Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Unknown time. 10 minutes to get off the bus. Wow, Good Morning! Get all my stuff off the bus, need clothes, driver has my passport from the overnight border crossing. Ouch, incessant thumping sound. So far, today is not my favorite day.

+30 minutes, it is 1:20 pm and I just got done standing in a trailer shower, got burned by scalding water twice when I turned around and knocked the handle to full hot. I discovered turning clockwise was less painful as the cold water was less painful.

Fifteen years ago I would have gone exploring and been thrilled to see what's out there, right now well, I will force myself to check out front of house sound world.

The field

The Stage

5pm - Hotel. The vans got lost taking us from the gig to the hotel and turned a 10 minute drive into 45 minutes. Plus I fell asleep in the van and left my small camera on the seat. Oh well, it was acting up and erasing pictures anyway and you had to hit it to make it work half the time. I still have my big camera which is all good.

My room smells like dog hair but the place is brand new so it is most likely just a toxic chemical smell from some crazy paint or carpet. And hey look, my cell phone is not picking up a network it can use, I guess I am offline as well, at least it is saturday. Three hours till we head back to the gig and then 4 hours till show time. I have not eaten yet so I guess I better go seek out some food. I would normally order room service but it just happens to be closed from 3pm to 7pm unless you want a "snack." Good thing I am too tired to get riled up.

7:15pm The camera returns. Glad I put a Rat sticker on it. Plus we gained an hour last night night so now I have an extra 60 mins to enjoy, oh boy!

**** Highlight of the Day - Lunch by the water with Simon, Daniel and Nick. ****

Lisbon is absolutely beautiful! Simon is filling in for Chris while he is healing and can come back and join us. Simon is great and I miss Chris, I heard today that his jaw is broken as is his elbow and some teeth. AAAAArgh!

**** Issue of the Day - The whole day before lunch ****

I am mixing this tour on a Midas H3000 console. I tried to switch to digital but failed. I just could not get access to enough things simultaneously and would loose too many things I really rely upon when I mix. I will try and remember to cover the whole digi vs. analog debate some other day.

Off to do a rock show!

The shows are not as enjoyable for me when I do not have the bad ass touring PA. Here I had a large JBL Vertec system. The PA company took great care of us but I miss the V-Dosc, Vertec is loud but I have yet to figure out how to get the fidelity out of it, or into it as the case may be. The Ford Explorer of sound systems, they work, they run, they do well over bumps, everyone has one and they are not the most comfortable rides out there.

Dave Rat