Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst - Red Hot Chili Peppers 2006-2007

Time Circles and Gatherings

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:41:09 -0400

How cool is it when time loops back on itself and the past becomes the present from a differing point of view. When I was 16 I was listening to music as loud as the headphone/stereo combo would get, lost in a state of timeless bliss trying to pick out all four guitars on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album, 4 Way Street. I was 15 years old when I bought the just released Pink Floyd "Animals" record and are there actually a pig sounds in the recording or is it just the swine references that make it seem like they are there?

Anyway, fast forward 30 years and here I sit surrounded by hundreds of surround-sound speakers sprawled out in a giant field. The reality did not hit me until the show and I heard my memories in real time. Me and my friends that built, run and operate this evolving entity called Rat Sound are providing audio for Roger Waters! Who would have knew! Ha, that rules! And not only that, since the moment the show ended and I got done pinching myself, I have been drilling to find memories of a show that was more impressive and amazing.

If if that was not enough, check this out. You know the big pig that is all over the news that got away? The $10K award for finding it pig?

Well, check out piggy's front right paw:.....

Continue reading "Time Circles and Gatherings"

Ramblings

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:35:23 -0500

Oh boy, I feel like finally collected my bags and made it home for real. When flying high peering out the window hurtling through space in a metal tube, it is not till the ground approaches that the true realization of breathtaking speeds traveled comes to bear. When land does arrive under foot, the body stops but the mind keeps going, spirals and jet lag concoct a delirious mixture fading side effects so ingrained that full awareness only occurs in hindsight from a perspective untainted by the jet laggery. Ahhhh, yes acclimation. Reality really does move slower at home or is it faster as I can not comprehend how I fit nearly a blog a day into my life full of rock shows on tour where I struggle to fit a one in every two weeks at home. Oh well!

So, in no particular order let's head to Florida where

Continue reading "Ramblings"

Hellooooo!!

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:05:45 -0400

Bloggery Update

I know it has been a while and as much as posting has been a goal on my mind, the sheer process of rebuilding my post-tour life has been fully encompassing. That is not to say that I do not get to venture out and going down south a few hours to say hello to Muse crew was super cool.

Hanging with MC, Muse sound engineer. He mixes a great sound and he is doing some cool stuff. He, like myself, had some issues with diving into digital boards and and after testing the best of the best, went back to analog. Unlike me, he has a much more complex show to mix so he set up a midi controller footswitch tied into the console with all the song names and scene changes on it and can step through settings, not unlike a digital board.

One of the scenes:

And of course some Rat swag for all. Paul, their production manager made the best choice right off the bat!

Oh, and Muse is great music, a great show and all good.

**** Other Stuff of interest ****

This is a 1976 picture of a 20,000 watt home stereo sent to me by Craig O. Oh my, hit the link if you want to read more:

http://www.scrounge.org/speak/burwen/index.html

And check out this Saturday Night Live clip

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=166786 from when Foo Fighters were on SNL. So honored and how cool is it that Dave Grohl rocks the Rat Sweatshirt, and the video clip is really funny.

The playing catch up with a smile,

Dave Rat

Day 22 Post Tour - Monday Sept 16

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:28:00 -0400

First of all **** Kudo's to all that have been rocking out on Roadiepedia! Awesome to see it growing and I check the recent changes every day and chip in when I can. I love the mix of serious, informative and sarcasm developing. All good!

**** Dormant Roadie Babble ****

Slowly the layers of tour habit peel a way as I re-acclimate, sometimes begrudgingly, to the world of home. I love my own bed but changing and washing sheets, well, not so much. My fridge 'food to consumption' ratio is way out of whack and I buy way too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones so I end up hungry as toss I out things gone rotten. I do a short run to the beach and back each morning which definitely makes my day better, I would love to get some serious exercise but instead I run around from project to project still feeling a sinking sensation that I think is for the most part illusionary as I know I am making headway, I just have so much catching up to do that the progress is not readily apparent. Have you ever tried walking to what appears to be a nearby mountain only to find it is like ten miles away?

