Jumped Ship

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Rehearsal Day 2

Got some cool new Heil "Fin" vocal mics (and some Heil PR40 guitar mics which sound awesome but don't look as cool)...

Mounted my tripod to the lid of a cable trunk...

Took a picture of Jason...

And ran through about 80% of the set.  Things are sounding really good, getting my cues down for the new songs, the set is rocking, it's going to be a fun show.  

It was a good day!

Rehearsal Day 1

Well, we didn't get through the set today.  In fact, we really only got through about four songs.  In eight hours.

But things are pretty dialed in on my end so I'm feeling good.  And John is happy with his new UE18's so we're off and running with the newest / latest / greatest in-ears made.  I think the things sound absolutely amazing and was the one who recommended the upgrade, so am glad John agrees.

Tomorrow we hit it again at 10 am.  The new songs are sounding great - it's going to be an awesome set!

Tech Day

Had a really good, productive day today.  We worked from 9 am - 10 pm and I think we're all feeling pretty much ready to go for the band tomorrow.

Really felt good to be back at it.  First thing was first: the new Sennheiser wireless rack!

This thing is sexy - all brand new units that network together and are configurable via laptop.  So much easier than dealing with the menus on the front of each individual unit.

Sennheiser kind of dropped the ball and forgot to send the RF unit that scans the airwaves for dirty frequencies, but they're sending it tomorrow so no worries.

Let me show you around my office...

Patch world

Our new sleek rack mounted J-box

Two stage racks in one case... very nice

Now for introductions...

First and foremost, our Tour Manager, Matt

And our new Production Manager, Jimmy

Keyboard / guitar / saxophone tech and Apple guru, Jason

New Lighting Designer, Scott

Drum Tech / Playback Engineer, Sam

Monitor / Audio System Tech, Justin

Borrowed temporarily from Pearl Jam, sitting in at Front of House, Greg

And last but not least... on Lead Guitar, Brad

Plenty more crew for you to meet, but I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with 20 crew shots on the first day.

It's already after midnight and I've got another long day tomorrow so I'll sign off for now.  But I'll leave you with some random shots from around the rehearsal space...

Arrival

Made it to LA after a quick, non-eventful flight.  I was stoked to find that my new Think Tank case fits in the smallest overhead bin out there!  Big relief, as I find myself on a lot of small planes.

I read the new Nat'l Geographic on the plane - interesting to read about the planet's water depletion and what different countries and corporations are doing about it.  Example: Pepsi Corp is washing potatoes for their Frito Lay potato chips using the water that's naturally found in the potatoes, reducing their water usage by 42%.  Some amazing stuff going on, but we still have a long way to go.

Anyway, beautiful weather down here as usual.  No clouds, no wind, 70 degrees... but also nothing particularly interesting to look at.  It's always hard to photograph down here because everything is brown and drab.  

But then there's always the palm trees...

And Bob's Big Boy...

Our tech day starts nice and early tomorrow.  8:00 lobby call to head over to Center Staging to get everything ready for the band on Friday.  I'm ready to get to work!

Portland to LA

The day that's been off in the distance for so long is finally here.  It's time to go back to work. 

After 7 months of being home, going to photography school, working for Ben Moon, focusing on my photography, and hanging out with my dogs and my amazing girlfriend, I'm headed back out on the road to put my professional audio hat back on.  Of course my camera will be with me every step of the way.

It's a beautiful day here in Portland which makes it even harder to leave.  It's one thing when it's a rainy, dreary day.  Then, flying down to LA for work is kind of nice.  But when it's a beautiful blue-skied 60 degree Portland day... makes you just want to stay put.  

I had a productive morning - a nice thing about an afternoon flight.  After dropping the lawn mower off at a small engine repair shop for some carburetor work, running to the post office to mail some photos, stopping by the vet to get some flea meds for Snix and taking the dogs for a quick walk, the cab pulled up right on time.

On the way to the airport I kept my camera out and had fun with some long exposures, trying to capture movement.  

After reading about Denver's airport nightmare in the news, PDX looked really good...  

No traffic...

No lines outside...

No lines to check in...

And hardly any line at security...

There certainly aren't 5,000 people sleeping on the floor.  What a drag for those stuck in Denver.  Been there, done that.  Hope things clear up over there soon.

Time to pay my tab here at Laurelwood and head to the gate.  Signing off from Portland...

Eagles Tour Slideshow

I put together this video slideshow from two years worth of photos from touring with the Eagles.  The images aren't in any particular order, but I kind of like the randomness of it.  Usually I'm more meticulous about the order of things, but this time I threw all that out.  The main focus of the slideshow is highlighting the crew more than the places we went.  I have hundreds of images of all the places we found ourselves in, but the intent here was to show all the people that make up a crew for a huge touring machine such as the Eagles.

Music is by Pretty Lights.