August 30, 2006
Money Layer
Another three hours to go.
Posted by Dave at 07:59 PM | Comments (2)
Put A Fork In It
One More...
Posted by Dave at 09:10 AM
August 29, 2006
What DTV Looks Like
Posted by Dave at 02:44 PM | Comments (1)
August 28, 2006
Varsity Computer
Posted by Dave at 03:42 PM
August 25, 2006
When Knuckleheads Work With Power
Pala, CA at the in, hot cams on deck
Posted by Dave at 09:43 AM
August 24, 2006
Outlet Mall Gig
Posted by Dave at 05:35 PM
Roadie Breakfast
Posted by Dave at 08:05 AM | Comments (1)
August 22, 2006
Room With A View
Posted by Dave at 04:31 PM | Comments (2)
August 20, 2006
Office Space
Posted by Dave at 04:27 PM | Comments (2)
You're Gonna Want That Cowbell
Posted by Dave at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)
August 19, 2006
Bad Air Karma
From 15J on UA 259 ORD - DEN diverted to Lincoln, arrival TBA.
Posted by Dave at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)
August 17, 2006
Downtown Chitown
Posted by Dave at 11:24 AM | Comments (5)
August 16, 2006
When School Kids Name Streets
Troy, MI
Posted by Dave at 05:31 AM
August 15, 2006
Domesticated Roadies
Day off = wash day
Posted by Dave at 06:49 AM
August 14, 2006
In Training
Amtrak 1177 PVD - MYS 45 mins late
Posted by Dave at 04:00 PM
August 12, 2006
Sing Me A Sea Shanty
Posted by Dave at 03:45 PM | Comments (1)
Roadie Ingenuity
120k surface,2 buck sun shade
Posted by Dave at 03:15 PM
August 10, 2006
5A on DL340 MCO-JFK
Code orange, details to follow but so far everything going well considering.
Posted by Dave at 12:25 PM | Comments (3)
August 07, 2006
Tunnel Of Doom
Castle Sold Separately
Posted by Dave at 12:04 PM
Noise Police
Posted by Dave at 12:00 PM
August 03, 2006
Lost Castle Pic
Posted by Dave at 12:38 PM | Comments (1)
July 28, 2006
Sky High WiFi
Over at Ratty's Pepper's Blog he explains the joys and expense of two things very near and dear to me. Hotel WiFi and breakfast. The euro/dollar rate isn't too bad but the GBP/dollar rate is just over 2 bucks counting exchange fees. We're getting creamed. Old roadie tip for getting cash on tour, use your ATM card to get the best rate and try to take out larger increments for reduced fees. On withdrawls I get the bank rate, plus a US$5 non bank ATM fee. What that means, is depending on the exchange place, for example the swanky places jazz singer usually stays, I can save US$30-40 on a couple hundred euro exchange. It's not the same with my plastic accounts as I get dinged an exchange fee on the transaction, for example putting room service and Spanktravision on the ol' Visa card. The trick to getting the cash is being able to estimate how much you'll need for the duration of the stay. For short runs sometimes it is better to plastic it, but for longer durations having a few hundred euros, in a place like say, Amsterdam, can be a great asset.
Another roadie tip that the arena rock crowd usually don't do are included breakfasts at the hotel. Jazz singer's people make sure our rooms are booked with breakfast included, which is a pretty common thing over there. I don't see that so much on the rock tours. Granted, a tour that size will take 20-30 rooms (or more) and an extra 20 euros or so per room for the breakfast starts to add up whereas with jazz singer we only get about ten rooms and a suite for dude. There's dude and five musos, Jose the tour manager, the real estate mogul that's our FOH dude, moi, Ghetto Einstein the backliner and dude's dude Kaiyo, whom you met in a previous post. The arena rock kids typcially have tour catering and load in early in the morning and us flabby middle aged men of jazz usually don't turn up until about noon. It takes that long for the Ben Gay and Aleve to kick in so we can start to become ambulatory.
One thing I wanted to try but was too tired on the way over was the WiFi on the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. It's about US$40 for the duration of the flight and unless you sit in biz or 1st class you likely won't have any seat power. I had seat power and a desire to use it but was too damn tired. I figured I'd try it on the way back. One schisim on that thought, they screwed the pooch on my return flight and I ended up with a 20 hour travel day in coach, without use of the lounge during layovers. I was pretty pissed but kept it to myself. I was more pissed when they tanked the 30k or so miles we'd logged that month and didn't credit them to my account. It's likely to be several weeks of grief and agony trying to get those back. If I can at all. Back to the spendy Internet access.
