Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

The end of US tour leg # 3 has us saying goodbye's to The Mars Volta. Going to miss them as they are part of the extended Peppers family. The interaction between the bands and the people that are with them really helped set the euphoric tone of this tour. When everyone is on the same page, backstage tends to be open and free, if there is competition, friction or a band attracts crazy drunk guests, then backstage becomes more of a lock down. When I was touring with Rage Against the Machine and Wu Tang Clan was the opening band, it got way out of hand and backstage was full of fights and cops and other adventures that kept things on edge. With Mars Volta it is all good and can't wait to see them next time!

So lets meet a few more roadies to say bye bye to:

Roadie Shaun who does monitors for Mars. I hold him personally responsible for drinking me to oblivion and for saving my life by making sure I got home safe in Minneapolis. On the right is Grandpa who is a long time Rat crew and is working for Mars as monitor assist. I will dig up some funny pics on them but that will have to wait.

I met the next Mars roadie on Black Flag tour in 1985 when he was a local stage hand at the 1st ave in Minneapolis. Then he comes through LA with The Replacements a few years later and works on the Rat PA at the Variety Arts center. Since then he is now known as the guy the mixes Brittany Spears. Here seen for the first time I ever have seen him in a white shirt, please meet The Mars Volta FOH sound engineer, Monte Lee Wilkes:

I was also fortunate to, for the first time meet his daughter and wife, very cool. I am pretty sure his wife said she worked for a local radio station.

And a few farewell shots of Mars:

The show ended with a grand finally jam with Marcel and and Omar on stage with the Peppers that made for an amazing, fun and a perfect ending to a wonderful segment adventure. The rest of the Mars crew is not forgotten but their recognitions will wait.

A blog while back I mentioned the well known fact that Roadies love Swag so I hauled out the booty we both acquired and also did not lose on the way. Roadies love booty and we do our best to hold onto it but it tends to stray. Here is the booty check at tour leg end:

Notice the little orange confetti gun that I now shoot over Scott during the song Snow in memory of the blizzard. The wine gums were a huge hit and a bag went to each bus. Creativity highlight goes to the bouquet of wires, roadies love wires! We had a radio control rat which provided much amusement before it ran away, but we still have the controller. There is a pink bag of cookies, we drank the wine, wore the sunglasses, stuffed the shirts somewhere, used the flashlight fish that is still swimming in the drawer somewhere, the hookah resides at my house in it's wonderful time reversal existence and any candy has been long since eaten. Oh, and the cooler of food, I am still working on. Finally, what you do not see is the magical pile of happiness that has been bulldozer dumped on all of us out here by our new friends that have been joining me and the road crew on this twisted and unraveling adventure.

Fret you all not about this ending, we are far from done and if all goes as planned we are not even at the half way point. I love the thought that I have no idea how this winding road will turn and I do know that there is a damn good chance that a big pile of roadies traveling Earth will surely find plenty of fun and trouble.

**** Ebay update ****

I have seen the shirts, seen the ad and I know without a doubt it will be something none will expect. Updates coming soon and we have some shopping to do!

**** End Ebay Update ****

With wet eyes and fond memories please say good bye one more time today to something quite dear as Scott the Lampi's cousin Eric has adopted our pet carpet named Fred.

It is so wonderful to see them bonding. Eric, I promise to come visit. Fred likes beer so be careful, he is a messy drunk.

The heart crushed over too many goodbye's,

Dave Rat

How cool is it that Peppers put audience and their crew in the new video? The song is Snow and speaking of snow, take a look out the window. That is known as cold snow and it is strange stuff that somehow knows how old you are. If you are a kid, it loves to be fun and play games but if you are older, it prefers to annoy you and tries to crash your car and loves to clog your driveway.

Today is our second to last show of this three week leg and the momentum of going home fills the air with a mixture of extra work and sleeping in our own beds soon. It feels good. Oh look, there is some sort of memo, who is this meant for? What does it mean? Should I read it or use it for scratch paper. Oh well, most likely does not concern me, nothing to see here, move along.

Whoa, hey what is this thing near the sound board? Hmmm, wonder what it is and why it is here? That is odd, usually this spot does not have one of these here.

Maybe I should roll it over to the sound board and keep beers in it. Oh well, probably just a decoration but it does look a bit suspicious. Uh oh, hey Nick, do you notice anything funny going on?

Good thing we covered the console in time.

