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Day 333 April 21st - Show 1 - Time to Rock in New Zealand!

Posted by Dave Rat on

Before I even made onto the arena floor, Fletch walks by with smile and says "you are going to have fun tonight!" in his semi sarcastic gruff smirking way. Huh? "You'll see." he says and off he goes. Fletch is a Rigger. Fletch has been around a long long time and though Fletch is sarcastic, it was not 30 steps more before I understood. And yes folks, we have a live one. Every once in while you come across a venue that thinks sound should be more like the Energizer Bunny and keep going and going and going. There is a train station in Chile, a building on the fairgrounds in San Diego, an airplane hangar in Germany that hold some top honors for venues with less than optimum acoustic aspects. Today though is not near as bad as those, it is clear that before even the first note comes through the sound system, from just the sound of typical background noise of a load in, that it is not near as good as the typical arena's we have been running into. Oh well, as usual, I try my best not to overly concern myself with issues that are beyond my control and focus on the things I can.

Today's special feature is none other that the much loved, by us, and often misunderstood, by people more serious about keeping the music they see within certain boundaries, I present the very cool to hang ot with and fun and funny to watch, Har Mar Superstar.

For all of you out there that have ever felt the slightest tinge of stage reluctance, Har Mar Superstar can swat that out of your mind as bold as bold can be, it is hard not to smile

And also rocking with them is Tony Bevilacqua

on Bass who I know from when he played guitar in for the The Distillers and Fabrizio Moretti

who you may recognize from the The Strokes. And never forget to be serious because otherwise you will end up having fun!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

So I was faced with an option a few months back. "Dave, there is not enough V-Dosc in New Zealand to do the double hung PA, would you rather go to single hung clusters or use a non-V-Dosc double hung rig?" Hmmm, what do we got a choice of? "Well, Oceana has a enough Meyer Milo there to double hang and they have always been a great vendor on past tours." Then there you have it, we stick with the vendor we like, and go double hung Meyer, besides, I got to hang out with Buford Jones a few months ago when he came to visit me on Peppers tour and he is all about Meyer and I like Buford!

So on Meyer I mix and it went pretty well and was happy enough to use the rig again, I did miss my V-Dosc though and sorry I did not get a better system photo for ya.

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

And a Peppers pic to finish out the day,

Stay tuned for more flying roadies tomorrow, we have a plan to fly from high places!

Dave Rat

PS, I really love the comments and they inspire me to stay focused on the blog and appologize for not responding, but I will!!

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John on :

Wow Dave....I'm envious! The shirt..."well hung"...you go Dave!

MKB on :

I checked out some of the Mar Star. Nice chordy groovy guitar work.

kerstin on :

hahahahaha yourrr shirrttt is amazing. i thoroughly enjoyed it. also i love how you described fletch because i could perfectly imagine the way he said that

Monique on :

It's really great to see Josh at so many of these shows. He looks like he's having fun =)

Evelyn on :

Hi Dave! I love reading your blog! I went to both Auckland shows - seats the first night, general admission the second. I was first into the arena on Sunday night (after waiting for 12 hours), so got front centre on the barrier. My friend and I cheered on Har Mar while getting some weird looks from the people standing around us! Wearing glowsticks probably contributed to the weird looks too :-) I saw you taking pics of Har Mar up the front. Unfortunately thanks to the group of drunken idiot guys behind me I had to get pulled over the barrier halfway through Can't Stop (fun times being crushed to death), so, (devestated) I stood at the back and cried the rest of the show lol. Nevermind, it was worth it to see the Chilis from meters away! Anyway, up the front I got a wave from Dave Lee and Chad so it was all good. Sorry you thought the venue wasn't up to scratch, maybe next time the Chilis could come play in Wellington (we are the capital after all!). It sounded great to me at both shows, and the absolute highlights for me were hearing Sir Psycho Sexy, I Could Have Lied, and John singing Songbird. Keep up the great work with your blog. I can't believe you jumped off the Skytower and the bridge! I saw Har Mar and the guys checking out the bungy where you sit in a cage and get flung into the air, but they didn't do it (obviously lacking that roadie fearlessness!). Thanks to all the roadies and to the band for coming to New Zealand! The fans really appreciate the hard work you guys put into bringing the show to our shores. Evelyn

Matt on :

Hey Dave Thanks for speaking your mind about the arena... even on national television! Interestingly, they claim the arena is not yet finished. It better not be if we are proclaiming it is our best indoor music arena in NZ! I'm sure you did your best but the Chilis could have come on stage and farted for 3 hours and it may not have sounded any better? Next time come to the town hall, Christchurch! actually my lounge has better acoustics than Vector, maybe you could set up there. Though my PA is pretty crap, and my girlfriend stops the beer halfway through a show. Keep up the blog, and thanks for the set list on Sat night. Matt :)

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