February 13, 2017 - 1:03am
... going to try and rip through this... consult my notes and pics. *** Woke up in a Motel 6... conveniently next to a Denny's... good start. Drove through the desert some more on our way to Scottsdale, AZ. No idea what to expect there... all I know is it's the hometown of Toronto Maple Leafs superstar (and savour) #34 Austin Matthews. Scottsdale sorta came out of nowhere compared to what we've been looking at the last while... we arrived around 4:30pm and the area was beautiful... and full of beautiful people... almost like a movie set... nice cars, pressed clothes, designer shoes, and white teeth. ... meanwhile I'm pretty sure I didn't shower today... not that I really had clean clothes aside from "show shirts" at this point. The venue here is small. We saw ALY getting set up when we went in... and then saw them load their drum back out side. Apparently the venue is so small that they only have one band in at a time basically... so you get set up on the street out front, load in when you play, then load out. ... awesome. I'm only saying this because it's beautiful out and I like setting my drums up outdoors... I think it's fun when people rubberneck. I tweeted at Austin Matthews about food in the area. No response. I laughed to myself I'd probably have a better chance getting the President of the United States to reply... ... worth a shot though. Jimmy John's for dinner. The venue sounds awesome. Top 3 on the tour so far... possibly #1. It's amazing how often on this trip "rock drums" don't sound like drums... the thing about mixing modern/hard rock is edge... don't be shy with EQ's and compression... screw the natural tones! Carve, boost, and squish!! Lullwater suggested sharing a kit because of the space issues... normally I'd be down... but I'd much rather use mine... mainly because if a photographer shows up, I'd rather our kick drum say NEVER SAY DIE opposed to the ALY logo. ... it's a thing. Awesome pics always make it look like it sounded awesome. ... so don't ruin your band photos when you're playing live... or else you'll have to edit the truth out of it later! We ended up swapping spots with Lullwater so they and ALY didn't have to swap drums in/out. Fun room to play and the sound on stage was just as good. Fog machines scared the crap out of me... they started coincidentally as soon as I hit play on the intro... I thought something was incredibly wrong. Response was good though! Fair amount of people up front, singing along. Always nice. Oh! The opening band... drummer had a massive kit. There's no way I'd A) want to play that amount of drum kit, even if someone else was setting it up and B) would ever want to move that size of a kit. Drums are so finicky... you want everything in its right place... that many pieces... looks like a nightmare. ... good drummer though... my guess is Neil Peart fan. Sorta sad to leave Scottsdale... even though I felt like I couldn't afford it. Highly recommend making a stop there on a future tour. We drove out for a bit that night since we needed to get to Las Vegas tomorrow... early... just try and grab 4-5 hrs sleep... can't be late since we have radio to do tomorrow around 1pm Grabbed another Hotel 6 on the way. ... the toilet. The water was shut off. The water was turned on. ... the toilet wants to overflow now. When I got in the room, the TV was on but I didn't think much of it... and Dane said there was a towel on the floor in the bathroom... but didn't think much of it. ... the trifecta of out-of-place items in the room was slowly rising towards the top of the bowl. Adult Tip: If you're ever having a problem that involves water, ask yourself, can I shut off the water? If the answer is yes, SHUT OFF THE WATER. If the answer is no, DO SOMETHING TO STOP THE WATER. ... and if the answer is still no... well... you're probably screwed... and hopefully it doesn't involve a log rafting counter-clockwise towards you. That explains the wet carpet outside the bathroom (I'm in my bare feet) and the towel on the floor. I got dressed and went down to the office to ask if we could switch rooms. (... no biggie apparently.) We switched over our stuff and I was back in bed... and asleep within 10 mins. ... no internet here. Zzz... can't be late tomorrow... and it'll be tomorrow in 55 minutes. Mike
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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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