Boring post.....don't read
Today is one of those days I don’t want to do anything but sit outside and drink. The weather is perfect, clear and around 70 degrees. Now this is what spring is all about!
I’m sitting on my back deck while I type this enjoying the day. I’m not drinking, still sober after all these years, well I do have lemonade here. I’ve been home about a week now and have spent most of it fixing, repairing and doing other odd jobs around the house. I spent over 6 hours yesterday staining my back fence. I still need to do the backside of it. Doing it with just a brush definitely takes too long. I have a sprayer around here somewhere. That will be used to finish that project.
Anyway, I guess the gear finally made it back to Los Angeles on Saturday, I think. What a nightmare. It cost some people a few extra bucks, which comes out of their pockets not our organization. Next time maybe they will do it right.
I have to fly back to LA on Thursday for the show on Friday. A balloon and wine festival. Should be fun, drunken women and sunshine, makes for a good combination. I’m not looking forward to all the flying though, it takes a lot out of you especially flying coast to coast. Nature of the business I guess. I have to do this a couple of times this month.
Still waiting to hear on the tour options for July. I think the one will probably happen. I hope it does because I get to work with some crew guys that I have toured with on four other tours over the last 10 years.
It’s that time of year and when nothing is locked down for sure you start getting nervous that you may be out of work during the busy season.
Sort of lost my camera on the tour, well actually I left it in the bus. I will be getting it back this weekend. I don’t know why I even took it on tour. I hardly ever have to time to take photos. I discovered I have more use for it at home.
Time to mow the lawn again……now where is my iPod?
Labels: Drinking, Home, Touring
Flag
It's Memorial Day in the USA. On this weekend we honor our veteran's. Fly a flag.
Another tour complete
36 hours at home and I still have the road on my mind.
I’m sitting here waiting to go to the dentist. I woke up in a great mood this morning and the day quickly turned bad. While I was flossing a piece of a molar broke off. I can’t believe it! I have excellent teeth; go to the dentist every six months. I was just there in March. I knew something was wrong though a week ago. The tooth just didn’t feel right and planned to make the call when I got home. Just glad it didn’t happen while I was on the road.
Looking back on the last five weeks. The tour was a success as far as the shows. Most of them were sold out and the band played great. I had the pleasure of working with three great crew guys. All of them total pros. We worked our Asses off and were tired all the time. We did have some fun and had a lot of laughs.
With that said, this tour was one of the strangest I have been on in a long time. If you know the movie Spinal Tap you will understand. I have mentioned it previously, some of the problems we had.
It looked like the last week would be fairly easy. Four shows in a span of six days. We got to the end only to have the last night become the biggest headache of the tour. It wasn’t a trailer problem this time, but a problem with the bus. We left Chicago around 3:30 am for a drive to Minneapolis for the last show.
I woke up around 7am to find us stopped on the side of the interstate. I knew something was wrong. The driver mentioned the transmission was overheating and downshifting. In my head I’m thinking there won’t be a show today and go back to my bunk.
Several hours later I wake up again and we have only traveled a short distance and find us in Rockford, IL. A tow truck is called and we end up at a truck service center. It’s now late morning and we find a truck to take the gear to Minneapolis. So you guessed it we transfer it in the middle of the parking lot. There is something very familiar about this task. Oh yea we did this four other times and usually on a day off. By this time we have it down to a science.
On this day I get left behind since there are four crew and only room for three. At first I am not happy about it, but then I think I can get some more sleep. We tried to get a passenger van for the band but no luck. The bus company we are using finds another bus in Chicago and my self and the band will ride on that. This is great except they tell us it will be a 2-hour wait.
Three hours later the bus shows up and we transfer all the bags over and off we go. We are about 5 hours from the gig and the show starts at 7:30 with Chantal. Our guys are to go on around 8:45pm. Not going to make it so the show is pushed back a half hour.
We make it and arrive around 8:20pm. Randy, our drummer joins Chantal for the last couple songs of her set. He has been playing with her the whole tour.
If we had been late the show could have still gone on since John has flown into Minneapolis that morning.
The unfortunate part was I didn’t have time to really go through the house lighting rig and also did not use the moving lights that we were carrying the whole tour. So the show ended up being very generic from a lighting standpoint.
It’s fine no one goes to see the lights anyway.
So it’s 10 days at home and then off to California for a one off late next week. We will be doing a couple of these during June.
Hopefully I will be doing a full tour starting in July. It will be something completely different from Five For Fighting. I am just waiting to get the confirmation.
