Pittsburgh PA, The Rex Theatre

Okay, the best thing about the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh is the pinball machine in the lobby.  It was right next to the merchandise sales table, and since I sold merch that night, I got to play a few good games.  Captain Fantastic, featuring Elton John (before he was knighted).  My high score was 94600.  Beat that!

In the theater, there was something seriously wrong with the PA, and the room wasn't helping at all.  I don't think I've ever had to fight as hard to keep things balanced.  I literally could not take out enough 630 Hz.  It was dumped completely on the house graphic, and also on every input channel, in both parametric mid sweeps.  And that wasn't the only problematic frequency.  All over the map, crazy drastic cuts were needed to smooth things out.  Thank goodness there was a separate monitor board, so I only had to get one mix right (one was a challenge).

What a way to end a tour, feeling like I was driving on ice the whole night, barely keeping it on the road.  Well, we still had fun, and I'd like to thank Lisa, the theater manager, Tim "Spankyman", the house manager, Chris on monitors and Rocky at FOH, shown below in action.  Kinda dark in there...

After the show, my boss bought pizza for all, and we hung out and partied like rock stars.  What a cool tour.  

Kent OH, The Kent Stage

Where do you play in Kent OH?  The Kent Stage.  The house sound guy was late, but other than that, things went smoothly and we had another fine show.  Bitter cold backstage, huddling around a few space heaters and keeping moving for warmth.  It was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

The Soundcraft Venue mostly worked.  The PA was okay.  I don't really remember too much else.

Ann Arbor MI, The Ark

The Ark is yet another favorite stop among the acoustic musicians.  A JBL MR series rig hangs from the ceiling, and at FOH sits a Soundcraft K2, and all the usual outboard gear.  This was a solo gig, not a co-bill, and it was nearly sold out.  Gotta love that.  Nice room, nice gear, great staff...  Props to Dan on sound who was more than helpful, he was a great guy to hang with.  They even let us stay quite late after, and still cheerfully helped us load out.

Madison WI, The Majestic Theatre

The Majestic Theatre in Madison has one very notable feature:  The balcony and back of the house take a turn, sharply angled like a broken nose.  Take a look at their online seating chart:

The main PA is hung straight on, and the only way the balcony gets coverage is by "bouncing" the sound up there off the walls.  It's actually not too bad up there, but it gets a bit swimmy there and in the back of the main level.  To get a real sense of what the people up front are hearing, you must leave the FOH booth.  The system was great, with a Digidesign D-show Profile out front, and PA with hung Martin traps and Turbosound subs.  Scott, the overall technical professor, was super solid and helpful, especially with showing me around the D-show Profile.  Many thanks!

Milwaukee WI, The Historic Turner Hall

Milwaukee's Historic Turner Hall is very old.  I'm sure it was lovely in its day, but it needs some TLC now.  It's still a nice vibe, and a cool place to take in a show.  And the tech crew runs a tight operation, with Simon as TD, Kevin at FOH, Dan on monitors, and Eric as the stagehand.  It was great working with these guys.  Here's Kevin at the helm at FOH.  

Everything at the hall is wooden and creaky, and the original turn of the century (190x?) stage has a pronounced rake.  On the walls, most of the paint has peeled away, leaving a patch work of plaster and exposed wood beams.  Maybe they're working on it, I didn't ask.  The ceiling had a series of nets suspended across the main ballroom area, presumably to catch falling plaster.  Here's a picture someone else took:

The PA was Martin top boxes and EAW subs, stacked on the hollow stage (quite boomy).  At FOH there was a Midas XL3 and all the regular outboard choices.  I think it's a better room for acoustic music, and a better PA for rock bands.  It took a bit of tweaking to get things tamed, but we got there and had a great show.  Here's some musician types on stage during sound check:

Lastly, a very large personal thank you to Simon.  After loading out and getting back to the hotel, I realized I left my iPod behind.  I called Simon and he called back right away, and promised he would figure out a way to help me.  Everyone would be gone from the club until after the time I needed to leave the next day, so he made a special trip in from home (over 30 minutes away) and even delivered my iPod to me at the hotel in the morning, in plenty of time before I had to leave.  I won't forget that kindness.  He fixed my mistake, and did so with kindness and a smile.  Simon, you're the best.

