Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Aug 7- 9

I have now reached the point where being home is the perfect harmonious blend of the appreciation of relaxation mixed with scrambling to maintain some form of structure in my seemingly collapsing life. The AC unit now leaks water in the house, black widow spiders are only outnumbered by the crickets in my back yard and anything resembling plant life has taken on a brownish tinge. Tour life on the other hand has become fluid and fairly effortless, all I need to do is make sure I pack all the right stuff and get out the door in time to catch the plane and I will be home free, literally, for the next three weeks.

This trip I am going to go once again with a three bag system consisting of a backpack/carry on, a small roller and a large roller with handles forming the push me-pull you method of self relocation. I remain convinced that it is the most efficient method for a human to interface with the planes, trains and automobiles. Packing for a solid 12 days so I should be able to do just a single mid tour laundry day barring any unforeseen mishaps. I have also added a collapsible fishing pole, a skateboard and drastically altered the pants to shorts ratio, gambling on warm weather, smooth floors and inhabited bodies of water in the near vicinity of wherever I end up being.

Oh, in a sudden and unexpected rush of generosity I donated the charger and battery belonging to my small camera to the hotel in Japan. Though I am sure I must have had a good reason for doing so at the time, I am beginning to question the sensibility of the choice. Anyway, it turns out that my little camera worked much better when the battery was less than 6000 miles away and hence you may have noticed and I apologize that my picture taking ability has been somewhat curtailed.

So that visual boredom does not set in and hopefully you will find this as amusing I find it embarrassing, here is a picture of me when I was 19 years old sitting on the first PA system that Brian and I built. Of special note is, of course, the very cool vintage Rat shirt with my name on it.

The often forgetful

Dave Rat

PVEITYPWSMD!

Acclimating to the comforts of my new home for the day:

Festival day and did a bit of cruising around and the Shins were cool to watch. I caught part of Reverend Horton Heat's set and I had forgotten how much I enjoy seeing them. Queens of the Stone Age are old friends and always great to see:

And surprise surprise, I can not believe it but there they are, the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

I must say that I expected to be let down a bit by the festival. Even though it does not have the crazy circus feel that was so prevalent in the touring version, Lolla was well laid out festival in an awesome place and lots of good bands. Top that off with the fact that Chicago is such a cool place to begin with and I was much happier to be there than I thought I would be.

As far as the PA system, well, it was alright, I miss the real but it met the key requirement of "good enough."

The somewhat weary

Dave Rat

IWTFTSRDYBAYSIE!

**** Begin Old Roadie Stories ****

Last time my destination was a Lollapalooza was maybe 1996 or 1997? Whatever, it was the one Metallica headlined. I was mixing Rage Against the Machine and we were a guest act for some shows back east. I remember there was some crap going on where a bass tech for a well know band on the tour(not Rage) had some racist "white power" stickers on his workbox. I also remember some of the non-white touring security staff being less than excited about the stickers. And I recall a rather heart warming story about a certain individual being 'inadvertently surrounded' after a show by several of the security staff in a community shower area while he was naked. I guess by some strange coincidence. Well, what better time to have a little discussion with the person they referred to as "Little Mushroom Cap" about his sticker collection. Oh, and mixing Rage Against the Machine was like having a sound-octopus stuck to your face while getting run over by a tank. And as fun and intense as it was, I honestly do not miss the sonic abuse, glad I did it and glad I don't anymore.

Previous to that for me was Lollapalooza '94. I mixed L7 for the first half of the tour before my good friend Deanne, who also mixed the Breeders, took over for me so I could go mix another band somewhere. Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, that was good times and great people!

And of course there was the '92 Lolla with the Peppers, fire helmets and the giant mechanical hypnotic wheel as the stage set. My first real festival tour and one of the most memorable tours I have ever done. That is where I mastered the art of borrowing golf carts. Eight seconds from access to driving away. But those mischievous days are over because now I am a perfect angel and never do anything wrong!

In 1991 I went to see Lolla when it came through Los Angeles. To me it was a turning point. Music that I considered to be good was actually popular on a large scale and not shoved off to the side to make room for more record company designed prefab rehash bands. Unbelievable! A bunch of post punk/alternative music club bands get together and sell out amphitheaters. I had engineered live sound for Janes Addiction early on when they were playing clubs and turned down touring the "Janes Says" tour, instead choosing to stay in LA and continue pressing forward with our struggling sound company business. Now seeing them on a huge stage was jaw dropping. In a world of soda pop, candy bars and fast food hamburgers, I had never dreamed that music I loved and worked with would ever actually get popular.

