The Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals are about 180 miles from home out in the hot and often windy desert. As seems to be the case with any adventure, there is a lot to be seen and learned. Fortunately I was pay attention enough to grab a few pics.
Whoa! Check out this massive propeller farm!
And a bit later I look to my right and what do I see?
That would be a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. An armored personnel carrier being carried. I believe that is a calvary symbol on the side of what I recognize as a TOW Missile launcher. Ah, my past flashes before my eyes as I drive out to a big rock show and the thoughts of "what if" slip in and out of my mind. Oh, so glad I gave up the life of working in the industrial military complex.
Sweeping ourselves over to the other side of life, welcome a the world of embracing fun! I love this band, they are one big fiesta and end with the song that never ends, check out Gogol Bordello back again at Coachella but graduating to the big stage this time
As fate would have it, with a little help from princess Vixen, I ended up having a few drinks with some new friends
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend seeing them and tell them them hello from me if you do!
And speaking of friends, how about some more celebrity shots where I go find a super cool person and stand in front of the camera with them. Meet Kevan, one of the main masters of counter-disaster behind the smooth operation of this massive festival.
And in a rare and honored photo op, meet Paul, the master mind behind the creation of the event.
I remember 10 years ago, with clear vision and momentum, Paul and Rick describing their vision of creating the largest coolest west coast festival where all others before had failed. Though Rick has passed on, his spirit lives in the dream he and Paul created. The words to describe how incredible it is to look back upon how strangely, sadly and amazingly things unfold, escape me. Who would'a knew!
Speaking of pasts unfolding, say hey to Rob Rule. Robbie was guitar tech for for Peppers when I first started doing sound for them and for many years after. He went on to sing backing vocal on One Hot Minute tour, opened for Peppers and is master of the "knife trick."
Jason is the one that got the Rat onto the Pig's foot and that ruled!
I wish I had pics of everyone but my distraction level was incompatible with keeping focus on that project, though I tried. Michael mixes Jack Johnson which happens to be just about the best sound gig on the planet.
Each Coachella Stage has a dedicated production manager with near total control over their world. Wiley is the main man behind the Sahara tent
I just know the Rat crew loves it when I run around with a camera taking pics. At least I think they do. Or at absolute minimum, they put up with it well. Meet most of the the Main Stage, Rat stage crew.
Enough for now. Next up, I will sweep up the last bits of Coachella, a bit on Stagecoach festival and join me for something really scary when I travel out to Florida and find myself still on stage when the show starts. Uh oh! we got no band! We just got me, a mic and a four hour time slot rapping to the students at Full Sail University. Talk about something I really thought I would never ever do! But hey, I got straight "D"s in English and I write articles for national magazines and this here blog. Why let mortifying stage fright stop me for going solo and speaking on stage? And why are the scariest things the most fun?
"How was Prince?" I keep getting asked. Well, I saw a lot of bands the last few days and several that I really like. The two bands playing here though that held the most hype were Roger and Prince. As I lay in my after show hotel bed rolling over in my mind the few nights past, a contrast dawns on me clearly. Prince with a magnificent show, skills immaculate add in Sheila E, Morris Day and a show that was refined and rehearsed to every detail of talent and impact perfection. Roger's presentation was built on decades of concepts and ideals and talent as well, bold statements, perfect alignments of technology and vision. What is it about Prince's show that has my defenses up and Roger's show that I feel trusting? It was the the words still resonating that were forced into my own and everyone else's ears, that define it best, "What's My Name?, Say My Name!" and watching the crowd respond quasi-unified act as commanded and I realize that Prince's show is all about the perpetuation of the 'ME' that is the 'him' that we are occasionally allowed to call Prince. In what I am sure is was an unintended yet amazingly perfect 'ying and yang' contrast, Roger Waters' show carried message after message focused on the benefit of the 'WE' that is 'us' as a human group and individuals sharing the planet that surrounds us as "Don't be led to Slaughter" floats away on an inflatable pig.
