Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst - Making it Work!

Day 320 - April 8th - Gig fly Gig

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 20:37:00 -0400

Back to back gigs with a flight in the middle is a bit of gruel.

Quite a few fried roadies. With a bunch of the crew getting out at 2 am or so and up at 4:30 am to make the 6 am flight just to land and spend the whole day at a tourbus-less gig really can take the sparkle out the step of the road crew. Add to that the awkwardness of setting up in this un conventional one truck at a time venue and it made for a long but not a bad day.

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

Look! The lampi's somehow have decided to convert the sub woofers into light stands. Arrgh!

Actually, it is all good and you got to do what you got to do to make things work.

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

Now that josh is out with us and pretty much the official 5th Pepper for this run, it is time to bring him fully into the fold and get him his very own custom designed road cases to keep his gear protected and safe in the travels. Here you can see Dave Lee showing off the latest addition to our travel gear

Though wedging the show in here was tough, it really does look cool. Sound wise I am good as well, I do miss the dual hang PA clusters but hey, there is a time a time and a place for everything and this mini rig is working just fine.

Alright, no load out, two more shows here after a day off tomorrow, awesome! Oh, and Scott says we need to go feed bananas to the possums in the park tonight. Ooooooh!

Dave Rat

Day 319 - One Down and Nine to go

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:53:00 -0400

Each country comes with it fair share of eccentricities. The more time you spend there the less you notice them so I guess that kind of explains why isolated subcultures so often spiral into the depths of some really strange shit. Anyway, in the not so strange realm but somewhat useful info angle, it is handy to know that in order to get a proper coffee here you have to know some code words. Now I don't really know what they all are but I do know that a flat white is sort of a foamless latte kind of thing and a long black is really strong fairly good sized cup of coffee, no do cream, no half and half, only milk sir. So that leaves me with a long black with a bit of milk as the local drink of morning choice.

So in my self appointed quest to highlight the curious I thought perhaps a peek at Goji berries is in order. They are not overly sweet, a bit pasty, more mild tasting and way less gooey than a raisin and fairly chewy. It takes a few to grasp the flavor and decide whether you like 'em or not, though it is hard to recall that part distinctly as liking them is easy now. Yumm!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

First show and as expected, projects are plentiful with each roadie department immersed in fixing, rebuilding and upgrading some sort of adventure. For me, outside of the normal wanderings, two projects popped into my lap. First is drum thumper. The thumper is a speaker like device that makes no noise because instead of a speaker cone it has a heavy weight. This weight shaker device is attached to the drum throne and sound is sent to it and it shakes the drum seat. If you have not felt one, you really should, they are way cool and give the human seated a powerful impact with each kick drum beat. Well, as things so often are, "a lot" is often not enough and more is so often better. The initial project started as adding a second thumper unit but upon further analysis it became apparent that when the drum thumper shakes the seat, a large portion of the energy is wasted because the seat is so securely mounted to the seat stand and stable on the floor. Sooooo.... instead of adding a second unit, how about remounting the seat so that is mechanically isolated from the tripod floor stand. Here you can see roadie Big Daddy doing mounting the cool wood bracket he made and I put some rubber tubing as a spacer to create a iso-thumper seat. Thump thump good!

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

Next project is fixing a really cool electronic trumpet pickup for Flea and with a bit of solder and some scavenger hunting for some bits, check it out

For those of you out here for the gigs, there is a special treat of Flea rocking one of the most crazy sounding fuzz overload delay saturated trumped solos you can imagine. I will take some more pics of the cool little setup at some point.

