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!