Red, White and..........
So we arrived in Kansas City from LA last night. It's back on the bus....well at least until the hotel. It seems like we are hardly on it. Today we did a radio show called Red, White and Boom....hey I didn't come up with it. This is the forth time I've done this event. Which is a lot considering it's the ninth year for it. It was a bit different this time with a second stage near the main stage instead of in the back. There were two track acts before us on the main stage. One of them being Kimberly Locke, yes that one from American Idol.
Our set went ok. These are always tough when you don't get a sound check. At least it was an early day. We were back at the hotel by 8:30pm.
The next two days are days off for the crew. The band will be flying to NYC to film a couple songs for ESPN. So we are going to St. Louis. Tuesday we will be in Chicago at the House of Blues. I hope you are ready in the windy city, I know we are.
The tour has just two weeks to go. It is going by so fast. It looks like we will have some time off. So in the mean time I will be going back out with the band
Blue Epic. Back to the tour manager position.
I will be back to Five for Fighting as soon as they hit the road again this fall. In the mean time FFF continues the trek across the midwest. Let me tell you it has been really fun and the band rocks.
What is that??
Quick note. I just posted new photos on the
web site.
Beach Bum
Well several days have gone by. The last time we were in Washington DC. This was last Friday. The show…. Went very well, the best one up to that point. I wish we could have filmed, it looked great. I have to say I was very pleased. The sound was also top notch. As always a great job by Al our sound engineer. The band were also on top of it.
Saturday rolls around and we leave the bus for a few days and hop a flight to San Francisco. Six hours to the coast and flying the fine folks at Jet Blue Airlines. I love these folks, never a bad flight. The fun begins upon arrival. The promoter shows up with one 15-passenger van. Mind you we have 7 of us, luggage and some band gear. We just barely fit. John did not travel on the same flight so we had a little room. The good thing is we are staying at the W hotel. These are some of the nicest hotels in the world. After a rest six of us head to dinner. A very posh place and the bill was over $650..Ouch!
Sunday and the gig. It takes place in Golden Gate Park and a bit of a chilly day. This is a radio station event for the Alice. Smash Mouth, Gavin DeGraw and Berlin are also on the bill. The day was chaos to say the least. The promoter forgot to pick up the crew. Then we had sound problems. However we pulled off the show and the crowd was great. Thanks SF we will see you again soon.
We have to leave immediately after the show to catch a flight to LA. Of course the flight is delayed. I hate cattle call airlines, AKA Southwest airlines.
Monday is a day off and sleep. Not much happened.
Tuesday and the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA. The show was sold out again and the crowd was very appreciative. This venue hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s basically a dinner theatre. A bit of a strange place to do a rock show.
So today was another day off. Myself, Noah (the drummer) and Casey (our monitor engineer) decided to drive up the coast to El Matador beach. This is just north of Malibu. If you have ever seen the movie the Big Lebowski, they shot a scene there. It is a bit secluded. You have to walk down a bunch of steps and a path to get to it.
It is an amazing view. The water was actually a bit warm. What a great way to spend an afternoon. I posted a couple photos on the web site under the FFF page. We also had supper just down the road right on the beach. A little seafood by the sea.
So tomorrow is a show at House of Blues in West Hollywood. This should be a great time since it is basically a hometown show for the guys. On Friday it’s off to Kansas City were we will pick our bus back up and continue on until mid July.
A quick note, there was a tentative date for Madison next week. However, the show will not be happening. Sorry to the folks there.
Keep checking the site for more live photos soon.
Doppler
Cheesey
Well another show down. Yesterday was Philadelphia and the Theater of Living Arts. Let me just say the crowd was great. The band was so appreciative. Glenn Phillips has also been getting a great response.
So let's just say I've had my fill of cheese steaks for awhile. They are always good, but I regret it the next day.
I haven't had a chance to take too many photos so far. I will do my best to change that. However, I have posted a couple live shots on my
website. Thanks to Al, our tour manager for taking them.
One more east coast show, here in Washington D.C. Tomorrow we jump on a plane for the west coast. Three shows out there starting on Sunday.
I'll report more then.
Big Apple is cooking
Ok so it's hot again. Dam I hate it. NYC in June and the humidity is like August already.
So we played Irving Plaza in Manhattan last night. If you've never been there, it hold around 1,100 people. It's kind of like a little theater, with a small balcony. I've done this venue many times over the years.
So from my end of things, I had several great comments on the lights. Thanks for the kind words. It's nice when people notice.
I was here about a year ago on another tour. Since then they have added a new console (Jands Hog 1000). This made me very happy. I had about 2 and half hours to program, let's just say the pressure was on. They have also added the new Vari-Lite 3000. They have eight of these. They are a bit overkill for this size venue, but they look and worked great.
Our soundman took a couple photos, which I haven't seen yet.
The band had some trouble with the stage monitors last night. They think the stage volume is a bit loud and it is affecting the monitors. So today a new plan is being worked out.