And finally, here is the gig in test mode

The warm and happy,

Dave Rat

Day 285 - March 6 - San Antonio - Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:20:00 -0500

Wow! The fans were crazy loud! So cool and ouch, my ears. Being surrounded by so much energy is an instant thrill that flows excitement through everyone fortunate enough to be immersed. The band can feel it and reacts with their music, the crowd reacts to the band's spinning of the wheel with more energy and round and round it goes into a spiraling frenzy. Meanwhile, I am wedged firmly in the middle amongst and amidst the masses with the auditory blast of the band at my finger tips. Oh my, what is one to do when the audience's exuberance begins to drown out the band? Well, I turn it up of course, and so I did and so it was and so that spinning wheel spun even faster. Fun show!! Loud show! and just as in last blog I laid focus on the grumpy, greeders and other human feeders of Texas, today I would like to highlight the other side of the natural balance shared a glimpse of the amazing and magical energy of experiencing a massive clustering of humans on an adventure of smiles. Which the Texians do quite impressively well. Oh, did I mention that I do love Texas?

**** Dear Ratty ****

Hey Dave, I've finished reading through the log from day one until now and its been both interesting and fun. Thanks for doing something like this.

I have two questions though, and I apologize if you've already answered them already. I hear about rehearsals, and I think you mentioned them at one point. What are rehearsals for a live tour? Is it just the band rehearsing the songs they'll play, or do you set up a PA and get things tweaked?

The second thing I've been wondering about is the opening acts. Do they set their console up behind yours, and are they simply patched into your desk before they hit the PA? Also, do they share the lighting rig and snake?

Thanks,
Joe

Hello Joe,

Ok, rehearsals come in several flavors. With the Peppers, which do not perhaps follow the norm, there are the few month of pre album rehearsals with just the band in a small space where they do song writing and the band writes the music.

Then they record the album. Then they do pre tour rehearsals for a month or so pretty much all by themselves where they get up to speed rocking the tunes to start the tour. Then there are a few weeks of pre-production rehearsals with the monitor rig.

Next and overlapping and separately is a week or so of production rehearsals where the sound lights and video all set up in an arena and make sure all the sound, lights, video and staging gear interfaces and works together.

Finally there is usually a "production day" or two where the band and all the gear rock in unison preceding the first "real" show.

As far as my interaction, I increasingly "visit" as the tour approaches and listen and learn the new songs by hanging out. I spend a good amount of time at pre-production rehearsals and this last time, that is where we got the new Pro Tools recording rig all dialed in. I then move over to the tail end of production rehearsals, mess with the sound system a bit and off to tour, bye bye!

More typically, many large bands where theatrics are integral, will set up for an extended period of time in a large venue to get it all dialed with the band and production, but with the Peppers since it is truly and quite purely music oriented, with the production merely highlighting and drawing focus to the somewhat free form and constantly changing set list, we setup up cool gear, the band comes and rocks and there is not the weeks or more of choreography.

As far as support acts, you you pretty much hit the nail on the head. They either use a board that Rat supplies (Mike Watt) or quite often, as is the case with Gnarls and Mars, they bring in all their own FOH and monitor gear and patch into the the main PA system. Something of note is: Peppers/Myself always give support acts full control without restrictions or limitations over the sound system. It is truly a level playing field plus, support acts are given a sound check every show day and Peppers sound check perhaps once every six to nine months, if that. Though the Peppers backline techs do test the gear and play a song or two.

**** End Dear Ratty ****

For all y'all that are curious about the keyboard setup that Chris Warren, the drum tech, plays behind the guitar rig, here it is:

The controller on the left is hooked up to a Mac laptop and does the sound for snow. The one on the right is for the vocoder sound on Anthony's vocal on By the Way. Anthony sings and while he is singing, Chris plays the vocoder that creates an altered real time effect on his voice that shows up as an extra input to me. I then have to remember to turn it on and follow the level by hand and mute afterwards. Easy stuff, as long as everyone never forgets to do their part.

Okey dokey, off to sleep my way to Houston,

Dave Rat

Day 265 - Feb 13 - London

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:31:49 -0500

Come on everyone, we're streaking! Well actually we are headed to the Brit Awards and it is way too cold here to run around outside naked but upon arrival in London I found out great news!

Comforted, I let the wave of joy run through me because up to this glorious information came my way, I was afraid it might be cold and rainy while I hacked through a grueling TV show while denying jet lag a grip on my body. So with a glowing smile I gathered my bag, clustered with my fellow roadies and was promptly carted to the frogger hotel for a 30 minute layover before lobby call had packed and shipped off to the illustrious and beautiful Earl's Court. I don't know who this Earl guy was but check out his court, oooohh!