"...and for tonight's evening news we are getting reports of a freak storm dropping a record snowfall mainly in central regions, FOH is reporting over 6 inches coming down in 3 minutes...."

and so occurred the third and last Peppers snowfall at FOH. Though the idea was solid and the audience reaction wonderful, a minor oversight realized ends the FOH storms. Ask yourself this: "Is it really worth the effect to create that much wasted paper?" Go green, bye bye fake snow, lesson learned and smiles abound.

The very happy our band is environmentally conscience,

Dave Rat

P. S. Rock shows use lots of batteries and another cool thing we just implemented is switching to rechargeable's in the "In Ear Monitor System." That alone save 30 AA cells a night! Very cool!

----- Rare and Heartfelt Special Bulletin ----

For the first time I will break the time smear and actually acknowledge that my blog posts are a bit late. If I could post real time I would but the conflict between enjoying the experiences to blog and blogging absorbing missed experiences is a challenge. Regardless, all of that has nothing to do with the thought I wish to share. Today is Nov 7. Today the humans that have some relation to the land mass and political entity called the USA get to vote. In my mind and in many ways in the big picture I know that my vote most likely wont matter. But that does not matter. What matters is how I feel about my own humanly self. What matters is whether I find myself making excuses of smiling because I did my part, irrelevant or not. Not for me, not for anyone else but you your own inside smiling self, I would like to highly recommend you vote. No excuse, just do it so you earn the validity to complain when things are not they way you feel is right. Do it so you can smile to know you were part of the wave of positive change.

Vote green or vote greed or whatever you wish, but think of how much nicer it will be to look back on today and know that you did.

----- End Rare and Heartfelt Special Bulletin ----

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Digital vs. Analog Mixing Boards

One of the more common questions I get asked by other sound engineers is "Do you prefer digital or analog mixing boards?" Though the answer would seem obvious by my analog choice, what I am really being asked is "why?"

In the sound industry, like many industries, there is a major trend toward digital this and digital that. Many of these digital devices offer such clear advantages over old analog units that sometimes it is tempting to assume that digital is always better in all circumstances. Eventually that may be more universally true. New digital sound boards are smaller, cheaper, offer tremendous control and save money in shipping around the world over their analog counterparts. Many sound engineers are left no option than to switch for financial reasons and even more engineers embrace the new boards like a new toy, a shiny new laptop or a new car.

I have actually put a good amount of thought into justifying my preference. I can feel that I prefer the 'hands on' analog approach instinctively but is that just a familiarity or that I lack the will to find comfort in the digi world control surface? Though those are factors, learning new things thrills me and mastering control over the things I desire is a challenge I love to embrace. So I decided to weed my way through the various assets and detriments of both console types while stepping clearly around the 'sound quality opinion debate,' as that is unsolvable. What I came up with was an analogy, because it seemed fitting to 'analogize' analog and I love analogies like I love all the parallels in life that seem to lend credibility through repetition. Sooo...

I have realized that I want to mix the rock show like a I drive a motorcycle. I like to see what is going on and have access quickly to all the things I desire. I would feel very uncomfortable having to call up a separate menu's to access the throttle and another screen click to steer and yet another to use the brakes. Let alone clicking on a separate window to see out of each rear view mirror, speedometer, fuel etc...

And each rock show is like a motorcycle ride and though the same destination is the goal, the route can vary and road conditions are never the same, nor traffic and the experience of the unexpected is fulfilled in some manner, every time. A well designed motor bike offers visuals and control over everything instantly with minimal body motion and the ability to access what I please effortlessly. I want my sound mix position to be the same. My sound world is set up in such a way that I can sweep glance from side to side and gather all the information I need without touching anything. It is that instantaneous summary that allows me to relax and enjoy the ride while doing my best to steer this giant powerful motor bike, following the map they call setlist, down the road we call rock show.

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

And speaking of driving and analog control, check out the control surface that operates this Semi-Truck. The red and black thing is a shock mounted seat where the human sits and gets to hold the wheel that turns. Digital screens have yet to replace the older analog windshield method and the driver actually looks through a piece of glass at the road he or she is traveling on.

Turning around we can see truck driver Chris sitting on his analog bed. These mini hotel rooms are decked out. Microwave, stereo, DVD player, fridge, Homer, scary skulls and pretty much everything a human would need to live the gypsy life, in style.