Minneapolis MN, The Guthrie Theatre

The fairly new complex at The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis was stunning.  I got to tour the whole place with Ross, the FOH sound tech.  There's a proscenium theatre (where we played), a thrust stage (a re-creation of the original Guthrie Theatre), and a black box space, all in one complex.  They have a production schedule that keeps them very busy, rotating productions with two spaces always running shows while the third space builds the next show.  We set up on the apron of the stage where the set was already built for a production of Shadowlands, the set reflecting the library with the famous wardrobe in "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe".

The tech crew is very proud of what they've accomplished at the Guthrie, and well they should be.  The system consists of L'Acoustic ARCS and EAW KF730 speakers, with various fills everywhere, all run over fiber networks, and mixed on the Stagetec Aurus.

Never heard of the Stagetec Aurus?  Me neither until now.  A German product that hasn't gained much traction here in the US, the Aurus is a digital mixer with an impressive interface.  The Guthrie has two, a larger one at FOH, and a smaller one at Monitors.  The surfaces are merely large remote controls for the brains that are centrally installed with the digital snakes and system networking downstairs (right next to the on-site professional recording studio).

I have to say, it's pretty cool.  Ross was an excellent teacher, and I got the basic mixing procedures down in just a few minutes.  The only peculiarity of this system is that Stagetec does not include any on-board effects.  I guess the approach is that rather than try to create effects for every user, they would rather the user select the outboard gear they want to use, and patch it like an analog board, reducing latency and increasing choices.

Honorable mention to Paul on monitors, and Gary the stagehand, and many thanks to Mitch, the TD.  What a great crew, and what a great space.  If you get the chance to visit the Guthrie, make sure you take in the view at the top lobby at night.  Amazing.  And try the restaurant.  Yum.

Reports back from the talent indicate there's somewhat of an aural disconnect for the performers on stage, in that it's hard to hear the house from the stage.  So they felt oddly distanced from the audience, but that's the only down side here.  The sound in the house was incredible, so the audience was very happy.

The next morning, I got to visit my friend Ben Geffen at the Walker Art Center.  It was great to see him and get the tour there too.  Minneapolis is obviously a great place for the arts.  Thanks Ben!

Chicago IL, The Old Town School Concert Hall

In Chicago, at The Old Town School of Folk Music, the Concert Hall is a unique and intimate place to see a show.  It's wide and shallow, with a balcony that wraps around, and pews of seats toward the back with an area up front that can either be open for standing/dancing, or filled with tables and chairs.  The sound system is a custom mix of Renkus-Heinz stuff, in LCR positions, but all in mono, with JBL subs.  It's almost like a the front part of a cinema sound system, but in mono.  At FOH is a Soundcraft MH2, dbx comps, an MPX-1 and a M2000, along with KT EQs.  FOH also drives the Bag End monitors.

Peter was the house sound guy, and he was most helpful.  Many thanks, it was the first gig back after two weeks off for Thanksgiving, and it was a welcome return to the shows.  It was a long day, starting in Seattle, flying to Chicago, checking into the hotel, and then going to the gig, but I barley even felt tired!  It must be that I enjoy what I do so much, I didn't notice.

I even went out after the show, to get a mini-size pizza at Pizzeria Due, to try the Chicago deep dish pizza style right there where it started.  Pizza like that at midnight will sit with you for most of the next day.  It was fabulous and filling and tasty.

Del Mar, show in San Diego, CA

On the way to San Diego, I had about two and a half hours to kill in Del Mar.  It was mid-80s and sunny, with an on-shore breeze that made everything very nice.  I had lunch (a grilled panini sandwich) at a nice place with an outdoor patio, view of the beach, and enjoyed my situation immensely. 

Then a stroll along the beach, watching the surfers and people enjoying themselves as in a nice summer vacation.  Only this was mid-November.  I couldn't believe the weather.  So, the punch line is that I had no idea I would be spending any time at the beach, and I was in my gig clothes.  Not exactly beach attire.  Head to toe in black, long pants, black t-shirt, black shoes.  I must have looked a teeny bit out of place.  Nevertheless, to make the most of the situation, I did take off my shoes and socks and waded into the water at least up to my calves.  Nerd alert!

It was warm.  In mid-November.  There must be a reason people choose to live in SoCal.