WiFi in Europe is very prevalent, but the Europeans don't seem to have the penis factor thing we do here in the States with showing off our computers. They are much more low key about it and as one of my pals from that side of the pond had said, they were more concerned with laptop theft and used mobile phones for much of the comunication. Between US$30 and US$40 for a 24 hour period is pretty much the standard over there. Swisscom offers WiFi in many of the hotels and most of the airports and is likely the most expensive, slowest service of the bunch. After about a 100 euros worth of time over a bout a week, they sent me a link to a customer satisfaction form where I was able to comment that for those prices, it should be at least as fast as my cable service at home. When it worked at all. Never heard back from them. One bright spot in Spain was at the Tryp hotel chain. They had a deal for 8 euros were you got 24 hours of access, but were able to log off and log on and the username:password was good throughout the hotel chain. The only bummer was that if you were idle for more than a couple of minutes (writing a blog post, posting to the LAB, didn't change to the next pic in the slideshow, etc) it logged you out and you had to go back through a three page log in process. I was able to fix that by opening a terminal window and pinging back here to the mothership. I left the last week in Spain with about 1000 mins left on that account. Moral of the story, WiFi over there is expensive if you have to buy it. Some do offer it gratis, but that's not usually the case. Expect to change your surfing habits or spend a lot of dough.
Roaming data is also pretty expensive. Roaming mobile back to the States isn't too bad, about a buck a minute with the right plan in the right place. OTOH, each of those moblog posts cost about US$3. International communication while better than it has been, is still expensive. Enter Skype. I've followed it for a while but still don't have an account. I think I was the only one out of the touring party of 11 (plus two or three drivers and whatever promoter rep we had with us). The tour production ran from a combination of Skype and mobile phones and email. The Skpe is cheap, but the broadband costs offset it though they need those to be online to get email. Everyone (but me) was using it to call back to the States.
Touring overseas lends itself to some things that that you don't see over here but if you're smart about it, it won't cost you an arm and a leg, just most of an arm.
Posted by Dave at 01:10 PM | Comments (2)
July 26, 2006
The Boys Are Back In Town
We made it back over the weekend, still jet lagged as all hell four days later. About 12 hours after I landed I showed up at the swanky place on the Strip for my orientation and first day of work. Fortunately we have been dark for the last two days so I can catch up on sleep. The last week of the tour really kicked the shit out of us. We're old farts, we can't function on only a few hours sleep a night. The last 5 days of the run I had about 14 hours of sleep.
I'm going to continue Mobloging the remainer of the tour with jazz singer and guitar player that sits. I can't Moblog from the swanky place as that's against policy.
As we start to prep the next leg, I'll have 10 shows training at the pool before heading to Philly for an early load in for the first show as there are no production rehearsal dates. That day will be grim. I'm getting the patch together and programming the D5 for FOH and the D1 I'll be using. My final gear list from the provider isn't in yet but here's a basic list of our requirements, not counting what guitar player that sits needs. It from a major vendor that I've worked with before, the other guy on stage is guitar player that sits guy who happens to work for the vendor. Isn't that a coincidence.
Here's the general list of what we spec...
FOH
consoles: Digidesign Venue, Digico D5 or D1, Midas XL4 or Heritage 3000 or 2000, Yamaha PM5D.
processing: If not a surface, 4 multi effects/verbs; Harmonizer and DDL. 8 gates and 12 comps with 1/3 oct eq for every zone. Subs on aux when possible.
stacks: Powered Meyer, d&b, V-DOSC, Nexo.
MON
consoles: Digico D1/D5, Yamaha PM5D-RH or PM-1D, Midas XL4 or Heritage 3000/4000 or XL250.
processing: If no surface, 10 ch 1/3 octave eq, tc EQ Station, KT, BSS, XTA. 8 ch comps, 2 multi effects
wedges: Meyer UW-1P, d&b Max or M2, Clair 12AM, Radian Microwedges, Nexo PS15. Fills Meyer CQ or MSL4.