We are spending the day off in NYC. The guys have a another show tomorrow early in the day. It is some industry event in Union Square. My self and the crew are not doing the show. We are going to Philadelphia there is a show tomorrow night. The guys will meet us there after the early show. Then it's on to Washington DC on Friday.
Peter the guitarist who played with the band in 2002 was at the show last night. It was great to see him. He is doing a tour with another artist, the name escapes me, sorry Peter.
Not much else to report so far. I need to take some more pictures, which I hope to have on the site in a few days.
Time for lunch....
Tea party
So we played a show in Boston last night, which was sold out. It went very well for the band. I was a bit rusty, especially the beginning of the set. It has been two years since I have done a show with them. The band has added a second keyboard player. It really adds a lot to the music. He will be player the East Coast shows with us.
So today is a day off, which we are spending in Boston. Some of us went to Harvard square and had lunch. Yes, as you can guess this is near Harvard University. While there we were in a small diner and Peter Wolfe came in. Peter is the former singer for the J Giles Band.
So the tour continues tomorrow with a show in New York. So I will update after the show on Wednesday.
First Show
Well we are off and running. Just had out first show. It was a radio show in Syracuse NY. Thanks to the folks at WNTQ for all there hospitality. The crowd was also very appreciative. So we have two new crew guys working with us. They did ok, they need to work out some bugs.
Things got off to an interesting start yesterday, when the band gear had to be picked up earlier. Being I was the only one in town along with the bus driver. I went to the freight company to pick it up. We loaded it by ourselves. It was actually quite easy. We just lucked out though that the bus got in so early and was alble to pick me up.
The wonderful folks at Northwest airlines lost our tour managers bag yesterday. He received it today luckily.
It's funny I'm right back into the swing of working with this band. It's hard to believe it has been nearly two years since the last tour. It seems like yesterday. The guys are in great spirits. Stuart is the new guitarist. He was recently playing with Jewel. Really good player and nice person. Nowah is the new drummer. He is rock solid and also very cool.
Well everyone is grabbing showers. We head off to Boston at 3am. Tomorrow we play the Paradise. Not a big club, but always a good time. The crowds in Boston for FFF are always great. The guys will be doing about 17 or 18 songs on the headline dates. So if you are coming out you will be getting your monies worth.
Day off on Monday so I will check back then.
Doppler signing off.
No Time
So it looks like I'll be leaving earlier than expected. I spoke to the bus driver, seems he left Nashville early. He will be rollin near my house late tomorrow instead of early Saturday morning. So now I'm in a panic trying to get things done around the house. Laundry needs to be finished and I still need to pack. Finally cut the grass, three days later than I wanted. Finished paying my bills.
So the rush and excitement of a new tour as begun. Wait what am I doing here....got to go...more updates later.
It's HOTTT!!!!
Well we had a pretty rainy May, but the temperatures were very nice. It's been around 70 for weeks and low humidity....love it!. Well the heat and humidity is back, I guess summer is here. At least by thursday it will cool again. Of course I'm out on Saturday.
OK why am I bitching, it is summer after all. Well, I will see enough of the heat on tour this summer. That's right I'm a pussy, I hate humidity.
So heard today that we get four days off in the middle of the upcoming tour, the day after the 4th of July. It is actually two full days, we fly on two of those. I was going to go somewhere, but with such a short break, I'll just go home.
Looks like there are some more shows be added for late July.
Can you say accumulating frequent flyer miles?
Tour Prep
Well, things are coming together for the Five For Fighting tour. The starts in just 6 days. Myself and the sound engineer, Al are wearing several hats again. He is tour managing and mixing sound. I'm running lights, setting up drums and overseeing the merchandise. We also have a stage tech. Al and I did the same thing in 2002, along with a different guitar tech.
Al is like me and can do several jobs and do them very well. When people hear how much we do they think we are overworked. This is not the case, we just budget our time very well. The organization is well organized, which helps. We carry our own mics, a monitor console and in-ear monitors. I use local lighting production. I wish I could carry some moving lights for this run. Hopefully later this year. The guys don't have a ton of band gear. Which saves us some time when setting up.
So I'm going to try and take quite a few pictures on this run. I will post as many as I can on my site. I wish this run was a bit longer. I would imagine there will be more dates in August and September. The first single is still get a lot of airplay. So hopefully we will be working through the rest of the year at least.
Metal vs Punk showdown
So it seems that the bands Godsmack and Story of the Year got into a bit of a fight the other day. Well, Godsmacks crew, supposedly. A couple of SOTY crew guys were smacked around. They claimed they were attacked by Godsmack crew and some security. Seems that SOTY invited people to come down from the lawn into a reserved seating area during there set. According to a statement that WAS on their site. Godsmack was upset with this act.
This may be true but I would bet there were other things that led up to it.
Last year I was the LD for the band Cold and we did a bunch of dates with Godsmack. We never had any real problems with them. Like I said my guess is someone from SOTY was probably shooting off their mouth. These corporate "punk" bands have one hit and think they are rockstars. Pay your dues fellas and keep your mouths shut.
I know for a fact they are still pissing and winning about it.
If you really were not at fault, file a police report.
