Tech Rehearsal 2

So we are mid tech rehearsal number 2. Everything seems to be going smoothly, although we have yet to introduce the element of the full live band. But the hard part, a.k.a. the 30 something wireless mics going on and off stage at various times seem to be acting in a good manner. Hopefully these calm waters will remain for the remainder of my time on the tour.


Sorry for the lack of consistent posts, Ive been just a little busy, and have been crashing very shortly after I return to my hotel room. Hopefully from here on out I will manage to post more updates.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we load in.

Also I get to meet the rest of the crew, and well a bunch of other people I need to know.

Im a little bit nervous, but then who wouldn't be. I kind of want to begin setting in the schedule for normal load ins, but as Steve put it, we cant really do that, because it isnt a normal load in in the least bit.

Well, we shall see.....

And the Truck is off....

So we loaded the truck.

And the pack is almost the whole size of the 52' truck. Now we only went 2 boxes high on anything we stacked, and we wont be stacking a whole lot, just our sammies, when we are all official and such. We have all this extra production gear that had to ride in this pack. So now its a few days off. We are flying to Denver tomorrow, and then Ill get to wander the city a bit.

I'm kind of relieved that we are free from the shop, but I'm starting to worry about the over all size of the package, and my day to day tasks. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I'm still worried....

Down time

So it seems that I am hating the down time we have had yesterday and today. I find my self being incredibly bored. Yesterday I found my self wandering through New Rochelle and Pelham. Then I went and saw a movie. Yesterday wasn't all unproductive. I managed to go do my laundry which was good.

There is soo little to do here in New Rochelle. And it is 30 mins. each way to get to NYC proper, so that is a bit of a hassle, and if I do that I need to out line a plan of action for the day, and I'm not sure its worth it just to be stuck down town all day, but we will see, if I have another long day to my self.

Hopefully, tomorrow we will get the equipment we still need, we are getting really close as long as we can get the towers and speakers on Monday, and maybe the madis....


--J.Foley

First week finished

So we have now finished the first week of work. So far we seem like we have gotten a lot done, but at the same time we have yet to receive any speakers, towers, or console.... All of which was supposed to arrive yesterday, and now has been postponed till Monday. It is a little disconcerting that such major pieces are constantly being "bumped back" on the arrival schedule. In the end we will hopefully be just fine. Its just the known unknowns, if you know what I mean.

We had a sort of major scare, that has actually put the fear of death in all the audio techs on Broadway and the road who are using the Digico D5T. Over all its a great console, but none of the shows have spare Madi cages with them. Well, "In the Heights" had been requesting a spare cage for some time (the only show to request it until yesterday...) and then at 745pm before an 8pm show they cant get the Madi cage in the pit to boot up....... It straight up died, and they were forced to cancel that nights show. Now every show on Broadway wants a spare cage, and so does every tour. That is no small order, not only do they most likely have to fly a bunch of cages over from the UK, but that is going to cost a fair amount per show to buy the cages....


Although the price that will be paid per cage is minuscule in comparison to the price paid to cancel a show. They had to pay the entire cast, crew, and band, plus refunding tickets, that cant be a small hit.... But in the future, people will be more prepared for this sort of occurence, and will be able to salvage shows. It is unfortunate, but it is a possibility with all these component digital systems. They will continue to improve them, but it wont happen immediately.

The idea just scares the cripes out of me, and, well, all the audio professionals out there I'm sure.

--J.Foley

NYC, well sort of....

So I flew in to Laguardia Airport, In NYC, but our hotel is in New Rochelle, and the shop is in Mt. Vernon, which I would suppose are suburbs of the city proper. Right up the street is one of the many pieces of overpriced land owned by Donald trump. It looks nice I suppose, but I cant imagine how much people are paying to live there. I doubt it is worth the price.

I must say so far everything has been really quite over priced, even compared to DC.

So far we are doing pretty well in the shop, although I have to do some back pedaling tomorrow to fix a couple of simple ergonomic errors from day one. I redesigned the centre cluster, and how it travels and was met with a lot of support from both the design team and the touring crew as well as the build crew. That has been a boost to my confidence. Also that fact that Steve seems to like how I build amp racks is good. My biggest fear as of right now is the fact that we are often getting to the point where we run out of things to do each day. Mostly this is based on our reliance on both PRG to deliver gear to us as it becomes available for our uses, and for the groups who are building out speaker towers and centre cluster mounts. Although if they show up this week we will be in good shape before we have to ship out on Friday the 18th.


Other than the uncertainty, so far every thing seems to be going well.

More news when it comes....