Straight from Jack Johnson last fall I was called to fill in for 3 Pearl Jam shows as PA crew chief.
I flew straight from the PJ shows to Biloxi, MS where I met up with MC working a Stone Temple Pilots show at the Hard Rock. Instead of getting a flight home, MC was able to negotiate getting a rental car. We took a nice road trip back to KY. On the way we stopped at my brothers new house in Alabama.
Even though it was Kendels birthday, my brother's family was very hospitable.
In Kentucky we did a bunch of things, including a trip to natural bridge. We had a really nice time here. Lots of hiking.
ooooh..
Jordan, my neighbor. It's not even Thanksgiving yet here.
On the way to my folks house for Thanksgiving I was really feeling like I was in Kentucky.
This was someones dream car at some point.
In the kitchen where they belong. HA! Just kidding!!!
On holiday at my folks relaxing in the living room, watching TV and catching up. we look outside and see this. My dad chainsawing down trees in the back yard. Oh boy!
I made sure we had the EMS on speed dial at this point. Adam and Caleb kept all their limbs and digits.
Christmas here, we got to see Eric's family. The kids are so cute and fun to play with.
Mom's flanel graph from when we were kids entertained the kids Christmas Eve.
LOTS of presents
At some point MC found a wolf puppet at a truck stop on tour. I brought it to play with the kids. Lizzie was so fun. She loved talking to it. Both her and Ezra laughed and laughed.
On break at home, I got to do some home maintenance. Darin moved out last summer and his room had never been painted since I moved in in 2003. It was lime green. Much better now.
A while ago I bought a Fender Rhodes piano. The piano has stainless steel legs that I thought needed some polishing. It took a lot more work than I was expecting. 5 rounds of sanding and 3 rounds of polishing. But turned out really good. Before and after here.
Some of you may not know, but my living room I painted orange in 2004. It was fun for a while, but this is much more grown up.
In the process of getting rid of a bunch of stuff in my house, I got rid of my extra table and chairs. I was left with my childhood table and chairs. The ones my family had meals almost every night together on. The only problem was all the cane was ripped up. Not even sure how this happened but all 4 chairs (not sure why I don't have 6) are just like this. So I decided to recane them. Well that meant I needed to clean them up, which meant I ended up sanding all the way down to bare wood and restaining them. Also re-glueing any loose parts. This ended up being a ton of work.
My first attempt I took all the pieces apart and was going to glue them back together but that was even more work. The biggest tip I can give anyone doing this project is to find something to elevate the chair so your not bending over the whole time. Saves a lot of back ache.
Of course I had to refinish the table as well.
The chairs turned out really good!
Table too.
After MC got home from her parents after Christmas I met up with her in LA and went to see The Record Company (her brother's band) play a NYE party at the Mint. The guys were great as always.
MC's birthday is January 12 and guess who else's birthday is during the same time. MC's sister Katie's dog. And yes she had a dog birthday party. Ha! It was a lot of fun.
MC wanted to take this one home.
I'd guess almost 50 people showed up for MC's birthday party at her and her brother's house. It was a proper blow out.
Santa Anita racetrack. MC making friends.
Signed up and went to a taping of Jeopardy at Sony Studios in Culver City. They tape a whole weeks episodes in one day. 3 in the morning 2 in the afternoon. We went to the afternoon session.
We weren't supposed to take pictures. This was my best one. The one girl who was the reigning champion told a story during the second taping. Alex said something about her being lucky and asked her to tell a story about that. She said she had gone to a concert last year and was in the nose bleed section, last row. A lady came up to her and asked if she wanted to move to the front row. Of course she said yes. Alex asked who the band was and she said New Kids on the Block. We couldn't believe it! MC was "the lady" who moved her to the front row. Small world.
I helped The Record Company as a cameraman for a music video they submitted to a Grateful Dead competition. Here the guys are reviewing the mix.
L-Acoustics came out with a new speaker this year called K2. Here we're at the Rat shop training how to use the new equipment.
Random gig outside in LA near Dodger stadium. Lead singer of Rancid I believe. Also the twin brothers I recognized from Sugar Ray were here playing bass and drums.
Rat has bought a new speaker system by EAW called Anya. During a trade show in LA EAW invited a bunch of engineers to come listen to the system at Fox studios. I was the Rat representative.
EAW Anya
Inside Anya. The joke is it looks like a 6-cylinder engine. 14 HF, 6MF, and 2LF drivers. All self powered and driven separately with individual DSP. The latest advancement in steerable arrays.
A private listening session with Robert Scovill, a famous engineer who recently has decided to use it on Tom Petty because of his assessment here. Unfortunately not using Rat.
In Las Vegas here at a corporate event with Lenny Kravitz as the entertainment. I only did the 3 days of setup. Here from the cat walk.
Autotrader has some money. Lots of lights sound and moving video panels.
It was nice to be in 65 degree weather for the month of January and February but it was beautiful flying back into Kentucky.
Did my yearly Winterfest gig in Gatlinburg Tennessee. Had to drive the semi. Good thing I remembered how. Breaker breaker 1 9 good buddy.
Road from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg. Ooooooh!
After Gatlinburg I got a Facebook message from the owners of Zebedee Productions. The company I worked for in Florida as a teenager. Literally I hadn't spoken to the owners in almost 20 years. Holy crap! They needed me to come to Florida for a couple of gigs in March. OK!
Publix corporate meeting.
Went up to Cincinnati to see my college roommate Jeff. Got to see the school he's a principle at now and had fun playing with his kids. Here we had just finished assembling the trampoline they got for Christmas. Lots of fun.
MC was hired for Goo Goo Dolls this year, pretty much all year long. During one of her breaks, she came to Kentucky for a bit and we went to Mammoth Cave. Super cool.
Some of you know our fascination with dinosaurs so we had to stop for pictures.
Not much time home and back to LA for Coachella and Stagecoach prep. 6 stages, all L-acoustics. The biggest challenge was the 15 delay towers supporting main stage and outdoor theater. A full week of prep and could have used more time.
Load-in begins
Lots of speakers...
for a TON of people.
Singer from Cage the Elephant decided to climb the FOH tower.
I forget the rapper but Justin Beiber decided to show up. They said his entourage was totally in the way for changeover to the next band.
Definitely in the desert. Beep beep...
Coachella art is always something I look forward to. Mechanical spaceman floats around. His arms move as well.
FOH Main Stage
I forget the band, but someone played a joke and replaced all the knobs on the FOH desk with penises right before they went on. The guy actually mixed the show like this.
5 in the morning loading out Stagecoach Mike G got a little creative moving equipment around.
Sorry it's been so long. Promise I'll do better. It's actually been about 2 months since Coachella so I have plenty more to share. Feel free to send me an email telling me how you're doing or just say hi.