If the darn house would be done, it would sure help. Then I could unpack from the garage, then I could have room to work on projects in the garage and I could find things without searching and un stacking tons of boxes. Almost ready to get the molding caulked and everything primered except the guy that did the molding messed up and mounted it all backwards around the doors and screwed up some other stuff too. The contractor is like "there is no way I can let this stay like this, it would kill my reputation." And I am like "oh, and also it looks really bad too!" So after that I get final inspection, then I have a few more projects that do not require a building permit but if I start them now, the inspector won't sign off on inspection till they are sealed up, aaargh. So all this work I could get out of the way needs to wait wait wait some more.

**** End Dormant Roadie Babble ****

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

On another note, I am really excited about progress with MicroWedge products.

I have been working on designs for a complete series of stage stage monitor products for some time now. Seven years ago I got a patent on the design and licensed it to Radian Audio to manufacture and distribute. While Radian did a pretty good job of getting a few of the products to market, without a dedicated engineering staff, it was really tough to get the rest of the complimentary designs done, processor settings refined and such. Anyway, I had been approached by several larger companies interested in the MicroWedge designs and when the contract with Radian ended in May, I was able to seriously follow up. Hence my adventure as a designer/consultant has begun with a company called EAW. I even got to hang out with Jeffrey Cox, the Prez who used to run L'Acoustics, all good!

http://www.eaw.com/frontrow/2007/09/post_21.html

Hurray! We get to build cool audio toys!! Not only that, I get to work with and hang out with all these incredibly brilliant audio engineering humans. Finally after all these years I feel like my dream of making all these cool designs I have been working on for so many years will become a reality. If I was a rock band, this would be the equivalent of me getting signed to a major label after putting out 3 albums on an independent. Except for the fact that most audio companies are not all creepy like record companies tend to be.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

Next up is "Dave and Scott brave the wilderness known as the crowd." What will they find? Is it safe? Will they be eaten? The answer to those and many other questions, coming soon to a blog post near you.

Dave Rat

Day 14 Post Tour - Sunday Morning

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:50:09 -0400

Good morning sunshine! I can't say it exactly a haze I am emerging from. More accurately it feels like "velocity differential acclimation" sort of like when I look outside the car window at world around while driving and all is smooth and normal. I sit in a comfy seat watching it slide behind me yet if I were to step out of the door while traveling 60 miles per hour, the "velocity differential acclimation" experience would be quite life-disruptive. In fact the velocity differential would be so great great that rather than acclimate, I would most likely end up absorbing the 60 miles per hour in a flailing arms tumble to an eventual big owie stop. That is how these last two weeks feel except without out the big owie part.

So before I work my way up to now, how about a bit of catching up on then......

Day 455 - Over the Pond, Again

The final bit. Three shows, one our own and then two mirror image festivals. For me as a sound engineer, today is the last real day with all the toys. So over we wander and stumbling across delicious delectable's makes me smile, Yummy!

Oh, and speaking of yummy, we roadies went a wandering and once again stumbled upon the same place we ate here last time. Or was it the time before?

Either way, greasy bar food was exactly as we remembered it.

And once again we chickened out on ordering the Haggis, though I regret it now and won't make that error again. Next time for absolute sure. For those of you wondering what haggis is, well like so many things, you have two choices from which to pick

1) "A haggis is a small four-legged Scottish Highland creature, which has the limbs on one side shorter than the other side. This means that it is well adapted to run around the hills at a steady altitude, without either ascending or descending. However a haggis can easily be caught by running around the hill in the opposite direction."

2) Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish.

And lucky you! I have included a recipe for y'all to try at home.

"Here's a recipe for the beloved Haggis of Scotland. In addition to the other naughty (read 'delectable') bits, the lungs are traditionally included in Scotland, but are omitted here as it's illegal to sell lungs in the U.S. (Any clues as to why, anybody?). Some folks also think that liver shouldn't be used ..."

1 sheep's lung (illegal in the U.S.; may be omitted if not available)
1 sheep's stomach
1 sheep heart
1 sheep liver
1/2 lb fresh suet (kidney leaf fat is preferred)
3/4 cup oatmeal (the ground type, NOT the Quaker Oats type!)
3 onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup stock

Wash lungs and stomach well, rub with salt and rinse. Remove membranes and excess fat. Soak in cold salted water for several hours. Turn stomach inside out for stuffing.
Cover heart and liver with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Chop heart and coarsely grate liver. Toast oatmeal in a skillet on top of the stove, stirring frequently, until golden. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Loosely pack mixture into stomach, about two-thirds full. Remember, oatmeal expands in cooking.

