy that was a piece of work, Other dude said "I see you've got to work with Jorge". I didn't even have to say his name, he knew by the way I was talking. These two gigs weren't going to be so bad after all. Or so I thought.

About 5 we start to line check. Bad buzzes in snake lines, mic cables one legged, AC stage power with no neutral on one drop. In all about a 1/3 of our 36 inputs have issues that eventually are brought under control. The band arrives and we start to do soundcheck. The star, I'm sure I mentioned he's a world class engineer, producer and artist complains about distortion in his ears. Gain structure looks OK, I can't hear it in the cue, or in the units with an iPod. Sure as shit though, it's distorting in the ears. Everyone's got it. I start to troubleshoot as the rest of the band still adjusts, runs over parts and the star comes over to see what's up. We try the spare, then the cue, then two different frequencies on each unit. The meters on the device reads OK, the headphone out is OK. Now, and get this, he asks for my voltmeter to check the power. How cool is that, huh, dude not only knows to check that, but knows how to use the meter. How often do you see that? He equally liked my Minirator and RatPack tester. I knew that wasn't the problem. I'm thinking something in the console, but that would mean it would be in the headphone out as well. Other mon offers use of spare PSM700 to get us through check. That is being one cool mofo. Star and I discuss it, I'm pretty stressed at this point though later he says I didn't show it. I have a Coca Cola (which is very good down there) and ponder. The rest of the party is going back, but I'm to stay and fix this. If not fixable, I'm told to ask to borrow the entire ear rig from Other band. This could suck less. Everyone else but me and lighting guy head back. It's an 11 pm show so there can be hotel hang time.

Other band only line checks, never sound check. We make sure I can leave my units powered up so they don't interfere with his. I start chasing signal through the LMx with an RMS DVM and a function generator. The meters are all different with what is supposed to be the same signal coming through, as well as the output level. That's not the problem. I plug the iPod directly into the ie300s, clean, clear. The PSM700 didn't have an issue, but the gain structure is different. I decide to try to pad down the ie300. One of the few drawbacks is that the ie300 doesn't have variable front panel attenuation on a hard knob, like the PSMs. I pad it down 5 dB and that solves the problem. It's way different than other desks, and the meters show the same as on other desks, but the broadcast portion only clips, not the phones and the meters on the transmitter are where they are every night. It couldn't take it and was clipping. That didn't take too long and we're ready to head back. Lighting dude finishes focus and we get promoter dude to take us back. He's a bit tweaked and tries to convince us to wait at the venue for the next three hours. Right....

As we pull into the Westin, we notice that some of the rest of the party are just then disembarking from one of the vans. That's strange. As we approach, they are visibly agitated. It seems that the drivers took almost an hour to get back to the hotel, which should be about 10 mins. After about 20 mins or so, the occupants of the first van started calling the gig to tell them. Once the drivers figured out where they were, they were about 20 mins from the hotel. No wonder promoter dude was tweaked, his boys dropped the ball. It turns out the drivers were from Juarez and didn't know the first thing about Chihuahua. We all retired to the restaurant for dinner. Informed the band the ear situation was fixed and explained the situation to them. We had initially planned to return in two waves, one with crew, one with band. We were informed by promoter dude that not only were there not enough vehicles to do this, he was the only one that knew how to get back to the gig after dark. We were set to arrive just as set change was to happen. As it turns out, we got back just in time for the encore, though the band had been held 15 mins while the house filled. Otherwise we would have been about 15 mins late.

Set change goes well, the two crews work good together. We start the gig. Within a song, the click being used on that song gets so much buzz on the input it's not usable. A couple of songs later, the right guitar input on the console fails. A couple of key channels have intermittent buzzes. We lose a rack tom and the SR overhead starts to buzz. About halfway through the set, the star's vocal , though not the primary lead vocal, develops a signifcant hum. Around that time, there were issues with the star's mix, which was still on the PSM700. It sounded like a big compressor coming in and out, with sometimes the vocal dropping. It took me a song or two but either the channel on the console was failing, or there was a cable problem such as an input going one legged, the regaining full strength. Later testing proved bad cable. It was a pretty shitty show from a tech standpoint but the fans seemed to enjoy it. At least the ear thing was sorted. The band and I had a small meeting after the gig and I calmly expressed my displeasure with the current setup. They agreed and prod dude went to tell the promoters our feelings on the situation.

We were set to leave via bus the next morning. We'd just found out that we were to share the bus with Other band. Cool, no big thing. Other crew traveled at night and HLB was taking them in a 15 passenger so they could do a 9:00 am in and clear the stage by 3:00 pm for us. The only issue was Other band was told they were leaving the hotel at 9:00 am and we had planned a noon. There was a compromise of 10:30 am, though not everyone, including one of the stars of Other band was informed of the change. He was cool about it as most of our party headed for breakfast he joined them. The bands and crews worked well together and liked each other. That was good, because for this next gig, we'd need all the help we could get.