Doppler, A Roadies View

3 Days on the road...Part 1

The corporate date we did on Tuesday is over. Things started out with a couple of flights to California on Monday. Of course my connecting flight out of Chicago was delayed, thanks American Airlines. I finally got into LAX around 10pm.

The crew did get to stay at a Ritz Carlton hotel right on the ocean. Now this is a place to spend a few days. Too bad we didn't spend much time there.


The venue was very nice. It's basically an opera house that was just built in 2006. There is a picture of it that you see at the top of this post. This is from their website.

The band and our guitar tech drove down from LA where they are rehearsing.

Just before sound check I was out working with the house lighting crew trying to get some programming done on their new console. They have an ETC EOS, which just recently came on the market. Not a bad console, but there are still bugs in the software.

While I was at the board I heard a crash on stage. When I looked up I see Randy the drummer getting up off the floor. It seems the local crew left some sort of rolling stage platform out and Randy didn't see it and tripped. He ended up injuring his right hand. It is mainly his thumb and the hospital didn't find a fracture. He was able to play some of the songs even though he was bandaged up.

The show went fairly well otherwise.

Want to mention there are a couple new guys in the band for the upcoming tour. Greg Suran will be playing guitar. You may have seen Greg play with Jewel recently. He also toured with the Goo Goo Dolls for a couple years. I have actually known Greg for about 12 years. He was the touring guitarist for the band Machines Of Loving Grace who I road managed for several years.

Playing bass on this tour is Eric Holden who plays with the Bo Deans. Of course Randy Cooke is still behind the kit.

We have a couple new crew guys this time out.

Labels: California, Concert, Crew, FFF, Five For Fighting

posted by Doppler at 9:11 PM