Well, some days are just filled with excitement and what few doubts I had lingering about this being a joy filled excursion are now completely gone once I spotted the party train, my heart pounds just imagining the thrill. Ohhh, should I do it, so nervous, I hope I don't chicken out

Ahhhh, it all comes back in a rush, the vast chasm, the endless echo, the exact antithesis of an 'optimum acoustic environment' ladies and gentlemen, I present you the Court that belongs to Earl. Looking upwards we can see what is left of the false ceiling

And if we could see below the floor we would find a huge empty swimming pool. So acoustically the audience stands afloat mid chasm in a beautified presentation as today's Brit Awards face lift does a fine job of putting lipstick on an acoustic pig

Nostalgia shmostalgia, hey, there were great shows here in the past and just like having a clunky old car that runs like shit and breaks down when ever you need it but you had some great times in it 'back in the day,' take some pictures of it and let it fade in to it's place in history rather than continuing to torture the current generation with this outdated acoustic nightmare. Or fix it!

*** End Mini-Tanti ***

Wow, that felt good, my rant is over and just know that I am smiling the whole time and it aint really that bad, except for the sound of the room part, and it is just a challenge and challenges are the opposite of boring, Hurray! I am gonna rock some good sound for the Brit Awards and if it for some reason does not work out that way, well at least it will be entertaining watching me try.

And looking out back it is easy to let my mind drift to a 'what if.' What if I just climbed down there and hid on a train just to see where I ended up?

And then the reality of the fact that I forgot where I put my sweater sets in and that I bet I would get hungry and climb back up before anything fun happened.

The deciding to stay close to the roadie herd,

Dave Rat

Day 195 - Dec 4 - Zurich Show 2

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 02:36:00 -0500

**** Drum Nerd Speak ****

Things are rarely as they appear and deciphering between deceptively attached false traits like 'sound enhancing' to wooden knobs and true characteristics is a never ending life puzzle that requires a clear mind to navigate. As you can probably tell, I feel much disdain for those humans intent on blurring the lines between true facts and the fabricated un provable claims that these parasitic shiesters use to prey upon lazy minds to sell their wares to the naive. On the flipside though, occasionally I run across truly amazingly subtle nuances that have a very real and surprising impact on the function. Today I had the pleasure stumbling across one of them and I love it!

This is a true story is about a rock band named Chili Peppers. On each tour, every detail is meticulously and naturally pressed to another level of refinement. The interactive entity of musician and equipment has reached such a precise and precarious plateau that even the slightest variations result in surprising ramifications. We experienced that when attempting to switch to a digital monitor consol and the band found the sound disconnecting. It turned out that the digital board introduced a delay time that made the sound more distant sounding so we went back to analog. Around the same time during the promo tour we introduced a "power soak" on John's guitar rig to drop his level while maintaining his tone. It worked perfect tonally and level wise but John was unable to get the desired amount of feedback from the speakers at the lower volumes. Starting this tour Flea switched to vintage Fender basses which were wonderful for the studio but live we lost the clarity and deep low end that signifies his sound, so upon my own and Rick Rubin's request, he switched back the active pre amp Modulus basses. The pattern repeats often and much care is taken with every change made in the audio realm.

Well, today another gremlin got into our world. On a typical Peppers show, chad switches snares a few times so the set is divided on to three snare drums which seems to be the optimum balance between a consistently solid snare sound and not swapping too often. A few shows back, Chad started going through six snares a show, heads were denting and snare heads were tearing, yet nothing was changed. Did Chad acquire instantaneous super arm or did we get a bad batch of heads? Chad has proven consistent year after year so it seemed gear related. Chris Warren, the drum tech, had drum heads from several sources of various ages acquired in various countries, so the probability of a bad batch of heads is quite slim.

