Production Nightmare

Soooooooooooo I was unaware that the headlining act was an act that pretty much has a residency playing at the Cubby Bear. They were awesome! It was just a two piece of acoustic and drums. Some parts were loops but when you have only two on stage you need samples. They were really cool guys who play what I like to call Latino Whites Stripes. I characterize it that way because they are a two piece like the White Stripes, but more Latino roots based. Which rocks their drummer is like a combo of drum and percussion melded into one.

After tweaking lighting cues for 3 straight days. I’m done. And I’m toast. At this point I think the Fall Out Boy tour will look pretty good. At least until I see the lights set up with the giant TV’s behind them.

Moving on with the tour update… So I left off when sound check ended in Moline. The gigs went really well I got to use a lot of my own rig and their dimmer board for pars. In most clubs it usually happens that way. They have the dimming system and I’ll bring in the automated lighting. It’s even better if they have both though! The first night was ok, but the second night was a lot more fun considering there were 200 people there for the first set. 

Greetings my fellow mutants! Well its official I’ve been on the road with EastonAshe for the past few days. We started out from Phoenix armed with an arsenal of food donated by the band parents which seriously kicks ass. Although the snacks only go so far when you have 7 hungry people on board. Other than that I’ve been enjoying McDonald’s, brownies, and other gas station goods…So I’m on the tour diet for the next few months! On Tuesday at 11am we packed up our vehicles. We use a Suburban which toes our trailer with our gear and an extra van to fit everyone else comfortably. We drove about 12 hours to Amarillo, Texas which went pretty smooth on the way I saw a sign that simply said LIGHTS as a reminder for drivers to turn their lights on. I made a note of the mile marker to get a picture on the way back. I didn’t drive the first day so I basically slept and designed a custom road case for my console setup when I update my rig which will hopefully be sooner than later. I really focused on where I wanted everything to be at the easiest space for me to get to it. I’ll share my design whenever I get it completely done. I have been researching Light Factory PC from Stage Research based out of New Zealand. It’s a great PC lighting program. So we get to Amarillo, check in, made some texts, and called it a night at 5am. We were waked up at 9am by the wake up call I asked to cancel! Then an hour later by our investor and we got up and packed back up to head to Illinois.

It’s a Saturday morning and Alex Skowron and I just arrived at the Upstaging rehearsal space. We’re staring at a monster lighting rig for fall Out Boy. For some reason it looks bigger than when we drew it on paper.

A couple of weeks ago, Sonny Sonnenfeld – the elder statesman of the entertainment lighting industry – was holding court at the Rose Brand cocktail… Read More »Our General Izenour

Every once in a while I feel the need to get away. It doesn't mean I stop working, but it means I'm not travelling to a different town to do a gig. I enter a work/play zone. So I did that last week.

Back in the television world again last weekend. Got to work with an old friend of mine, Jeff Ravitz. We shot a show featuring Willie Nelson and a few other country legends at a Chicago theater.

What up everyone!? Its 3am Arizona time and I have a lot on my plate to talk about in the next few months. To start, EastonAshe and I are getting ready to hit the road next week. I have to say I’m excited to get on the road and see some new venues and people. That’s the joy of the road to me is to meet cool people and learning along the way, and just having fun at what I do. We travel in a suburban with a trailer hitched to the back with all the gear and we also have a van too for extra room so we’re not packed in like a bunch of sardines.

Hey everyone welcome back to The Notebook. This week I’d like to start with my first visit to the USITT here in Phoenix, Arizona. I was familiar with the LDI and NAMM shows where they have a lot of lighting displays, but not this particular one. Fortunately in a previous blog I plugged that I was in Phoenix and if anyone was in town could contact me to see an EastonAshe show. Little did I know that Richard Cadena would be contacting me saying that he’d be in town and interested in checking out a show. I happened to be interested in checking out the USITT since it would be a great opportunity to mix it up with my peers in the industry.

    I’m just waking up again. Now it’s 3PM on a Saturday afternoon. After a long night of party preparation, I finally got some sleep. What is party preparation? It’s a lot of fast programming the many areas of a Bacardi Live Event in Miami.