**** Random Pondering ****

In my rambling travels I occasionally stumble in to a thought or observation that fills me with great annoyance. Usually, if I ponder it long enough I can unravel the essence of the imbalance causing the ripple. My most current mental puzzle came while reading a series of comments about an artist heart felt creative work on a message board. The seemingly endless stream of scathing negativity peppered with occasional "I don't care what you say, I love it/them." I felt this fury inside me increasing as I know full well that the comments were a mixture of senseless babble and mindlessly shooting of opinion-pellets. Useless opinions, spoken with fierceness and conviction, demeaning stabs as if somehow the spitting spite in a public area at 'people that following their life dream' elevates spitter them above the person whose back they spat upon. I realized that what bothered me is not the opinions, as I fully feel that humans are justified to form and speak their opinion, but what is missing the credibility quotient and the requirement that the opinionated accept public rebuttal to their statements. What is the credibility level of someone verbally attacking while remaining anonymous? The words of an insecure and jealous couch potato sits along side a bright eyed energetic dreamer following their passion, both are regarded by the onlooker with little to differentiate other than the knowing that the humans that tend to be most forcibly vocal about their opinions also tend be the most confused.

**** End Random Pondering ****

For this European leg we are using the Rat PA system that we left over here last time we were in Europe. While Peppers were in the States, Pearl Jam used it and now we have it back with a few small changes. The most significant difference is that the side clusters are now L'Acoustics Kudo's rather than the L'Acoustics V-Dosc/dV-Dosc. I am good either way but the Kudo system is more versatile and is faster to set up and pack up. Here you can see six of the ten per side we are carrying.

Another change made on this run is that we are running a cleaner stage by eliminating all wiring crossing front to back. Here we can see Dave Lee enjoying some relaxation while running John's pedal cables.

Since it has been a while since I have posted a band shot, here is pretty much what it looks like from the pirate ship

The forgot to be funny today,

Dave Rat