Input devices
We bring all the vocal mics, Beta 58 for the BGV with UHF-R with KSM-9 and SM58 heads. Sax on Beta 98 on a Shure ULX pack. We provide the KSM 27s for guitar and the Beta 91 and 98s for the drums. And a Demeter DI for the bass. We also have enough 57s and 81 to finish off the gig if need be but we don't usually break them out.
In about a week it's the first show. Don't have much info except it's mainly jr sized sheds (can you really call that a shed?) a couple of theaters and a few casinos.
Posted by Dave at 05:14 PM | Comments (1)
July 21, 2006
This Better Be The Last Castle...
Posted by Dave at 09:51 AM | Comments (2)
July 18, 2006
Pinging In From ES and Gear Notes Rotterdam, Wuppertal and Finkenstein
Here in Oviedo, home of World Champ Fernando Alonso. Looking for a chance to shop for some great Fernando swag tomarrow after desayuno and prior to load in and siesta. Thomas Albenburger from the LAB stopped by Burgarena in Finkinstein and spent the afternoon and show. Always good to meet folks from the LAB and was a pleasure hanging with Thomas. We got three more dates in Spain before we head back stateside. Prior to going on the Euro leg I was offered and did accept a slot for a house gig at one of the big time production shows on the Strip. It's at what at this point is the swankiest place on the Strip. During our break I'll do my training and orientation then finish my extended commitment with the jazz singer. I was asked to extend my stay for the US shed run with guitar player that sits, promoting the record they just did together, inspired by our co gig at the Russian wedding earlier this year. In what may very well be my last full scale tour (thanks to Steve and John at the swanky place...) we'll be in Philly, DC, Westbury/NYC, JVC Jazz, Hollywood and Clearwater, FL, Detriot, Chicago, Denver, Albuquerque (Bueller if we don't use your stacks you better stop at the gig and say hi... ;-) ) San Diego, Pala, Vegas and finishing in LA and the Hollywood Bowl. Ping me if you want to stop by the gig and say hey or because it's 14 dates in about a month (we're old, we can't work that hard) I'll buy the rounds if you come by on a night off.
Gear Notes Rotterdam, NL
Venue, North Sea Jazz. Big ass room, still sounds like a hanger. They moved the gig this year from it's long time haunt in Den Hague but didn't fix the rooms or traffic managment issues at the festivals. With Montreux and perhaps Montreal, this is one of the ass slappin' daddys of jazz fests.
FOH
console: 2 x Digico D5 56 FMX w/ Optocore snakes.
speakers: Martin W8L with Martin controllers and amps. Synco/Ampco front fills and subs, with the subs in an end fired config. End fired subs are all the rage over here this year. Ampco, while one of the lowest key sound companies, is also one of the best in the world. A real pleasure to work with them.
MON
console: 2 x Digico D5 56 FMX w/ Optocore snakes.
wedges: Synco/Ampco 152 and 112 with Crest 7301 power and Synco controllers. Sides and drum Synco/Ampco three way.
Wuppertal, DE
Venue: Waldbuhne Hart, capacity 2000, sold out, open air in park.
FOH
console: Yamaha PM3500
speakers: Nexo Alpha M and B with CD subs. Powered by Camco controlled by Nexo NX241.
MON
console: Midas Legend ( I hate the gig already)
wedges: EAW SM 84 with BSS Minidrives and a variety of amps. Nice guys, but they had to hire some of the stuff and weren't quite up to operating at this level. Nothing in the mon rig matched and it was clear these guys, as nice as they were, didn't do gigs at this level that often.
Finkenstein, AT
Venue: Burgarena (castle on hill) capacity 1150, sold out.
FOH
console: Midas XL200
speakers: JBL Lil Vertec with JBL 2 x18 subs, powered by Crown I-Techs with HiQnet software and onboard DSP.
MON
console: Yamaha PM5D
wedges and fills: Nexo PS15 w/ Nexo controllers and EV 3000 amps. The guys had a hard time last year with the gig and hacked it together, but this year revamped the mon rig and really brought an "A" game. So far the award winner for most improved. And were great guys as well.