After a bit of pondering, the drum sticks seemed to be the only logical culprit but Chad has had his own signature sticks manufactured for him specifically for many years. These sticks are all exactly the same, made by a single company, the same design and there have been no changes. Hmmm, dented heads. Better look at the sticks anyway. Since drum sticks are expendable and they are constantly worn out and given out, it was fortunate that Dave Lee had an old one and here, take a look at this comparison.

The top one is a new stick and the bottom is the older stick. Dented heads. Look at the sharper curve. Since Chad 'side sticks' the snare, that would mean that the new stick would contact the drum with the slightly more pointed edge on the newer stick The toms, though, would contact the flatter edge as they are struck from a less parallel angle. With the force of Chad's hit being constant and if that little pointier edge of the new stick had 1/2 the contact area, that would mean the head is taking twice the force per square inch; hence, head dentation. Further comparison of the sticks revealed that they the new stick are a bit heavier all around and especially on the tip end due to a thicker taper. Now keep in mind, I am not a drummer and this may all be common knowledge, but I do understand physics and it appear that we have found the gremlin and finding gremlins is fun.

Sooooooo, when in doubt, get the sander out! And sand we did.

Curving the new stick's tips to the old shape and it was a 'three snare show' and though the sticks are not quite right, they are close enough and problem solved.

**** End Drum Nerd Speak ****

Hey, check out the newest Rat Swag

And a gratuitous shot of Gibby Haynes and I because I can and to remind myself that I am a lucky roadie.

Hoping I do not bore you and a bit tour weary,

Dave Rat

Day 131 - Oct 1 - Quebec City Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:04:00 -0400

See our happy little guy, at 75 degrees and 49% humidity we are pretty well set thermally for the gig though I would not complain if I could get another 5 degrees and over 65%.

I was able to grab a couple load out shots that give a bit better representation of the precarious nature of fork lift ramp loading.

Pretty much the main thing you want to avoid is having the forklift run over your foot. That and being crushed by a run away case is also a good thing to avoid.

As the end of the tour leg nears, the anticipation and acceleration of the state of mind of being home seems to take over. Counting down the days and one more to go!

**** Completely Unrelated Gratuitous Filler ****

Since Canada is really far from Australia, what better time to consider the Kangaroo.

**** End Unrelated Gratuitous Filler ****

The slow motion

Dave Rat

WYISTFDBOPPF!

Day 130 - Travel to Quebec City - Pre Rig/Off

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:15:00 -0400

This venue is somewhat legendary amongst roadies. At a full story below ground level and with only one way in for gear, this place is no fun to load into or out of. Getting 12 trucks of gear down a long bumpy ramp that has a flat spot half way up, pretty much sucks no matter how you look at it. What they do is pile all the gear up against a fork lift that backs down the ramp with roadies on either side holding the thing intact while avoiding being run over or crushed. Meanwhile a second forklift is coming up the ramp to grab the next load, though this picture is just a mini load and does not do justice to the precarious nature of the fully pack ramp, you can get the basic idea

Now imagine how much equip fits in twelve trucks and you begin to see why the word "sucks" is often used when referring to getting gear in and out of this place.

Hence the reason that this day off was converted to a load in day. Meanwhile ............

Back at the hotel we have much bigger issues to deal with. The worst thing in the touring world that could possibly happen with the exception of someone hurt or a cancelled show, has happened! That's right, you guessed it:

I HAVE RUN OUT OF CLEAN SOCKS

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Drastic measures must be takes as soon as I stop panicking. Think, think, what can I do? Oh no! Oh no! This is bad, I am now trapped in my hotel room, must escape. And then it struck me. There is one thing, the embarrassing and dreaded 'hand wash' in the sink. No male roadie has ever admitted to doing this, but faced with no other option, I succumb. Hmmmm, I wonder what works better, shampoo, body wash or hand soap? Maybe I should wash one in each and then see which feels better?

After choosing body wash and I get bored of trying to get the endless suds to stop rinsing from the socks, I finally figured out what the strange thing hanging on the wall in every hotel room is. A sock dryer of course!

which works quite well but leave a wet ring in the upper ankle area.

