Just a little Jack

After the Mayhem tour earlier this summer, I was glad to hear Rat has me on the Jack Johnson tour. Very different in every way.  Of course the most obvious is the music.  If you don't know about him, his music is laid-back hawaiian pop music.  Lots of love songs.  Super chill.  So are the attitudes of the crew and vibe of the whole tour.  Catering has been outstanding,  I'm sure I've gained weight on this one.  My duties are primarily PA tech.  We're carrying 15 Kara per side along with 4 SB18.  It's a good amount for the theater tour we're on.  I was glad to see that all the US dates were sold out before the tour even began.  A profitable tour makes everything better.

While I was hanging out in LA, I have an app that points out famous places.  As I was driving down Vermont, not far from MC's place, Seinfeld's apartment popped up.  It's kind of hard to tell but the it's the first red brick building. 

Got a call to do an Iron Maiden show at San Manuel.  Luckily all we did was support for the opening acts.  Clearwing was the PA company.  Ran into an old friend from my days in Milwaukee. You might remember this is where we did rehearsals for the Zombie tour.  

This was probably one of the coolest gigs I've done.   Ed Vedder played a solo show for a charity.  The location was this modest mansion in Malibu.  The PA was 6 speakers on a stick.  Zack Galifianakus was the MC.  I started to notice what a celeb soiree this was when walking across the tennis court I ran into Jimmy Kimmel.  Ha.  Then I saw the girl from Big Bang theory.  The show began and Ed was great.  Such a natural talent.  The guitar was just an extension of him.  To end the show he invited guests up on stage including Adam Sandler, Tim Robbins, Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks).  Jeanne Triplehorn did renditions of Rolling Stones songs in the voice of Julie Andrews.  Super cool.

Not a bad view.  And sporting some vintage PA cabs for monitors. Oh yeah, here are some pics from the event. http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=180688339&EditorialProduct=Entertainment

Our first show of the tour with Jack was Farm Aid.  We didn't have to use our PA so my part was pretty simple.  We were up in Saratoga Springs at SPAC.  Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young played later that night.  Unfortunately we had to leave early for our next gig.

Jack from monitors

Our first gig with PA was at the United Palace Theatre in NYC.  This is their automated fly system.  Very "send a rocket into space" like.

Day off in DC so I went to the Natural History Museum... Rawr!

Our first roadie Friday, someone had the bright idea of trying to suspend things with E-tape.  It started simply with a plastic fork and a couple of bananas.  At one point there were 8 leftover burritos in the middle.  And yes that jug of water is full.  

We were surprised to see this modern marvel in Akron OH.  E.J. Thomas Hall has a system of weights that raise and lower the ceiling in the auditorium.  There are three sections that make it a 800 seat, 2300 seat, or 3000 seat venue, depending on which ceilings are raised or lowered.  The weights are an artistic feature of the lobby.

We had one of the locals take us up to see where all the pulleys and wire rope go into the ceiling.  Very cool.  Unfortunately they couldn't move the roof for us.

Show time.

Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  It's historical value is remarkable.  The sound in this venue is not.  Because of building limitations we were not able to use our PA and forced to use the installed system.  If you closed your eyes and listened you would have thought you were in an enormous cathedral.

A lot of the bread and butter for the place includes tours of the facility. On show days people are able to wander around the audience area and see the building.  They have a video playing on repeat in the audience area as we set up.  Plus for an extra $20 you can have your picture taken holding a guitar on stage. See the kid on the other side of the vibraphone? 

For sound check that day, they ended up recording some promo for the Grammys.

Durham Performing Arts Center.  Stage to FOH hallway.

I'm reading this book called the Chitlin' Circuit.  It's an historical book on the birth of Rock and Roll.  The chitlin' circuit is a route of mostly southern cities where African American bands would travel.  Some of the roots of this circuit began with Denver Ferguson on Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis.  Since we had a day off  there and our hotel was only a few blocks away, I went to check it out.

Sadly most of the buildings that were talked about in the book have been demolished except for this one.  The Walker Theatre was built by one of the first African American female millionaires.  

The Chicago Theater is beautiful. From the looks of it you wouldn't think we had one of our best sounding shows here.

Anne, our production manager petting the bomb dog in Chicago.

The bomb dog had to sniff all our gear before going in the building.

Just off stage left we found a door both Casey and I were not fond of.  I asked what was behind the door, the staff didn't exactly know, they said it was some ventilation system.  

When I got to the hotel in Denver, this guy was waiting on me.  MC had a gold fish delivered to my room.  Kimpton hotels are animal friendly.  You can bring your own dog or have a goldfish pet delivered for free.  We call him McGilly.

Denver's Paramount Theater was old and small.  Production cases were lowered by chain motor through this shaft.

My favorite part of the tour was our 2 days off in Oakland CA.  MC completely surprised me by coming up to visit. 

In Berkley we found a game shop that had this puzzle.  Just a few pieces.  Weighed about 20 pounds.

We went to a botanical garden on campus.  Don't think it's in season but found the famous Breaking Bad flower, Lily of the Valley.

 It's pretty hard to see in the photo but the view from the mountain was awesome.  We could see Oakland on the left, San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge all at once.