Press any air out of stomach and truss securely. Put into boiling water to cover. Simmer for 3 hours, uncovered, adding more water as needed to maintain water level. Prick stomach several times with a sharp needle when it begins to swell; this keeps the bag from bursting. Place on a hot platter, removing trussing strings. Serve with a spoon. Ceremoniously served with "neeps, tatties and nips" -- mashed turnips, mashed potatoes, nips of whiskey.

Hello Scotland and if I was to vote on the most likely birthplace of sarcasm, this would be it, I like this place .

**** Teary Eyed Goodbye ****

Well this is it. The Double Hung PA I designed for this Pepper's tour now hangs it's very last hang. I have no idea what the future will bring. We do have two more shows to go after this but those are festivals with typical V-Dosc rigs and sound pressure level limits so strict that if it was near the sea, the ocean would get fined for it's waves being too loud.

Say bye bye double hung PA

**** End Teary Eyed Goodbye ****

To bloggery back soon,

Dave Rat

Day 454 - Aug 21th - At War with Wires and Greed

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:49:00 -0400

So during the near six week break, I finally got the chance to feel truly home for the first time in fifteen or so months. I started getting up early everyday, doing some running down to the beach for short dive and swim. Healthy food rather than the crap shoot between wonderful Wayno cuisine and the slop that is available to roadies in between. Detoxing from jet lag and drinking with friends evolves into clear thoughts and energy excitement to return back to my more nerdy roots of technology and wires and new soundie designs.

My laptop has finally re reached a state of usefulness as I install the last missing program, (Corel Draw) with which I do all my designing. But alas computers as they are and do, fail. None are immune and down drops another. This time it is a full size machine that one of my daughters uses.

Notice my workbench and the poor defunct mother board with all of her children sprawled out on the bed. Can you believe it? A complete computer melt down and $ 39 and a trip to Fry's electronics buys a new mama!

Bing, pow, boom and she is up and running better than new. 1 gig ethernet, hifi sound, firewire, USB2, high speed video and SATA drive compatible. Old by new standards yet more than enough. I have never attempted a mother board swap before and was amazed how easy it was. So many choices and everything fit, plugged right in, fired it up, a cross compatibility dream as I smile that the e-waste will be just a single card rather than yet another whole computer headed to the dump. Hmmm, I wonder if I would have had the same luck and cash outlay if it was a Mac? Perhaps the $ 39 Mac motherboard were just around the corner or more likely they cost a wee bit more, perhaps 10 times as much? Oh that's right, the dead Mac laptop I have in my closet cost more to fix than buying two new PC machines. Now don't get me wrong, I have no lost love for Microsoft either and I really can't stand the extortion of intentually building in incompatibilities to something we purchase.

Oh, and speaking of making things incompatible, check out this guy, he rules! A 17 year old in New Jersey has successfully figured out a way to bypass the Mac/ATT collusion orchestrated to sap max money from those jumping on the iPhone status symbol bandwagon.

http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/2007/08/full-hardware-unlock-of-iphone-done.html

Unfortunately the modification is beyond the scope of normal humans including myself but headway is being made toward freedom of choice, not that I would buy an iPhone anyway. Oh, have I mentioned that I am all about the concept of fair and cool competition and companies making products that people want without sneaky strings attached? What I am against is crap like "hey, if you want to buy an iPhone, you will have to sacrifice your freedom to choose your cell phone carrier company." "Hey, buy the cool stuff we make and then after you own it, we will do all in our power to milk you for as much money as possible to keep whatever you bought from us running." Printer companies selling their $ 80 ink cartridges for their $ 79 printers is a perfect example. Aargh, greedy sneaky humans annoy me.

Anyway, on a more enjoyable note, I bought a BBQ and it came with a rotisserie so I thought I would take a stab at making my first spinning chicken.

I put melted butter, some olive oil, fresh garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a food processor and blended it up to a paste and rolled the chicken in it then took unchopped versions of the same and what was left over and stuffed it inside. Who would have knew it would be so good so easy? Who would have knew dinner could take so damn long to cook. I have never cooked a meal before that took more than 30 min's. To complete the two course meal, a salad with tomatos, feta, olive oil I brought home from Italy and some crazy thick balsamic vinegar I found in France. I got the lettuce locally though.

