Back to the rat race …

Posted on | January 4, 2009 | No Comments

I spent a lot of time this weekend working around the house. I know, I know, I had all week off and could have done my chores then, but instead I opted for some R&R and spending more time at the gym. Consequently I had a few small projects I wanted to get done before resuming my regular work schedule for the year. Saturday was spent outside in the unseasonably warm weather raking leaves, trimming trees, and cleaning up the garden. Today was spent taking down the Christmas lights on the house, putting away the Christmas decorations, replacing plenty of indoor light bulbs, changing various filters, cleaning vents, and grocery shopping. You know, it’s funny to me how I almost always seem to hit the grocery store on a good swing, just when they have the checkout isles full and call in everyone to man a station. That way I am in and out in a flash. But like I said, I almost always hit that upswing, which is why all I could do today was laugh. You would have thought a major snow storm was coming or something; I haven’t seen the stores packed like that since Thanksgiving. Oh well, it gave me more time to go through my coupons and find a few more discounts … lol In times like these its just good to know I can afford to go to the grocery store, and for that I am thankful.

So have a good day out there tomorrow kids. 2009 here we come.

Category: Blog, personal

The Big Show …

Posted on | January 2, 2009 | No Comments

As I am typing this Craig Ferguson is on and lamenting about Baltimore and how beautiful it is. Too funny. Baltimore is one of those cities that if you don’t know about, or haven’t been to, then you really don’t know what you’re missing. I know plenty of people who travel there for work and still think of it as a small dingy town but then again those people haven’t really been outside the inner city or around their hotel area to appreciate and understand the culture that exists there. Even I was amazed at the city and how far it has come in the last several years. Its funny to hear him go on and on about it. Ok I digress …

Last night was my first show at Reno’s in Dallas and it was quite an interesting evening. The headliner was Pretty Boy Floyd, an 80’s glam band who had one hit somewhere (where exactly is still a mystery), with two stylistically diverse acts, Saints and Saviors, and then Scary Cherry and the Bang Bang’s, opening up.

Saints and Saviors turned out to be a straight up hard rock band with a slamming lead guitar/singer who was really good. It didn’t hurt that I was drooling over his guitar rig either … custom Mesa Boogie rectifier amp with custom shop PRS and Fender guitars … pure guitar geek lust. And while Saint and Saviors was a straight up hard rock band, Scary Cherry and the Bang Bang’s was a completely different story.

Things started out innocently enough with each member entering the stage one at a time, playing their instrument while the others followed suit. We started off with the drummer, guitarist number 1, guitarist number 2, background vocalist, bassist, and then finally the lead singer. Now I say lead singer, but she was truly something more like the offspring off say the Cramps, an opera singer, a drunk ballerina, and that woman from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One moment she was whimpering quietly into the microphone and the next she was wailing into it like I had taken her first born child, tied it to a spit, and roasted it whole over a roaring fire. The wild fluctuations in dynamics were amazing and had me using a compressor in ways I have never before thought of as well as riding her input pre-amp and channel fader constantly. Combine this with the fact that she was either onstage laying down while the background vocalist simulated a humpdy dance on her, or somewhere in the crowd screaming while pouring fake blood on everyone. So with not knowing the music, and not being able to actually see her, I was in an all new realm as far as mixing goes. But honestly, this was the most fun I had all night and they really were very good. While the first band was a good hard rock band who were all over their instruments, these guys were true entertainers and had the crowd interacting with them for a full hour. This, by the way, was just the beginning of my eventful evening …

Pretty Boy Floyd was up next and in true 80’s rock star mode they opened up to a CD track, a fog machine, and blinding lights facing the audience. After the ubiquitous ”Hello Dallas, how the #%*# are you, are you ready to rock” intro they launched into some type of glam/screach/pussy rock song that had the hundred or so people left in the audience gyrating like they were still sixteen and like this was still cool. I’m sorry, did that sound jaded … good. So there I was, mixing this has been band when after two songs the bassist and guitarist thought to turn up their amps to ludicrous mode, hit the system with a transient spike, and take out the PA amplifiers. Yea, nice job jerkoffs …

Because of the sheer volume of the guitar and bass amps on stage I was initially confused as to what exactly happened and so after a few moments filled with thoughts of “it can’t possibly be the PA amps” I pushed my way through the crowd to the amp rack to find that yep, they had blown the main fuse to the PA amps. This was bizarre to me since the amps for the monitor system were still on and functioning as normal, and in the same rack. But that my friends is a whole other story … Now mind you that during this time the PA is off, and there is only sound coming from the guitar and bass rigs mixed with the incessant wail from the lead singer wanting to know “if this thing is on”. A true 80’s glam band genius. Idiot …

Well I’m happy to say that after the blowing of the amps fiasco the rest of the evening went on without a hitch. The show wrapped up around 2am and everybody from all the bands said they were all happy and that it was a great show. This was definitely not a flawless memorable event but all in all it was a good one, and thank goodness its over. It was a hell of a way to bring in the new year, that’s for sure.

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