The wondering when Harley Davidson will bring out a digital motorcycle,

Dave Rat

Finding a suitable Halloween costume worthy of being worn at a rock show while out on tour presents some interesting challenges. Things like rubber masks are not only uncomfortable but the fact that they often inhibit hearing or reduce the ability to see clearly make them less than optimum. Furthermore, mobility, safety and other factors are key need to take into consideration. Finally, the effort required to assemble an interesting, unique and acceptable costume can be quite prohibitive while traveling on a rock and roll tour. Fortunately, during a pow wow discussing the optimum costume, Scott came up with an excellent and quite feasible idea of becoming The FOH Swim Team. So while Leif and Nick the Fly were setting up the gear and unaware of the plan, Scott and I went shopping.

After the four of us cautiously got dressed in the back lounge we headed out of the bus walking only in a single file line and adding in an occasional light jog. First stop, the dressing room and with a referee whistle blow we started our loosely choreographed callisthenics routine for the band and then off to do a few photo shoots:

Next order of business was a lap around the venue backstage and a lap through the audience area before settling in at FOH to do our job of presenting the sights and sounds of the rock show. Judging by the reaction we received it became quite clear that swimmers are very popular in Cleveland. Who would have guessed?

Setting the equipment up properly is crucial:

As it turns out we all agreed that we were quite fortunate that no one else came up with same idea. How embarrassed would we have been if there was a Mars Volta swim team? But as you can see, we lucked out.

We were not the only ones dressing up. Have you ever heard anyone say Chad looks like Will Ferrel? Well, I just don't see the resemblance but whatever.

And I don't have pic but Chris Warren dressed up as Chad.

Oh, I got a shot of Flea the flying witch, zooming around while playing Bass.

And in order for Flea to Fly. The system had to be rigged. Here you can see test subject Casey preparing to be the guinea pig. Casey, by the way is a way cool Lampi that is on the Mars Volta payroll. As I was doing research into the R.A.W. though, there was a unanimous request to include Casey in the Peppers crew. Turns out that Casey has been so helpful during load in's and load out's that he actually is depended on as an active member of the Peppers crew. Please welcome Casey, the flying test witch:

If all that was not enough excitement for one day, check this out. Higher Ground has migrated back into the set list and it was amazing! I have always liked the song but forgot how much energy it created when they play it.

And to bring the evening to a close, after a long day comes the hard work of load out. For today's sign off I will leave you with one last glance at Nick the Fly going above and beyond the call of duty, much to the local crew's dismay.

The hoping I have not traumatized anyone with the pics,

Dave Rat

MHH!

Today I set my alarm four roadie shifts early and headed into the venue to investigate what goes on in the wee hours and stumbled into a cool adventure. My curiosity ended me up in an elevator with a bunch of local up-riggers headed for the high steel. Soon after I was traversing a maze of Cat walks in the roof with heart shuddering views and riggers clipped off

over death defying heights, dropping ropes and pulling chains.

Fun scary stuff, just don't look down:

The black dots are humans, the red squares are chain motor cases and the white chalk marks are where the motor points will hang.

**** Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 8 Continues ****

Here it is, the last and final installment of this years Meet a Roadie Campaign and teary eyed end to Roadie Awareness Week. None caught the math error including myself but the 8 days of R.A.W. is now hearby revised to end whenever is does. In fact, lets just make it roadie awareness year, every year.

Excerpt from Day 89:

Bus and truck drivers have even earlier call times as they drive all night and sleep all day, these nocturnal roadies like riggers, hold our roadie lives and the safely of our beloved wires in the grip of a steering wheel. An interesting side note is that bus drivers typically get carted off to a hotel during the day, while truck drivers sleep in the micro hotel room located in the cab of their truck. Bus drivers drive straight through to deliver their roadie cargo while truck drivers do showers at truck stops that are setup for exactly that, along the way.

An official definition of 'Roadie':

The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians who travel on tour with musicians who handle every part of the production except actually playing the music. This catch-all term covers Tour and Production Managers, Stage Managers, Front Of House Engineers, Monitor Engineers, Guitar Techs, Bass Techs, Drum Techs, Keyboard Techs, Security/Bodyguards, Lighting Techs, and pyrotechnics technicians, among others. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadie

From the above description it is clear that truck drivers and bus drivers are not actually true roadies but a clearly a related breed, possibly similar to the koala bear not being a true bear but actually being a marsupial. Regardless these cross country haulers of gear and humans are absolutely critical to our world, so I dub them all honorary roadies. Many of these guys, and we got ourselves one gal as well, are surprisingly specialized and tend to haul almost exclusively musical production. In no particular order and I apologize for the ones I could not capture on film, please say hello to our truck drivers and band bus drivers:

Bobby (Flea Bus), Doug (Crew Bus 1), Kurt (AK Bus) and Bobby Lee (Dimmers and Grid truck)

Now this cool shot with Roger (Sound/Subwoofers truck), Doug (Lights 2) and Nick (Wardrobe truck) standing next to the fuel dude. Why do we have a fuel dude? Well, we converted all the busses and trucks to Bio Diesel in Albany and so now a truck full of Bio fuel comes and fills 'em up at the gigs. How cool is that!

