August 13, 2005
Ten Is My Limit On Schnitzengruben
In a few hours we head back to the States. We'll be about 30 hours short of six weeks. We've had a pretty good time, though there were some rough spots scheduling wise. I'd reckon I'll have some more pics or random thoughts. Thanks BTW for the good comments from several of you.
I've got about a week until we do a short run in the States with a touring package show. I'll be mixing all three acts and setting up my own rig. At least I've got my own rig, PM5D, 16 12AMs and R4s for sides. Got a day off in LA in about a week. We're at the Hollywood Bowl, ping me if you want to hook up on the 23rd. During the week off I'll pack for the move to Vegas. By mid Sept I should be settled in down there.
Posted by Dave at 03:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
A Few with "4"
A few nights ago met Werner Bayer, AKA "4" of d&b Audiotechnik at a gig in Esslingen at Burg. We were the maiden voyage of the new mid size line array from d&b. The working name is the d&b Blah Blah. That's what 4 told us anyway. I'd bet the marketing guys make him change it. It's 12"s, 10"s and 2"s biamped with passive third way. I've got a bit of a rant penned regarding the new breed of passive crossovers from the likes of d&b, Nexo and Radian. That's for another time, though.
The new, yet not really named line array hangs pretty quickly. Has integrated rigging. Sounds great. During the day 4 and I discussed directionality, pattern control and other like theories. This product will launch in January. There is also some work being done on steerable cardiod subwoofers. Basically you stack the bins and steer the individual drivers as needed. Fancy stuff.
A few other tidbits...
New wedges, basically half of what an M2 is. The M2 is big. Too damn big for some acts. The C6 (or 602) is great sounding, but not quite loud enough for mega loud. This new wedge should bridge that gap.
Powered speakers from d&b? Well, 4 says "never". I would never say never to that. There are some great applications for self powered speakers. If you look at it objectively, d&b stacks are basically self powered as they required the integrated amp and controller card. The only difference is that it's in a rack, not the speaker box. You're more than halfway there guys. Might as well stick the amp and controller in the box and get over it.
The new rig is pretty good, excellent in fact. It will give Milo, Kudo and the middle Vertec a run for the money. If not more.
Posted by Dave at 02:34 PM | TrackBack
July 24, 2005
Quality Work Day in Luzern
I was wrong, we weren't flying into Geneve, we were Zurich bound. Good thing I'm not the tour manager. We had what we refer to as a "quality work day" for the first time in several shows. Probably since Umbria.
There were a few heinous dates. Straubing in particular where the FOH tech for the festival PA company decided to check the config with Ramstein on a 24 module X-Line rig at full tilt during line check. We never quite recovered and during the set The Jazz Singer was a bit miffed. It seems that "Straubing Guy" as we now call that particular tech, decided to point the front fills (a couple of those Dynacord self powered boxes from the previous post) basically across the stage, at the downstage foot of the sidefills. The sidefills get Jazz Singer vocal and high hat. Sax during the solos downstage. That's it. Nothing else. Ever. Or you'll be sorry. From where The Jazz Singer was standing, it sounded like a full mix was coming from the fills. I was instructed to "take the motherfucking keyboards" out of the fills. There are no keys in the fills, motherfucking or otherwise. I did the gig for two years before this leg, not too much as changed. Particularly nothing in the fills except vocal and hat. Ever.
About that point I thought The Jazz Singer, well into AARP range (with most of the crew and band not too far behind him) had finally lost it. After the gig we determined that Straubing Guy had pointed the fills across stage, changed the gain structure completely during the act previous to our set so that there were rings from out of nowhere that could have knocked a buzzard off a shit wagon. The next day The Jazz Singer apologized and all was well. Since then, we haven't been able to buy a break, save for a few gigs.
We have companies that try to follow the spec to the tee, but don't quite have the infrstructure to pull it off. On my previous Euro outings with this bunch, we carried at least FOH and MONs even to the big festivals. Over the last five years there has been quite a change in the budget and we're getting newer or less experienced promoters and PA companies that while the gig looks good on paper, they can't quite pull it off and me and FOH dude end up setting up and tweaking much more than we have to with a Varsity crew. We have guys bringing control surfaces that did not know how to program them. All except one of the ones that did know, didn't speak English. Nothing like trying to tell a guy that doesn't speak English that the .ses file he is trying to build for you from his band last night is corrupt and it would be easier for you to build your own file. I'm down with the surfaces but FOH dude is old school and just coming to terms with them. He needs a tech to dive into the heart of the thing as he can drive them just fine. We had a few scary gigs.
