Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Continuing...

Back to Tsukiji, the Tokyo fish market and what would a fish market be without ice? Most likely stinky and empty so they have this big old conveyer belt machine where giant ice blocks are sent up to drop down and be pulverized. Bring your own bucket.

Though sparse, other necessities were evident and I am not sure what all that stuff is but I do know an edamame when I see one

What I did not know is what they make those little green guacamole balls out of that are sitting on sushi plates. Shhhh, for those who don't know Sushi that well, here is some advice: You will find a small green guacamole ball on your sushi plate. The really cool thing to do is just pop that whole delicious morsel right in your mouth really fast, first thing, mmmm, yummy! But hurry because that stuff is in high demand and someone else may get yours if you aren't quick.

So turns out that even though that green stuff looks like guacamole, and tastes of so yummy by the spoonful, it is actually called wasabi and looks like this

before being turned to paste. The old school way is to rub it on shark's skin but now a days they have metal grinders. What I also did not know is that nearly all the wasabi outside of Japan is fake because the real deal is too expensive.

Though the market does not smell, it is a bit messy and at the end of the day when it's time to run the numbers and do some calculations, I can see where the abacus would hold up a bit better in this environment that battery powered calculator.

Off to lunch and 9 am as all this fish walking made us hungry. Roadie James, Chef Assist Julius and Raymond our friend and tour guide of the market you can see and Scott, and Wayno you cant. Raymond is the one who hooked us up and has friends and relatives at a few shops in the market which is why the next round of sushi was some of the best Toro tuna I have ever had, so good I forgot take a picture.

And a short Youtube version for those that like visual motion.

**** End Fish Market Adventure ****

OK, now back to being jet lagged.

Dave Rat

First order of business today is a bit of back repair and the promoter has arranged so graciously an acupuncture/acupressure specialist to swing by my room and fix me up. While I am waiting, I head over to the mini bar drawer and find a coffee which both impresses and depresses me. Japan's creativity and creations are amazing and some of the things they come up with boggle the mind. So there is a coffee cup and a mini filter and little filter holder and cream and sugar and a stir stick and a top all in a neat little package.

Dump in hot water and poof, a perfect cup of drip coffee. While this is interesting and somewhat useful, it also highlights the reality that a many Japanese products are beyond belief wasteful in their packaging to the point where the amount of trash created often outweighs the consumable product itself, do you remember the plastic bottles full of ice when I was here before? Which in my opinion cancels out the cool factor. True beauty in design occurs when a harmonious balance between function, aesthetics and efficiency is reached while minimizing any negative impact that resides in the surrounding world from both manufacture and post consumption.

The massage /acupressure does a great job of lining me back up and reducing the ouch factor and it is time to head to the gig and a good sized gig it is. The moment I walk in through the revolving doors the instant air pressure surge hits me. "Ah, an air filled dome." It is one of those venues where they have a soft flexible roof and giant blower fans some where that pumps in enough air to keep the roof up, sort of like a giant version of those air filled things kids jump around in at the fair. All doors the are revolving and the trucks enter through multi-stage air locks to unload and it gives me a headache if I go in and out of the pressurized room too many times.

The air supported ceilings are surprisingly strong and as you can see in the picture below, you can hang lights and stuff from the flexible roof. Our touring production is too heavy for it though so we have everything supported by the stage we had brought in for us. Occasionally while touring I have come across and air filled arena where we have hung the sound system from the floating roof and it is really strange to see the chain motors running and the gear not lifting till the roof sufficiently sags to to hold the load. And then when audience leaves at the end of the show, the PA drops down a bit due to the air pressure dropping/escaping.

The double hung mains and 15 deep side hangs with 3dV-Dosc under all clusters plus 6 dV-Dosc in top of the side hangs and for center cluster totaling a whopping 90 V-dosc and 36 dV-Dosc not including delay clusters and that is one bad ass PA!

Down below is a modified sub cannon setup with 4 side stacks using a 2 foot spacing and an 8 sub center cluster.

Here is a graphic of the sub layout that roadie Lee put together, Lee rocks!!

Having this much clean sound power is really fun. Hello Homare, Tukiji and Raymond and thank you for the awesome fish market adventure and coming over to my office for a rock show adventure! Sashimi and Soju for all!

Speaking of rock show, hey look, there it is!

Now that was fun!

Dave Rat