Wine, women......and balloons?
Three days and 4600 miles later I have gone from the east coast to the west coast and back again. The show went well considering everything.
We did it without our regular monitor engineer. The guys from the production company did their best. However a word of advice, have someone wire the stage that knows what the hell they are doing.
The venue was in a beautiful location just outside of Temecula California, This is a wine area hence the wine and balloon festival that we played. Everyone was very nice and the crowd was appreciative. The picture you see is the stage early in the day.
We didn’t see any balloons flying around during the day because it was too windy. They did blow a few of them up in the evening but they didn’t fly them. I took a couple of pictures but my camera sucks outside at night.
The weather was nice but a bit cool for this time of year. We were all wearing hoodies during the show. It is hotter here on the east coast right now.
At this point I am off the road until June 15 when I do it all over again and fly to Sacramento.
Labels: Concert, FFF, Five For Fighting, Live
24/7 and life on the web
I heard a story on the news the other day about a guy in San Francisco who is wearing a video camera 24/7. He is broadcasting on the web live. I'm not really sure why. Anyway it is called
Justin TV.
Now this is similar to an idea I had about having a camera set up in the front lounge of the bus. Of course if we did that, it would be as exciting as watching paint dry.
Nothing like watching a bunch of people sit on a bus watching TV, playing video games and reading books.
Labels: Broadcast, Bus, Internet, Live, Web
I want to see Heaven and Hell
I am as much a fan of music even though working with musicians is what I do for a living.
Back in 1980 I was in high school and like most teenagers I loved going to concerts. That year I went to see Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. To this day it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen.
I posted sometime ago that the members of Sabbath were going to get together with Ronnie James Dio and tour. The band is called Heaven and Hell. The tour begins next week. I am not involved in this tour myself, but I thought people my be interested in seeing what the stage set will look like.
A company called MasterWorks Lighting are designing the show. You can see the renderings on
their site. Cool design. This is a slide show so make sure you let it load and watch the whole thing
They will be using a lighting fixture called a
DL2 from Highend Systems to do projection.
If you already have tickets enjoy, it should be a fun show.
Labels: Concert, Lighting, Live, Sabbath
Five For Fighting Tour Dates
I received dates for the upcoming tour for
Five For Fighting. They are not all confirmed and some of the venues may change. There are also a couple of dates which list multiple cities, of these will eventually be one or the other.
I mentioned I would post the dates as soon as I got them. Here they are, well sort of. I will list the cities but will wait to list the actual dates. The tour will start April 17 or 18th.
Here you go:
Las Vegas, NV
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Kansas City, MO
Dallas, TX
Austin, TX
Orlando, FL
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Norfolk, VA
Baltimore, MD
Albany, NY
Verona, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Mashanutucket, CT
New York, NY
Cleveland, OH
Milwaukee, WI
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
Vancouver, BC
Reno, NVThere will be an additional 6 or 7 other cities. I know what a couple of these are and what they may be, but like I said they aren't confirmed.
I will say many of the venues will be theaters.
As soon as the dates are confirmed I will post them along with actual dates and venues. If not here at
my website..
I will be out running lights and helping with the stage as always.
Fire up the video game console it's time to hit the road again.
Labels: FFF, Five For Fighting, Live, Touring, Tours
Ozzfest 07....FREE
I just read this article on
Pollstar. It seems that Ozzfest will be going on the road again this year. The interesting thing is tickets will be free. Yep, a free concert tour.
It's an interesting concept. They will definitely fill the seats. How will this tour cover it's cost? Corporate sponsors will be everywhere on this thing. Also Live Nation will be promoting all dates, the venues have not been announced yet. Of course these will be Live Nation owned which means a percentage of the concession and vending revenues will go in their pockets as always. I wonder how much a bottle of water or a hamburger will be this year.
The bands will not be getting paid. Ok well I wonder what "name" groups will be willing to play for free. Sure there will be younger bands will to do it for exposure. Just don't plan on a band like Judas Priest or Slipknot to play for free.
Distribution of tickets has not been announce yet either. I think you will still need a credit card to get them and don't be surprised if you pay a service and handling fee. They will need to set a limit on the number of tickets to each person. The other possibility is a lottery type system.
Here is the article
Free Ozzfest
Updated 11:46 PST Tue, Feb 06 2007
Ozzy Osbourne and wife/manager Sharon Osbourne held a press conference at the Concert Industry Consortium February 5 that was promised to be historic, and was.
Osbourne dispelled rumors that he was retiring and announced the first free festival tour in the history of the U.S.
"Ozzy's been touring for 30 odd years and he's done very well, and just wanted to give something back," Sharon said.
The tour starts in San Bernardino July 7 and will continue through 25 cities including San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, West Plam Beach and Nashville. A final confirmed list of cities and dates is forthcoming.
How this will work logistically is unclear, but it will be a ticketed event and is a Live Nation tour.
"For the last few years,ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours," Sharon said. "We certainly want everybody to make money, however we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year."
The bands will not be paid. This gives artists an opportunity to get exposure by playing in front of thousands of Ozzfest fans, Sharon said. The artists will have the opportunity to secure other gigs during the tour.
A lineup is expected within two weeks.
Joe Reinartz / Pollstar Labels: Concert, Live, Music, Tours
Just another Five For Fighting photo post.....for now
I really didn't have much to say, but I did find another good live shot from the last tour. This is from Birmingham, AL.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live
Five For Fighting West Hollywood
One more live shot from the road. House Of Blues and the home town show during the encore.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live
Five For Fighting Another St Louis
Ok.....one more from St Louis
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live, St Louis
Five For Fighting St Louis Encore
This is the encore after John had brought down the screen so the crowd could watch the final out of the World Series. I think he has life time fans in St Louis after this.
I have uploaded a video on my MySpace of it too.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live, St Louis
Five For Fighting Chicago Again
Ok.....so here is another one from Chicago
Labels: Chicago, Concert, Five For Fighting, Live
Five For Fighting in Montreal
Another live shot....this one is from Montreal. I have posted a video clip on my MySpace page from this show too.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live
Five For Fighting Washington DC
This one was taken at the 9:30 in Washington D.C. You can see our guitar tech who is wearing wings. He did this as a joke one night for the song "Angels and Girlfriends" and he was stuck doing it the rest of the tour.
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live, Washington
Five For Fighting Milwaukee
Taken at the Pabst Theater 10-9-06
Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Live, Milwaukee
Five For Fighting Chicago
Taken at the House of Blues in Chicago Oct 10, 2006
Labels: Chicago, Concert, Five For Fighting, Live