I really don't want to leave home, right now.

Day 453 - Aug 20th - Surviving Sinking Ships

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:38:00 -0400

I just finished reading "Enter Naomi," a book sent to me by the author, Joe Carducci, and long ago comrade in the legends and confusion of the Black Flag against world collection of memories. I am forgetful by nature so immersing myself in the hauntingly familiar chain of events of the decade 80's LA punk world is both depressing and yet feels empowering to have survived with manageable amounts of mind splatter. I remember meeting the razor thin girl at my High School, Mira Costa (which believe it or not, actually was the Rock and Roll high school in the Ramones movie) with a blades on chains around around her neck sealed inside tight clothes with random zippers and spikes, later to be roommate and then to become Michelle Flipside. We are 16 and she tells me about the "The Church" in Hermosa Beach, just three blocks from where I live with my dad. Half full of hippies and the rest full of punks in a virtual war like stand off The Descendants, Red Cross (Redd Kross), Black Flag and The Last rehearsed there in virtual anarchy. When I could muster up some cash, I could usually persuade Ron to make a beer run with the " I buy, you fly" negotiation tactic. Over time my after school hangout welcomed me in and I became a bit of a punk rock repair technician and began recording the bands at shows and helping out in exchange for getting me in to the gig and something to do. Especially and most of all I remember that I don't remember except for a few impactful highlights, that was until I start to dive into a refresher course.

So I dig up a few pics and the girl on the left was my short lived girlfriend at the time, I think her name was Julie but everyone called her Phoenix after she corrected them that she was not Julie anymore. Next over, Bart, then me, Bart's friend, and Mike Livingston. Maybe 1979 or so.

Rolling over in my mind a way to describe my recollections, the best I can muster is I feel like I was part of an expedition. Not one where people set out all organized for a goal but rather a haphazard conglomeration of humans who find themselves all headed a similar direction for various reasons that leads them on precarious journey that ends up being littered with self inflicted and coincidental tragedies. The goal, if there was one, was a loosely knit propagation of musical lifestyle anarchy, to actually succeed was to also fail which can be debatably envisioned in the hypocritical concept of "successful punker."

The westward movement of early America comes to mind. Each wagon train being a punker band and it's entourage. The meek, content, fearful and lazily rich stayed home with the status quo and waited for Hot Topic to sell fashionable outfits of the excursion while a kludge of the outcast, impoverished and explorers types who are never content, seek a new domain beyond the boundaries of safe and acceptable. An exodus into lawlessness.

I don't remember who sent me this pic but it is me, Dave Markey, Mitch Bury, Vic, Davo and C'el

Many have died over the years to follow and even more have disappeared into the non-musical frameworks of society. Bright lights burn out quickly, any lampi can tell you that. The Donner Party ate itself and perhaps so did Black Flag as the stress of relentless touring upstream took it's toll. Not too dissimilar from that westward movement, Punk Rock did relatively little directly, other than make a big mess and piss a bunch of people off enough to send the police out with billy clubs to attack their own children. The original bands and people that carved that path or long gone or obscure from a global perspective except as a name on a shirt to look cool for those that wish they were there. What is not gone is the stage they set for the future waves to build upon. What were the names of those that died in wagon trains long forgotten? Perhaps heroes of great accomplishment or criminals for ruthless Indian killing. Regardless, once carved the results remain forever etched as those crazy punker bands that stood up against the odds, were beat down by police riots and spiraled out of control, they drug us out of disco and 80's hair metal and have changed music forever yet as usual the glory goes to those that follow, not for a second that it is undeserved and each fulfills their purpose in the chain.

Oh, and speaking of hair metal band's of the 80's, for all you back East'ers and the curious, check out Girls Girls Girls, an all girl Motley Cru cover band, fun! Though I was not a Motley Cru fan, ever, there is something twistedly cool about the recycled version presented by hotties that rock!

Ok, that is enough for today. Oh, by the way, I am on my way to Scotland, for surprise surprise! Yep, some Peppers' shows for a change.

Dave Rat

Day 451 - Where did I go?

