Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Day 188 - Nov 27 - Stuttgart Show

**** Pondering's ****

Rats! I totally spaced something about yesterday's gig. The place is called Festhalle and though it has been home to many awesome rock shows over the years, it also has a much darker past. See if you can spot any similarities in the two photos below,

Humans can be unbelievable stupid as clarity in hindsight so often reveals. Majority populations of whole countries sometimes run full bore into a direction that is nothing but a really bad idea. It happens over and over again throughout history and one could easily look at our world today and spot plenty of bad ideas in full swing. How cool would it be if someone made a 'bad idea detector' and we could just meter the concept and if it reads negative go "hmmm, says here that this is a really bad idea, maybe we should re think the plan." Oh wait, I guess we have two tools that do that already and they are called common sense and logic. Unfortunately those two tools are bit too complex for the masses to conceptualize and instead large groups of mindless minds often follow the alternate method known as "follow the biggest asshole like a bunch of idiot sheep."

My first reaction to the Festhalle was negative based on my knowledge of it's past but it did not feel negative. Quite the opposite, the grandiose, beautiful and majestic building built in 1909 was unique and curious and complex. So I pondered, as I so often do and what I came up with was it feels like an artificial reef now filled with life and sound and colors that was once powerful warship, now sunken and helplessly over run with the opposite of a bad idea.

**** End Pondering's ****

I would like to announce a breakthrough in touring roadie bloggery! I am sure y'all are astutely aware of touring rule number one; 'always carry your tour laminate' which also includes not losing it. Rule number one of blogging, Dave Rat style, is 'never go anywhere without a camera.' So looky at what I made,

With the camera in my pocket and the laminate hanging out with the bus key, I not only have my laminate and camera but I also have the added benefit of reducing the likelihood of donating either of them to the ether world.

**** Issue of the Day ****

The issue of the day is actually a derivative of a mathematical equation that I am very familiar with from past experience.

Water + Cell phone = Bad

Last time when my cell tried to commit suicide by jumping in the lake, I fetched it very quickly in hopes it would survive the 2 second rule. You know like when you drop food on the floor, if you fetch it up super quick, it is still edible. Well, it did not do so well and I think with camera's and water it may be the .0000001 second rule, anyway, this time it was different. You see, me, my cell and Chad were at a bar having a drink and my cell was 'allegedly' the designated driver. Unbeknownst to me though, my cell phone decided to have a little drink after all, hence the corollary to the formula is,

Beer + Cell phone = Bad

Luckily I was able to catch it drinking rather quickly and it only had a small sip. Not enough to destroy it completely but clearly plenty enough to give it a lasting hangover. The main issue is that

"my cll phn no longr will typ th lttr btwn D and F and th numbrs two and svn, nor th last lttr of th alphabt and th first lttr of th propr splling of kwick ar also not working."

**** End Issue of the Day/Week/Month? ****

The place we played is pretty much a squashed version of a Euro Hockey squared off arena. Straight forward stuff and I don't mind the acoustics in these places at all.

And finally, lets all pile inside my bus bunk, come on in!

Th doing my bst to liv my lif whil avoiding bad idas,

Dav Rat

**** 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