Tours and Shows:

Pearl Jam started their second US leg August 16th.  The system never came back to the Rat shop from the last leg.  Word from the road is that all is going great.

The Stabbing Westward tour ended August 6th at the Roxy.

Dishwalla is taking out some monitor equipment for a US tour.

We have a 20 box system out with Blink 182 for a 3 week US tour.  We are covering the equipment and personnel on this tour for our friends over at Industrial Sound, who negotiated and hold the account. The arrangement is working out great for everyone and is good example of how two companies can work together for mutual benefit.  Industrial Sound will be supplying sound and personnel for the upcoming September Blink tour.

Looks like Candlebox will be taking out monitors for a September US run.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have been doing some shows.  No tour yet, but it awesome to see them playing.

We brought in a system for a Rage Against the Machine video shoot.  They were playing the song from the Godzilla soundtrack.  Have not seen the video but from the looks of the shoot, it should be really cool.

Equipment:

Our equipment purchases have slowed way down, thank goodness.  It was pretty hectic for a while there.  Pearl Jam is now using a BSS active splitter on the vocal channels.  We are accumulating more Audio Technica mics.  We picked up 6 more crest amps and a Klark DN 800 to help power up the Blink tour.  24 TAD 2" drivers are at the shop awaiting their home in the "Rat  Cube" system.

Other Stuff:

We designed and had built some custom studio monitors for Daniel Lanois' studio in Oxnard.  Two cabinets for the Tannoy coaxial speakers that he had purchased from the "Abbey Road" studio in England and two single 18" subs based on the Rat sub. I have not heard them yet but I am confident they will sound as expected.

We have decided to recarpet the entire sound system in the traditional Rat Sound "Orange" carpet. Although the carpet is ugly, it we feel that it will bring more attention to the sound system instead of the bands.  (Just kidding, the original Rat Systems were orange because we did not have enough money to buy whole rolls of gray carpet but we could buy the rust orange carpet in cut pieces at the paint store.)

The "Rat Cube" system is progressing.  We are pushing the limits of compact and high density beyond anything I have seen yet. The prototypes will be done soon and we hope to get them out as side fills on an upcoming tour for further evaluation.

The Rat web site:

We added a new page called "Evolution."  It has some pretty accurate graphics of the various Rat systems we have built over the years.  It was an attempt to offer some insight on how we came about our current designs.  As always, input and comments are welcome.

Where are the Rats?

• Brian Rat - Out with Rancid doing FOH.
• Tommy Rat - In Tucson busy as always with lots of projects and helping to hold down the Rat fortress.
• Dave Rat - FOH for Blink 182 and some Chili Peppers one offs coming up.
• Karrie - Monitors for Pearl Jam.
• Smitty - Stage tech for Pearl Jam
• Jon - House Tech for Pearl Jam
• George - Monitors for Rancid
• Jim - Monitors and PA tech for Blink 182 and then FOH for Phunk Junkies
• Tommy LBC - PA tech for Blink 182 and FOH for support acts.
• Shon Hartman - System tech for Pearl Jam
• Dennis - Local shows and helping run the Rat shop.
• Tim Davis - Just finished as system tech for Stabbing and working local shows and shop.
• Ronnie Kimball - FOH for Bad Religion.
• Melinda runs the Rat cash, making sure we don't spend more than we got.

That's all for now. Looks like everything will be busy but not hectic for the next 3 weeks or so and then late September we will get to sweep an empty shop again.  Take care.

Dave Rat