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 11:29:09 -0400

My computer crashed, the worldwide rocket ship I was riding while blasting through cities has come to a near screeching halt as I find myself road-rash skidding - POOM. Here is me. No longer a motion full roadie, merely another of many humans that stands in lines and alternates between being annoyed at lead foot drivers and resisting the desire to honk at red lights.

Without motion I no longer can describe the blur from a first hand perspective leaving me only with the remnants of enlightenment or damage caused by the journey. I spend my friday night wavering between solitude appreciation and debating winding myself up into taking a stab at finding an enjoyable interaction and decide to make a solo dinner of habenero turkey burgers in a cast iron skillet. One pound lean ground turkey, one slice of diced onion, 1/4 diced bell pepper (yellow), some garlic powder, salt, pepper, one whole minced habenero pepper and a handful of granulated feta cheese. Mash, burger-ize and pan fry in a tiny amount of olive oil. It is all about knowing when to stop and done right, all good. Listening to the sounds of heat and watching the textures evolve, I try to time when to flip, too soon and she will break apart captain, too late and the burger will hermetically bond itself to the non-non-stick pan.

Then suddenly I stumble upon the thought "The world is dirty, and we poison ourselves in our efforts to to create the 'clean' illusion." For a flash, it all fits, landfills overflowing and smoggy skies from manufacturing and transporting millions of plastic "clean" water carrying bottles. Priests attempting to be so clean and pure they end up in jail as child molesters and the hydrogenated, modified whatever that is in all our food so it stays as "fresh" as possible even though it becomes the opposite of healthy. "Yuck, dirty insects, quick, put poison on our food." There are many debates about good and bad and various things and for the moment at least, it appears so simple. If you have a box gray sand and pull out all the light or dark bits, all that will be left is the other. It is that polarization, the acceleration towards dividing our infinitely gray world into the much more palatable black and white of "This is clean, this is dirty. This is good, this is bad." But perhaps the reality is that it is similar to Newton's conservation of energy law, "good" and "clean" are not created, they are only temporarily separated from "bad" and "dirty" counterparts. I ponder as I wash the raw turkey remnants from a bowl now clean while soapy turkey water flows down a drain to an unknown destiny.

Long ago a friend named Davo said something that I never forgot. "Many things in this world are like air conditioners, the cooler it gets on the inside, the hotter it gets for everyone else." He was referring at the time to the United States versus the rest of the world, mid Reagan era. Except it even seems bigger than that and impacts us on all levels as we all seem to eventually leave the air conditioning at the end of the day and sit there fighting that irresistible desire to honk at red lights.

From the inside out I view, as we all do and I often wonder if everyone feels as disconnected as I. And if so, how they are so good at masking it? Perhaps I should watch more TV

but I keep forgetting, in the mean time I will sift through the pile of things that I want to remember to do, so I don't regret later.

And oh, where did I go? I guess, everywhere but here. "One more, one more!" Oh ok, last one, these roller coaster's are fun, one last ride before the park closes.

On another note, as one curtain closes another opens. How excited am I? I have signed on as a consultant/designer for a large sound manufacturer and looks like we are going to be building some Ratty designs! A dream come true and cool stuff too! Secretly in my other life I have been designing cool soundie stuff between being transported and bloggery posts and now if all goes as I dream it to be, the thoughts will become real tangible entities. I will post more soon with details once the company releases the info publicly. As I slip away from pondering into personally following those same humanly ways of sorting through the sand box reforming the bits of the world around into things for a differing purpose.

Dave Rat

Day 411 - Everything Kills Yet Nothing is Toxic

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 04:28:00 -0400

I never cease to be amazed at how willingly people offer opinions about things they have no clue about yet they speak with a such bravado in their false authority? While pondering one of those gaseous blabbering's as I read while electro-wandering the thoughts carried me to a viewpoint illuminating that aspect of of our world where humans scurry from a plethora of fears. It must be disconcerting for them to realize that water is toxic. What is it that inspires that useless desire to form a black and white overlay upon our lives? Pure clean water kills and radioactivity is abundant in red bricks from which we build our houses, yet only in debatably harmless amounts. Can it be true that snake venom sufficiently diluted it is healthier than overeating an abundance of leafy greens? Will we continue to fail to realize that it is not the substance but the quantity and balance that perpetuates life and continue to be cursed with propagating confusion? Of course we will as the ultimate quandary is that everything kills and the primary cause of death is life itself. Oh, and speaking of red bricks and houses, check it out:

Looking down at the full "pre-modified" state. Notice the wall of blockage.