Armed with my freshly washed sock, I met up with one of the other touring humans for a night out and had a blast! Only to come home and find that someone has decided to have a little nap by the door of my room. Stepping over him so I could get inside, I then did what anyone else would naturally have done, I took pictures and then went to bed. Here is the view from in my room:

Till we meet again, the preferring to sleep in a bed over a hallway floor,

Dave Rat

SYMOTAFMBOYLB!

Day 129 - Ottawa Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 14:34:00 -0400

Today I set up office in the luxurious 'crew' room. The crew room is the prestigious name given to the allocated space that our friends in Production reward to the other fifty or so roadies in the herd to utilize amenities like a land line phone and internet access. Here you can often find roadies relaxing, chatting, catching up on business and connecting with far away loved ones. It is the coveted escape spot where for roadies to find peace and happiness. The crew room is also the definition of the appreciation and respect for the roadies that make the show happen. Come join me for a peek inside:

Here you can see that this crew room is set up for multiple 'one's' of roadies. This multi faceted shangri-la provides for up to 4 roadies to sit simultaneously while also providing standing zones for four more. No roadie finds boredom here in this virtual playground. While two roadies sit, one can talk intimately with their far away lover as the other uses the internet just inches away. Add in the added bonus that the two other seated roadies can simultaneously be creating 'butt babies' and filling the room with the essences of intestinally processed catering meals from days gone by. That is not all! The standing roadies are pleasantly obliged to fill the already full air with the calming sound of tiny waterfalls.

This is the part of tour that makes it all worth while! Not only did I get a very small amount of work done, I also got plenty of exercise while doing wind sprints for "fresh air" breaks.

Later and much less enjoyable, of course, is harassing Scott the Lampi.

Several of these recent Canadian hockey arenas are very tall and square-ish. Though the shows have been solid and fun, they are a bit less than optimum acoustically. Oh, ice. Guess what! Hockey arenas have ice under the floor during hockey season. In Canada I think it is always hockey season. Makes your feet ache after walking on it all day. Strange situation thermally but not uncommon. Next time you go to a rock show, take a peek and you may be surprised to see that the floor is plastic or wood cover plates over ice.

The looking forward to going home,

Dave Rat

ISACYLPATYFMT!

Day 120 - Sept 20- Winnipeg Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:24:00 -0400

I wake up on the bus and it is 10 am and still moving. This is highly unusual and I must admit it has been a few days or maybe a week since I have opened my itinerary and now is as good a time as any. Five hundred and nine miles, and we got rolling somewhere just before 3 am last night, 'bout right I guess. With rigging calls typically in around 8 am and a 10:45 am arrival time according to bus driver roadie Brian, that puts us about 3 hours later today at getting 12 trucks of gear in, up and running.

Turns out it the production humans have it planned out and expected the crunch. I asked if the sound roadies need my help but they have a mind set to power through and make it happen. It becomes clear the my assistance would just dilute the accomplishment, so I set up office and work on my ratty stuff as usual and await the amp racks to to be un layered out of the sound truck.

Status report: All amps function so the search for local spares on hold can be released. The damage report:

1 input panel partially ripped off the rack rails
8 bent front panels on Lab Gruppen amps
4 bent rack ears on Crown amps
All the front rack rail is bent or stripped
and the top shells on both racks have somewhat mashed in corners.

The good news is that though not pretty, it is patchable to finish the trip without shipping in costly replacement gear. The bad news is that at some point there is a pile of work to be done and a few thousand dollars in fix it bits to bring them back to the previous state of beauty. As with many things, humans included, it was not the actual fall that caused all the damage. It was the very abrupt landing when contacting the planet earth at a high rate of speed messed things up. I will try and shoot some pics of them at some point.

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

I got a pile of Avril Lavigne swag to bring home to my shorties. Thank you Craig and Shawn!

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

Tonight the load out splits up the gear again. Next show is Virgin Festival in Baltimore for one truck and the global crew, all the rest of the hardware and humans have a 1400 miles bus ride to Toronto for multiple days off. Global crew has a 7:45 am plane international plane flight with a long layover and connection, that means like a 5 am lobby call, Super yuck!