**** Sound Nerd Speak *****
Enough of that and lets take a look at the main stage. 15 deep V-Dosc with triple dV's under, 6 V's over 6 dV's on the side hangs and a thundering 40 Rat Subs across front. 8 of which are loaded and processed separately as they are Rat Super Subs and quite a bit more powerful than the standard Rat subs. As things develop down that front, I will share more in time.
Each day FOH changes a bit and consoles come and go with the various bands, here we have a pairs of Digi Design Profiles, Midas Heriti 3000's, Yamaha PM5D's and one Lee.
Out in the field there were eight surround sound clusters loaded with 6 to 8 V-Dosc.
Two left, two right two mid field pointing toward the stage and two rear field pointing toward the stage. Plus the midfield clusters had Kudo on the back side as delays and the stage left clusters had ARC's acting as VIP fills. All in all, there was a whole lot of everything everywhere which would account for why we needed eight semi trucks to haul the sound gear out here, yikes!
While we are sound nerding out a bit, check out the new EAW MicroWedge 12's rocking the Outdoor Theater Stage
And loading into the Sahara Tent.
**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****
But more important than the gear, cause anyone with a wad o cash can mish some mash together and end up with a pile o boxes, how about let's start meeting the crew!
**** Mini Ratchella Crew Special Part 1 ****
Grandpa rocks the old school Rat shirt working the Sahara tent.
Hoover bunnies the FOH duties on the vintage Rat rig in the Gobi tent.
And yes, this is year 4 for him wearing the Gram Rabbit ears she tossed to the crowd here at Coachella 2005
Main Stage crew chief Lee doing some range finding getting that main PA focused up.
A special guest appearance by Nick the Fly helping with a small Jack Johnson gig separate from the Main stage event and general utility problem solver.
With 35 or so Rat's running around out here we have Daniella organizing passes guests, crew happiness, press and just about anything else that jumps in our lap. Without her out here this challenging show would easily shift to misery.
Roz came back again to FOH on the Main stage.
Sarah was super patch tech on Mojave
Steve Walsh, dialing in Mojave Monitors
Taka patch master and Tony Luna crew chief for the Outdoor Theater.
Jamie, FOH for he Outdoor Theater
Jim took on the tough spot of Mojave FOH, as you can see he is joyous over the mic charts.
Neal setting up Outdoor theater before heading to Mojave stage patching
Shaun rocked as one of the Main Stage monitor tech's
Tim's first Ratchella and working as a Main stage patch tech
More crew to come but this will have to do for for now.
**** End Mini Ratchella Crew Special Part 1 ****
Before I leave ya, you may enjoy this backstage picture at the Mojave tent:
How cool is it when time loops back on itself and the past becomes the present from a differing point of view. When I was 16 I was listening to music as loud as the headphone/stereo combo would get, lost in a state of timeless bliss trying to pick out all four guitars on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album, 4 Way Street. I was 15 years old when I bought the just released Pink Floyd "Animals" record and are there actually a pig sounds in the recording or is it just the swine references that make it seem like they are there?
Anyway, fast forward 30 years and here I sit surrounded by hundreds of surround-sound speakers sprawled out in a giant field. The reality did not hit me until the show and I heard my memories in real time. Me and my friends that built, run and operate this evolving entity called Rat Sound are providing audio for Roger Waters! Who would have knew! Ha, that rules! And not only that, since the moment the show ended and I got done pinching myself, I have been drilling to find memories of a show that was more impressive and amazing.
If if that was not enough, check this out. You know the big pig that is all over the news that got away? The $10K award for finding it pig?
Well, check out piggy's front right paw:..... and what do you see?
Hey, does that look familiar? Ah, and the circle completes as the little rat makes it's way to befriending the message carrying pig. "Obama" "Don't be led to the Slaughter" and our ratty pal. One of our Rat crew, befriended a piggy spray paint artist, Jason you rule!
Hmmmm, "Don't be led to slaughter." I must admit that I have pondered the parallels between cattle ranching skills used to corral unsuspecting ignorant critters and the methods utilized by certain politicians to wrench the soft malleable minds of our hazily informed public into thinking that voting for a corrupt and treacherous future is a good idea. But hey, why change when you are used to it, even if it is pretty darn suspicious.