Bye bye wall, Bye bye all the walls and see we do and hello big beams.

And then came the cool bio friendly blue stuff to add the coziness.

Bye bye bad 70's fireplace that would be more at home in a porn movie and hello drywall with bull nose corners.

A bit o primer paint really cleans things up.

Add in a simple concrete fireplace surround and some acid stain on the floor and it is getting closer.

And hopefully someday, I dream of having a place to sit!

Dave Rat

Day 411 - The End, Almost

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:46:00 -0400

So off we dash to gig #2. A 1 am show time in Denmark. Bleary delirium haze as the sun is too shiny for the slow motion muscles. Auto pilot pulled by the momentum of being done and going home tomorrow, hurray!

Oh, I remember this place. Lets head out to front of house and I specifically carried boots this trip for this particular show. Ah yes, the familiarity slips back in.

Another day, another PA and some familiar songs as I find myself once again surrounded by thousands of happy humans.

So, I turned it up of course, as me the soundie so naturally would and should. Uh oh, what do I do now?

I know exactly what do! Sally forth, onward ho and away we go with some more of the same!

11 am flight tomorrow. It's 3am now so night night and see ya from the other side of the Atlantic pond soon.

Dave Rat

Day 409 - Save the World From Us

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 00:33:00 -0400

**** Ponderings ****

Is it a quandary to impact the environment by having a tremendous amount of humans gather for a giant rock show to promote social awareness of the impact that a the tremendous number of humans have on the environment? Is the event itself in it's magnitude directly undermining it's own cause? Busses, trucks, planes and trains haul masses of bottled water and beer drinking humans to create a mind bending amount of trash to promote reducing trashing our world. The hypocrisy was most purely embraced in full ignorance by Duran Duran's singer's attempt at self elevation when he walks on stage spewing "Raise your hand if did not arrive here on a private jet." As if somehow throwing spikes at the fellow performers gathering for a common cause would have some sort of positive spin.

More specifically, I arrived on an overnight bus ride of misery and left on a private jet to get to the next show that same night, with the rest of Peppers core crew. No other other way we could make the jump to Denmark for the show we had booked long before the Peppers were personally asked to support Live Earth by Al Gore. We all jumped many hoops. So one could ponder, would it have been better that Peppers not play? Was the environmental impact of transporting the band and crew to the event excessive compared to the effort towards of catalyzing humans to take up the mission of walking more softly upon the planet we tread? If the answer is yes, could than same response be applied to the event as whole and therefore it should never have existed?

First I must say that I fully support treating the world we live with care and respect. Whether it is global warming, decimation of other species or obliteration of the key components that necessitate healthy life, I feel that care and respect should be considered in all avenues. What concerned me was not the events existence but it's lack of thoroughness. Cool concepts like "return 10 empty cups to get a free beer to promote recycling, reduce the mess to be cleaned" that they do at the Werchter Festival in Germany and how Roskilde pays cash for empties, was sadly missing. The laminate lanyards they gave us said they were made from 100% recycled fiber while the laminates themselves were plain old plastic instead of cool recycled paper. How much of the festival was powered by renewable power? All I could find was that the web site servers were, the festival itself, while we just plugged into the wall of course. In the back of my mind grows the thought the true change will grow from innovation in grass roots events that focus on awareness while maintaining near zero impact, setting an example rather that just preaching what "you" should do.

Perhaps to truly solve the issue we face, we would have to also address the speed at which humans mass produce more humans at alarming rates. Where do we draw the line on whether we attack each other or work together and how effective we can be at slowing down the inevitable, all remains to be seen. Regardless though, there should be little doubt that less splattering of the planet sure beats screwing it up faster.