Posted by Dave at 03:11 PM | Comments (4)
July 13, 2006
The Gap Doesn't Mind
Posted by Dave at 04:58 AM
July 12, 2006
Gear Notes: Carcasonne and London
Carcasonne, FR
Venue: Theater de la Cite (translation, another castle...) capacity 2000, sold out, light rain.
FOH
console: Midas XL4
speakers Martin W8L, W8LC and some of the little square subs. I was going to look up the exact specs but yet again another lame ass site. And some of you wonder why people don't buy more of some audio products. Considering how lame many if not most of the pro audio manufacturers sites are, it's a wonder they sell anything at all. Though to be fair, when I was in the end of the biz that was buying a bunch of stuff to rent, we never did it from the Web alone. Though I haven't been a buyer in that capacity in almost a decade. Powered by Lab Gruppen.
MON
console: Midas Heritage 4000 w/ BSS eqs.
wedges: Nexo PS 15 with Lab Gruppen and the Nexo controllers. Sides Nexo Alpha series.
London, GB
Venue: London Tower Music Festival, capacity unknown, about 3/4 full. Big tent, get this, beside a castle. I'm ready to start banging two coconuts together and galloping like I were on a horse. It was actually quite a good gig, and being in Britain, we almost spoke the language.
FOH
console: Midas Heritage 2000.
speakers: V-Dosc ARCS and DV-DOSC in several different zones, powered by Lab Gruppen with XTA controllers and the XTA network on a tablet.
MON
console: Midas Heritage 3000 w/ BSS eqs.
wedges: proprietary, 12" x 2" w/ BSS Mini Omni control and Lab Gruppen power. Sides V-DOSC ARCS.
Posted by Dave at 06:36 PM
Wait For It... Another Castle
Posted by Dave at 04:29 AM
July 11, 2006
I Have To Push The Pram-A-Lot
We only gig in castles now.
Posted by Dave at 08:46 AM
July 10, 2006
When 3 Bastard Road Is Not Enough
Posted by Dave at 09:23 AM
Gear Notes: Lugano and Collado Villalba
Lugano, CH
Venue: City Center, free concert for Swiss TV. Broadcast live. Raining hard, only a thousand or so in attendance.
FOH
console: PM5D, non RH.
speakers: d&b Q1 (12 per side) w/ Q subs (8 per side) powered and controlled by d&b D12s.
MON
console: PM5D, non RH.
wedges: Kling & Freitag CA1215-9M (nice sounding little box, used them a few times before) controlled by K&F C2, powered by Lab Gruppen. Sides proprietary square box, fairly ugly sounding.
Collado Villalba, ES (suburban Madrid)
Venue: Campo de Futbol Municipal, (small soccer stadium) about four thousand initially, but due to show delayed by production crew, we didn't take the stage until 0115 or so. Show ended about 0300.
FOH
consoles: PM5D-RH with Midas Heritage 3000 for support.
speakers: EV Xlc (8 modules per side) with Xsub(F) (4 per side) controlled by EV Dx38 and powered by EV P3000 amps.
MON
console: Midas Heritage 4000 w/ KT DN360 eqs with Yamaha 01v for support.
wedges: I tried to search the EV site for the model numbers but the layout of the site is so screwed up I couldn't find them. It's the curved little ones that have a 12" and what sounds to be a 1", passive with EV 2200 amps.
Note to Bosch, find whomever designed the information flow on the current EV and Telex sites and either reassign them to something else, or fire them entirely. Hopefully Bosch won't let the folks at Telex that ran EV into the ground continue to do that. Why are the products listed by model line and not application? Let's say a first time user is coming to the site and I want a wedge. I have to know what model brand it's under to find it and the search is about as useful as tits on a bull. You need to promote guys like Jay and Jeff into positions where they can actually make a difference. You've got some good people in the middle of the org, but aren't letting them "be all they can be", if you catch my drift.
Posted by Dave at 06:22 AM | Comments (3)
July 09, 2006
Le Gige por Futbol avec Nexo Rig
Posted by Dave at 07:45 AM
The Metric System @ Work
Posted by Dave at 06:56 AM
July 07, 2006
Sea O'knobs de la Madrid
Posted by Dave at 07:23 AM | Comments (1)
July 06, 2006
Swiss TV
Posted by Dave at 06:11 AM
July 05, 2006
Gear Notes: ZMF and Montreux
Freiburg, DE
Venue: Zelt Music Festival, big tent, not quite full.