Then it was on to the venue in San Diego.  The Anthology Restaurant is relatively new (opened summer of 2007).  The place just screams "MONEY!"  High-end dining, with high-end interior design, and a great sound and video system for shows.  There's seven cameras positioned around the stage to capture the show, each with remote controlled pan/tilt and zoom, mixed live and distributed to a large screen over the stage and many video screens throughout the three-story venue's dining, bar, and lounge areas.  Also, distributed audio in all the remote locations, and in the main viewing area (all three floors of it) a Nexo Geo line array with fills.  Yamaha M7CL surfaces in both the FOH and monitor worlds, and EAW wedges.  And I forgot my camera at the hotel.  Look them up online to see how fancy the place looks.

All this money poured into the place, and yet, here's where they skimp:  The sound crew is also the video and recording crew, and sometimes it's one guy doing it all.  We were doing two shows that night, and we started with two guys, one on monitors and one at FOH helping me and mixing the video and recording the video/audio feeds.  By the start of the second show, I guess the assumption was that things were dialed in with monitors so the FOH tech left.  Just left.  No explanation, nothing.  So monitor dude (who was great, by the way) was supposed to run the second show from FOH.  They have a laptop to remote control the monitor desk, but the interface wasn't working.  It was explained to me (after FOH dude left) that for a lot of shows, one guy runs monitors, FOH, video and recording all at the same time.  And we're talking full production seven camera video and audio recording, with the video show distributed in the venue (and that's a big part of the atmosphere of the place).  Well, I wasn't planning on mixing the co-bill star's show, only my boss's show (we were opening this night).  But again the co-bill star of the show had guest musicians sitting in with him on the second show, which meant extra inputs that had not been sound checked.  We had planned for this, and the extra inputs were staged and ready to be a plug-n-play situation, but someone would need to be at the monitor desk and the FOH desk when they came on stage.  I knew if I left, the remaining sound dude would suffer (and the show would certainly suffer).  So I agreed to stay and take care of FOH for the late show's co-bill star set.  

Turns out I really suck at mixing FOH and trying to run a seven camera video shoot at the same time.  After things had settled in for the guest musicians, the monitor guy came to bail me out of the flaming nose-dive that was the video show.  He was so practiced at it, he probably could have done a decent job of all of it himself, but that's a lot of stress for one dude.

All in all, a great place to have a show, but the vibe was maybe a bit cold (lots of polished metal and glass, and video everywhere, making things feel disjointed and connected only by technology).  The food was great, which scores high in my world.  Thanks for a good time.

The Tristan and Lana Show

I should mention that the day before the show in LA, I got to visit my friends, Tristan and Lana, and their two wonderful kids.  Pictured here with Finley, Elijah was in the kitchen at the time.  Don't they look fantastic?  Recently transplanted to the LA area, Lana teaches at Cal State Fullerton, and Tristan works in Hollywood for Nickelodeon.  I rented a car, picked up Tristan at his work (and got to tour the set of iCarly) and drove him home where we went out to a yummy dinner.  I had been feeling a bit lonely with all the traveling, and missing my family.  It was terrific therapy hanging out with witty intelligent friends, and witnessing a slice of "married with kids" life.  Sure beats hanging by myself in a hotel room.

Thanks for the tour, Tristan!  I think you have a cool job!  And thank you both for letting me interrupt your routine.  I miss seeing you more often.

The Canyon Club, Agoura Hills CA

When you walk up to a rig and see this curve on the graph, you should be worried.  I could go on and on about why they get the award, but I'll just say The Canyon Club's sound crew have no contest for the worst tech crew of the tour.  Well, okay, I'll go on and on...

The FOH guy was filling in for someone else and just didn't care at all - he spent most of the tech time ignoring us and talking on his cell phone.  The monitor guy was outright destructive and hindering in his ineptitude.  After a long and frustrating time waiting for these guys to get their act together, which included such gems as "don't touch that", "I'll do that for you (just not any time today)", "we have a keyboard you can use (but there's no sustain pedal)", they pulled out the clincher:  "You guys were late - we were ready for you at 4".  The comedy there was that we pulled up at 4:30 to load in and soundcheck before the 6:00 doors, and it took until 5:50 to get eight inputs plugged in and 4 wedges placed.  And we were still waiting for a sustain pedal that was thankfully coming by way of a friend of a friend who lives in the area.  We would soundcheck without it, and hopefully get it before the show started (we did).

