Roadie Blog: 2006-02-19

Anaheim -Show Day

Friday, February 24, 2006

Last show of this leg of the tour. YAY!! I get to go home for three whole days tomorrow, then another 7 weeks.

Basically just trying to put this one to bed and get home. I do spend most of the day redoing my pedalboard to get the noise down, it works. Miss lunch though. See a few of my artist relations guys today, one guy that I haven't seen in many years. Always good to hang with the bros. See Phil Collen (of Def Leppard) backstage, as well as the manager of Nickelback.

Show is great, easily one of the best of the tour. Boss plays his new guitar on multiple songs. Soon we are out of there and off to the hotel at the airport. Got to get a few hours sleep before flying out in the am.

Los Angeles -Day Off

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Another day off here in sunny and mild LA. Sleep in this morning as we didn't get back to the hotel last night till 2am. Run into fellow crew member (and Raleighite) Marty in the elevator and we hit the Starbuck's. Drink my Chai Tea outside the hotel with a couple of other crew members. Later, have some Baja Fresh lunch and walk around Sunset Blvd. with Jerry for most of the afternoon.

Around 7pm, I get picked up by my good friends Matt and Alec. They are taking me to dinner at The Ivy, the place to see or be seen in LA. We are seated around the corner from the front door, my back is facing the room and I can see out onto the porch (where all the 'be seen' people are). Right as our food arrives, my boss' son pops up next to our table. I turn around and there is the boss and his family out for his birthday dinner. Of all the restaurants in LA, what are the odds we would be at the same one? So much for getting away from it all (just kidding). I go over to say hello to everyone and introduce my friends. We head out around 9pm, Alec has school tomorrow, got to get that boy home.

Los Angeles -Show Day

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Big show day here in LA LA LAND. Set up at the gig. My buddy Fredric from Divided by 13 amps comes by. We hang out talking gear and whatnot. Take a few photos with the boss. Tomorrow is the boss' birthday so I arranged to have a guitar he wanted brought down to the show tonight. We give it to him in the middle of the show and he plays it for one song. His kids present him with a cake and the band sings 'Happy Birthday' at the end of the show. Lots of good fun.

Before and after the show there is the usual LA celebrity hang. Get to see my friends Robert and Dean formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, they are there with members from their new band Army of Anyone. Their new record should be out later this year, good luck to those guys, they are some of the nicest in the business. Also see a few members of Velvet Revolver, Jane's Addiction, and Extreme.

Back to the hotel around 2am, dead tired.

Los Angeles -Day Off

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Wake up on the bus around 9am. We're in the parking lot behind the hotel. Have some breakfast on the bus. Get a call from a friend who is working in a studio down the street. He's off today and comes by and picks me up for lunch. We hit some Thai at Chan Dara. Good stuff... We also hit the Border's for some books and Amoeba Music for CD's. Then it's off to a couple of guitar stores. Basically just doing the roadie hang (minus the strip club). He drops me back at the hotel around 3pm and I'm off walking with Jerry and Brad around 4pm back to the same music stores. No one buys anything, just killin' time. We grab dinner at Mel's Drive-In, a diner made famous by George Lucas' "American Graffiti". Although this is not the location from the movie. Back to the hotel for blogging and Olympics.

After the Olympics I switch to HBO and catch part of the American Undercover's "Dealing Dogs". It's a documentary on that exposes the abuses that took place at one of America's most notorious Class B dealers (a dealer that sells dogs for research). It was hard to watch, but informative. The undercover investigation was headed by Last Chance For Animals, a group that acts somewhat like the Humane Society of the United States. Check out these organizations.

Fresno -Show Day

Monday, February 20, 2006

Free internet at the hotel finally works this morning. Check email, etc. before heading to the gig. No soundcheck today, even though the band is here early enough. Watch some more of the Olympics before the show. Rockin' show. Two more to go and then I'm home...

Fresno -Day Off

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Arrive at the hotel in downtown Fresno around lunch. Not too many of the rooms are ready. Hang on the bus and watch the Daytona 500 till my room comes up. Not much happening in downtown Fresno on a Sunday (or any day for that matter) and the free internet at the hotel isn't working (GREAT). Watch the 500 off and on, then walk a couple of miles to a Mom and Pop Mexican restaurant, then back on the bus to watch some of the Olympics from the East Coast satellite.