FOH
conosle: Midas XL4
speakers: 14 x (7 per side) EAW KF 730 with EAW MX8750 controller and Lab Gruppen amps. Front fills JF260x and 16 x EAW SB1000 powered by QSC PL 6.0.
MON
console: Midas Heritage 3000 w/ BSS eq
wedges: Radian Microwedges (12") powered by Lab Gruppen controlled by Lake Contour.
Montreux, CH
Venue: Montreux Casino Showroom, Montreux Jazz Festival. Oversold, with people standing anywhere they could. We used to do well in the big room but The Jazz singer happens to be pals with the promoter and a few years back told him that he'd like to do the small room for the intimate effect.
FOH
console: Digidesign Venue
speakers: 12 x Meyer Melodie with USW subs. Matrixed with a Meyer Galileo and networked with Meyer RMS.
measurement system: Meyer SIM 3
MON
console: Soundcraft SM20 w/ BSS eqs.
wedges: Meyer USM-1P, sides UPA-1P
Posted by Dave at 11:29 AM | Comments (2)
Got Nabokov?
Posted by Dave at 03:52 AM
July 04, 2006
A Venue of Venues
Scovi and Briggs
Posted by Dave at 09:44 AM
July 03, 2006
Gear Notes: France and Italy
Lyon, FR
Venue: Cite Congress Lyon, theater, brand new, capacity approx 3500. Sold out.
FOH
console: Yamaha PM3500
speakers: Combination of L'Acoustics ARCS, DV-DOSC and V-DOSC subs and the small L' Acoustics front fill. XTA controller network into approx 10 zones, controlled from a Motion tablet. Powered by Lab Gruppen.
measurement system: Smaart Live w/ Edirol USB mic preamp and Earthworks mic.
MON
console: Midas Heritage 3000 w/KT DN360 equalizers
wedges: L'Acoustics MTD 115a w/ 115a controllers two way active powered by Lab Gruppen. Sidefills Meyer MSL4.
Verona, IT
Venue: Teatro Romano. The site on the remains of a BC era Roman ampitheater. Open air (that means outside, seppos...) Capacity 1500, sold out. Rain delayed load in until 14:30 that day.
FOH
console: Midas Heritage 3000
speakers: 4 arrays of 4 d&b Q7 each, two arrays per side with Q1 vertical and Max front fills, powered by d&b D12 amps. The one bummer was that there was only a master L&R eq and the zone eq had to be done at the amp/dsp. Normally there is a control network at this venue but for this show it wasn't in use.
MON
console: Midas XL250 w/ XTA eqs
wedges: d&b Max powered with QSC PL 1.8 passive, drum fill (this gig only, usually wedges) Max on top of a Q Sub, powered by d&b D12. The drummer and I would like to keep it, but FOH dude has other ideas. Sidefills d&b Q1 vertical powered by D12 amp/controller packages.
Blainville, FR
Venue: Tent at the site of an ancient castle. Capacity 1800, sold out.
FOH
console: Yamaha PM5D RH
speakers: A variety of d&b Q7, Q10, E3, B2 and C7 in about 14 zones. Controlled by a d&b Rope system. Powered by d&b D12 amp/controllers.
Measurement System: Smaart Live, firewire pre amp, Uli rip off mic with a cracked bootleg of Smaart.
MON
console: Midas XL250 w/ KT DN360 eqs.
wedges: d&b Max with principal mix two way powered by d&b D12, other mixes passive powered with d&b P1200A. Sidefills d&b C7 top only (we don't need no subs on the fills) powered with D12s.
Measurement System: Smaart Live 6, Mac beta version. M Audio Duo USB preamp with Uli rip off mic.
Posted by Dave at 11:58 AM
July 02, 2006
Border? I Hardly Know Her...
Swiss/German border, just after midnight
Posted by Dave at 04:07 PM
July 01, 2006
Smaart Ass
Mac beta version, M Audio Duo and Uli rip off mic.
