Sometimes you really can't tell
Saturday, October 23 2004
Posted by brockito
Today I was working at Richard's for the Twilight Singers show. It was a pretty casual day compared to the previous two in that it was just one band with a pretty reasonable amount of gear. We had everything pretty much ready to go for sound check by the time the band arrived at about twenty to six. The band is lead by Greg Dulli who is better known for his days with the Afghan Whigs. The band pretty much mucked around during their soundcheck, covering Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy and at one point Greg got behind the drums to show Bobby how to play an AC/DC tune. I kinda formed an opinion about his character while hanging out and listening/watching and it was not such a favourable one.

The cool thing is, when I came back for the show I walked in after they'd been playing for a while and totally got pulled in by the strength of the emotion in the music. I got a whole different view of Greg and found myself thinking that you never really can tell what is in somebody's heart. Someone could seem like a total a$$hole and turn out to be full of beauty.

e-tape makes your hands dirty
Thursday, October 21 2004
Posted by brockito

Yes, its true. E-tape (aka PVC or electrical tape) when it has been wrapped around cable and hanging in the bottom of some road case or other can get pretty grimy and gooey. Yum. I say this now with first hand (or second) personal knowledge, having spent a half hour or so yesterday peeling off the old tape from a loom of xlr cables that were probably last used on a tour that has been over for a good while. Considering last night was Helmet's first show in like seven years, that loom had likely been together for a while. For those of you non-roadie types out there, a loom is basically a fancy word for a bunch of cables taped together.

The show at the Red Room was sold out and I guess the capacity was something like 300. Do I need to say it was loud ? It was just like the old days in a way—unlike the Alexisonfire show I blogged recently about, there was no barricade and everyone was pushed up against the front of the stage and knocking around monitors and enacting the sm58-in-your-teeth microphone topple. I have a feeling that Stephen and Clint (tour crew guys) will be spending a good amount of time perched by the monitors like Skippy Smooth of old, keeping those crowd surfers on the right side of the stage.

Tonight, on the other hand, I am back at the Croatian Cultural Centre for another all-ages show with Yellow Card and the Matches and a couple other bands whose names I cannot remember.

Fortunately, I still have hearing in my left ear, considering the FOH sound guy (who is having a birthday today) suddenly sent signal to the mains while about four of us were standing right in front of the subs. Yow ! Its a good thing I had the ear with a plug in it facing that way...

So much for watching tv
Friday, October 15 2004
Posted by brockito

Well I was at the end of storytime with C last night—we have this ritual of post-story question time when he gets to ask me about things he didn't understand in the story, or about how big the earth is or why only some kinds of whales have teeth, or whatever, when the phone rang.

Within minutes I was on my way to the Bell Centre for Performing Arts in Surrey for a 9pm call which came at 8:50pm. Tom Waits had been rehearsing for a few dates out there and somebody's car broke down on the way to the load-out, so I was the last minute replacement on the crew.

So I ended up being a lighting guy (strip trusses, wrap cables, pack lights into flightcases and meat racks, push same onto truck) and while enjoying a lull in the action took a ride down the orchestra pit lift. I imagined how much fun it would be rolling mallets on a few tympani or doing press rolls on a concert snare drum down there while some opera or theatre action goes on on the stage. Literally the entire front portion of the stage at least 50' wide and maybe 8-10' accross at the deepest point in the middle (curves) is a big elevator lift which goes all the way down to a floor below where the orchestra guys can come in and out under the stage above. Just think of the possibilities for the Spinal Tap effect !

Anyway, part of what inspired me to blog was thinking that aside from helping one of his crew to pack guitars, keys, and an Eb horn (think big trumpet or small tuba), the closest I got to Tom Waits, was smelling the remainders of the band's take-out left in plastic and paper bags on two seats in the theatre. I think it was Chinese...

Since Le Fly Pan Am
Tuesday, October 12 2004
Posted by brockito

After that show was about the time I started realising I had not blogged in ages. Truth be told, I went away to a short vipassana retreat and returned with a reluctance to spend much time in front of the computer. Sufficient time has passed now that I am again exposing myself here on the internet.

It was truly great to see Jon (aka Bond Head) again even for a short time. We met up at the Media Club and then H and I escorted Jonny to a Taco del Mar where he could get some food. When we got back to the venue, Mono was on stage. They are a very odd four piece band heavily influenced by Godspeed - dramatic, slow, sparse instrumental, and then eventually really, Really LOUD. Like a rock version of Godspeed, or perhaps more like Mogwai, as Todd thought.

We left as soon as possible after Le Fly Pan Am's set, which started a bit off, but finished strongly. Kudos to them, and to Dane for stepping in on drums at the last moment to replace the original drummer who fell off a ladder and hurt his back the night before the tour was supposed to begin. They drove pretty steadily from Montreal to Tucson, AZ with Jon behind the wheel as much as 31 hours straight after a week or so of scrambling to get Dane up to speed.

H and I had a good laugh giving Jonny a bunch of Japanese phrases to try out on the Mono folk. He was eagerly writing them all down in his little book. I guess we'll have to wait and hear how they went over.

Working at the Alexisonfire show at the Croatian Cultural Centre, I was inspired to blog on the difference between all-ages shows now and how they were back in the day. Big difference between a House of Blues promoted show complete with a local crew, security, etc. and setting up in the middle of a VFW hall somewhere hoping the 16 year old promoter remembered to get a PA system.