And on to the more important and more enjoyable perspectives.
My gig other than Rat Sound mascot at this massive Coachella event was none other than manning the Sound Ambulance. Dealing with stage to stage sonic overlap and general addresser of sonic issues and happiness. With five stages, the mind boggling band diversity and two other music blasting areas, it is an endeavor that can not be won, only moderated and contained to hopefully a manageable level. Ahh, a big huge pile of complexity splattered with heaps of unpredictability, that is right up my alley!
Speaking of stages, Lets take a look. First we have the Gobi tent featuring what has become our "vintage" PA, with 8 Rat Trap 5's and 8 Rat Subs a side.
Monitors are Rat L Wedges. Next in line is the Mojave Tent loaded with a Kudo system and Rat S Wedges
The biggest tent is Sahara with 9 deep V-Dosc a side plus 20 dual 18" subs, just for the main main system. Add in side shooting clusters, rear clusters shooting from the back forward, delay clusters and rear clusters shooting out the back and you have a tent loaded to the gills with some intense sound power.
The Outdoor Theater comes back a bit with 8 V-Dosc and 12 subs a side
Oh and more to come. Main PA, meet some crew and some cool band pics too. In the mean time, Dave Rat is heading out to do some hanging with the country folks at Stagecoach festival. Hells yeah!
I am back before gone and what better way to keep friends around than to give them free stuff! So, if you are interested and send a letter with a "Self addressed stamped envelope" inside to:
Rat Sound - Stickers 321 Bernoulli Circle Oxnard, CA 93030 USA
We will drop in 3 Rat stickers and post it back to ya!
So who woulda knew that diving into blogging about roadies would be so read? So read that somehow the Spike TV show "ManSwers" found me and sent a crew out to interview me on some roadie-ish stuff. Don’t know when it will be on or whether I will end up on the digital parallel to the cutting room floor, but I must admit that it was really fun and I had a blast. Especially the part where I felt very manly while getting my face powdered
The ManSwers crew was super cool and I realized that in a way, they are a special breed of TV roadies that travel in a small herd of 4 in a minivan. And what do roadies love? Yep, you got it, SWAG!!! So to test whether they were truly roadies, I offered swag which they seemed to be quite happy with.
Rock on Sacha and crew!
**** Not Sound but just the same, Nerd Speak ****
What else,,,,, Oh, a special treat for our bloggery friends that use the somewhat awkward combination of Blackberry phone and Macintosh computer. There is now and finally a way to tether your computer to your phone. For those unfamiliar, tethering is where you connect your phone to your laptop via cable or Bluetooth and utilize your cell phone’s internet connection to access the internet on your laptop. This is super cool, though a bit slow, as you can surf the web for free from anywhere you have cell service. (assuming you have the unlimited data plan on your cell phone that is). Anyway, tethering with a PC laptop into a Blackberry or similar phone is pretty common and fairly simple. Tethering with a Mac is a bit more illusive as Apple likes to block those kinds of things. But finally the puzzle has been unraveled and Mac users can now enjoy that wonderful internet connectivity freedom that I have come to depend on.
**** End Not Sound but just the same, Nerd Speak ****
Into a fleeting gap in the onslaught of projects streaming by, I wedged in enough time to capture a snapshot of roadie adventure past. Rewinding back to Ireland we find our roadie friends fearlessly braving frigid rain at the base of the majestic Slane Castle. Yes, the Peppers made a DVD and too did the Foo. Puzzling at it is, I realized that in their haste and exuberance of filming the sliver of time occupied by the evening of "rock", both somehow have overlooked what occurred behind the scenes during the bulk of the day preceding. Alas, all is not lost for by sheer luck and a clear sense of the impending obvious, I had spent that August day wandering the roadie encampment with a tiny video camera documenting those roadie creatures frolicking in their natural habitat.