And look! John's bus driver, Eddie is an especially friendly bus driver and can be seen here offering us some food.

Security Dave practicing on our lead driver Scott (Rigging truck) and about to take a head slap is truck driver Vic (Backline truck).

Not shown but no less important and appreciated are Jack (Lighting truck 1), Nancy (Versa Wall truck), Bobby (versa Spines truck), Luc (PA truck), Chris (Truss truck) and Jason (Video truck).

Ok, gasp and wow, this was a much more challenging project than I anticipated but I have to say it has been an incredible learning experience, not only about the roadies but also about the tour. While doing my research and interviews I actually have a solid grasp of what the heck they all really do. Best of all, after five months on the road, the head nods of crossing paths are now hello's with names attached and that rules!

**** End Meet a Roadie Campaign ****

Stayed tuned for the Halloween Special Feature!

Dave Rat

GBMLMHH!

Day 160 - Oct 30- Columbus Ohio

First order of business today, shopping for Halloween costumes. Scott came up with a plan and I think it is a good one. We originally started with the idea the four FOH roadies dressing up as the band we work for, but soon that sideways-evolved into us being The Village People. After reaching irreconcilable differences about who gets to be the Indian, we had to scrap that and we decided to..... (you will find out tomorrow)

Here you can see runner Dave, Scott and I begin our quest for the perfect costume:

Given the items we were shopping for, it was a fun and funny adventure that I think runner Dave will not soon forget, we had a blast!

**** Begin Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 8 ****

Like any large campaign, the end run blitz of the final days requires long hours and hard work. Here at R.A.W. (Roadie Awareness Week) headquarters, currently located in my hotel bed, our industrious team of one still has high hopes for a successfully completed project. As we round the final turn toward the Day 8 finish line, I have the Dressing Room Duo, The Video Six, The Band Driver Trio and a Truck Driver's Dozen left in the barrel.

Long overdue and the ones who build beauty on a daily basis, our next contestants are the orchestrators of ambiance, the queens of comfort, and damsels of dressing room design. Up first is our punk rock princess from back in the day, a multiple and a fierce competitor in the 'who has the most road cases' competition big hugs and kisses for our very own Lyssa B. She is the interface between the band party and the venue. Creating the illusion that a rock venue is actually a comfortable place to hang out doing such a good job that she is practically turning the band into gig huggers. At Lyssa B's side doing what may be the most opposite imaginable of an easy gig, we have our Cleveland thorn-less dressing room assist, Rose. May I present the tree hugging ladies of bus number 2:

It is now time to tip your hats to the bringers of delicious visual delights. After they set up this monolith contraption, some of these busy bee roadies have the added excitement of interacting with the performance and getting those cool band shots for all to see. Additionally and almost as importantly, these beautiful screens are a virtual playground for humiliating roadie photos to reside earlier on in the day.

I will start out with the Camera op's. Dressed in black and nearly invisible unless you look at them, the camera operator roadies set up gear during the day and track their respective band member during the show. So let's break it down and we have:

Roadie Dane gets to play with wires all day and sets up camp down stage left to keep the camera eye locked on the amazing John Fruciante. Each of the camera op's are like little autopilot roadies cruising around and filming their band human. When you see that blazing guitar solo zoom in to J.F.'s flying fingers, that is Dane's work. When John dashes out on the runway and you still see the spot where John was standing pre-dash, well that would be Dane's work as well. So here he is, one of the closest thing we get on a road crew to a chick magnet, roadie Dane:

With the job many women would die for, she is actually paid to watch Anthony. Zooming in for intimate close ups and following his every move with her fluid camera work she performs her day job at night and her office is located dead center between the barricade and the band. It is with deep pleasure that I introduce our only female roadie 'gig side' of the production office, perfect angel roadie Kim:

Ok, so you are watching the show, there is the band rocking out and hey! Wait a minute. Who is that guy? Look, there is a guy crawling around the drum riser. I see him, there he is:

Number three in the list of Camera op's is the king of crouch, dedicated to capturing Chad every move even if it means taking a virtual shower in sweat, the only non-backline roadie up on stage during the rock show and Chris Warren's drum riser roommate, roadie Scott,

Our fourth camera operator you have already met, fast enough to track Flea and a long time friend, I will give you one hint and you try and guess his name. It starts with a "D" and ends with and "irty Walt." Let me know if you need more clues and I will write the answer upside down in the next issue.