Ultimately this led to the 90 minutes of soundcheck time being reduced to a hurried few minutes of sound check (really more of a line check) before doors opened.  All the while, the FOH guy was trying to track down why the PA sounded so bad, especially the difference between the left and right sides.  I have to say I wasn't impressed with how the opening act sounded.  It wasn't until just before the start of the headliner when I got behind the board that I noticed the main graphic EQ had one side in 6dB mode, and the other side in 12dB mode.  I fixed that and started over with the EQ and by the end of the first song, we had a show.

During the show, the monitor guy spent half of his time running far away from the stage, abandoning the show to see what the score was on the game he was watching.  The other half of his time was spent at the monitor desk, loudly talking to his friend.  So loudly that twice during the show, the artist had to stop the show and walk over to him to tell him to be quiet.  He didn't seem to care, he just kept talking over the act.

Now, the gear.  The club has all they need to rip the place apart with brute force.  Lots and lots of custom TAD boxes.  I think it was eight 2-way mid-hi traps (each 4x10", 2") over four subs (each 2x18") for each side.  And fills.  A PM4000 at FOH, and a H3000 at monitors, and all the outboard you'd want for the biggest of bands.  I can't say they're lacking any gear.  I can say the guys at the helm are burned out.  I don't think the club is getting their money's worth with these guys, at any price.

After the gig, I got to hear a story that made me feel better.  Apparently the monitor guy approached my boss, the talent, and asked "What's up with your sound guy?  I mean, you don't just come into a venue as a guest engineer and start riding the house guys!  He's definitely "on our wall"; we'll be throwing darts at his face for a long time..."

I think I was polite, but I was trying to get a soundcheck to happen.  If I made enemies with those guys, I'm not upset about it.

Largo, Los Angeles

Largo at the Coronet is the new space near Beverly Hills/West Hollywood that places great musicians in front of intimate audiences.  I've heard stories that the old Largo (on Fairfax) was legendary, and the new place is on the way to establishing that reputation once again.  The night before, Rickie Lee Jones had played, and the night after, it was Robyn Hitchcock.  It's also home to a number of "resident" type comedy shows, with stars like Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman.  And Jon Brion does a weekly Friday night show that sells out every time (with all-star guests dropping in to perform).  Quite the scene.

Unfortunately the mix position is in a booth, and the sound system is rudimentary.  A single stereo pair of QSC HPR 153i are the only PA, and you get two monitor mixes total.  Run from a Midas Venice 320, with a DOD stereo 15-band graphic and a DBX 266XL across the mains.  Reverbs were limited to a Lexicon PCM unit and an Alesis Microverb II (with no cheat sheet or manual, so it's a guess at what program numbers 1 through 99 will get you).  That's it.

Still, we had what we needed, and I can only say good things about Joe, the friendly and helpful technician.  What lacked in gear was made up for in vibe and an atmosphere where the performance is everything - once the show starts, there is no talking, no cell phones - nothing to distract from the stage.

I had a great time mixing here.  It was all about the performance and not about fine tuning every aspect of the sound.  Also, several big name guest artists came to play with the co-bill star of the show.  Monster musicians having fun performing music together.  It was great to see.

A day off in SF

I had a half day and then a full day off in San Francisco, and I tried to see what I could.  I was staying on the top of Nob Hill, so I was central to and got to see the downtown shopping areas, Chinatown, Lombard Street, and Fisherman's Wharf.  I bought the pass to ride the cable cars around - I felt it was mandatory.  I actually spent a lot of time in the Cable Car Museum, fascinated with the history and the low-tech systems still in place after all these years.  

Also, I liked the Musee Mecanique at Fisherman's Wharf.  Largest collection I've seen of nickelodeon type entertainment machines.  There's even a one-of-a-kind steam-powered motorcycle.  And it's free admission.

I'm such a geek.

San Francisco CA

Slim's in San Francisco is another legendary club.  I hear this sign made it into a "Zippy" cartoon.  An older custom JBL system, with subs, a Midas XL3 for monitors, and a M7CL out front.  

Alex was the very capable FOH tech, complete with a secret hide-out of his own to pass the time.  If you look closely, you'll see the blue can of "Touring Sound-Guy Correction Spray" (or something to that effect, a label that is stuck over a can of bug killer).  Luckily Alex did not feel the need to use that on me.  Thanks!

