I laid around in bed all morning watching "Jaws 3-D"... only without the 3-D
that masks the lame acting and pitifully bad shark rather like novacaine at
the dentist or ketchup on your mother's meatloaf... sorry, ma...
We decided to leave the hotel around 1pm and go eat by the lake (Tahoe, that
is)... it was Scott, Dino, Rob, Beau, Nej, Feoge, and myself, and on the way
we stopped at the River Ranch to inspect the set-up... the place turned out
to be swamped with rafting trip folks, families mostly... lots of mothers
losing patience with their children and the like... as well as what appeared
to be a bunch of eighteen-year-old boys with a half-barrel and equally
liquored up female counterparts in tow, loudly abusing each other...
"Jaws 3-D" was less painful to watch than these teen's behavior, folks...
Our LD (lighting designer) for the west coast leg of the tour was at the
Ranch waiting for us. Pete is quietly crazy and I figure he'll fit in pretty
well... It was a beautiful day and we had a nice quiet lunch and hung out for
a bit reading the posted warnings about contracting the Plague...
I'm serious.
There are signs along the lakefront here in Tahoe warning visitors "not to
pet or feed wild rodents" and "don't touch dead or dying animals,
specifically rodents" as there is a distinct possibility of contracting the
good ol' fashioned Plague.
Sidin' with the kids on this one too, folks.
"Um... Duh."
While we were eating the clouds started rolling in across the lake... no rain
yet, but we were all so conditioned after Colorado...
When we drove back to the River Ranch we found the rafting crowd was thinning
out and we met Todd, the guy who was coordinating the production of the show.
He and several others were loading staging out onto the deck we were going to
play on and by this time the skies had gotten dark grey and threatening.
"Where's the lid for the stage?" I asked Todd.
"Lid?"
"Yeah, you know... the ROOF?"
"Um... it's coming."
It never did.
When I advance a show, part of the routine is to send a document specifying
in detail what size stage, sound system, monitor system, lighting, electrical
needs... COVERING OF OUTDOOR STAGES... is needed to produce a Dark Star
Orchestra show... and I'd like to clarify that there are no outlandish
requests ala Van Halen and removal of all brown M & M's from the backstage
area... but essentially, everything specified was botched in one way or
another from the piss-poor conditions of the mic stands on up to the guys
telling me I had to "cut my inputs back to only twenty because that's all the
channels we got on the snake"... and they tell me this after taking forever
to get the monitors set up and laying out the mic cables, and the monitors
weren't working correctly once that was accomplished... it was like the Three
Stooges were in charge...
I usually have about seventeen channels of drums alone, folks... not to
mention two guitars, a bass, a keyboard rig, an organ rig, and five vocal
mics which comes to a grand total of twenty-six inputs... and they're telling
me I need to "lose some stuff"... I was incredulous...
"But I NEED all this stuff... I've already cut it back to twenty-six!!!"
"Well, I don't know what to tell ya..."
So I cut out Hazdra's vocal mic, the drum pads, and the Mini-Beast and
started checking the drums, now infront of a full house, about an hour late...
... and none of the drum channels are where they are supposed to be...
I have a Kick Drum coming up in the Bass channel, I have Snare Drum coming
through loud and clear on the Kick Drum channel, and I'm getting South
American Soccer coverage from the Bass channel... I lost my professional
composure...
"Alright... chase down each line starting with Dino's kit! Then go through
Rob's kit... LET'S GO!!!"
I was pissed.
The crew got down and started chasing lines, checking it against my input
list and eventually everything got straightened out... but by the time it did
the clock on the wall said it was 10pm and that's when Robbie the promoter
informed us that we couldn't play any later than 12:30am... that's only about
two and a half hours and it takes us three and a half to four hours to put on
a complete show...
So as John put it, "I guess (you're) getting a sampler of sorts"... with
songs from Brent and Vince years including "Good Times", "Lazy River Road", a
great "Stella Blue", "Estimated Prophet" and a song that has been played at
very few venues as an elective (and draw your own conclusions from it) "The
Last Time"...
The first set was five songs and the second set was a good six or seven with
"Drumz" and a short "Space" which Dino and Rob stayed onstage for, and when
we were told we "only had time for one more" John grinned devilishly and
kicked into "Terrapin Station"... oldest trick in the book...
So folks got a fairly good show considering the circumstances and I think we
made a few friends in Lake Tahoe... we apologize for the foul-ups but it was
out of our control, people... so please come out to see us again, huh?. River
Ranch is a beautiful location and we appreciate everything their staff did
for us to make us comfortable and the band has decided we might go back
there...
... to go rafting, though... probably not to play...
Next Up: The Fillmore!!!