Luzern though, put an end to that. We had a proper rig with proper crew. Our old touring mate that now owns the backline company we use met us at the airport and spent the day with us working the gig, just like the olden days. This is even though the backline we rent from him was on a truck from Barcelona to Stuttgart and we were using festival gear from someone, while much, much larger, would be considered a competitor. I learned more about the Live 8 gig from London. Our pal worked for that band that lost the pig over London some years back and was able to give good dish on what went on at the gig. All in all it made up for a pretty rough couple of weeks. In nearly three weeks we've only really had one real day off, the rest have been shows or travel. It slows up from here and looks likely to become a more proper routing for a bunch of middle aged men like us.
At least we hope it will...
Posted by Dave at 02:46 PM | TrackBack
Guys to Use When in Euro
Posted by Dave at 02:30 PM | TrackBack
July 23, 2005
Quick Notes from Barcelona
Why do people buy US$80k control surfaces only to hook them together with MI quality infrastructure? Why do they not purchase the proper desk lamps for them? Why do people buy expensive sound systems only to have them exposed to the elements and not properly maintain or clean them? Perhaps more on this later.
As reported elsewhere, rock icon Lemmy was "in hospital" as they say over here. Word from a crew member is that all the summer dates are off and it's perhaps a bit more serious than simple dehydration. No word of this yet that I've read over here but my source is pretty good.
Back up to Switzerland for a couple of days then we'll pop back down to Spain.
Posted by Dave at 11:35 PM | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Pinging in from Osterreich
I've got a few entries in various stages I may post as soon as I make them into more coherent ramblings. The schedule has been much more compact than I initially thought. On non show days we're traveling either by day or by air and that's cutting my on 'net time quite a bit. For wayward english speaking types (real english, not what those Brits speak) there is a bright side in late night TV viewing land. Daily Show International with Jon Stewart is on CNN International Sunday nights and Leno and Conan are on CNBC Europe nightly as well as US CNBC with the ever lovely "Money Honey" Maria Bartiromo. Then the local staples, Everbody Loves Raymond dubbed in German or Full House dubbed in Italian. We did kill some time on the bus through the Austrian Alps by watching the Brit box version of Python, specifically the Holy Grail. The extras are great, location tours with Jones and Palin. Except for The Castle Arrrghh, they used a single castle in Scotland as the set for all the other castles. And made the film for about 150k Brit Pounds at the time, nearly 30 years ago.
Luggage call in a bit, time to rush out and start a four show run and a pretty intense schedule for the rest of the week. Next week I'll have a couple of days to kill in Haugesound, Norway. If anyone has any ideas on what to do up there, let me know. I sure hope we have broadband or 3G access.
Posted by Dave at 01:58 AM | Comments (2)
July 16, 2005
Quick Note from Germany
Posting has been slow, there are some issues with my Cingular quad band and getting on Euro GPRS networks. Apparently Cingular has flashed in some software that makes if difficult if not impossible to use non Cingular GPRS networks with other SIMs. Voice and texting work fine, using the phone to moblog pics and check email doesn't. Bummer. For me.
A bit earlier this evening I was ready to call in a missle strike on Burnsville. I've mellowed a bit, perhaps due to the Toprol and Lisinopril, perhaps due to old age, possibly both. The German part of the deal sponsors a high end jazz fest on the Danau (that's Danube for the Yanks and other heathens). Nice gig for the most part. Great catering (by BMW no less), nice assortment of gear, that is, except for the wedges. Actually, calling the EV Plasma series wedges would be an insult. To real wedges.
Geez, where to start...
Tonality. They need some. Flat with a 58 into a Heritage 3k they sounded like warmed over monkey piss. Lumpy lows and harsh highs. It basically appears to be a rebadged Dynacord self powered box. It was sold to me as a high powered high fidelity self powered wedge. I didn't think so and for a few hours this evening not only did they make my pityful existance fraught with peril, they probably got my BP back into the danger zone. The equalizers look like the remnants of a 9.0 quake just to get a modicum of tonality and forget about any serious level.
You guys can do a lot better than this. If these are meant to be your high end powered wedges, I'm afraid you're going to want to start again.
Posted by Dave at 03:03 PM | TrackBack
July 07, 2005
Le gig
Posted by Dave at 03:50 PM | TrackBack
Le head sound
Posted by Dave at 10:30 AM | TrackBack
July 03, 2005
The Crimson Permanent Assurance
It's time to head back out and introduce the next installment of A Dog's Tale. Previous segments have included the Mexico and Spanish tours of 2003 and "The Glamor of Show Business" short feature from one of three European legs I did last year. I had originally intended the short to be something different than it was. I knew next to nothing about video or filmmaking, I just picked up a camera and started to shoot and pumped the results into Final Cut. Around 1500 people have downloaded it so far (between 6000 and nearly 10,000 visit APD every month but only about 3500 or so are regulars) and most seemed to enjoy it, but it was nothing like I intended to do and mostly what I didn't want to do. I'll have the DV cam again but with better audio and lighting gear and a better understanding of how to use it and the workflow of managing what I shoot and putting it together. I shot way too much gear and not enough people and this time I'd like to focus more on the people and if some are willing, some short interviews to show people what it's like on tour.