The joyous

Dave Rat

YFATMOAIWPI!

Day 116 - Calgary Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:06:00 -0400

During the west coast part of the tour, Roadie Shaun, the monitor engineer for The Mars Volta had come to me with an interesting request. Cedric, (Mars Volta's' singer) was wanting to sing into a Sennheiser 421 as he likes the way those mics look and feel. Roadie Shaun wants to continue to use the Audix om6's that are working perfectly for his vocals. So the question is, "How can we get the sound of an om6 and the look of a 421?" Now this is the kind of project I love!

While I was at home on break I had grabbed a pile of old 421 parts that I still have from the old days when I used to fix amps and mics to supplement the not so profitable Rat PA income.

Check out the third revision of the Audix om6 inside of a Sennheiser 421 shell. And to start with we have a nice assortment of both old and new 421 parts:

And by cutting the threaded ring off of the om6 grill and screwing it to the back of a 421 grill we get:

and the om6 can now be screwed into the 421 grill

And after boring out the 421 shell with a Dremel tool so the Audix shaft slides inside:

And we end up with what looks like a beat up old 421 but is actually a perfect condition Audix om6!

Now that was an adventure I really and truly enjoyed! Thank you roadie Shaun!

**** Gratuitous Monitor Gear Photo ****

While we were in monitor world I grabbed a photo of Peppers monitor setup:

**** Gratuitous Guitar Pedal Photo ****

For those guitar gear fans out there here is a picture of John Fruciante's guitar pedal world.

Roadie Dave Lee has his job cut out for him keeping all those running flawless everyday.

The loving to fix and create things that make sound,

Dave Rat

MHPWIIYSAS!

Day 114 - Vancouver Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:31:00 -0400

Here we go again. A fairly uneventful meet up and roadie gathering in Vancouver. We done all this enough times and little has changed during the break. The trucks dump, the show goes up and at least from my perspective, it all seems to be running smooth.

Have you ever noticed that behind almost every rock stage there is a huge black drape hanging? Often referred to as a "rag" these giant cloth curtains are not only monstrous but crazy expensive. Rumor has is that the one we carry at 80 feet wide and 40 feet high costs upwards of $20,000. Furthermore, with these things being so big and fairly thin cloth, much caution is taken to avoid tearing or damaging it. So I am walking to get lunch and imagine my surprise at seeing three roadies standing on a road case safety pinning a some cloth over a hole that looks like it was hacked out by a three year old. Not my department but overwhelmed by curiosity, I find out that a fire marshall needed a "test swath" of the curtain to do a flammability test. Unfortunately I missed the observing the test or whole episode but somewhere in the back of my mind I get the inkling that there is a slight chance that there could be an improvement in the protocol.

Does every band leave this city with a hole in a $20,000 rag? Is it a Canadian thing? Was it purely a wayward fire marshal reading a chapter on fire retardency testing methods and we were the guinea pigs? Could there possibly be a better way or is this the barbaric peak of brilliance available? Hey, maybe we can set up crash durability tests for cars getting on the freeway and have a freeway marshal on the on ramp and bash in your car fender with a sledge hammer. "OK, fender bashes just fine, carry on, have a nice trip!" Unbelievable, perplexing and I will leave this mystery to be pondered and unresolved.

As far as the big rock show, well I had tons of fun, hung out with and met some great humans and it finished up with Omar from The Mars Volta jamming with John Fruciante for a memorable finally!

The 'can't find my little camera' again, darn it,

Dave Rat

WAGTMAAFGTOYLA!

Day 55 - London - Earl's Court Show Day #3

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:05:00 -0400

In order to reduce the likelyhood of a show stopping beer cup bomb, Nick and I have obtained some high quality mixing towels and placed them upon the console. They theoretically should absorb and reduce damage from a direct hit from an incoming liquid bomb. They will not protect from airborne humans. May to my glee, I also discovered that I can actually mix through them. The faint glow of the lights below combined with the creases I formed in the towels around the EQ section are good enough to find everything I need to get to. Plus I can turn the knobs right through the towel so I am good to go and mix the show towels in place.