**** End Ponderings ****

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

So I am on little sleep, nearly all our gear in another country, I am mixing on a console I just met an hour ago and an EV X-Line PA that I have never used on a large event. Oh well, no biggie, it's just for hundreds of thousands of humans all over the world. What better time to play it safe? So I ordered in the best mixing board I could think of to handle the job. This is a big huge show and we all know that big huge shows must have big expensive complicated mixing boards so the soundman looks cool. Unless of course the soundman desired something small, fast, dependable, predictable and easy to setup. Hmmm, I see a $200,000 dollar Midas XL8, three $100,000 Digico D5's and $70,000 Yamaha PM 5D laying around the mix area here, all high end digital desks. Somewhere around here is my baby, aha, there it is on the left:

Oooooh, wow! Look at that $15,000 analog Midas Verona! Though the show could have gone smoother for me, given the fact that I had absolutely nothing in my favor, including loosing most of what little line check before I actually was given working snake lines and no time to play music through the PA so I could tune it, things went relatively well and compared to the various forms of trains wrecks I heard leading up to Peppers, it fell well into the window of good enough.

*** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

And off we go...

But not before grabbing a few pics

Meet Roadie Bryan, an awesome sound engineer and a long time friend, he mixes Foo Fighters, hanging with Roadie Daniel.

And just because I can, the gratuitous glamour shot with the guy that introduced the Peppers

Hurry up, we rocked and now we got to roll. Hour to the airport, two hour flight, 30 minute drive to the gig plus we lose an hour in the time change. Roskilde, the last show of this tour leg, here we come!

Dave Rat

Day 406 - Dresden - And how about a Rock Show. for a Change?

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 02:18:00 -0400

**** Ponderings ****

Survival is a choice heavily inspired by instinct.

**** End Ponderings ****

Which brings about the subject of food. To eat is a choice which is highly complementary to survival of the individual. Sleeping and breathing kind of fall into this same general category. There are few general "rules of thumb" which seem to apply globally to things that are alive. If you keep them "Well fed, well slept and secure in the fact that the next breath will be available in a relatively reasonable amount of time, they tend to be more fun to hang out with than if you take those things away.

**** Legendary Delectable Euphoria ****

That is why the celebration culinary delights called "catering" really pushes us roadies to new heights of exuberance. Come feast your eyes upon this mouth-watering collection of pure temptation:

Though I realize that when something is so beyond tasty, there is no need to go further, yet still, yes there was more

**** End Legendary Delectable Euphoria ****

Some people just absolutely love to look at knobs. So here today I present you none other than a collection of knobs for those that seek the view to bask in. Long awaited, much requested and not forgotten, here we have the in it boldest "show all" Mr. Silver Jubilee amp to left and what we call "rig #1" in soundman speak

Stepping up next to show it all in full glory, we have the big boy weighing in at 200 tubular watts, Mr. Marshall Major

Not to be left out but still left out of all but 1 or two songs each night, rig #3, the powerhouse driven by Gretch, the twin brother to rig #1, show your stuff Mr. Other Silver Jubilee

**** Roadie Research Segment ****

Roadies, like other critters don't always get along harmoniously. Competition for desirable mates, feeding grounds and other important roadie issues often drive roadies to spar and mark their turf. Also, on occasion, in order for roadies to gain status in the herd, it is necessary to elevate oneself at the expense of another roadie. In roadie speak that 'stepping on another' to elevate is commonly referred to "throwing under the bus."

Fortunately, Peppers roadies are much more civilized than that and know how to work out their differences in more practical ways.

**** End Roadie Research Segment ****

Yep, back to the dome stage. Fortunately someone put a pole in the middle of the audience area.

Light it up, make it loud!

Tear it down, drive away. Deja Vu, Deja Vu, Deja Vu.

Off to where ever we are headed. oh joy!

Dave Rat

P.S. In case you were wondering, the 4th of July is not much of a party in Germany.

Day 405 - Poland - Beyond the Worst Thing You Can Imagine

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:32:00 -0400

Today for our little journey we are going to head into the depths of horror. A true mind crushing surreal nightmare.that defies comprehension. Why, you wonder? Well, to remember. To remember never to underestimate the ability of humans to embark gung ho in the worst of possible directions. To remember that human perception slides with the times and the environment that we are immersed in. To remember to look around at the world we live today and perhaps spot the seeds of bad ideas taking root and to reject blindly accepting them as an acceptable "normal." There was a time not to long ago where a group of humans thought that to slaughter their brethren as one would kill giant insects, was somehow a good idea. In the world today, that time is still now and may always be but history knows of none that has ever pushed the mass extermination of humans to a more clinical, cold, horrific level.

