Done!!

So I've finished with the tour as of December 20.  And no time too soon either.  Luckily I wasn't fired.  Although by the end, most of us were wishing we were fired.  It was a tough one to say the least.  If nothing else I have some good stories.  Mark, the new sound guy had a good prince story.  They had worked all afternoon getting the system tuned and Prince walked in an hour before doors and asked Mark, "Is this the best you can do?  Maybe I should just go home."  Mark learned its best just to not say a word.  On the other hand super Dave told a great story about Prince's musical ability.  Prince called Dave into his room and had him listen to a recording of the show from the night before.  Prince asked Dave what he thought of the bass sound.  At that point Prince was playing the bass.  Dave said it sounded muddy.  Prince said, "yes, listen... did you hear how it got clearer?  I realized it was muddy so I switched to a pick at that point."   He really is in control of all the elements on stage.  He gives cues from the microphone to turn things up and down as well as cues to the other instrumentalists.  And he's impressively spot on.  It's a great experience to watch.  This is all on top of him being a great performer and insanely talented.
We also collected a few Prince quotes on the tour.  He had a variation every night but at one point he would yell something like, "better call the babysitter, I got too many hits!"  From the Casey story we would tell each other "I have no more use for you."
 Anyway, after loading out in Tacoma, they took us directly to the airport for a 6am flight.  Since my family is spending xmas in Waco with my brother and his family, I decided to fly directly there.  I've had a great time hanging with my niece and nephew, oh yeah my brother and Kendel too.
Now for the photos...

This was dinner in Winnipeg.  A place called the Keg.  The best steak I've had in a while, maybe ever. From the left, Nick, me, Scott, Chuck, Rob.

 Mike and I had this wild idea to go snowboarding while we in Canada.  We had 3 1/2 days off in Edmonton so of course we waited till the last day. After 5 hours that afternoon, we were pretty sore.  Nothing compared to the next day for load-in. Lots of fun though.  Hit me up if you want to go!

For some reason they kept bringing us peanut butter and jelly every day without us asking for it.

Window view from the Georgian Court hotel in Vancouver.  The stadium on the right, the arena in the background near the middle.

One of our front fill had an accident while they were pushing the stage into place.

 So Prince's keyboard player and band leader is none other than Morris Hayes.  Most notably known as Morris Day!  Yeah awesome.

Since Victoria is an island we had to take a ferry from Vancouver.  The ferry I believe had 4 levels.  We were on the bottom level with trucks and buses.  The ferry could hold 6 rows of 8 trucks or buses each.  The next floor up held cars, 6 rows of 24 cars.  The top floors held walkers. Sadly, I wasn't motivated enough to get out of the bus and look around while we were traveling.  Here is us leaving.

We were all more than glad to see this sign...

The Tacoma Dome is enormous.  We were able to stash 6 of our semis in the building even while the concert was going on.

One of the carps cleaning the ping pong table.  You don't know what the purple ping pong table is for??  So there's been a ping pong table at all our shows even since rehearsals.  Mike and I even played on one in Hamilton.  I guess prince is the one requesting it.  At our 2nd show in Halifax prince indicated he might want to play on stage, so the carpenters built a purple table that would fit on his stage elevator lift.  Every night it would be crammed under the stage waiting for Princes cue to put it on the elevator.  Of course it never happened. 

Random

 Every venue was made to color the lights in Prince's hallway from his dressing room to the stage.  No one could through the purple hallway, even our crew.  This was tricky in some arenas when you just need to go on the other side and had to walk around the whole arena to get there.

Here are the last moments of the last load-out.  Chuck is directing console lidding.

 Note the happy faces. Mike, Mario and Nick here.

 Casey and Derek

I flew into Waco around 2:30 and picked up Ezra from school.  I was more than happy to hang out with my brother Eric's family.  Here is Lizzie doing her best Justin Beiber.  Lots of hair for 9 months old.

Ezra had a blast playing with my iPad taking "silly pictures"  He likes the twirl effect on photo booth.

I went to Dallas to pick up Adam and mom and dad on Wednesday.  Adams flight arrived at noon and mom and dads wasn't until 3:30.  Adam and I decided use the time to see the monstrosity that is the Cowboys stadium.  Unbelievable.  Words and pictures don't do it justice.  It's something you have to see in person.

It was Eric's birthday so of course we had to have an ice cream cake!

I've been included in the emails to tech the Chili Peppers in January for about 6 months.  It would be a few weeks on and then a few weeks off.  That would be a lot of fun.  Dave Rat would most likely be mixing.  Up till then, I'll be glad to have some time off.  Hope you all have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Peace.