Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Last night we did an overnight drive from Boise and I must say that I appreciating the bus ride over driving the equipment truck. I have done the run that we will do tomorrow between Denver and SLC on a few tours driving after a a long day setting up PA gear, bouncing stage, doing monitors and then driving again afterwards. I sure don't miss trying not to crash those slow beat up bobtail trucks on tour with no sleep. And hey, speaking of driving trucks, here is a picture from Black Flag's Loose Nut tour in '85 of some of us standing on the truck I drove on that tour:

From left to right is Cel who played bass for Flag on that last tour, Vince was the guitar player for the band Painted Willie, Davo was front of house sound for Flag, Joe Cole was the Rat Sound tech that worked with me, Dave Markey played drums for Painted Willie and the last one is me.

And though I didn't drive, I still did not sleep much, lots of winding highway and up down pressure changes heading out of the mile high city and up again. Did I mention my skateboard died? Well it was crushed to death by amazingly agile ollie'ing and somewhat inebriated big boned girl outside the peppers dressing room a few show back. I actually heard but unfortunately missed the event, though I was told it was a sight to see. Anyway, I persuaded a two friends to take me out for a replacement to a skate shop and it was a cool little adventure. Not only did I score a new deck but I could not resist this bamboo flex unbreakable long board:

So now I have a way to cruise a bit farther from the gig.

Speaking of gigs, here is a shot of SLC load in and two of the most important roadies on the tour for keeping this monster machine running. On the left is roadie Liam who takes care of very important things and does stuff that is also important. Center we have Big Bill Rahmy, also known in pro wrestling circles as "The Crusher." I have had the privilege of knowing Big Bill for many years, since we were both little roadie pups. Liam, well, he is a Canadian roadie and since roadies get bored very easily if you do not continuously give them a hard time for anything and everything you possibly can, being Canadian is fair game for endless and redundant ribbing.

**** The Order of Roadientia (pronounced Roadie-en-sha)****

A unique and not very large group of mammals is the Roadientia. Many nomadic mammals are roadies: there are about 43 known living roadie species (out of about 4,000 living mammals overall). Many people are familiar with lampies, humm heads, guitar jockeys, and noise boys which are occasionally kept as pets. The Roadientia also includes squeaks, squints, ampers, lampers, rampers, prairie dogs, marmots, chinchillas, voles, lemmings, and many others. (Incidentally, the Roadientia does not include muso; muso's differ from roadies in that they often know how to actually play an instrument or they pretend so well hat people like to watch. Muso's include singers, guitar players, drummers, and a few other species make up the Artistia. Groupies, shrews, moles and hedgehogs are also not roadies; they are classified in the Punterentia.)

Roadies are found native on all continents except Antarctica. One particular family of roadies, the Truck Driver, contains over 1100 species: Though many researchers argue that truck drivers are not true roadies even with their close association with the road itself. Despite their morphological and ecological diversity, all roadies share one characteristic: their hands are highly specialized for handling wires. All roadies handle and have an overwhelming affinity for wires.

**** End Order - Roadientia ****

It is very important that you take notes as there will be a test at the end of the semester. And rather than bore you with band shots, here is the very interesting rear stage left corner of the venue.

The happy to have a functioning skateboard,

Dave Rat

BB!