I want to thank the monitor tech too, and here he is, but I am very bad at remembering names.  That will teach me to wait a week to blog the show.

  

Eugene OR

I didn't take any pictures in Eugene, Oregon.  The Concert Hall at The Shedd Institute is an old church, with good acoustics and a decent sound system.  Meyer CQ-2's (one per side) is all you need for a nice acoustic show, and a Soundcraft Series 5 out front.  A nice Steinway D grand on stage too!  Some of the outboard gear was pieced together, but I had all I needed and it was a great show.

The next morning I took in the farmer's market downtown, and was amused by the micro-economy of the aging hippies with tie-dye and scented everything, mingled with the new age organic produce eco-friendly wares and good old-fashioned baked goods.  The rain was refreshing too.

From here we drove back up to Portland to fly to San Francisco.

Portland OR

Okay, I've been bad about posting.  I'll be catching up, so while I'm in Southern California right now, I'll be writing about where I was last week.

We played at The Aladdin Theatre in Portland OR, and I mean "played".  What a nice place for a show!  A nice EAW 850 rig, with a Crest X8 out front.  Paul was the the venue sound tech, pictured here pretending to have fun.

This was another co-bill show.  Two of my very favorite artists, what a treat.  It was great to see my production friends, Nick van Nood, and Mark Adler.  I also got to see my favorite brother-in-law, Jason, who came to see the show.  Too bad I couldn't hang out much, I had taken the train down from Seattle that morning, and I was pretty tired after the show.  Got a good night's sleep and I was ready for Eugene the next day.

I realize I'm being spoiled.  The work is really play, the hotels are super nice, the traveling is light (I'm not even driving, and we fly when the drive would be long), I've been getting plenty of time off for sightseeing, and I'm being paid well.  What more could I ask?

Alexandria VA

The Birchmere in Alexandria VA is a cool place for a show.  All good gear, Vertec array with subs and fills, Midas Legend 3000 out front, a little monitor board, and a great crew.  There was something funky with the mains that was difficult to nail down (I'm guessing a phase problem somewhere) but aside from that we had a great time.  This was the first show with a co-bill singer/songwriter, and it was great to see them in action.

From here, I flew home for a couple of days, voted, and had an election night party at our house.  Great to be home, great to see friends.  Thanks to the lovely Kim for setting that up.  I didn't feel like blogging much while I was home, so now I've got some catching up to do.  I'm actually waiting for a flight from Portland OR to San Francisco CA, and taking advantage of the free wifi in the airport.  I guess I'm cheap, but paying $10 a night at the hotels for internet is not my cup of tea.

More later, on travels in Portland, Eugene, and San Francisco.  

Baltimore MD

Last night's show was in Baltimore, at the M&T Bank Pavillion (part of the Hippodrome).  It's a ballroom with a four-story tall ceiling.  They've treated the walls, but still it's a big boomy echo chamber.  They've mostly used this space for weddings and parties, and they wanted to try a club type act (and we were their guinea pigs).  The turnout was not great, but ones who came were appreciative.  PA and monitors were Mackie SRM450's, with a couple of Mackie subs.  Everything run from a Yamaha DM2000.  It was hard to keep the sock monkey from climbing the mic stand, if you know what I mean.

The Brian and Julia Show

While in Maryland, I was the guest of Brian and Julia, currently living in their upscale graduate student apartment at the University of Maryland.  We got to enjoy a couple of nice dinners and Brian cajoled me into finally joining Facebook.  Then once I was on that, I got invited onto crewspace.  So I think I'm got some catching up to do on the social networking thing.  I blame Brian.

Thanks for putting up with me for two nights, you two!  It was great to see you.  On to Baltimore, for the next show!  Exit stage left, stage right even...

Norfolk CT, Northampton MA

There's a brand spankin' new venue in Norfolk CT that will become legendary.  It's Infinity Hall, a beautifully restored theater/ballroom type venue with great acoustics, a restaurant downstairs, and a killer sound system.  The whole thing was built with the musician in mind, in the hopes that artists who play there will pass the word on that it's the destination to play in the area.  There's not much else happening around there, as Norfolk is way out there in the middle of nowheresville.  Very cool place to have or to see a show.  Meyer PA (CQs plus subs and front fills), a Yamaha MC7L, and QSC HPR wedges.  The hall was too dimly lit for my pictures to come out very well, so imagine a beautiful place or check out their web site if you want to see better pictures of the place.  Tell your friends...