Posted by Dave at 06:40 AM
Le Gige de Tent Avec Old Castle
Posted by Dave at 02:31 AM
June 29, 2006
Il Giga
Verona, IT
Posted by Dave at 03:54 AM
June 28, 2006
Le Gig
Posted by Dave at 05:54 AM
The Brutal Truth
Posted by Dave at 02:29 AM
Le Hotel
11th century town
Posted by Dave at 01:15 AM
June 26, 2006
Gear Notes Sofia, Bulgaria
Gear Notes Sofia
Venue: Bulgarian State Theater, cap 3800 (sold to about 90%) designed and built in the late 60s during the communist era.
FOH
console: PM3500
speakers: THC line array box, 8 x LA215A hung per side with 6 x SW215 per side and a few PS212 per side. It's a real "sound by the pound" rig, capable of extreme spl at the expensive of fidelity. More appropriate for hard rock than jazz. Amps were Camco V6s and Crown MA5ks with BSS Omni compact controllers.
MON
console: PM3500M w/ dbx 2231 eq
wedges: THC M115, 15" and 1", passive. Amps were Crown MA3600s. The boxes got loud, though had a tremendous amount of distortion in the low end driver and non controlable pattern control, particularly around the 800 Hz to 1.6k Hz region. While able to generate great amounts of spl, the box lacked fidelity and took excessive amounts of equalization to achieve results that were minimally suitable for this act.
The crew, though knowledgable and hard working spoke little english. Pretty typical for this part of the world. We arrived with less than three hours until show and were able to get a basic config up and going in a couple of hours, with enough time for the band to get a chance to slam out a tune or two on the rented backline that only a few pieces were per spec. Considering how late we were and how fatigued we were all in all it went well. The promoters are likely to be planning many more eastern European dates.
Posted by Dave at 11:28 PM
4 Hours Late
Flight delay into Bulgaria
Posted by Dave at 06:12 AM
June 25, 2006
Gear Notes: Baku, Azerbijian and Wroclaw, Poland
I've had a couple of requests for basic gear lists on the one off dates, so I'm going to try this for a while. It will at least give some insight to those that aren't familiar with the variables in one off fly dates.
Gear Notes Baku
Baku, Azerbijian
Venue: 2000 seat theater. Built in the 60s during the Soviet occupation. The Soviets occupied the country from about 1920 until 1991.
FOH
console: Midas Legend (small frame, reduced input show)
speakers: Meyer M2D 2x subs and 5 x tops hung per side with 2x CQs for fronts and Dynacord Cobra subs. Subs powered with EV P33000 amps using and XTA 226 controller as sub crossover and line driver/DA for the powered boxes.
MON
console: DM 2000 V2 (not properly configured for the gig)
wedges: EV crappy plastic 15" x 2" passive
sides: EV QRx 212/75
power: EV P1200/P2200 (mismatched)
Baku crew largely unprepared, weren't use to doing gigs at this level but were nice and willing to learn. Time given I'll post more details later. The entire stay was a cluster, though nice people that tried hard.
Gear Notes Wroclaw
Venue: Market Square, free show in the centrum across from the old church. Approx 10,000 capacity.
FOH
console: PM 4000
speakers: V-DOSC, 8 x tops hung per side, with six subs per side, Camco amps, XTA 226 controllers and Meyer UPA-1P front fills.
MON
console: Soundcraft SM20 w/ DN360 eq
wedges: Turbosound TFM 212 with Meyer CQ2 sides.
amps: Crest 7001
Aviom digital snaking system that was more of a pain in the ass than an asset for us. the tactical Cat 5 running to FOH was cool, but there are some implementation issues with regard to gain structure.
Good crew, world class as well as the promoter. The mon rig was a bit old and hammered but the foh rig was pretty tight. The crew could hold their own against most any crew in the world. Very quality work day.
In a few hours we'll board a couple of turbo props for a flight to Bulgaria for a late load in and a throw and go. Hope they have what we need.
