I recently attended a Cross Canadian Ragweed show with a lady friend of mine. I heard of the band once while I was on tour with EastonAshe in Indiana. We were at load in and a song came on talking about “folks in Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong.” The lyrics began to humor me and the rest of the song is a riot to boot.
So getting back on track I am out one night with her and she asks me if I wanted to go to their show in Tempe. I had to rethink where I’d heard of them before and eureka, I remembered! So obviously being the dork that I am I go to the show with her. While she hung out drinking with her friends I stood back at the FOH/Lighting section (while having a few beers) like we all tend to do, examining gear. I developed a habit of the years doing lighting when I attend a show I wind up getting scrap paper and writing down everything I could find out about the rig. Their LD, Willard was really friendly and open for discussion when he had the time. I especially liked the kudos he gave me and for reading my PLSN blogs! So the venue is called ‘The Last Exit” where EastonAshe has performed from time to time located in Tempe. It is a smaller club but fit for Rock and Roll for sure. I like the fact that they’re getting some national acts in to play there. Good job Doug!!! So with having limited space he got to rig four vertical bars of staggered LED Color Blocks and ran them on a WholeHog II. Willard used great color combination and coding for songs. His pacing and patience were well controlled. When my rig is sized down I tend to try more of an aggressive approach to get a rise sometimes. But that’s why I do it at smaller level because this helps me learn what I can and can’t pull off (practice makes perfect). I mean come on, do you think a pitcher would throw a fastball every pitch? He’ll try to work in a new knuckleball he just learned! I noticed he used some cool color staggering between the blocks; he also sets up a sweet color scheme for drum solos as well. Willard also uses High End Studio Colors for stage wash. You can read more about Cross Canadian Ragweed and their tour at:
http://www.crosscanadian ragweed.com
If you guys read this go see their show you won’t be disappointed! Be sure to say hi to their crew (have a beer with them), the merch man, and if Steve Larson is touring with them his reps are super hot and available… I think 😉
PS- Thanks Willard and my Canadian neighbor Peter for reading. Best of luck!
Album of the week:
Dream Theater- Systematic Chaos
Movie of the week:
Smoking Aces
Cool Product of the week:
ArKaos VJ!!! This is going to make my video show the way I want it… When I get it! I’d like to extend a big thanks to Colin the LD from Galactic for introducing me to the gear. Good luck with Wakarusa. http://www.wakarusa.com/ Be sure to check out this link:
http://ilioslighting.com/index.php?content=home
EastonAshe URLs:
http://www.myspace.com/eastonashe
http://www.myspace.com/squints4
Don’t for get to email me at:
