Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Five stages, each unique and each with a sound system to suit and being that this blog somehow relates to sound, I may as well cling to that for a while. The Gobi tent is the smallest yet small is a matter of perspective. And while yes, in some things bigger is better, that train of thought does not slide well into the world of music and more than saying mega masses and huge distance is better than intimate up close and connected. And so goes the Gobi tent where a mixture of our future main stage artists commingle with eternal fringe. It was hard to photo the tents but I do have grainy cool shot.

Ooooh, the huge Midas XL4 driving a ground stacked Rat Trap 5 system, for all the audio fans out there. Next in line is the Mojave tent which have a bit more of a "rock" vibe.

The tent had a flown L'Acoustics Kudo rig

and also was the where I saw my personal favorite of the bands that I had neve heard of or seen before, Gogol Bordello

Pirate gypsy music with a punk rock edge and an amazing fiddle player and a whole crazy circus vibe, oh my, how happy was I? Quite indeed, I will have to seek out a CD and see if the thrill prints to plastic. The largest of the enclosed areas is the massive Sahara Tent and it is all about DJ's and dance and bands that follow that groove. Speakers were everywhere and so many sub-woofers you could blur vision. Like a magnet for beauty and motion wonderful to watch but my motions were too widespread to let myself get wrapped up in the trance. Here is an early day shot of the back side. As you can see, speakers are criss cross firing and that repeats through out the tent creating a surround sound setup consisting of a multitude of V-Dosc and dV-Dosc and way too many subs.

The "Outdoor Theater" is the next in line and ran a nice V-Dosc rig.

And finally, the Main Stage as seen from the VIP area. If you look closely you may notice that there is the fully hung dual V-Dosc rig with two 15 deep banana's per side, plus 3 deep dV-Dosc plus 6 V-Dosc and 6 dV-Dosc per side as outer fills.

Up until today seeing the rig hang was impressive but today is special. You see, this is the first time that the Peppers touring setup of a double hung system has made is into an actual festival gig and it was no easy task. While this brings me much glee, I am also getting a bit worried. Many hoops were jumped through, many strings pulled and due to logistics, the dual rig that I so vigilantly fought for had to stay up for the entire festival. Being that Rat did not have the equipment to cover it, Rat sub hired the additional speakers at considerable cost which needed to be covered somehow and that is not even the part that worries me. Oh jees, what have I gotten myself into?

To be continued..

Dave Rat

 

Merging time slipped worlds I am in North Hollywood, tomorrow I head out to the desert to hang out at Coachella, a large rock festival about 3 hours east of Los Angeles and not only is Rat Sound is providing PA Systems for all five stage, I am also mixing the headline act on saturday, guess who? Oh, the Red Hot Chili Peppers of course. Anyway, I will blog that adventure when the time comes but in the mean time, close your eyes and let your mind slip backwards in time to April 19th. We are in Sydney Australia and the sunshine is turned on as are the waves and beaches and general happiness of humans.

I have friends in Sydney! And every time I come to town, they are awesome and take care of me. A boat ride

in the harbor makes for a terrible day

And dinner with magic friends

intermixed in the blur of days that whisk by in a flash intermixed with rock shows

and cool tunes

Swimming and running and friends and wine and vegetate toast and happy not being predictable and a few tiny roller coaster bumps and I would not trade these memories for the world. The merging of worlds, as the barriers wash away and today is a great day in a string of wonderful days that were overwhelming enough that I went away and hence, my bloggery delay. Ya know, I could live here and be happy, but wait, I am already happy. Hmmm, ok, I could live here and be also happy. Hugs for all my far away friends that I love and hugs love so strong it is timeless!

No hugs for the cactus though and no hugs for burning hot coals with dancing flames and no hugs for polar bears either, even though they all share the common trait of appearing desirable to touch and just like it looks like walking on the puffy clouds outside the plane window is a fun idea , these are all things I will restrain myself with and attempt to enjoy with my eyes. Mostly and speaking of walking on clouds and imagining the way it would feel to attempt that adventure of plummeting through, I have an idea! How about we do a special bloggery feature all about launching roadies off of high places? I think that is a great idea, I will work on it.

The always happiest when I blindly follow what I feel,

Dave Rat

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Being the curious roadie I am, I did a bit of research on the subwoofers (subs) and their curious setup. For the super sound nerds out there you can read more here:

http://www.dbaudio.com/pub/live/TI330_E.PDF

For the rest of you that would rather have me smooth over and summarize, basically what they are doing with the backwards speakers are trying to cancel out the sound behind the subs. On paper it looks good and there are some good parts to the idea though attractiveness is surely not one of them. Loud they were but more like the boom boom of an over-stereo-ed low-rider car than the smooth soothing sound I seek. These subs really liked to reproduce some of the notes Flea played and did not like to reproduce other notes so much. For any of y'all there, you may have even heard me take a small sound slapfrom AK for over subwoofering them stage. Getting lots of nice low end to my pals in the crowd without blurring the vision of my other pals on stage is a tricky trick indeed. But hey, it was all good enough to make for great show.