The next night was at The Iron Horse in Northampton MA.

A bit of a dive, but a favorite of artists and fans alike.  A Soundcraft K2 out front, decent outboard choices, and a funky PA consisting of all Technomad boxes.  Just in case it starts raining inside the club, these speaker enclosures are 100 percent waterproof and look like military grade pelican cases.  Turns out they sound okay too.  Northampton itself was worth checking out too, a smallish touristy type downtown area just chock full of college types on a sunny day.  A mecca for the crunchy granola liberal birkenstock-wearin' patchouli-reekin', well, you get the idea...

Show in Maine

Another fine show tonight, this one in Ogunquit ME.  Jonathan's Restaurant is a restaurant downstairs and a dessert and drinks live performance space upstairs.  The system is easily 25 or more years old, and I think it's safe to say it's time for upgrades.  See the lovely stage?  The powerful Bose "stereo everywhere" speaker system?  Don't see it?  Look closely.  They're the white thingies on the tripods near the lights.

Also, the board was notable, an archaic EV mixer, and a bargain assortment of outboard items.

A closer look at the mixer, which mostly worked...

I don't have much else to say except that even in a challenging room and with limited equipment, we made it happen and the audience had a great time.  Heck, I even had a great time.

Playing tourist in NYC

I had three days (and a few partial days) to check out NYC.  I know, the video won't get me any awards.  The soundtrack might even be called cliché.  But I'm not trying to impress, just share...

Posting in NYC was not working so well.  I'm trying to catch up while at the Hilton in Portland ME.  The wifi works here.

I've been interested in walking around and getting the microcosm views of little neighborhoods within the city.  It's more interesting to me than hitting all the tourist traps.  Although, I've seen some of those too.  I did pay to go to the top of the Empire State Building.  That was cool.  I've also been sampling cheap eats, including various pizza stands, some famous and some not, to get that experience.

I've learned the subways and the general layout of Manhattan, seen most of Central Park, and explored most of the upper west side (my hotel is at 94th and Broadway).  I've hit Greenwich Village and the West Village, Battery Park, Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, The Chrysler Building, The Empire State Building, and the American Museum of Natural History.  I think next week I'll check out the free Staten Island Ferry which gets you a good view of the Statue of Liberty and is only an hour round trip.  I'll probably also want to check out "Ground Zero" and Wall Street, and maybe some other notable spots.

My only lament is that I'm wandering alone.  I wish Kim and Aevin were here, there are so many things which would be so much better experienced with them.

Shows the next 3 days, back to "work".  I love what I get to do...

NYC show, Fairfield CT show

The show in NYC was at The Concert Hall at the Society for Ethical Culture.  Imagine a church like recital hall with large sweeping arches and a thrust stage that puts the performer in front of the speakers.  Hang time of at least 3 seconds.  A strong natural reverb.

Ground stacked EV boxes, Crest X8 series board, typical outboard stuff.  Wedges were run from on stage with a little rack mount Crest.  Everything went well, except a little problem with one of my piano mics.  One mic wasn't working during soundcheck, so we used the house mics that the crew thankfully brought along.  After troubleshooting and ruling out the normal culprits, my only guess is that maybe the board supplying phantom power wasn't up to a full 48 volts, because I could not get the mic to fail again later.  Seems fine now.

Another great show, I'm having the time of my life.  The crew was totally pro.  One guy there knew a friend of mine in Seattle.  Small world.  My thanks to all involved.

The next day we were in Fairfield CT, at the Fairfield Theatre Company's StageOne.  A simple black box theater with a thrust stage, placing the performer in the middle of the seats, with audience on three sides.  Simple EV boxes, with plastic self-powered boxes for side and middle fills.  Everything run from a Mackie TT24.  None of my pictures turned out, oh well.  Again, the two gentlemen on crew were solid pros, and very nice to work with.  Cheers and thanks!

Welcome to NYC, show in Philadelphia

Well,  I asked politely and got a different room, and it's great.  It's even smaller, but that's fine.  There's actually nothing at all wrong with the room except the toilet keeps running, which they say they'll fix today.  It doesn't bother me except the waste of the water.  The Wifi here in the hotel is sketchy, but works some of the time.  My posts this week might be determined by that.