The previous journals from Mexico and Spain focused on my observations of a slightly dysfunctional touring unit. My perspective was interesting because I'd just gotten off a couple of legs of a fairly large, well organized arena tour. On this much smaller gig we had a rookie tour manager, an artist once quite huge, though still very well respected, touring again for the first time in almost two decades and a promoter that turned out to be less than reputable. Due to a variety of reasons, most of that crew including me are no longer with the act. We parted on good terms and have stayed in touch. In fact, the production manager and the lighting designer have become good friends of mine. It's about time for me to roust the musos anyway. They're a good bunch of folks, I enjoyed the couple of years we gigged together and you never know, we could gig together again.
On this run however, I've returned to an artist that I had worked with for a couple of years. It was the final tour I did before I stopped touring and did the dot com thing for a while back in 2000. It's a well organized bunch of experienced pros and I'm pleased they have invited me back. Any drama on this one is probably not going to come from our camp, though anything is possible. This time I'm going to try to focus on some more technical aspects of fly date touring and some of the logistics required.
Before you get there, you have to first leave. Leaving town for extended periods of time is something that big time show business roadies get used to doing. The ones that aren't terminal bachelors usually have the significant other at home to keep things in order, pay bills and make sure everything is OK on the home front. If your a bachelor roadie, you have to most of this on your own. There are the friends and aquiantances that help out, but there's nothing like being overseas for two months and forgetting to pay the power bill and coming home to rotting fridge full of weird shit. Yum. Touring in the States isn't so bad, FedEx and online bill pay makes up for it, but overseas FedEx takes a bit longer due to customs and costs more and some online bill pays won't let you access due to logging in from IP blocks from outside the US as part of fraud prevention. So I like to pay for things before I go.
There's also this moving thing. I haven't had to move in seven years and for the seven or eight years prior to that, I didn't have to move more than across town and in the case of my last couple of moves, not more than a couple of blocks. Moving like that you can do it in hunks, not having to do it all at once. When I moved to the Northwest from Hollywood I was in my mid twenties and didn't have too much. I ditched most of it before I left and still had a lease left on my LA place so I made the move with two loads over an eight month period. This move to Las Vegas will be different. I've got way more stuff and can relate even more to Carlin when he does the "stuff" routine. I looked into jetisoning most of my "stuff" in Seattle and moving to Vegas in a minimalist way. The problem is, the Calphalon and Dyson alone cost more than the rental of the truck and that doesn't include anything else. The furniture thing would be easier if they just had an Ikea there. Do I really need to move a ten year old, five hundred dollar Ikea couch 1300 miles? Lot's of balls in the air and leaving on tour for two months doesn't help. At least I'm working again.
Other readiness items for long term touring of primarily non English speaking locales, something to do. In most parts of the world, particularly in Western Europe the people do speak English as a second langage (just like in California) but they conduct day to day live in their native tongue. While a great deal of the movies and TV are from the US, it's dubbed in most countries except the smaller ones where it's subtitled. So to entertain ourselves during the downtime we need to bring our own amusements for long plane flights and bus rides. You need to bring your own English books, movies and should probably bring most of your own music as well. Finding English books and magazines in non English speaking countries is a challenge, though not impossible. I usually hit a US bookstore for a couple of titles, this trip will be "Rebel Without A Crew" by Robert Rodriguez, "Silent Bob Speaks" by Kevin Smith and "Darknet" by JD Lasica. Two books by writer/directors because I'm really a director, this sound guy thing is just until I get my break (inside joke for my pals down in Hollywood) and the newly released "Darknet" which offers "first-person accounts of how the personal media revolution will impact movies, music, computing, television and games". At least that's what the liner notes say. I haven't taken it out of the bag yet, though I'm about halfway through the Rodriguez book and have pawed the Smith book a few times.
I'll take few DVDs, "The Wall" and "This is Spinal Tap" if only because I've had either a VHS or DVD of one or both of those on every tour I've done in the last 10 or 15 years and will include "Kingpin", "The Player", "Get Shorty" and at least two Monty Python flicks not counting the illegally ripped copy of "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" I have on one of my hard drives. I didn't steal it mind you, I bought the DVD (a couple in fact) and had to circumvent the copy protection in order to be able to play it from my computer. I say Fair Use, after all in total I paid fifty bucks but the DMCA says I'm a thief for copying what I own two of already. I'm sure the bus will have an ample supply of DVDs and perhaps VHS but we have a German bus (and these guys are good, BTW) usually they're dubbed or subtitled. The one thing the Euro buses haven't done yet (BTW, the US far and away leads all other parts of the planet, dare I say galaxy in terms of tour bus technology and comfort) is get sat TV. Given that Direct TV satellites are in orbit over the US (Texas, more or less) it's just as well as we'd be getting some sort of Euro programming that would likely be dubbed or subtitiled.