Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

**** Begin Ebay Auction Update ****

With baited breath and the heart pounding anticipation one would feel waiting in line for seven days to get a new driver's licence, each day brings new surprises. The ebay auction has already financially surpassed our expectations nearly tenfold and it looks like new carpet may turn into a reality after all as the bidding has reached $ 172.00. Wow!

Beyond the financial side and much more importantly, the responses we have been getting are phenomenal and it looks as if news of roadie antics is spreading far and wide. And then, look at this, we made it to the big time! http://www.goofyauctions.com/ has put us up as featured ad.

**** End Ebay Auction Update ****

I like Philly and other than being a bit chilly in Philly and a minor show start guitar rig stumble, I had much fun and really enjoyed the show. Remember the napping roadie at my door? Well, with as much luck as it took to capture a photo of lightning I shot this pic and take a close look at the video screens from the song Throw Away Your TV.

How about that for a bit of Peppers trivia, if you do come to a Peppers show and remember to look, you may get a chuckle at knowing what the picture is of.

And not one to want to ignore The Mars Volta:

Special Bulletin!!!

In tribute to all that has happened and is happening in the roadie realm, I hereby, by the powers vested in me dub the last week of October to be "Roadie Awareness Week." The start of Roadie Awareness Week is to be determined by counting backwards 7 days from halloween and it is 8 days long, ending on November 1st of each year. During Roadie Awareness Week, nothing special really goes on other than occasionally attempting to send warm thoughts to roadie's everywhere whenever you need to lift something heavy or push around something on wheels.

And to start off Roadie Awareness Week, I bring you a new game called 'Meet the Roadie.' The rules are very complex, basically it goes something to the effect of

1) I post a picture of a roadie, tell you their name and what they do for a gig.

2) You then and thereby consider that roadie met.

My goal being to introduce you to all of us before the tour is over.

**** Begin Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 1 ****

Today your Meet a Roadie's are Fletch, Gabe, Raff and Chuck.

Here is an excerpt from way back on Day 89 when I did a crew over view

Riggers - are the sharp edged early risers. First in and last out, they calculate and hang the heavy loads safely over our heads. These clean, mean and meticulous machines effortlessly climb to frightful heights. The upside is that they typically can get a nice long mid day sissy nap.

What do riggers do? They rig things of course. Fortunately we carry many things on tour with us that enjoy being rigged. The speakers and lights and video walls all love it when the riggers rig them. Some things that do not like to be rigged are tour busses, catering food and socks. When properly rigged, the sound, lights and video hangs safely over our heads, that is good. When improperly rigged, very heavy things can come crashing down a smoosh humans and roadies like hitting a snail with a hammer, that is often referred to as bad.

First we have Fletcher, which we refer to as the Lead Rigger. Notice his effective usage of the coffee cup while pointing something out to roadie Scott.

Roadie Raff is a specialized rigger in that he heads up the moving motor aspect. Don't be fooled by their gruff looks, these guys are sharp cookies and don't mess around when it comes to safety.

Gabe is also a rigger but he has no extra modifier to his title, here we can see him in a common rigging position. Riggers like to look upwards a lot.

And at what does roadie Gabe gaze? Did you notice roadie gabe is looking skyward? Why is he doing that? Hmmm, well the current reason is that there are humans running around up there. Wow, how did they get up there?

I don't know, maybe catapult? Those humans in the rafters are called "up riggers", though not sure why. The riggers on the ground are called down riggers, another puzzling name. Up riggers drop ropes down that down riggers tie chains onto. Then up riggers attach the chain to steel ropes that are wrapped around beams in the roof. Each of these chains comes threaded through a motor that can climb the chain. The other roadies then attach the gear that is going to be flown (lifted) to the motor and up and away it goes bye bye!

We carry four riggers with us and then hire local spare riggers in each city.

And so, meet Chuck, touring rigger number four.

As all riggers do, rigger Chuck experiences much comfort hugging the chain motor hook.

**** End Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 1 ****

Good day and good night,

The big eyed and curious,

Dave Rat