Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Detroit and on to Chicago and another day off... Detroit, MI
Here we go again!
A dear friend wrote me yesterday.
in responding i thought i would post it for it's own sake...
The pictures, too, tell a great story. However, I don't see any pictures of You.
have someone get one while you are engineering.
I'm very glad to hear that all is well and you are getting a taste
(and smell) of America!
ok, for you i will do this.
Otherwise, how are things? Are you generally stressed or not?
in general, no stress... nothing noteworthy anyway.
is it a hard life being on the road?
not really... the toughest things i have to deal with are finding a post office to send
in deposits to the bank and getting a good night's sleep..
hotel beds are generally shit.
and unfortunately, my bunk on the new bus is not very comfortable either.
last one had a much better pillow and mattress ....it is not easy being 6'4.
glad i brought my Thermarest camping mattress.
nope, not getting quality, restful sleep anywhere.
is there excitement and energy every day you wake up to know that you are in a different city and there will be a different concert experience, or is it "same shit, different day." TELL ME :-)
there is a certain amount of enjoyment in knowing that it is NOT truly ssdd.
i guess i really have not gotten "stoopid-excited" about any one day or show.
it's more of a challenge to get a consistent mix with different sound systems
and venues.
there was/is the rain issue as 99% of these are outdoors. we did do a full show in
the rain a couple days ago.. the photos will be up in a while..
it really takes a fair amount of "quiet time" to do the web updates and cook
the discs of the shows .. the photo thing , well, i still am trying to find the time to
shrink and assemble them all into a document or two...
ask your man about re-sizing, cropping and saving for the web)
and then there is my slow-as-mole-ass USB drive where i need to store all the raw
data..it takes about 15 minutes to "dump" an hour show... so with the editing time,
and a full rewrite every time i save the changes, there can be up to 45 minutes
of prep time BEFORE cooking the disc.
typical day for me is setup the keyboard rig, mic up the drums, prep the cables and
then run my "toys" out to FOH at the gig around 11AM , stay on site thru the show,
sometimes 7pm or later, break down and go back to the hotel with the band.
oh yea, find food at the gig too...
so, on a long day, it's 8-10 hours from leaving the hotel till getting back.
a short day is , like today, leave the hotel at noon, drive 3-4 hours, setup and gig
(5ish hours today) , get back on the bus and drive another 4 or 5 hours to the
next hotel,Chicago House of Blues , where i am now, at 4 something in the morning.
but i love it!
the gig...almost forgot....
outdoor, sweaty, dank, locker room-ish dressing rooms and bathrooms..
un-cooked fish and passe confections.. but they did have neopolitan(?) ice cream sandwiches!
the space was primarily a classical venue and they left up the "clouds" over the downstage.
the rig was EAW and although it sounded nice at the top of the space, there was rampant
125, 160, 315 and 500hz shit down in the first 25 or so rows.
all in all it was ok..
spent the next day screwing around in Chicago, we drove out after the show to arrive at
around 5AM at the House of Blues hotel. ended up at the HOB (free admission too)
for the Lucciano(?)gig.
nice show... more tomorrow!
onward!
BACK!