Without further ado, here are three 5 minute shorts of:
Roadies in the Midst - Slane Castle Unplugged
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
And finally, a parting shot for the day, on a whim I decided that I need some tunes in my office so I headed back into shop world, grabbed a few bits and set myself up a little sound system to enjoy while I work and make phone calls.
Two double 18 cable and two EAW MicroWedge’s, a couple thousand watts of power and an MP3 player and I am ready to rock!
See you all soon and would love to hear how ya like the Slane video. I have several more old video tapes from tours past that I can put up if people are into the Rat Roadie Films.
I tour well. Perhaps naturally nomadic or maybe just that I have spent much of my adult life traveling between hotel rooms. Either was, landing myself down in one place for more than a few months is an incredibly challenging process. First there was the hazy shock of solid ground, the realities of washing my own clothes and figuring out the proper food purchase to consumption ratio. The glory of a full fridge followed by the dread of tossing away piles of rotted food only to be followed by scouring the kitchen for something edible. Then sets in the dreaded weight of repetitive patterns. Drive to work, wash car, clean house, being at various places at certain times. All the while fighting the sensation of collapsing freedoms. I tell myself it will be ok once I get used to, I tell myself that tour looks so shiny from a stationary standpoint and try and keep the downsides in focus so I do not slip away into "grass is greener on the other side" envy.
As I navigate the doldrums and desirable aspects of the non roadie lifestyle, the bright spots of my days pull me like magnets past the trenches. One of those magnets is surfing so I would like to introduce you to a few friends that form the core crew. Meet Randy, John, Mac and Ray with whom I spend the crack of dawn surveying the waves before diving into the icy waters. I would like to thank John for the loaner of the rattle snake skin hat for the photo op.
And No Wave Dave who’s ability to focus right in on what I call "poking the bear" is a constant source of smiles.
And Gene whom I hold I hold personally responsible for getting me hooked on surfing and spending my mornings hanging out with this motley crew.
Gene and Dave are not part of what they term the "goofy hat wearers." Clearly, I have no issue with it. Speaking of snakes, snaking is a term used to refer to the act of taking off on a wave in front of someone which you can see occurring to Gene in the photo below. You may also notice Gene entering "the bear pose," a clear indication that he is less than pleased with the maneuver.
And to better enjoy the adventure in wave, hey, why not make something a bit different and fun? Hmmmm, how about a custom Surfboard? Well, upon searching through my computer I seemed to have an abundance of a certain logo so.....
I sent out the graphics to Ray and had some silk printed and the Blinky (William Dennis) at Ventura Surf Shop made it up for me. Thank You, the board rocks!
Moving on to another source of smiles, here is a picture of a speaker I made with my mom on Christmas day. Together we worked in my garage just hanging out and though I am not a celebrator of corporate holidays, this was one the best Christmases ever. It is a 6 feet long polished aluminum tube with progressively dense filler and an open back. The tweeter is a bundle of 6 microphone capsules. The sound is amazingly clear and open.
Oh, and I have another way cool aluminum tube speaker coming. Just thinking about that zone and rhythm of building creations in the garage makes me happy.
First in line of the source of "making home being worth while though is being soccer coach for AYSO U12 girls team and going to softball games to watch shorty 1 and 2 rock out on their sports skills.
**** Sound Nerd Speak ****
MicroWedge 12 is out and about and in bloggery modern networking tradition, I even persuaded EAW to embrace an "Official MicroWedge Myspace Page."
So I head out to EAW about once a month for all kinds of secret designing and such. The all new EAW MicroWedge 15 that is smaller and sexier than the old one, an EAW MicroWedge 8 and Shhhhh.... rumor has it, if I was to spread rumors, that a speaker box like you have never seen of the ultra cool EAW MicroSub 15 could very well be in the pipeline. I so wish I could share the MicroSub 15 prototype pics as it is a design I have been working on for a long long time and finally unraveled the answer to what I believe to be is the most useful and versatile stage sub ever. And it looks cool too!
**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****
Ok, I will try and pick up my bloggery pace a bit from once a month but no guarantees other than I will be back.
Dave
Rat
