Well the tour wrapped up in Winnipeg on Monday and we flew back to Toronto yesterday morning at 7 am. We spent the day doing several performance's including MTV and a 4 song set for the Casby awards. The guys won best new record of the year.
Things went very well but we were all exhausted at the end of the day.
I have several days off here in Toronto. I will be acting tour manager this weekend at the show in Houston. It will be the last show until November 16th.
Things have been a little surreal the last few days. We are still on the road but this part of the tour is basically over. We will still being doing the show in Winnipeg tomorrow. Unfortunately we have to use local production and this makes my day a lot longer. I have to program the show from scratch and I have mostly par cans and only 10 moving lights. But I am professional and I will rise above it.
Wednesday is still a scheduled fly day to Toronto. The band will be appearing at MTV in the afternoon and then at the Casby awards that night playing three songs.
It also appears that I will remain in Toronto until Saturday when we fly to Houston to do Buzzfest.
So all in all I will only lose about 10 days of work from this tour. There are three shows in late November in Florida and then several more weeks in the states in December. Most of these are radio station festivals.
There is talk of starting a long tour in mid January either in Canada or the US. Nothing is set in stone yet. I have been assured that we will be touring in 2008.
So one more week and then home to my simple boring life.
Where do I begin. Well as the title of this post says the tour has been cancelled. The singer from Sum 41 hurt his back on stage the other night and is laid up for 4-6 weeks. This happened during the show in Calgary. No one knew the severity of his injury until the next morning when the rest of us arrived in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
That night the guys (Finger Eleven) ended up headlining by themselves and played a longer set. This meant I spent the afternoon programming for four songs that I didn't have on this particular desk. The show went off well and the crowd had a great time.
We proceeded to Red Deer, Alberta after the show where we did the same thing the following day. However, we were informed that the promoter for the tour decided to cancel the remainder of the shows except Winnipeg. Needless to say we are all disappointed but things happen. At least we have that show and still have to do MTV and another TV event on Wednesday. Then next weekend we fly down to Houston for Buzzfest.
However, it also means 2 weeks less work for everyone. This I am not happy about since that is a lot of money that I will not see.
Today we spent the day off in Calgary. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Regina for another day off and then on to Winnipeg.
But wait!! We find out that the show in Winnipeg may be cancelled since there is no sound and lighting system available for the show. We have to use a regional company since the touring production was sent home. So everyone plans to fly home. Let's just say everyone is not in a good mood. What else can happen we thought.
We all head to the mall and then go eat dinner. While there the phone's begin to ring and we are informed that the show is back on. Production for the show is available because the band Heart is playing the next night and we can use the system that is being provided for them.
So now I wait to find out what lighting gear will be available. Hopefully the same console I had out here and similar lighting fixtures, but I am not holding my breath.
Well it's off to my bunk since we are departing at 4 am.
Finally a day off, well a partial day off. We departed Kelowna late last night and arrived in Edmonton around 3:30 this afternoon. I think I slept most of the way. However on our bus sleep is not very restful. We are on a Prevost H3 and they are so tall and just sway back and forth. I am stuck in a top bunk so I get tossed around like a rag doll.
Anyway after four shows and a couple days of rehearsal let me reflect a little. Things are coming together on all levels. I am still going through the lighting cues and cleaning things up. The guys have also been changing the set list around a bit. I am also taking on a couple extra jobs on this tour. Besides running lights for the Finger Eleven guys, I am running lights for the opener and also helping out the lighting crew and set carpenter.
Hey any extra cash is a good thing. Even though it makes my day a little longer.
I took a few pictures of the lighting just after sound check yesterday. Kind of hard to see with the venues house lights on but it gives me an idea of how things are progressing.
The show in Toronto next month will be filmed for release as a concert DVD. So I have begun to get ideas for the show since we need to add a bit more lighting for the shoot. I expect to hear from the video crew this week.
Well another week at home just flew by. After some home repairs, a dentist visit and auto inspections I head back out on the road. It's off to the great white north. We will be on the Strength In Numbers Tour co-headling with Sum 41. If you have seen the guys in Finger Eleven before well they have a couple of surprises for you this time around.
The tour will run till November 10th, hopefully we won't see a lot of cold weather yet. Well at least not much snow.
The last week or so has been a bit of blur. Saturday night in Detroit ended up being the last show of the US run. Scott's voice finally gave out on him and we had to cancel the St. Louis performance.
Everyone is home on a week long break. Of course what that means for some of us is working at home. We have a new set design for the Canadian tour and we are trying to get things together as I type.
After all these years it never surprises me when I run into someone that I have known in the past or an artist that I know of. The production manager for the tour is someone that I have worked with but it has been years.
Last week we spent a couple days in New Jersey since the band had press in NYC. One morning there were some other tour buses parked in front of the hotel. This is not uncommon at this particular hotel. On Tuesday night we had a late night departure and I was in the elevator heading downstairs. There was a guy on there when I got on. He asked me what band I was with. He said he thought he recognized a couple of the guys earlier in the day. I asked him who he was with and his response was Hanson. Yes the guys that sang MmmBop. It took me a second but I realized it was the singer. He has a beard now. I felt bad and he kind of laughed when I asked him. I apologized and wished him luck and safe travels. He did the same.
My niece loved them when that single came out. I should have gotten her his autograph. No wait, that would have really been awkward.
Rants and discussions, from a roadie. I'm a tour manager and lighting director for major music tours. Posting things about the road and random thoughts as well.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
