Doppler, A Roadies View

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

posted by Doppler at 10:42 PM