Los Angeles

I will start off by saying that I've been having the worst technology interaction so far today.  My iPhone won't talk to my computer, so I can't easily get the photos off my phone anymore (the reason the last post was my first non-picture post).  After getting frustrated with that and going to the work to email all the photos to myself, I went to download them to my laptop and now the mousepad on the laptop isn't working.  I tried restarting and everything.  Frustrating to say the least.  Now I really need a job so I can replace the two of these. 

Saturday was a blast.  I had to get up relatively early to head up for a 12:00 load in.  I ended up getting there a bit early as I made sure to allow for traffic delays through LA.  The Nokia Club is right in the entertainment complex that is the Staples Center, and there was quite a bit going on around there.  Something with Breaking Dawn had a whole area filled with people camped in tents. Crazy!

Staples Center home of the worst team in basketball...

Monitor World - Soundcraft Vi6 console, Crown amps, 12AM wedges

The whole day was good, setup and sound check was a bit drawn out due to various reasons, but everything was good to go with plenty of time to walk around to find some food.  The situation was a little weird, as the guy that has mixed monitors for them a few times showed up late, took over and mixed the sound check, then left halfway through the first song to go work somewhere else.  It was nice of him to do the majority of the work, but it made it even more awkward for me to step in after the first song and take on a mix someone else set up on a console I hadn't used before.  I paid careful attention to what he was doing throughout the day so I wasn't walking in blind.  I felt pretty useless throughout the day as I was just learning how to set all their gear, but both chris and chad recognized that was really all I could do and were very appreciative of my help.  Chad, the tour manager, was a very nice guy and I really hope I will get offered a job on their tour, even if its not strictly in monitors. 

View of show.  Crazy Lighting rig

The show itself was the craziest most intense show I've worked in a long time.  The whole band brings a lot of energy to the stage, combined with an awesome light show and a sold out crowd, it was a lot of fun.  I was sweating my ass off and really stressed out, but I think I did okay.  It was a pretty ridiculous situation to be put in, but the only thing I think I could have done better was to help the drummer fix his pedal when it came apart during the set.  In my defense he didn't really communicate with me and I couldn't see the pedal due to the amount of lights and equipment between us.  In the photo above shows about how much of the drummer I could see.  I was able to see his face through the lighting truss for any monitor changes, and I walked out in front of my console regularly to try to make sure he was good.  All in all a lot of fun and I definitely enjoyed it.

I almost forgot.  Being that Donald is also a writer/actor/comedian he is heavily involved in the entertainment biz out in LA.  There were quite a few minor celebrities there which was fun.  Blake Griffin, white redhead who plays for the LA clippers, jumped out on stage at one point, and I saw at least a couple actresses there.  Most of what I have worked hasn't been on this side of the music scene, so its a little weird to go to work and have it be that.  

I have a couple more pictures to compensate for the lack of pictures in the last post.

From one jetty to another.

Overlooking the Lagoon in Carlsbad.

At the time of the second picture I could see this wall of fog just hitting the beach and then within 5 minutes it has crept across the coast hwy and filled the lagoon.  Really cool/weird to watch.

I am off to brew a saison.  Check back soon.