Posted by Dave at 05:15 PM | Comments (2)
Polska
From the stage
Posted by Dave at 04:17 AM
June 23, 2006
10,000 Mile Week
We're getting ready to put the first week to bed. In the last seven days we've logged just over 10,000 air miles and only a few hundred bus miles. We had a Prevost take us from Toledo to Chicago for the overseas flights so we wouldn't have to schlep the gear on an RJ and do a terminal change at ORD. This morning's 01:30 airport departure for a 04:20 flight from Baku still has everyone foggy. Over at Dave Rat's RHCP Euro blog he explains a bit about the schedule and workflow of doing an arena tour or at least a tour with coaches and production. The Monsters of Jazz do things a bit differently in that most of the these type acts aren't in a position to carry production on many if not most of the legs. We do fly in dates with either rental backline or we are on a coach with a Sprinter full of our normal rented European backline. For single show headliner dates we've been know to carry mons and control but doing mostly festivals and several one off fly dates the numbers just don't make sense to carry any more than our bare necessities and get the rest locally. Some of the logistics of the fly in dates can be a bit demanding. For example, this week I started last Saturday on a 0630 out of LAS and ended up in Toledo later that afternoon. We hung and gigged the next day then departed for ORD in the bus to catch our flights Baku via Frankfurt with a six hour layover. (Lufthansa was very accomodating) We arrived thenight before the first show, did the first show a bit jet lagged, the second the next day then basicaly departed right after the gig to fly to Poland for a couple of well deserved days off making it about 26 hours flying time on five legs in five days.
There was a bit of a scare on arrival in Wroclaw this morning. Seventeen of our 34 pieces weren't on the belt, most of backline we carry and about half the personal luggage. Luftansa went ahead and sent those pieces ahead, but the baggage department in Poland didn't realize it for several minutes until we started filing the claim paper work. It had all been there the whole time. Band will have to find somthing else to be mad about I suppose. We started the morning on an A330-300 to Frankfurt, then on a brand new A321 to Munchen and finally a Dash 8 to Wroclaw (which is Breslau for all you white guys following along). We joked that the next leg would either be a Cessna or a hang glider keeping the tradition of the planes getting smaller on each leg. Lufthansa has been spectacular, we've been using them for several years over here. We deal with the airline directly and are provided services such as gate to gate transfers and expedited security and boarding access, or as it's know in the biz, "being Elvised". Not to be confused with being John Malkovich, though it's easy to confuse Malkovich and Elvis because they are so much alike. The amenities and service that is provided make these grueling runs much more managable and as fun as then can be under the circumstances.
Posted by Dave at 03:30 PM
Old Baku
Rug Shopping
Posted by Dave at 01:42 AM
First Show
If this is Weds.it must be Baku
Posted by Dave at 01:36 AM
June 18, 2006
No Relation
Posted by Dave at 05:30 PM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2006
Dinner
Posted by Dave at 06:07 PM
Wholly Toledo
Posted by Dave at 03:14 PM
June 03, 2006
Beale all you can be
Posted by Dave at 09:53 PM
May 31, 2006
Mexi Wrap
As luck would have it, I'm on the same flight I was last time flying out of CD de Mexico. This time though, minus the the harrowing ride from Veracruz and without Chucho sleeping on my luggage. The went well, save for a few last minute set change snafus. One of which being someone writing over my lead voc channel with not only a different label, but different settings. It seems as though after I stored, prior to the tech starting a new scene for other band he started to store some settings, let other band's mon guy start tweaking ande then realized he hadn't stored it in another scene. At first the slightly drunken surface tech tried to blame me for it. Sure, I labeled the console (on LED strip no less) with the name of other band's primary guy and butchered my settings. I'm not too fond of the SY80 anyway and would prefer an H3k for this. It was good to see Chucho, Roberto and Alberto, along with the lighting guy whose name I can't remember. They were working on a lot more stout rig than when I was there last. Forty V-DOSC modules, sixteen DV-DOSC, a couple of piles of V-DOSC subs, a bunch of La Grupens and I had a herd of SM400s and some 24x6s while we all worked a pair of SY80s while a perfectly good XL4 and H3k set on the dock.
There was a bit of calamity along the way. I won't go into too much detail, but a very good friend in the party was striken ill the night before the gig. He claims food poisoning and the mexican doc backs him up but it was the most violent case I've ever seen. We were just about to dine at Karisma, the mexican joint in the square (more like a circle) across from the Starbucks and the hotels where the well heeled locals and tourists stay. Karisma is the kind of place you can watch the sun come up (and on other gigs we have) but this time our priorities revolved around reviving our friend who had just plunged headfirst into the tour managers salad. I told him to get what hair he had left out of the tour managers plate when the backliner noticed he had passed out. Holy shit!. No really. We all worked to revive him with the help of the staff and a party next to us. Pretty scary couple of moments.