**** End Old Roadie Tale ****

Off to Chicago,

The Fairly Old Dave Rat

IEGYPAFYSMLB!

Since this is 'Dave Rat Adventures with Chili Peppers' blog and not 'Hang Out with Dave Rat at Home' Blog and the subject of food is so enticing, what better time to share a food adventure?

"There is an old expression such that "I want to eat fugu, but I don't want to die" in Japan. Since fugu's poison can lead to instantaneous deaths of diners, only licensed cooks are allowed to prepare fugu. You must have special skills and knowledge about fugu to be licensed. Poisonous parts of fugu differ, depending on the kind of fugu. Because of the strict regulations, the number of deaths is decreasing." - http://japanesefood.about.com/cs/seafoodfish/a/fugublowfish.htm

Boring..... I do my best to spend my life in the boredom avoidance mode, though clearly I am not always successful. So today I set out to rally a few roadies together to join me as I have been meaning to go see what this fugu thing is all about. Strangely, the roadies seemed less than exuberant at the prospect so I had to pull out the secret weapons of peer pressure and ridicule. Well, actually, roadie Scott was pretty easy to sway and by default, roadie Nick the Fly and roadie Leif are responsible for Scott and I so they can not risk leaving us unattended in dangerous environments.

The restaurant was very difficult to locate, I guess with all the danger involved, they have to keep them fairly low key to avoid attracting attention:

Just in case we don't make it, I wanted to a final goodbye shot

Clearly Nick is having second thoughts:

Since roadie Scott does lights, he was the obvious choice to be the test subject:

Unlike many before us traversing this treacherous course, we made it out while still being alive:

Unfortunately that did not last as long as we had hoped and roadie Leif began straggling behind. We really will miss him but having an extra junk bunk on the tour bus will be kind of cool.

Ok, Thank you for joining me on yet another journey and off to pretend I am a normal human being living in the real world for bit. Next stop, Lollapalooza, Chicago!

Dave Rat

IAGTSCIYMAMYSI!

Wow, it seems like just yesterday we all headed to Japan and here we are near the end this journey. With a sad heart and fond memories I bid thee farewell. Like all great things, this must too come to an end. I feel that a brief synopsis may be in order to accurately relate. First we flew here, then had a day off, did a tv show, Fuji festival and now we fly home. Mathematically, approximately 116 hours will have passed from when I left till I return with only 46 hours spent in planes, trains and automobiles. So that comes out to about 60% of the trip was actually spent on solid ground!

In the mean time, I will just sign on to the internet and work on being boring. Whoa, what do we have here?..... Uh Oh, this does not look good:

Now what am I going to do? Or more importantly, what have I done? Time to get out the antenna because the the threats from the 'allegedly' free hotel internet is making me nervous.

**** Later this same long day ****

I have landed, made it home and just as you loose a day when you fly to Japan from LA, you actually land before you left when you come home! You do not get your lost day back but the super long day acts a consolation prize.

First order of business, food. Unlike the series of delectable meals I experience on the road, at home I am relegated to consume a much simpler grub. Look what $30 at the local mexican market gets me:

Oh, this is going to suck as torture myself with shrimp tacos and home made salsa. Ummmm, I got to go...

The very hungry Dave Rat

MDGWFHD!

Last night the rest of the crew took the bus up the hill but I opted to stay in Tokyo for the night and ride the bullet train up with the band party. Being that the gig is a 'throw and go' and Nick the Fly has no problem getting the gear dialed, interfaced and under control, the lure of actually having an internet connection was too tempting to pass up. Flea, on the other hand, did the opposite and had Clara with him (his older daughter). They cruised up to the ski resort with the crew after the TV show to enjoy a day out of the city.

The bullet trains are really cool and super fast and smooth to ride on. Roadie Jason can be seen here petting the bullet train, which is generally ok to do,

Though whtever came over him and inspired him to touch its eye is beyond me. It is well know that touching the eye of a Trainosaur, could anger it and he is clearly at great risk on being bitten. Roadie Jason is clearly fearless.

Immediately upon arriving at the picturesque venue site we went on an expedition in the general direction of the dressing rooms. And even though the rain was light, I do not know what we would have done without the 8 natives acting as umbrella technicians.

As you may be aware, one of the more challenging aspects of touring is maintaining a healthy diet. After the train ride and mountain drive, I was overjoyed when I found my concerns unfounded, at least for today. Feast your eyes upon this delectable spread the still even had something reminiscent of warmth located towards the middle if you stick your finger in it, may I say "Yummy?"