Now either I am really figuring this room out or I am just getting used to it or the band/audience combo has just really hit a stride or all of the above but it seems to be all falling into place. The strange thing is that I really have changed so little. We did do some work on dialing in the delay clusters but even that was not drastic alteration. Anyway, each show I am enjoying more than the last and tomorrow is the grand finally!

D Rat

Day 22 Prague Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 02:20:00 -0400

9am it is all about the repack. This morning will be my last real chance to get my bags prepared for the airline's durability test without unpacking in a parking lot.. I bought a bunch of liquid gifts that will get wrapped in my (clean) clothing for the ride home. One tour I had a bottle of flowery smelling oil explode in my bag and took out everything wearable I owned. The balsamic vinegars and olive oils have that potential.

The call sheet must have been transmitted telepathically today or maybe it is invisible, either way, I am guessing noon will be my call just like every show day has been for while.

And here she is, surprise! An oval shaped room with seats around the sides and a flat area in the middle:

Probably the most stressful and intense part of each show day from a production stand point is the load out. This is where all departments (hopefully) work in harmony sharing local crew, dropping in massive things from the sky and getting it all into trucks, quickly, safely and preferably without tempers flaring. In order to facilitate the smooth smooth flow of this massive orchestration, our stage manager, Tim, creates a highly technical 'load out sheet' for each show. These valuable sheets point out key issues while also highlighting things that happened the night before that need fixing. Here is Tim with Dortmund 2's load out sheet:

And a close up of the sheet. Everything on there has some relevance to our world and the load out sheets have become pretty much the daily tour newspaper:

Here are few shots of the show when all was black except band and video screens. For those of you that have not noticed, the video walls, like the Pods, move throughout the show and I have put up pics of a few different positions.

The songs for the night are not known until AK hand-writes the set list about an hour or less before show time, the lists are then copied and distributed. I usually get one. Then directly after the show, multitudes of fans repeatedly ask me for it. For awhile I was getting extra copies to give out, but the demand was endless and it turned into a feeding frenzy that seemed to cause more unhappiness than it created. Sometimes the persistence of people 'wanting' can be less than pleasant. Scott and I try and make it fun though. Maybe trading it for something of no value like first one to have a rubber band. Scott likes to trade for a joke or funny trick. Trading a set list for a smile seems fair enough!

Dave Rat

IWTHCYTTCATY!

Day 17 - Paris 2nd Show - Smooth

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 02:04:00 -0400

Had some more stuff to do in the morning than expected so I was not able to make the trip to L'Acoustics. Lee had to track a Fedex from Rat so it left Nick the Fly to represent. Heard it went well and Nick got some solo time with the main man, we are getting wonderful support from the company, new info, new software and all kinds of cool things came from it.

I had a little bit of time before show call and stopped by a French market with Scott on the way to the gig and bought a some gifts. Salt from all over the world, olive oil and balsamic vinegar mainly, should be simple and enjoyable gifts.

We had some time with the gear in the afternoon as we are doing 2 days in the same venue. Hung out with the monitor humans and dialed in the drum fill and sorted more gremlins. Chad uses two Rat Trap 5 (dual 15", dual 10", 2") cabs in stereo plus a dual 15" sub. With the drum fill off, I get decent tones but it sounds best when the drum fill is loud, stable and not gated. Chad is on in-ears but having the sonic power behind him plus the seat thumper really brings it all together. Plus, as I mentioned, I rely on the drum fill sound to get the drum sound out front.

Another thing I find interesting truly how directional a Marshal guitar cab really is. Just a 5 degree shift in the angle of the cab away from a vocal mic can make a significant difference on bright tones. For Peppers, if you look at the guitar and bass rigs you can see the angles we use that keep a solid sound for the musician while minimizing bleed into the vox mics. I will put a pic up soon.