So now that we have captured all our band humans into the video ether world, where do the images go? And which one is the one to show when, during the show? The dynamics of video decision are handled by Cheech and Chong's long lost third member, George. He sits backstage behind what looks like a video gamers wet dream and provides what is termed 'video content' that will eventually make it to the big screens, meet roadie George our video director:

Since George actually controls something in real time having to do with the show, he gets to have a roadie of his own and filling those shoes currently is roadie Bill. An ex soundman and veteran of many corporate gigs, his workload encompassing a wiring nightmare of complexity that rivals the trash can of a spaghetti factory, meet roadie Bill:

The last stage of the video stream before our eyes is the final control point at FOH. Handling these duties is Lampi Scott and our friendly foliage roadie Leif:

As the brainiac roadie that actually understands how all that stuff works, he is Scott the Lampi's Nick the Fly. Leif keeps the mechanics of the FOH side of the presentation in operation and most importantly has a big yellow track ball that he rolls around to control that Synchro light sweeping around before the band returns for the encore. And though we are near done with video, there is on crucial aspect forgotten. How in the heck are we going to see the montage that has been created? How about four large high resolution moving video walls? How about four huge 4000 pound hi resolution video screens, that can move both vertically and horizontally to form various video scenes? To handle the task of keeping those huge puppies operating and showing our musical friends we have the Uruguayan wonder, a man who will take on the football vs. soccer argument to the point of tears and holds the honor of hardest to understand on the tour, please say hello to roadie Rodrigo

To be continued ...

ROARK!

**** Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 7 Continues ****

As we working our way through to the next touring department, we stumble upon something new. Do you know those cool lights that make up the non moving back wall and hang over audience in all the show shots, those are called Versa Tubes. I have no idea how long they have been making these Versa-things but if it exceeds three years I would be quite surprised. These tubes look like harmless florescent lights but in reality are capable of presenting very bright full motion video and many pretty colors. Setting it up, just two roadies short of a six pack, the four roadies that make up team Versa-Tube. Assembling over 900 feet of what looks like giant lit ladders, every show day. And then they miraculously proceed to make the monstrous contraption work.

Versa-tubes are so new, that if you hired a crew of Versa-veterans who started in the industry as Versa-techs you would end up with Versa-kids. On a tour like this we have no time for that so instead they bring in the big guns. These are all savvy and converted lampi's with mad skills and Versa-tile enough to adapt to an offshoot gig. First to meet in the this 'four roadie mini tribe' is the Versa-Cheif, Kenny.

A bit of trivia on Roadie Kenny; he touring back in the late 70's with a band called Generation X that I remember from the punk days and still have the album. Though you may not remember Gen X, you may know that Billy Idol guy that was in the band. So then he goes on to do 11 years with that another obscure band called the Rolling Stones.

Moving on to Versa-Indian #1, all the way up from way down under and from a place where rooting for your favorite team is a lot more fun, I introduce Versa-Tube tech, Aussie Steve (also known as Raff 2). Each department carries an in-house-techno-fix-it roadie that has an in depth knowledge of the inner workings or at least someone that is good at pretending to, for Versa-world, Steve is that roadie.

Roadies love toys and most of you have already met roadie Rusty, this time seen here not seeking food, he seems to have located some sort of little toy. As roadies often do, curious as they are, he has very cleverly taken it apart. Maybe there is food in there? I doubt it but I do know that he is Versa-Indian #2, meet roadie Rusty:

Rounding out the Versa-Tribe of four is none other than Versa-Indian #3 roadie Kevin, unlike roadie Rusty above, roadie Kevin is clearly hungry and has decided to eat the chef. If you look closely you will notice the expression of surprise on the chef as he prepares for his escape:

And if I got the Versa-tribe out of order, sorry and ooops!