We drove to Philadelphia for a show at World Café Live.  Terrific venue, great people, great show.  Had a yummy lunch in the café.  Soundcheck went fine.

The install here was handled by Clair Bros, and I had all the best tools to work with.  Midas Legend 3000, KT eqs, Yamaha SPX, TC M2000, Lexicon PCM91...  PA and wedges by Clair.

I had a great time and I thank the crew and venue staff.

Awesome hotel room

Took all day to fly from Seattle to NYC on Thursday.  Took a taxi from JFK to Manhattan (upper west side) to my hotel.  I checked in around midnight.

Awesome hotel room:

Observations:  Small but that's fine.  Eww.  There's a huge stain on the only chair, disgusting beyond all belief.  Words cannot describe.  Kind of like someone gave birth sitting there, and no one cleaned up afterward.  But worse.  They should just burn it.

Time for a shower, but both knobs bring in hot water.  Hmmm.  Two hot water knobs, no cold.  It's scalding hot, so I try to stand as far away as possible from the spray.  Wait for it, in the middle of showering when soap is in my face, it suddenly turns ice cold.  Went back to one knob at a time, no difference between the two.  Eventually both knobs each only put out scalding hot water again, no cold available.  Like I’m in a bad movie.

First towel smells strongly like bad cologne, other two towels are okay.

Annoyingly, the bathroom door keeps swinging open in the way, so I shut it, thereby locking myself in the bathroom.  I found out the latch is misaligned and I couldn’t get out of the bathroom until I could jimmy the lock with a piece of card stock sign I pulled down off the wall.

Bathroom fan does not work.

Toilet continually running due to flapper leak.

Bed frame broken in the middle, bed sags.

No cell phone signal from in the building, had to go outside to get signal.

Wifi broken.  No one working here knows anything about it.

Update on wifi, Leo at the front desk said he would reset the wifi router.  Now router requires a password, which no one here knows.  Nice job Leo!

Tomorrow I will attempt to get a different room.

Seattle - Shoreline Performing Arts Center

First gig down, here in Seattle, and it was fantastic.  I had a few people tell me it sounded great, so I must be doing something right.  I usually only hear from people if there's something wrong.

In Seattle, the system was old but in working condition.  A custom center cluster (maybe JBL?) installed in 1986, a Soundcraft Spirit LX7 24 channel at FOH, community CSX wedges.  The facility needed a few pieces including eq and fx, and some front fill speakers, which were provided locally by NAF Productions.  Special thanks to Mark Naficy for supplying the gear that made a huge difference to me, and to Marc McCartney for putting it all together for me.

Also, big thanks to the star of the show, who took the time to meet and greet everyone after the show, signing autographs and taking pictures.  My son Aevin got to meet a real rock star!

I've just now read the manual for the camera, so maybe the pictures will start to look better soon.

Next few gigs are in the vicinity of NYC, and I get a few days off there to scout around.  If you only had a few days to take in NYC, what would you choose to see?

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well, the tour started out full steam ahead with a great show in Seattle.  Terrific performance, the singer/songwriter really delivered.  I got word however that the co-bill star on some of the dates had an accident, and really hurt himself.  That and other circumstances put the start of the tour on a bit of a bumpy road with the second and third shows being rescheduled.  So instead of flying out Tuesday now I fly out Thursday morning to NYC.  We'll drive to Philly to pick up the tour from there.  Only a two-day delay, so not a big deal, but it just reminds me that there's no business like show business.

More once I get moving...

Bon Voyage Lunch

Today the guys at Meany Hall met for lunch at "Ceders on Brooklyn" for lunch.  Yum.  Just because I'll be gone for a while, it's a good excuse to have some good food in good company.  I've got a terrific boss and work with some swell people.  They're all warm and wonderful, and I like all their work.  Maybe they think that if I remember good times like this, I'll come back to my job.

Hey, whose snappy looking black car is that in the background?  It's boxy but it's good!

First post

My first blog attempt. Due to popular demand, I will blog my adventures on my upcoming tour. I'm not sure it will be interesting, but I'll try to find something to write about on an almost daily basis, without naming names. And maybe there will be some pictures. Thanks for stopping by.

I leave mid-October, stay tuned...