I love Sonic Youth!

I love their music, I love them as magic and wonderful people! And do you know how you sometimes meet people that have a profound effect on your life? Well, Sonic Youth was the first band to take out a full Rat Sound PA system since the 3 Black Flag tours in the mid 80's. After the Flag tours, we at Rat decided to stop touring and rebuild the sound gear to be fully tour perfected based based on all we had learned from the vigilante style punk rock style tours. When we were ready, as with many things in life, no one wanted to risk taking us on a 'real' tour unless we had experience doing 'real' tours. Catch 22. Back then there just was not a lot of bands/managers that both cared who Black Flag was and also were big enough to carry a sound system on tour. Well, Sonic Youth had grown out of the punk rock/SST Records world and they gave us our second big break and took us Rats out on the their Goo tour.

Looking out over the crowd from stage we see many pretty colors:

And the gratuitous snapshot of the rock show, the way I see it:

And following a long day in less than optimum weather, the show was awesome! The crowd was so excited and filled with energy, the steam rising off the audience, and whether the audience got the energy from the band or the band fed off the energy of the audience, the two mixed together with the mountainous japanese retreat and it was all good.

In order to reward ourselves for having so much fun, a celebration was most definitely in order. Here you can see the plush interior of a Japanese tour bus filled with celebratory roadies:

And tomorrow we fly home!

The portable Dave Rat

Of all the yearly occurring festivals I have worked, Fuji Festival is easily my least favorite. There are numerous reasons ranging from it being very far away to the fact that it is far away and hard to get to as well. Invariably a Fuji festival trip consists of flying 12 hours or more depending on your starting point, driving 2 hours from Narita Airport to Tokyo to do some sort of promo, doing a 4 hour midnight run up the hill to the festival site to stay in a mini-bed ski lodge with no internet, hanging out all day in a remote location waiting to do a throw and go rock show followed by another 4 hour midnight run down the mountain to stay in an airport hotel before flying home. And get this, Fuji Festival is not even at mount Fuji! That awesome white topped famous mountain, well that is in the opposite direction, I am told. Though, it did not used to be that way and I remember the first one I worked was actually at Mount Fuji.

Anyway, that is tomorrow, today we setup at a TV studio for a one song live deal. It is pretty interesting, they have the stage on segmented rolling risers with a set change involving what seemed like 50 Japanese stage crew. It was kind of fun and I joined the techs as they surfed their segments moving pretty darn quick out the door and into the other room and back again. Here you can see roadie Tracy surfing his segment into the storage room

Now look closely at the picture above and you will notice that there are a bunch of people working but one in particular must be special because he has a rather large tool belt on. Maybe he is a carpenter that works with hammering nails and sharp things? How else could you explain the fact that he is wearing the Japanese safety shoe. It turns out, every single person I could find that had a tool belt also was wearing the highly protective footwear:

Dave Rat

P. S.

If you are ever looking for a bargain on a square watermelon, you can scoop this baby up in Tokyo for $100.00 US or so!

And is that $60.00 for 2.5 KG of oranges? May as well grab them while you are here.

Part 1 - The Scott Walk

Today our Adventure leader will be none other than Scott the Lampi. Famous for his namesake Scott-Walks which involve miles of random exploration and sore feet, Scott has graciously offered to take us on a tour of Tokyo Hands, a legendary store that is rumored to have everything.

On our way there, it is difficult not to be distracted by all the cool motorcycles:

We made a friend:

And here we are at Tokyo Hands, a gathering place for roadies to wander:

Cool little TeeVee (He is clearly showing his roadie roots)

Nick the Fly takes break in a short chair

Scott bought one of the wine racks on the lower shelf:

He appears to be primping:

Scott becomes overwhelmed with curiosity. Hmmm, who is in here?:

Check out these wooden casters:

Who do you know that does not need little plastic scenes of people smoking in an office? And look closely at the one on the bottom left:

With Tokyo Hands being a gather area for roadies, it was no surprise to run across Leif and Daniel:

This is a little projector:

And this is what is projects:

I think he likes the table:

Uh oh! It gets lonely on the road and it looks like Scott may have liked what he peeked at earlier as he is back again:

More useful and attractive items and something I should own:

Oh, cool, I have been meaning to pick up a rhinoceros beetle, ya' never know when one of these babies will come in handy:

And thank you Scott for an informative tour, looks like he may be getting ready for a date with his friend!

Ratison