We're here in Milwaukee, WI parked next to the Rave/Eagles Ballroom. I've seen many shows here when I lived in IL. I'm looking forward to seeing another one.
Yesterday we were in Grand Rapids, MI; a pretty low-key day. Bruno & Jason did an acoustic performance for a Lansing radio station which went pretty well which will air on Monday. We pulled into the parking lot of the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids about 30min later. Walked across a busy street in wind to get to a mall for some lunch--I finally got into a Bank of America....
Lunch yesterday was annoying: The night before (or 4:30am) we went to Meijer (a superstore similar to walmart) for groceries. It's nice to be able to save some PD by eating on the bus. Fast forward to about 11am and Cody was trying to make some hot n'spicy veggie sausage patties. After about 15min they were still frozen so they went back into the freezer. Our microwave died. This sucks because everything I bought at Meijer (aside from the Slim Fast and hand of bananas) needs to be nuked. So now i'm back to either starving or buying crappy food. In the mall, I grabbed a buffalo chicken sandwich from The Great Steak And Potato. Half of which I ate, half of which was going to be for dinner. Moments after getting back on the bus (which also followed a stop to the Shell station where a skinnier, balder Jim Gaffigan was working behind the counter) John, our beloved bus driver, came back with a new microwave. Yay. I also was upset because I bought a crappy sandwich.
Load-in went well, I was doing more today as Tim was on a conference call. I was able to plug Bruno's Les Paul in and hit a few chords on the Marshall.... sweeet. The monitor console was not only in a really weird place, but I needed a step stool to use it. The location of said monstrosity was off to the side and BEHIND the stage (on the floor, not on the actual stage). This made it difficult to see the band and their cues for "more vocal", "more guitar", etc. Tim was relaying messages to me, but my back was to the stage and his flashlight was just being seen by the local guy who was "helping" me. By about the last song (25min into a 29min set) I got the board and it's layout. I also realized that my monitor level kept getting turned down by Opie, my "helper". I couldn't hear what the band was hearing so I couldn't tell who needed what.
...it's now 2 days later and i can't remember what i was talking about - here's a picture of the board I worked on:
on to Milwaukee & Chicago....
-Uncle J.