OK, now back to the important stuff like being a pirate!

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

Arghhh, me boat awaits me:

Arghh, me first mate Nick the Fly and I feasting tasty ice treats, arghh:

I watched the Killers:

Gnarls Barkley and our friend Josh is in the band!

And the highlight was seeing The Who for the second time in my life. It made so happy thoroughly enjoyed it as did all the rest of band and crew, guitar arm windmills, little steps and microphone acrobatics mixed with hit after hit made their show pure fun!

And of course, closing the evening once again in the strangest string of coincidences was surprisingly my favorite band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, hurray!

.

And hurray for happy surprises and super heroes!

Arghh,

Dave Rat

IMIYABSH!

Upon arrival last night my phone informs me that the hotel has been changed. Turns out that after the fairly grueling flight, the hotel was filthy and in disrepair enough to inspire relocating. My phone also informed me that there is a crew dinner and I should head over. So off I headed, travel bag in tow

The place is a famous steak house and in the photo you may notice that everyone is looking in Dave Lee's direction. This is because he is about to be served that largest cut of prime rib that anyone had ever seen.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Walking into a pre set venue brings with it a bit of anticipation. By pre set, I mean one where myself or the crew I tour with is not in total control. First order of business is a quick wander to determine what my challenges will most likely be. Mental notes of anything out of the ordinary. Today it all looks solid, plenty of gear and a curiosity. As you can see from the photo below, there are six twelve foot high tower like stacks of speakers in front of the stage. Furthermore, the middle speakers are facing backwards. Hmmm.

D & B subs, never used them that I know of before, been interested in hearing them though it also appears that much to the dismay of lampi roadie Scott, we will to do a lot of seeing them as well.

So today we do a setup and the backline roadies will rock out their preferred roadie jam of "Give It Away" for a change, again. Hurray for V-Dosc PA, though I already miss the dual system, it is all good, I know several of the crew and I feel confident. As far as the subs, not sure yet, wow are they loud but not sure if they are the right loud. Will find out soon enough though. In the mean time......

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

Ever wonder where all the power comes from at a big outdoor festival? More often than not, generators. Kind of like those stupid little things that rubbed on your bike tire to power your headlight. I hated those things. Huge generators and like the bike version, they make electricity by spinning a something kind of like a super giant tire rubbing device. Big diesel engines built into truck trailers and if you follow just about any wire long enough, sooner or later you will end up standing next to one of these things. Here I have located the end of all wires. One would think that this would roadie gathering area with their well known affinity for wires and all. But nope, turns out that power central is a lonely place with not a roadie in sight.

Ooooooo, look at all those wires. Thump thump thump goes the roadie heart.

The dreaming of wires

Dave Rat

SNIAGTTPWIWTCABY!

I wake up on the bus and it is 10 am and still moving. This is highly unusual and I must admit it has been a few days or maybe a week since I have opened my itinerary and now is as good a time as any. Five hundred and nine miles, and we got rolling somewhere just before 3 am last night, 'bout right I guess. With rigging calls typically in around 8 am and a 10:45 am arrival time according to bus driver roadie Brian, that puts us about 3 hours later today at getting 12 trucks of gear in, up and running.

Turns out it the production humans have it planned out and expected the crunch. I asked if the sound roadies need my help but they have a mind set to power through and make it happen. It becomes clear the my assistance would just dilute the accomplishment, so I set up office and work on my ratty stuff as usual and await the amp racks to to be un layered out of the sound truck.

Status report: All amps function so the search for local spares on hold can be released. The damage report:

• 1 input panel partially ripped off the rack rails
• 8 bent front panels on Lab Gruppen amps
• 4 bent rack ears on Crown amps
• All the front rack rail is bent or stripped
• and the top shells on both racks have somewhat mashed in corners.

The good news is that though not pretty, it is patchable to finish the trip without shipping in costly replacement gear. The bad news is that at some point there is a pile of work to be done and a few thousand dollars in fix it bits to bring them back to the previous state of beauty. As with many things, humans included, it was not the actual fall that caused all the damage. It was the very abrupt landing when contacting the planet earth at a high rate of speed messed things up. I will try and shoot some pics of them at some point.

**** Highlight of the Day ****

I got a pile of Avril Lavigne swag to bring home to my shorties. Thank you Craig and Shawn!

**** End Highlight of the Day ****

Tonight the load out splits up the gear again. Next show is Virgin Festival in Baltimore for one truck and the global crew, all the rest of the hardware and humans have a 1400 miles bus ride to Toronto for multiple days off. Global crew has a 7:45 am plane international plane flight with a long layover and connection, that means like a 5 am lobby call, Super yuck!

The joyous

Dave Rat

YFATMOAIWPI!

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!

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!