Heading back from Auschwitz I try and comprehend and envision the chain reaction of events that could possibly inspire a group of industrious and civilized humans to build a human slave and death industry. Well, it turns out that as horrific as the outcome is, finding the confusion that created was quite is quite easy.

http://www.prisonexp.org/ This has a pretty interesting slide show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.php And being aware of our human weaknesses may be helpful in self guiding ourselves away from things we do not wish to become.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Ok, enough of that for today and though it wont go away, how about shifting gears over into being aware of the fact that Mickey Avalon is playing and ponder the benefits of doing some exercise Jane Fonda style.

Watching his show just makes me happy and crossing paths afterwards gave me a chance to grab the gratuitous photo.

I must remember to go see them do a headline gig in LA.

It was a nice warm night, clear skies, pretty normal stadium and your typical skier's chair lift hanging over the backstage parking lot. Nothing unusual here folks, move along.

Back to what we call a "box" stage again and for some surprise reason mix position somewhere out in left field. I can mix the show from anywhere, hey, if audience are going to stand there, I should be able to mix the sound from there, right? Well, kind of right, I can and have mixed from all over the place and I could probably drive a sightseeing bus from the back while sitting on the roof but it would be a lot more mind-work and more stressful. That is how mixing the show feels from an off center spot. Too close is not good either as it becomes difficult to grasp the overall audience perspective. The optimum mix area is far enough away to be in tune with the entire venue while close to maintain a visual connection with the band. There is almost an invisible optimum area and it is the point where the audience naturally transitions from pit/crush to sparse. That beltway that divides the physically immersed from the visually immersed. Oh, and preferably in the center.

**** Link of the day ****

http://www.metacafe.com/user/2649337/shootingeggs/

**** End Link of the Day ****

Dave Rat

Today for our little journey we are going to head into the depths of horror. A true mind crushing surreal nightmare.that defies comprehension. Why, you wonder? Well, to remember. To remember never to underestimate the ability of humans to embark gung ho in the worst of possible directions. To remember that human perception slides with the times and the environment that we are immersed in. To remember to look around at the world we live today and perhaps spot the seeds of bad ideas taking root and to reject blindly accepting them as an acceptable "normal." There was a time not to long ago where a group of humans thought that to slaughter their brethren as one would kill giant insects, was somehow a good idea. In the world today, that time is still now and may always be but history knows of none that has ever pushed the mass extermination of humans to a more clinical, cold, horrific level.

Today roadies Scott, Sat Hari, Veronica and honorary roadie Emma B, head to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp and where the home and office of one Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß was located.

"Rudolf Höß was one of history's greatest mass murderers, the architect and SS Kommandant of the largest killing center ever created, the death camp Auschwitz, whose name has come to symbolize humanity's ultimate descent into evil. Responsible for exterminating 2,5 million people in World War II, he was a mild-mannered, happily married Catholic who enjoyed normal family life with his five children despite his view of the crematoria chimney stacks from his bedroom window." http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2001/11/25/stories/2001112500210400.htm

"Work Makes (one) Free"

"About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, with about 300 attempts successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. If someone did manage to escape, the SS would kill ten random people from the prisoner's block. This was a quite persuasive method to discourage escape attempts."

"Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chamber to accommodate 2000 people at one time whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz.

I understand English as it is written above. The above statements are true; this declaration is made by me voluntarily and without compulsion; after reading over the statement I have signed and executed the same at Nuremberg, Germany, on the 4/5/1946. - Rudolf Höß."

And for those whom wish to see photos that are so grim they are hard to process for their true intesity http://www.oskarschindler.com/Albums5/album.htm

A doorway built by humans that existed in an incomprehensible perception realm. I try and grasp a state of mind that could possibly swirl everyday humans into executioners that carry out orders and laugh as children and mothers and doctors and tailors and wanderers and are gassed and shaved while pillaging their belongings and selling their hair for mattresses. The alien concept is so surreal it feels as if it could never occur, not here, not there, not anywhere. But it did and it can again as we humans are not immune from a bad idea spreading amongst us as a mind-virus infecting the masses, crystallizing our fears into manifestions of hatred.