Labels: Bus, FFF, Five For Fighting, Touring, Travel
Hello Cleveland!!! Hello Cleveland
The road is a strange and wonderful place at times. You see things and get to meet people from many walks of life. After several shows and many miles traveled the crew arrived yesterday in the city dubbed the Home of Rock & Roll, HELLO CLEVELAND!! To coin the line from the movie Spinal Tap.
We spent Sunday eating, going to the movies and hitting the nightlife. I had a chance to see the film “28 Weeks Later”. If you enjoyed the first film “28 Days Later” you will like this one too. We ended eating at an expensive restaurant which I usually only do once a tour. I had the lobster tail of course, which put a huge dent in my per diem.
While reading the local entertainment rag, we noticed that Lemmy was in town. As some of you know I am a fan of Motorhead and yes the man himself was in town playing a club. On this night it was with his side project The Headcat, which also includes the drummer from the Stray Cats. The play a couple original’s but mainly rock and roll standards. It was very cool and if you can you must check it out.
Today we decided to hit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Now I have been there several times over the years including several times with artist’s who performed for events there. Today we were treated to a behind the scenes look at items that are not on display but are located in the vault. This included the last passport of John Lennon. The jacket Prince wore in Purple Rain, one of Steven Tyler’s outfits and a jacket owned by Hank Williams Sr.
They will be opening an exhibit for the Doors starting next week and we saw a couple of the old guitar cases in the vault. Unfortunately the guitars were already in the display cases, which we didn’t get to see, we asked if we could get a sneak peek. They politely denied.
The nice young lady who runs the vault mentioned to us that a few of the things on display are actually copies. One of them was a song lyric that Lennon had written on the back of what looked like a brown grocery bag. We saw the copy on the exhibit floor later. I wonder how many others are copies.
We have just four shows left on this run. There are a couple of one off’s in June which I will probably be doing.
In the meantime I am looking for a summer tour. I have a few things in the fire but nothing has confirmed.
I hate looking for work.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Road
Spiderman 3 SUCKS!!!!!!
That is all....
The Fuzz
I spent the most time that I can remember in a mall today. We decided to see a movie which kept us hanging around there waiting for it to start.
Ended up seeing Hot Fuzz which was very funny. If you have ever seen the film Shawn of the Dead, this is from the same guys. If you like British humor I recommend seeing it.
It's off to Albany, NY tonight for a sold out show there tomorrow. This will put me in my neck of the woods for a couple days. Actually 3 hours from my house tomorrow and less than 2 on Tuesday. I will not venture home though, not enough time really.
Labels: High End, Touring
Nashvegas....what happened to Atlanta???
I sit here in Nashville writing a post, which I don't where to start.
Yesterday started out like any other. I wake up on the bus and finding us in a truck stop. Great I can make a morning visit. However this morning I see we are broke down. It seems the trailer behind the bus has a broken axle and we are 90 miles from Orlando.
Today the show is being video recorded for later use. We are stuck and the bus is going nowhere. We decide to rent a truck and some of the crew drive the gear to Orlando. The bus leaves the trailer at a repair shop and follows.
After arriving nearly three hours late we load in and scramble to get things set up. Everything comes together and the show comes off without a major hitch. Everyone is pleased with the way it went. The video crew tells me it looked great.
Before the show we discuss what we are going to do about getting the gear to Louisville on Wednesday. The bus company Coast to Coast is no help. If you every need a coach for a tour, please do not rent from these clowns, you will regret it. The only reason they got our account was because they are on the west coast.
I suggest we ask the local promoter if they no anyone who could drive the truck up to Nashville with our gear in it. Luckily they do know someone and things go into motion. We still need to get our trailer, which has not been repaired since they didn’t have the parts. We go back to the shop at 2 am and get it. Now it normally has two axles but now it only has one. Since it is empty we can pull it behind the bus.
We were supposed to have a day off in Atlanta today but end up going to Nashville. The company that makes the trailer are located here and they give us another trailer. They are going to repair ours. The truck arrives this evening around 8pm and we take all the gear out of it and load it into the trailer we have now. We did this on the street by the hotel. You have to love the looks some people gave us as they drove by.
So my day off is shot again. I need a shower and will sleep on the bus tonight instead of the hotel since we are leaving at 5am for an early load in Louisville. We will be playing with Collective Soul for an ESPN event tomorrow.
Hopefully our regular trailer will not be fixed in time otherwise we have to come back to Nashville and transfer the gear back to it. Our next show is not until Friday in Washington DC and we have a day off on either side of it. That is if we don’t return to Nashville.
The crew has begun to just laugh at everything. Humor is the only thing keeping us going at this point. We have only had one real day off so far and it is beginning to take its toll. My knowledge of movies comes in handing since I can quote most comedies and it breaks the tension.
Labels: Concert, Orlando, Touring