It's almost six am, we didn't get back until a few hours ago from the gig, so I stayed up. The shop with the fork and knife sign opened a few minutes ago, but good hot food is in short supply. One thing I've noticed in many international departure lounges, is the lack of good restuarants and hot food. It's one thing when your flight leaves from the domestic gates of a good airport, choices a plenty. Most of the rest of the party is headed to Hotlanta for a symphonic/pops package. A couple of the band and I don't do the symphony gigs anymore as it's a quartet only. We'll meet up again this weekend in Memphis, where I'm looking forward to some good BBQ. I really don't get a lot of Memphis Q so any suggestions would be appreciated. From there we have about 10 days off before we hit Europe and the summer leg, proper.
Posted by Dave at 05:26 PM | Comments (1)
May 30, 2006
Qui
Posted by Dave at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)
Gig
Posted by Dave at 08:42 AM
May 29, 2006
Hola
Posted by Dave at 06:03 PM
May 28, 2006
Season Opener
The summer touring season is upon us again. Why, it only seems like last summer where we got to experience the hospitality of western Europe. Already this year we've seen such exotic locales as Russia, Morocco, Tunisia and port of call Bayonne, New Jersey (Joisey, what exit?). This year the season starts somewhat bittersweet. Still in search of the elusive (for me, anyway) big time house gig in the "Entertainment Capital of the World" (tm) I enter each new touring leg knowing that it could very well be the last in a career that has treated me well. For the last almost 30 years I haven't had to have a real job, save for the time I spent with my crazy uncle Kenny trying to be dot com moguls. It was about six years ago, ironically with the same jazz singer I'm currently with that on the beach in Nice (break out the atlas, kids) I was convinced that touring was evil and I hated it. It took about two and half years doing something else full time to appreciate what I had. It actually only took about six months. I say this not so we can get all misty eyed in a drunken "I love you man" hugfest, but to remind my peers how good we have it. We are paid a lot of money, to do something that some people pay money to do.
About the time the sun rises above the Strip tomarrow morning I'll board one of Theodore's flights (you can call him Ted) to rendevouz with the rest of the gang for a short jaunt to Mexico City. It's likely I'll see some of my pals from the dates I did down there that were chronicled on these pages as it's the same production vendors. From there we're on to other exotic, third world locations such as Memphis and Toledo before heading to Europe proper. I'd like to apologise for the "third world" comment. I don't consider the part of Mexico we're going to third world. We'll start the Euro jaunt in Azerbijain (really break out the atlas this time, kids), before moving to other parts of the former east and then to western Europe to do the big time jazz fest scene. Apparently, our requirements are that if you haven't had an insurection or coup in the last few years, we'll gladly bring the jazz show to your town.
We'll make an appearance on the Lake Geneva shoreline at the venue that once "some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground". And of course, when we're there, we'll "make records with a mobile". I don't think we have much time. This year it doesn't look like we'll be able to attend "Funky Claude's" party at his castle. (yes, Claude is a real person, that lives in a castle) I think it's a bit to call it a "jazz festival" these days as the real jazz acts are now relagated to what I think is a C stage in the "burned down the gambling house". Back in the day we were in the two big rooms (this will be my sixth appearance at this gig) but now they should call this a music festival, not so much a "jazz" festival in this quaint little Swiss town. The irony is, the lyrics I riffed for the musical reference in the above paragraph are from a band that will be at this festival, in one of the main rooms. Sadly, Frank Zappa and the Mothers won't.
On previous trips I've covered them with videos and blogging with an occasional moblog, or post from the camera on my mobile. (that's a cell phone, for you septics...) I'd planned to moblog Euro 2k5 but limitations in my hardware and roaming agreements made that not possible. In other words, it was Cingular's fault. This year, thanks to my new international roaming account, a fist full of euro SIMS, Flickr and a new HTC Wizard I'll be able to moblog in real time. I can't guarantee that you will find it interesting, but it will be what I'm seeing when I'm out doing whatever it is that us roadies do.
Posted by Dave at 02:43 PM | Comments (1)
May 20, 2006
Dark Menis
Posted by Dave at 06:42 PM | Comments (3)
May 11, 2006
More Load In
Posted by Dave at 01:35 PM | Comments (3)
Load In
Posted by Dave at 01:31 PM | Comments (2)