Wary, I am so wary of anything or anyone that utilizes fear to perpetuate their objectives, as thought-structures that are built from fear can not help but be permeated with hatred. It is so pathetic that it proves irresistible for our false leaders to shovel out piles of fear to manipulate us, the idiot masses. "Danger danger, quick give me your money and soul so I can empower my greed and validate my twisted illusions." So transparent yet it fools the fools everytime.

Dave Rat

So rather than ride a bus for 16 hours I asked my musical friends if I could join them on the plane. This tour is a bit rough. Though not as rough as climbing Mount Everest barefoot and naked but it is more rough than the previous tour legs we have acclimated to. We are moving fast and far and have lots of trucks full of gear and jumping between festivals and stadiums and everything keeps changing. Tough comes in various forms, the hard work type were you kick ass sleepless day after day and the mind fuckery tough where you are constantly chasing gremlins between the times you are trying to predict and prevent them. One has a rhythm, the other does not. So maybe rough is not the right word and perhaps more accurately stated, the motion of this tour lacks rhythm, which makes it tough.

As we are greeted upon landing by our bullet proof vest wearing pals, it becomes clear that we are not in Kansas. So of course we grab the tough guys to do a photo op with Sat Hari while crossing our fingers that bullet proof vests won't be an item I find myself wishing I wore.

Now what do we do?

And while thumbing through a German lighting magazine, memories of the good old days come rushing in

Dave Rat

The temporary nature of anything and everything may not be readily evident on a daily basis and illusions of foreverness easily seep in as we become comfortable with the things that seem not to be changing. Perhaps these 'permanence illusions' are the underlying culprits for us humans taking so many things in the world around us for granted. The Earth itself, the environment we live, the structures and relationships we build are all temporary existences that we are helpless to perpetuate forever. That does not mean that attention and care spent can not greatly extend the existence and quality of the things we choose to focus on. Or put another way, just because it wont last forever does not mean we should neglect it now.

And then there is the otherside. The grand ol' "ooopsy daisy!" Where you do care, you are carefully and a slip of thought caught a moment too late and poof, damn. This the story of Chad's poor stereo. It is not the first time that we have had to take a peek in here and there seems to be a direct correlation between the smoke coming out of the stereo and when Chad plugs this 120 volt unit into a 240 volt outlet. So back for another round on the operating table

And look, our little yellow friend Thermy has cracked up and lost it in fiery death. Even burning Mr. Magneto next door.

Fortunately, as sad as I am to admit it, Thermy was, shhhhh, "not critical to the operation of this fine Bang and Olufsen stereo" and can be referred to as a "Spare Part." Why would they put spare parts inside? Not quite sure but it is fairly common and has something to do with the complete disconnect between what the designers of things in the company lab envision the real world to be like versus the way the real world actually is. Anyway, I took the poor dead little yellow Thermy and wrapped him in orange coffin gaff tape and affixed him to the power cord as a reminder. Perhaps his life lost will save the remaining survivors.

So here we are.

And this is Larry Palm, he was my room mate and snow board partner for many years when I lived up in Big Bear. He is working for Dinosaur Jr. after just finishing up with Pearl Jam and a roadie through and through. Great to see old friends.

And speaking of Dinosaur Jr, how cool is that! Way back over two decades ago they were around in the Black Flag days on SST records and have been crossing paths over the years but this time I had some time to say hello and hang out for a bit, say hey to J!

And then the Peppers and Michael Rother came up to jam.

And that is what I did today,

Dave Rat

Night or day which comes first? I dunno but here are a few shots from last night before we wake up for Hamburg.

And off the bus we head and wait a minute, I remember this hotel, how can one forget the circle of critters when looking down from the lobby.

And look, they even included a life like roadie!

So they call this town Hamburg, so silly when people think there is some association between a cities name and what it sounds like. Or perhaps this this truly is the birthplace of the hamburger, Wait, look, there are some prehistoric hamburgers in their early stages of life! Yumm!

This place is cool! All good and a great for a wander and food and beer and friends, roadies like Hamburg.

