Hey all, just dropping in to post some pics from the tour. It all went really good and the band was throwing down hardcore. A lot of new tunes were played and some really neat arrangements to a few classic covers were thrown into the mix. We ran through Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania I believe. Sometimes we all forget where the heck we are on most of these tours so I imagine I may be forgetting a state or two, hah!
Well I’m back at the old Sound Stage TV studio at WTTW in Chicago. Familiar building, but boy has the look changed. This is my fifth year doing shows down here, with 3 different directors. This time Bob Peterson is at the helm and the difference is quite noticeable.
It's been 10 years since I went to Russia to light a gig. Last time I was there, I had one of those gigs from hell, where it took 2 days to set everything up and it still didn't work correctly. I'm here to say they've come a long way.
Part One
The past month not a whole lot has been going on with me. I’m sure I could have sat down and told you all about my personal life but who really wants to hear about that? I don’t even want to think about it from time to time. I learned from other colleagues that this is typically a slow part of the year for touring so it didn’t bum me out too much, but I am definitely a guy who likes to keep busy. So in brief I was bored off my tail but that didn’t stop me from getting things ready for this next tour with Bonerama. The tour kicked off at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado starting a two week run through 11 states. To get ready for it I had to do some organization and a little bit of shopping. Recently I got a new Hog 500 from t2k lighting. I spent my time doing mostly data entry and some programming offline with a capture visualizer. When you have a large catalogue of music to work with every night you have to perform a lot of data entry to organize the show in the way you see fit. So I guess we’ll see how it all goes down.
If you've read enough of my jargon, you realize I'm a big believer in "giving something back". In other words, for years people have spent their time teaching me my craft. So now I spend time teaching others the same thing. But this morning I had something cool given to me.
Every year I design the set and lighting for a traveling rock show called “A Taste of Chaos”. Ten bands will perform on 2 stages every night. Each year I take a few young kids and try to school them in the art of setting up and lighting a rock show. Some pass with flying colors while others flounder miserably.
OK we’re back with another fine edition of “The Notebook.” The Bonerama group just got done a two week run down south and are fresh off a great performance on the Late Show with David Lettermen with OK Go’s Damien Kulash promoting their new EP “You’re Not Alone.” These past two weeks were full of good things. One would definitely be the new sections and solos added to the music. Each time I’ve gone out to work something new has emerged in their performances.
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I light business meetings every now and then. Those boring conferences where people in the same line of work gather to get worked into a frenzy in order to sell sell sell whatever it is their company hawks. They always seem to have a motivational speaker. And I hate these bastards.
Well, well, well, I finally got to take my first trip to New Orleans recently and it was for Mardi gras! For me this trip was not only a unique experience but to try to understand more about the element of music I work with every night when I’m out on the road. New Orleans is known for their sacred music from down south and its there in the city is where it can be truly understood watching the parades and seeing all the plethora of musicians all over the streets. It is virtually impossible to walk down the streets of that town and not hear music.
I basically bounce between the Hog 3, the Grand MA and the Maxxyz console these days. Why? Because they get the job done. And they all suck equally.
Faders. I’m sitting here thinking about them. Who invented them in the first place?
And why do they only go up and down?