Sunday, September 28, 2008

Flow Motion

The Dino tour is over. The shows were great, all of them. The band just sounds better and better. Last nights show at the Orpheum in Boston was a nice change. The Orpheum is an old theatre with seats. I generally don't like rock music in this kind of place but the Orpheum sis real good. Dino sounded great and Lou was particularly smokin'.

Played with many great bands on this tour; My Bloody Valentine, Built To Spill, Meat Puppets and Om among others. Live music is alive and well, go out and see some!

A few more pictures ;


Yeah


J jams with Built To Spill in New York City


Meat Puppets


Home, and still jammin'

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Billion Dollar Babies

Boston Tonight. Dino just played, Built to Spill on now, awesome show again. Some pics from last night, sorry, phone quality. More cool ones tomorrow.



TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS WITH BTS

Stage Shot??

Friday, September 26, 2008

It's A Good Feelin' To Know

First night of the Dino, Built To Spill, Meat Puppets shows. Awesome night,every band amazing. Dinosaur  the loudest. Show was at Terminal 5, a fine venue run by the Bowery Presents people. One of the best stage crews I've ever worked with. A good time was had by all and tomorrows show should be even better.


Dino Unchained!


Built To Spill

BTS with guest bass player Chris of the Meat Puppets

Thursday, September 25, 2008

"Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey"

Gig today was at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. Will, guitar tech, and I took the train down from New York to the club. As we exited the station this is what we saw. Somebody had a real bad day.


The Stone Pony is a cool club. It's across the street from the boardwalk. The staff and sound crew were really great. The PA is good and the stage is big.  I hope the band plays there again.
Here's a couple of pictures.

Soundcheck


J's big rig just keeps on rollin'

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Walk On Hot Coals

A few more recent pictures



Where's the bar-b-que?



Yikes!


Toads wall of fame


Loading up old tapes

"Does This Bus Go To 42nd Street?"


Just want to pay tribute to one of the most unsung heroes of rock 'n roll, the Tour Manager, in particular Eric Fischer (pictured above). Eric was TM on the first real tour I ever did, with J and the Fog back in 2001. He's is a great guy, amazing worker and a tugboat captain. He owns his own tugboat. Eric is tour managing My Bloody Valentine as we speak. Coordinating two 40 ' trailers, two busses, 20 some odd people and God only knows what else. This in addition to his steady gig with the Stooges.

 Any decent sized tour will run into a ditch without a TM. They are the guys who keep the wheels on. It's not a sexy job. Sound engineers at least get  mentioned occasionally in reviews for a particularly great mix  but when was the last time the NME or Pitchfork  proclaimed "Amazing Tour Management at Last Nights' Show !" Right answer mate.

Hats off to you Eric, you are a superstar! 

Kudos to other TM's I've known and loved ; Rob Holland, Tomas Zakopal and David Scheid.
 Sweet!

Expecting To Fly

Lots of troubled getting online lately. Oh well, better late than never.

Dino played three shows last week, all of them were cool. The shows at Toads and Revolution Hall were great. The third, at ATP in Monticello was awesome. The ATP  festivals are really fun. This one was at an old Catskills resort which looked liked it hadn't been changed since 1960. Nice! Dino played on Sunday and I thought it was a great show. The PA was huge and the sound was good even thought we didn't get a soundcheck. My Bloody Valentine played after and they were amazing. If ATP does another festival in the states I highly recommend you go.



Revolution Hall

Murph is happy at the Hall


Lou serious at the Hall

Green J at ATP

ATP

Wild One Forever

Monday, September 15, 2008

Paint It Black You Devils

More pictures from the Fender Jazzmaster show. Check out the review in the New York Times.


Decisions, Decisions - Let's use all of them!

Soundcheck


Rehearsal

Sunday, September 14, 2008

"Ziggy Played Guitar*

Last Friday I ran sound for the Fender Jazzmaster 50th Anniversary show at the Knitting Factory in New York.  Thanks to Fender for having me and Brian Schwartz for arranging it. The show was great, punk and post punk heros abounded. J played with the Fog. I had never seen this lineup, Dave Smalls on bass and Kyle Spence on drums. it was great to hear Fog classics such as Amma Ring and Set Me Free again. It is different from Dino but equally as good. The Knitting Factory sounded great and house sound guy Jason was immensely helpful. Alex, Justin and Paul of Fender did a stellar job of keeping things organized and hassle free. Here are some picture of the evening.

Fog rehearsing at S.I.R., note the Orange head!


The Fog, hard to fit all J's amps on stage!


Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip- Amazing


Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore - Uniquely incredible 


Nils Cline on guitar and Norton Wisdom on paint - truly a special performance



Lastly, on Sunday I mixed Black 47 at an Irish Festival in  New Jersey.  Great Band. Really Fun!!

Monday, September 8, 2008

"Just Dropped In ......."

Just got back from a quick European jaunt with Dinosaur Jr. We did  festivals in Belgrade, Serbia and a town near Bilbao, Spain. It was quite a trip. The show in Serbia was with the Stooges and it was great seeing them and their tour manager Eric. The festival folks in Belgrade were very cool and helpful. The show, on Friday, went well and the crowd was very into it. Serbia is an interesting country, kind of East, kind of West. We went to an old fort which overlooks the Danube river, very pretty.

Next up was Spain, the Basque region in the north. We left Belgrade at 6 in the morning, arrived at the festival at 2. After crashing for a couple of hours we went to the festival site and set up the gear while watching Duff from G 'n R do his solo thing. The  Jayhawks played before Dino and were great. The festival schedule allowed us 20 minutes to set up and line check. We got it done and the show went off well. Lou was particularly awesome sounding. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion played after us and it was nice seeing those guys again.  Left the next morning for home. We had six flights in 5 days. I love it, best job in the world and Dinosaur Jr is a really a fantastic  band to work for. 

More Dino shows starting September 19. Check their web site for details. I'll be putting up pictures. I'll also be at the Fender Jazzmaster Anniversary Party at Knitting Factory NYC. J will be playing so check this space for pics and stuff as well as more pics from Serbia and Spain.


View from FOH, Spain gig

Me an J at the old fort in Belgrade

Lou at the fort, Belgrade

Pretty cool stacks, Belgrade show


Ron Ashton, Iggy and harried Stooges roadie

J rehearsing in Belgrade


Murph and Lou, rehearsal Belgrade


Dino manager Brian Schwartz