Dave Rat

Typically roadie busses involve a few hang out areas, a bunk section and toilet. Occasionally a shower shows up invariably wit a little sign that says "do not use the shower." Well, imagine our glee when the bus company brought over their newest latest and greatest! A bus with a queen bed suite in the back and a bath tub. Oh, just think of the possibilities as we all line up for the sloshy tub after a hard days work, truly a handy concept. Here we can observe roadie Bill partaking in testing the tubbing delights.

**** Highlight of the Day ****

Yes, it is back, the long lost but not forgotten section! Look what we found! You just have to watch the You Tube video before scrolling down any further, I promise, it is worth it.

No!!!

Not yet!!

Watch the You Tube Video first!!

Then scroll!!

OK, now look. Hellooooooooo!

Meet roadie Manny the Rigger. Legendary would be fitting. Notice the half eaten habanero pepper in his hand combined with the calm cool collected "about to explode" look on his face. Roadies like hot peppers, even habanero's I ate one, Scotty ate one, Chris Warren ate one, Daniel? Well, not so much, he ate a few tiny bits of one. Some roadies like hot peppers more than others. Habanero peppers are hot, but not when compared to molten lava.

Oh look! A cute little baby PA system, how adorable!

End of Munich part #1,

Dave Rat

**** Issue of the Day ****

Look at that magnificent stage, look how open so bold. What could possibly be amiss? As I sit on the bus basking in the illusion of nothing to do for the moment, a PIN message comes through from Dave Lee "Need some help on stage." Grounding, buzz and humm issues can be some of the most illusive of the technical problems we encounter. So seemingly mysterious when everything is exactly the same and from nowhere, what was quite every day for a year, now sounds like a 40 foot mosquito somehow got inside. The issue today was real "stumper."

**** Imbedded Sound Nerd Speak ****

BRAAAAAAAAAAH! Really loud, near full guitar rig volume blares from JF's cabs with differing choices of worse available as the guitar is moved around the stage. Danny our tour electrician, has already checked all the stage and system grounding and using different power and metered everything. What is different? It effects the mainly the guitar rig while the bass rig only a little bit and the PA is quite. What is different, something must have changed. Each buzz, humm or rizz sounds unique in some way and there are two basic ways it infiltrates the audio, by wire or by air. I won't go into depth on it but as a rule of thumb, the best way to tell the difference is "if you physically move things around and it smoothly changes, it is in the air or more accurately, it is some sort of RF radiation. If the issue comes and goes as various things are plugged and unplugged, the issue is some sort of ground loop. Be sure to add the words "usually somewhat or probably."

Perhaps those mischievous lampi's have added a little monster to their rig? I asked that all the lighting and video power be shut down to eliminate it as a possible culprit, no change. I rechecked all the grounding and found that Danny the electric roadie, sure enough had everything is perfect in his world. Grounding stake to the stage, grounding stake at the generator as well as at the distro boxes, also grounding the stage there. AC neutral is bussed to ground at the generator, all good. Dave Lee, let me hear it again, click, BRAAAAAAAAAAH! Have you checked with the other bands to see if they have it?" Yes, they do too but not as loud, everyone has it a bit.

It is not the pedal board as it has been bypassed, it is not backline AC power and it makes no difference whether the guitar is wired or wireless,the noise it changes with the volume on the guitar. So I have Dave Lee walk the stage yet again, as the minutes till the first band tick away and doors have long since opened. It gets louder near the metal arch, so we add another ground stake to the stage and hear no change. "Can you set the guitar down and put a towel over the strings to stop it from the feeding back,? The small various and sounds of a Dave Lee roadie touching the guitar, masks any small change that may be useful to hear. BRAAAAAAAAAAH!

Set it down over there on the stage, and over there, and over there. Finally, good news and I have given you bloggery readers all the info you need to know the cause, have you figured it out? Go back to the first picture, what do you see?

Look - a stage, some seats, some sort of space needle thing that also just happens to broadcast all of the TV stations for the city. Hmmmm, well nothing suspicious here. Wait a minute, you are telling me that that is a high power RF broadcasting antenna just a block away, yikes, we don't want to be near that thing! Uh oh! Sit and think. Is the RF going straight from tower to the guitar pickups or is there another factor, the buzz drops when we it is farther from the stage metal. Sit and think. It has to be the stage itself, the stage is radiating RF and lots of it, massive amounts.