Yesterday, during the show a fan was holding up a sign that said "John, can I play your guitar" and then John's guitar stopped working. In a moment of frustration, John lashed out at the kid and told him to put away the dumb sign." Kind of felt bad for the kid but also the sign was blocking a ton of people's view so I didn't miss it gone. Well today, John says "Is the kid who had the sign up yesterday about playing my guitar here? Hey, I am sorry for yelling at you and if you are here, come find Dave Lee, my guitar tech, and you can come backstage and play my guitar."

I know John well enough to know that he really takes it to heart if he feels he has hurt someone's feelings. Hearing his heartfelt and pure apology made me smile and really appreciate being part of the organization.

**** Issue of the Day - Vocorder Drift ****

For the song "By the Way" there is a vocorder vocal part where AK (Anthony) sings and the drum tech hits notes on a keyboard that alter AK's voice to the sound you hear at the live show. At the same time, I bring up the vocorder channel and then back out for each "WAAA-WAAA" and then again for the "Wowowowowow" part.

Well, as is often the case, the keyboard that makes the correct sound is an older, unstable analog thing. We have been having issues with the sound checking fine but then being different during the show. Today, somehow a tremolo sound has decided to party its way into the mix. I think it is just drifting as it gets hot, tomorrow we will try turning it off until right before show time.

**** Highlight of the Day - That the vocorder drift was the only issue****

The band played an awesome set, looked like they had fun and the crowds have been great everyday.

Here is a picture of how my mix position looks during the show:

You may be able to notice, if you look very closely, that I have boycotted all forms of illumination. No lighting for me while I mix and memorized the locations of all controls on the consoles. Been mixing in the dark for over a decade, hence the lack of need to label my console input channels as you may have noticed on some previous pics. The reason behind it is to sharpen my hearing and reduce visual distractions, plus it looks cool. Turn off all the lights and you start hearing things you did not hear before. I find that having a big thing with knobs lit up in front of me draws my focus to it and knobs all sit there saying "turn me, no me!" I would much rather watch the band and listen to the music. Memorizing a console, is fairly easy.

Still have not figured out how to run a digital board in the dark as most of them are a bit rough to operate with the screen turned off. Also, I really like to have metering of everything that is going on, visible at all times. I want to see every compressor, every gate, every input, output, matrix, all of it. In fact, during the show, that is all I want to see, "what is everything doing, right now?" No button pushes, no menu scrolling. Oh, and I want it logically grouped. All my gates in one area, all my comps in another, all my effects in a another and not a splattering of intermixed meters.

Below you can see the console labeling of the subgroups. Since it is a a new thing doing the dual PA and just in case I forgot what does which, I can easily glance down and then still wonder what does which.

Dave Rat

HAKFMBG!

Day 6 – Barcelona – The Finishing Touch

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 29 May 2006 11:49:00 -0400

8am, heading over to the market down the street, buy some fresh fruit, the market is awesome, everything you could want, every type of fruit, many I have never seen before, cheeses, fish, meat, chicken heads, all the necessities.

Today everyone will finish with setting up their gear, looming (taping cables together in convenient groupings), labeling, adapting and so on. It is really about making sure it all can go up fast and come down even faster.

**** Issue of the Day - Rotating PA clusters ****

In order to keep the chain motor count down, we went with 2 motors per PA cluster rather than 3. That means we only need sixteen sound motors rather than 24. With 3 motors we can use a delta plate that allows us to rotate the pa a bit after it is flown, with two the heavy speaker cables drooping from the sides tends to spin the clusters and even a few inches of variation in the rigging points can screw things up both sonically and aesthetically. Lee, the Rat Sound crew chief, came up with the idea of using “bridging poles.” Metal tubes that would connect to the rear of the clusters and keep them aligned, after a bit of trial and error, all good!

Our lead rigger is Fletch. His gig is to get all the points up. That means that humans climb way up in the ceiling, drop ropes, pull up chains and attach the chains to steel ropes wrapped around beams. Many of the points need to be in very precise locations, especially sound. Even a few inches off can screw things up. To adjust the location of the point, various lengths of wire rope are used to triangulate the drop. Translation = mathematical quagmire.

**** Highlight of the Day - Hey! It Works! ****

Dave Rat

ILTFYAIWTFYC!