Today roadies Scott, Sat Hari, Veronica and honorary roadie Emma B, head to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp and where the home and office of one Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß was located.

"Rudolf Höß was one of history's greatest mass murderers, the architect and SS Kommandant of the largest killing center ever created, the death camp Auschwitz, whose name has come to symbolize humanity's ultimate descent into evil. Responsible for exterminating 2,5 million people in World War II, he was a mild-mannered, happily married Catholic who enjoyed normal family life with his five children despite his view of the crematoria chimney stacks from his bedroom window." http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2001/11/25/stories/2001112500210400.htm

"Work Makes (one) Free"

"About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, with about 300 attempts successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. If someone did manage to escape, the SS would kill ten random people from the prisoner's block. This was a quite persuasive method to discourage escape attempts."

"Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chamber to accommodate 2000 people at one time whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz.

I understand English as it is written above. The above statements are true; this declaration is made by me voluntarily and without compulsion; after reading over the statement I have signed and executed the same at Nuremberg, Germany, on the 4/5/1946. - Rudolf Höß."

And for those whom wish to see photos that are so grim they are hard to process for their true intesity http://www.oskarschindler.com/Albums5/album.htm

A doorway built by humans that existed in an incomprehensible perception realm. I try and grasp a state of mind that could possibly swirl everyday humans into executioners that carry out orders and laugh as children and mothers and doctors and tailors and wanderers and are gassed and shaved while pillaging their belongings and selling their hair for mattresses. The alien concept is so surreal it feels as if it could never occur, not here, not there, not anywhere. But it did and it can again as we humans are not immune from a bad idea spreading amongst us as a mind-virus infecting the masses, crystallizing our fears into manifestions of hatred.

Wary, I am so wary of anything or anyone that utilizes fear to perpetuate their objectives, as thought-structures that are built from fear can not help but be permeated with hatred. It is so pathetic that it proves irresistible for our false leaders to shovel out piles of fear to manipulate us, the idiot masses. "Danger danger, quick give me your money and soul so I can empower my greed and validate my twisted illusions." So transparent yet it fools the fools everytime.

Dave Rat

Day 403 June 30th Hamburg - er

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:33:00 -0400

Night or day which comes first? I dunno but here are a few shots from last night before we wake up for Hamburg.

And off the bus we head and wait a minute, I remember this hotel, how can one forget the circle of critters when looking down from the lobby.

And look, they even included a life like roadie!

So they call this town Hamburg, so silly when people think there is some association between a cities name and what it sounds like. Or perhaps this this truly is the birthplace of the hamburger, Wait, look, there are some prehistoric hamburgers in their early stages of life! Yumm!

This place is cool! All good and a great for a wander and food and beer and friends, roadies like Hamburg.

Dave Rat

Day 402 June 29th Munich Show Day - All things Are Inter-Connected or Sometimes Not

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:33:00 -0400

Typically roadie busses involve a few hang out areas, a bunk section and toilet. Occasionally a shower shows up invariably wit a little sign that says "do not use the shower." Well, imagine our glee when the bus company brought over their newest latest and greatest! A bus with a queen bed suite in the back and a bath tub. Oh, just think of the possibilities as we all line up for the sloshy tub after a hard days work, truly a handy concept. Here we can observe roadie Bill partaking in testing the tubbing delights.

**** Highlight of the Day ****

Yes, it is back, the long lost but not forgotten section! Look what we found! You just have to watch the You Tube video before scrolling down any further, I promise, it is worth it.

No!!!

Not yet!!

Watch the You Tube Video first!!

Then scroll!!

OK, now look. Hellooooooooo!

Meet roadie Manny the Rigger. Legendary would be fitting. Notice the half eaten habanero pepper in his hand combined with the calm cool collected "about to explode" look on his face. Roadies like hot peppers, even habanero's I ate one, Scotty ate one, Chris Warren ate one, Daniel? Well, not so much, he ate a few tiny bits of one. Some roadies like hot peppers more than others. Habanero peppers are hot, but not when compared to molten lava.

Oh look! A cute little baby PA system, how adorable!

End of Munich part #1,

Dave Rat