Now if that is not enough and assuming your curiosity is still holding strong, Our next set roadie specimens are neither fast nor vicious. Survival on the road is no easy task and if there was a single thing that can flare a camp of friendly roadies into a flash pot of flying flying spike throwers, it would have to be starvation. Well our next pair of roadies are professional anti-starvation technicians. Both are in possession of magical powers to transform the simplest and healthiest of foods into culinary masterpieces that will bend your mind and ruin your meals next week of of meals elsewhere. These two roadies can easily pass two of the three stooges and I would like to welcome roadie Wayno and roadie Salim:

**** End Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 7 ****

**** Ebay Auction Update ****

What can I say? Check this check out! Our excitement is ten fold as our auction winner and honorary roadie George has sent us what we have been so anxiously awaiting, confirmation that this is 'pinch ourselves' real. Guess who is going shopping!

Who is this mysterious George? Do we know him? Is this all for real? What will the ad be? Many mysteries remain but they will indeed unravel. I can say that yes it is for real and we had no idea who the winner was till he contacted us after the auction. And for more details, stayed tuned for the next thrilling adventure with Roadies in the Midst.

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

The looking forward to Halloween,

Dave Rat

Staying behind in New Orleans and leaving my fellow roadies to fend for themselves almost made me feel bad. What if they miss me and then they are sad roadies? But I quickly came to my senses when I did a mental scan of my workload, realized I get another night in New Orleans and I will trade a 900 mile bus ride for a 2 hour plane flight. I can party a bit, get my work done and still be ahead of the game if all goes well, hurray! First thing in the AM some blurry eyed computing caught me up enough on pressing matters just in time for phone call from Kevin, a long time friend of Scott the Lampi and owner of Sky Dive Nawlins. A plan was contrived to go on a mini-adventure to Dupre's for coffee and eat some weird looking square donuts. They call Benets (Benyays) and they are covered in enough sugary white powder to make Scareface drool. And hey look! It's Elissa and Susan that I met at the show last night. They had showed up with cool roadie gifts, we roadies love swag and here they are again! Coffee with friends in far away places, very cool.

Two Hurricane's (not the windy kind) and a wander later I came up with the brilliant idea of playing a little game of hide and go seek with one of my bags. First I HIDE my bag in the trunk of the cab, I wait for a half of an hour after I get dropped off and then go on a quest to SEEK out that long gone taxi and find my bag. Luckily I am a good FINDER and after a few phone calls I was very glad the well tipped cabbie came back for a visit.

**** Begin Meet a Roadie Campaign Episode 7 ****

From Day 89:

Bus and truck drivers have even earlier call times as they drive all night and sleep all day these nocturnal roadies, like riggers, hold our roadie lives and the safely of our beloved wires in the grip of a steering wheel. An interesting side note is that bus drivers typically get carted off to a hotel during the day, while truck drivers sleep in the micro hotel room located in the cab of their truck. Bus drivers drive straight through to deliver their roadie cargo while truck drivers do showers at truck stops that are setup for exactly that, along the way.

As captains of the land yachts in which we and the gear travel, driver roadies Magellan their way across the country with the greatest of ease. Capturing these mobile roadies in an un staged photo without the use of bait was nowhere near as difficult as I had anticipated. Where and how you might ask? Well, first I asked myself, what do all roadies eat, food of course and when do they eat, when they are hungry of course. When are driver roadies most hungry? Aha, after an overnight drive. So early I rose and creeped of the bus, sneaking into the venue and bingo! Catering is chock full of drivers, so quickly before the darted off I snap a pic:

A special surprise was to see all five crew bus drivers together.

I will introduce now the crew bus drivers and their bus numbers. In researching these particular roadies I was pleasantly surprised by how helpful each of the drivers were as supplying nicknames for the other roadie drivers. So kind of them to be so helpful! - From left to right meet Louie 5 (Scrubber), Doug 1 (Off road), The General (The Colonel), Brownie (Brutus) and Brian 2 (Mr. Clean).

And hey look! It's Louie in action!

In an unfortunate oversight, I sincerely apologize for overlooking the following two departments in the Day 89 tour staff overview - Merchandise and Versa-Tube. A bit late but not forgotten:

Our next introduction brings us the emperors of swag, the Santa Clause's of tour apparel, these multitasking roadie's are seen here accomplishing the amazing feat of eating and napping at the same time. Virtually a complete business venture in their own domain, they have their own truck with driver, Cal:

Not only do they carry all the tour swag sold at the gig, they also do all the inventory tracking and deal directly with the venue's to arrange all the details. Almost like a separate sub tour within the tour I present lead merch roadie Chris:

And his trusty partner and actually could be a Santa as a side job, Jim:

to be continued...