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.

A Mayhemic Summer

I figure it's been a while and thought I'd let you all know how the summer's been.  Listen to me.  I've been away from KY too long, "let y'all know."  In May MC got asked to do the Mayhem tour with VIP nation.  A few weeks later without asking I was asked to do Mayhem for Rat.  It was going to work out great.  Long story short, MC got pulled off the tour and put on New Kids on the Block.  :(  Since that tour started several weeks before Mayhem I was able to see her at the Nashville and Louisville NKOTB shows.  She even hired me as her assistant.  Ha.  The Mayhem tour was... eh.  Not my kind of music or scene.  Although we had a good audio crew which helped.  The bands this year were Rob Zombie, 5 Finger Death Punch (for real), Mastadon, and Amon Amarth.  It was a long hot summer but ok none the less.  The beginning of August I flew from Mayhem to Anaheim and immediately started working a Disney event for Rat.  Since then I've been busy with other local gigs.  Rat originally was going to send me out with Jack Johnson to Europe Sept. 1, but because of budget issues couldn't take me.  So I'll join the tour when they come back to the US September 19. That tour finishes near the end of October.  In the meantime MC is going out with Stone Temple Pilots for 3 weeks or so.  I'm debating staying here and finding work or heading back to KY.  Hmm.  What to do? 

Helping MC at the check in table for the Nashville show.

Rehearsals took place at San Manuel Amphitheater.  Very hot!  A theme of the tour.

Zombie's video director had precariously placed his laptop over this enormous tube.  The computer fell so far down you couldn't reach it by hand.  One person suggested hiring a midget, but one of the locals came up with this scheme.  A remote control car with a camera on top and coat hanger hooks to drag it out.  

Imagine that it worked!

The opening band Amon Amarth had a Viking ship for a drum riser.  Yes of course it blows smoke out its mouth and the eyes light up.

Even though it's not my music, Rob Zombie was quite a show.  Sensory overload.  They pulled out all the stops.  Video, props, lots of pyro, confetti, you name it.  There was always 10 things going on at once.  And the band was pretty good too.

Zombie mic stand

The dinosaurs are a long story but they were exhausted by the heat as well.

Just some of the Mayhem clientele

Ok let me explain.  Shortly after the tour started we were traveling from Boise ID to Seattle.  It was going to be a long drive and probably going to be late for load-in.  In the middle of the night our bus broke down.  Actually it was just the turbo that broke, so it still was running but couldn't climb the mountains.  No cell service, nobody around, and stranded.  Not quite sure, I think the driver finally found service and called the lead driver.  By then most of the other buses were 100+ miles away and too far to pick us up.  There was one bus still behind us.  It's called Cat Dracula.  It was Dimebag Darrells bus and now his widow travels around selling paraphernalia and keeping his legend alive.  For those of you who don't know, Dimebag helped start the band Pantera and was tragically shot and killed at a concert while on stage.  Anyway, they graciously picked us up and we were on our way.  The hairless cat has free reign of the bus.

At this point it was 8am, load-in time, and we still had about a 6 hour drive.  With no bunks available, we all cozied up with each other on the couch.  

And then this happened.  Being a front tire, it was actually quite scary.  Plus the driver was coming down a hill when it happened.  Luckily the tire blew slowly, if it had popped he wouldn't have been able to steer and we would have surely wrecked.

So we wait for a wrecking truck to fix the tire.

 There's more to the story.  After we blew the tire, this guy comes out from the back all frantic asking where are we and what time is it?  He says he's the drummer for one of the opening bands on some other stage and they play at 2.  We're all like, not going to make it.  If the bus was rolling right now he might just barely make it.  He starts freaking out even more.  For some reason he has to get there.  He decides his best option is to hitch hike 6 hours to Seattle.  All of us don't know him but are pleading with him to stay with us.  He doesn't have a cell phone and has just a few bucks cash in the middle of nowhere.  I took this picture thinking this was the last anyone would ever see of the guy.

A few hours later we had a tire and we were moving by 12:30p.  Ended up we made it to the venue by 5pm.  Doors were at 5:30, show started at 6:30.  We just barely made it.  One side of the PA was flying up as the kids were walking in.  Oh and that drummer guy was 4 miles down the road waving frantically when we picked him up again.  Rockstar life.

Mastodon

During 5 finger death punch in Scranton PA the whole place lost power.  There was a backup generator but it only powered the lawn sound and a few emergency lights.  With the combination of my computer and audio interface and the lawn system we were able to make announcements.  From what they said a car or truck crashed into an electric pole nearby and took out the whole area.   Amazingly on a Sunday night at 9pm they fixed the pole in less than an hour and we were able to finish our show.

Owl mic stand holding my wireless mic for system tuning.  Thanks Mike.

Camden NJ looking nice with some angry music

Five Finger Death Punch lead mic stand.  They say it's worth $30K

In NYC again, last time I saw the Apple store in Grand Central.  This time had to see the one near central park.

Ginger, the drummer for Rob Zombie, and Joel, the FOH guy.  Peter Criss(the drummer for Kiss) was in the audience in Holmdel NJ.  Ginger painted his face in honor.

One of Zombies many props

Used in the song uh... Radio.

It was below 60 in the morning in Chicago. 

Doing some on sight repairs.  And they fixed it.

Formula 1 track in Austin TX.

They decided to build a stage there last year.  Didn't get a picture, but there was this structure behind the stage that had a million steps and a look out at the top.

Once Mayhem was done I headed directly to Anaheim to work a Disney event.  I guess they decided to use my Mexican alter ego for credentials.

So Rat sound recently purchased the new Anya speaker system by EAW.  I went to the 2 day training with a bunch of other guys.

At the Ventura theater learning to fly the system.

New Kids got done the same day as Mayhem.  Time for a picnic in Griffith Park.

Rat hired me to do a bar mitsvah in Beverly Hills.  I know... but it was the great grandson of Arnold Schoenberg (famous classical composer).  They flew a famous organist over from the UK and performed Moses unt Aron among other works.  They asked us to help reinforce the choir mostly.  It ended up sounding really good.  Not reinforced, very natural.  It was cool to be a part of.

Rat's first deployment of the Anya system at FYF in downtown LA.  Guess who was system's tech?  It was a lot of fun to see the new technology.  Two guys were there from EAW to help answer any questions.  I had a lot.  Sounded pretty good.  Still needs a lot of work, but I'm interested to see where this technology goes.