Perhaps the stage is acting like an antenna itself, resonating, re-radiating as it is immersed in the RF field. Well, the good news is I am pretty sure I know what the issue is. The bad news is that solving it may pose a bit of a problem. So the options appear to be:

A) Move the stage far away from the space needle of audio hate.

B) Persuade them to shut off TV for the city or

C) Figure out a way to ground the shit out of the stage in as many places as possible.

Ground the stage, lets take a look.

All wood pads, metal scaffold on wood pads, dry day. The stage is grounded but RF is a differing beast than 50/60hz AC. We need lots of grounds, 20, 30 or more would be good and that may, just may reduce the RF in their general area.

OK, I got it or at least an idea to keep us busy and and feel like an attempt was made and all I need is two cases of liter bottles of water and a big bag of salt. It is a long shot, never tried it before but it theoretically makes sense. We are going to use salt water to ground the stage.

On the second trip under the stage, I noticed that the whole front edge of the stage is sitting on wood pads atop huge aluminum plates atop what I am sure is nice damp grass. The aluminum plates should form a wonderful ground, all we need to do is establish a connection around the wood pad, salt water. I know I am going to take some heat for this request, none more deserving than I. "

"Production, um, this is Dave Rat and I am looking for...."

When it finally did show up in the hands of Roadie John, we headed down under and tossed little piles of salt on the legs and followed up with good splash of water. Ok, try it now, "mini-braaahhh"

Dave Lee smiles and says, I can live with that.

It appears to have worked but I am not fully convinced. Perhaps there were other factors. We did not do an immediate 'before and after' and an opening band and played between when we sought the salt and when we got it. Maybe the TV transmitter drops power at night, maybe the air temperature or some other seemingly unrelated factor changed or maybe the conclusion that it was the radio tower was wrong? Regardless, it works, it is better and the the next band plays.

"Dave Rat, they need you on stage." Aaargh. Way the heck over there, 15 mins till Peppers start and I can hear it already from front of house, BRAAAAAAAH! "It is not as bad as it was earlier but it is coming back." I asked Roadie George for a hand and we dragged a huge tub of water down front of the stage splashing water on the now dried salt as the water had evaporated But wait, the salt piles got bigger! Turns out roadie John had found more salt and re-piled all the legs, that was cool!

**** End Imbedded Sound Nerd Speak ****

"Hey Dave Lee, how is it now?"

"It's good again, thank you!"

**** End Issue of the Day ****

I listened to the guitar rig a few times during the show and the noise stayed low. I just wish I had the time to test it a few more times and be more sure that there were not other factors. If you are curious about the effectiveness of salt water as a conductor, here are a few links.

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/articles/saltwater-circuit-project.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=conductivity+salt+water&btnG=Google+Search

Dave Rat

Hey look! It is a big stagey thing, life is so full of coincedences! I keep finding these things all over the world.

**** Roadie Research Segment ****

Though roadies can be observed and studied like wild animals, actualy many of today's roadies are highly trained technical professionals weighted with the task of maintaining, seting up and operating complex and often fragile equipment. Often this equipment ceases to operate as it should and is in need of some sort of repair. Below we can see roadies Dark Overlord Scott's and Weak Underling Chad's troubleshooting and repair techniques, upon discovering the lighting console was malfunctioning:

**** End Roadie Research Segment ****

So enter the Wu Tang Clan! Who opened the show and arrived 10 minutes or so before they were to go on stage, which really throws some people for a loop. Perhaps because if they don't show up, there is a bit of a problem as to filling the time slot. I have toured with Wu before, when they opened for Rage Against the Machine in 1997. That tour was "eventful" to say the least and some new crazy story showed up daily. And I do like the Wu and it was cool to see them back together.

And a few pics from another day at the office.

Oh look at what time it is! It is my relative 5pm of my 9 to 5, so time to punch my time card and head on out, see ya tomorrow.

Dave Rat