February 16, 2016 - 3:50am ... I'm in the van so I'm not sure how long this will be... we're on our way back to Calgary to avoid hotel rooms and also avoid burning one of our days off driving back when we could sleep all day tomorrow... then possibly go party. ... there's been a lot of half joking about people wanting to go party in Calgary. Nothing too crazy today. Woke up at 5:50am to be back in the van for 6:20am to drive to Saskatoon. It was a late night for me and a rough start this morning. I slept for a couple hours but didn't feel rested at all. ... and I'm still not quite sure how the time math made sense for the stage/show to get moved from Lethbridge to Saskatoon over night... safely. We arrived a little late around 3:30pm. There's a time change too we didn't really factor in... it's fine though... we got a message from management the trucks/rigging were running late... meaning we'd be standing around waiting for direction anyway. SaskTel Centre is a decent size arena. The layout is easy to get around and the dressing rooms are nice... I wish I got a pic of the shower stall though.. instead of having all the facets on the walls, it has a main one in the middle, that sprayed outwards. Pretty awkward setup if you ask me... I'll skip ahead right to the good part.. the show. There were no handlers to help us load so we ended up helping Saint Asonia's techs get their gear up and then we loaded it up on top of them... it's organized chaos but we're getting the hang of it... we had 15 minutes before doors opened I think. .... back to the stage for a second.. they were hustling to get the stage built and lighting/pyro together... and Disturbed had a very quick sound check. The thing is though... you can't rush putting the stage together... assuming if something goes wrong... people will die. There's a lot of gear/lights... and the pyro alone is dangerous. Rushing is how accidents happen! We did a quick line check and were off the stage 3 mins before doors opened... do the math. That's all you should need though...there's no need to stand on stage playing random chords checking your guitar. Play when you're asked... otherwise...be quiet... people are doing something else... your guitar works. We hung out in the dressing room and handed back to the stage at 7:15pm... 10 mins before heading on stage. The tour/[production manager came over and made a few jokes about the days off... we haven't been yelled at today.. so far so good! It was 2 mins to show time... 1 minute... "Is that your intro?" I guess the intro started up prematurely and the cues got mixed up... regardless we ran up the stairs and got on stage. ... it was quick... and we were not really ready... but still hit the downbeat on time after the intro ended... I'm sure nobody noticed but it was a crazy start for us... was like jumping off the back of a moving truck while you pray your legs are moving fast enough. (... I'm so tired right now... I'm actually typing with my eyes closed and hoping I don't fall asleep like this... although it is comfy.) The crowd was awesome (again)... quite rowdy actually... and I got some great pics of the crowd... it was the end of the set when I noticed Dane having problems. Dane is a super solid guitarist so I was fairly certain it was a cable problem since he was crouched over his pedalboard... not uncommon in guitar world. He missed the intro of the final song and I started thinking it was either a brain fart or motor skills.. which would be odd. We finished up... 2 mins under set time... and backstage Dane was pretty upset about the show. "My guitar started tuning itself mid song!!!" The Les Paul's Gibson lent us for the tour are "robot guitars" they are motorized and self tuning. ... and the robots wanted it tuned to E... which is a massive problem when you're playing a song in E-flat. This made way more sense since I remember the tuners flashing while he was messing with his pedal board... and that's what they do when they're self tuning. I know found this somewhat hilarious and told him it was Skynet sabotaging the show... and saying he got John Conner'd. ... Terminator 2 reference. I don't think many people even noticed though... lots of bands are out of tune but not many bands actually hear pitch (that well). Seb said he noticed it was a little "jazz" but the audience couldn't tell. Just keep playing, keep smiling, and deal with it later. (This is really hard to type in a bumpy van right...not to mention being pushed against the side of the van... I keep closing my eyes and feeling like I'm waking up after a coffee... not that I really drink coffee... but I imagine that's how alert people are after drinking coffee. I'm probably going to have to post tomorrow morning when we arrive... cell reception is bad out here.) The crowd was definitely into our set by the time we were done... or maybe just cheering for Saint Asonia for being up next. Gotta be careful though...sometimes doors lock. (<-- re-reading this at 9am, I have no idea what I'm talking about here) I'm craving pomegranate right now... too tired to eat it but I don't care. (<-- same ???... really tired...) We loaded out and went back to catering for dinner... braised beef was amazing! Caught the intro to Disturbed's set and watched until the end of "Prayer", such a good tune. Hung out in the dressing room for a bit then headed side stage. I can't even read what I'm typping... thera read liins all the place... since we don't konw what we're doing! I can barely read any of this... Besides I need WiFi for internet;. (I left that last bit as-is so you know how brutal this was to edit this morning) Oh... we hung out at merch after Saint Asonia's set....we probably posed for 40 pics and signed a ton of tickets and couple T-Shiirts... posed for another 30 after the show was over. We had like 12 bottles of Gatorade in the dressing room and somehow they're all gone.. I had one. There was a blogger/photographer at the show who asked to do an interview.. Tim and Reid ended up doing it. I wish they gave some more specific answers... the questions were pretty basic (music influences, favourite song to play, how the band rights, etc). Sometimes "real life"answers aren't glamorous but I think people would rather hear it... it's more interesting at least... maybe Dane and I can do the next interview... we both have some media training... and no filter. *cough* .(.. I'm so tired... I keep leaning over and closing my eyes... almost falling asleep.... if I don't write things down now though I'll forget... and then my journal/timeline gets screwed up.) ... I wanted to shower at the arena but opted to just go for a complete change of clothes... I'll last 6 hrs. I took the first shift with Seb on the drive to Calgary... 2 hrs then switched up and I started writing... Matt and Dane have second shift... we had our eyes peeled for wildlife... nothing... they've seen tons so far though... lots of deer... I hope we don't hit anything... we really don't need an accident... things have been going so well this far. I need to sleep... I just feel asleep again. I'm going to try to upload this (tethering off my phone) but I'll upload pics tomorrow... wifi. Again... we have a couple days off but then I think it's drive, play, drive, etc... it's going to be a grind but it's what we signed up for... and they're good markets... and a casino... finally. Mike :-) P.S. ... turns out I don't have enough bars to use my phone for data/internet... I can't even proof read/edit this either... I think that's a sign. Bed time it is! February 16, 2016 - 8:50am
... we made it to Calgary. I got a couple hours sleep but after we switched off drivers (and I'd finished/accepted not being able to post this) our GPS wanted to take us in a circle and GoogleMaps quickest route wanted to take us on backroads. I woke up to Matt declaring "there's no way I'm taking this on a dirt road." Totally understandable... if anything happens you might be kinda screwed this late at night (4am) and that far off a major highway. We drove on a dirt road for a half hour... ... just so people know, when following GoogleMaps... yellow lines are good... grey lines... try your luck. Stay on the highways! I've left some more nuggets about the day I forgot about in the picture/slideshow comments. It was a long day. Everyone is asleep... I need sleep... ... sleep time!
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Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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