Mr. Revit OpEd at The Whiskey a Go Go

This provides ample distraction from writing as much as I used to. I can hit ALL the THINGS!!

Yes, I've been earnestly playing the drums again. When I moved to California the three piece band (Angry Neighbors) I had been part of for roughly ten years found themselves without a drummer. They've kept themselves busy since, most recently as part of a group they call Harmonic Dirt.

For many years steady travel for work made it impractical for me to be part of a band here. I haven't needed to travel nearly as much for the last couple of years and I realized I could make it work. So far so good.

Last May I joined a band called Parker Street Gypsies. It is led by and features songs written by Michelle Kasajian (vocals/guitar). Armando "Mondo" Lopez (guitar/vocals) contributes songs as well. Add in Charlie Peck (bass guitar) and yours truly to provide the foundation and we make four. We've been rehearsing regularly working toward playing in front of people more often. Our first time out was at the O.C. County Fair.

Our next gig is THIS Saturday, December 2nd at The Whiskey a Go Go.

We open for The Baby's, a favorite 70's band of mine (and many others)!! I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing them as well hoping to meet their drummer Tony Brock. His playing was/is a strong influence on my own approach to the drums. I think my favorite album is Union Jacks but I tend to waffle on favorite anything.

Believe it or not, there are FIVE bands leading up to The Baby's performance Saturday night; they are: Parker Street Gypsies (us), Alinea, Nation of Salvation, Union of Saints, and Kirk Randall & the Back Beat. We play last but just before The Baby's set.

Despite what you may read or hear live music is still out there waiting for you to experience/enjoy. Musicians are still struggling, as ever, to satisfy their muse and play for you/us, no matter how much the business has changed.

If you are in the LA area and looking for something to do on Saturday night we'd love to have your support. The Whiskey is an all-ages club, as well as being a famous venue for music historically.

We love to rock!

P.S. At the recent Autodesk University several of us musician types got together one evening after the primary events had wrapped up. We played some tunes at a local rental studio, some were planned in advance and many others weren't. Some turned out pretty well and others...well it was fun to play...

The AU Band consisted of: Robert Green (guitar,vocals), Guillermo Melantoni-Cortabarria (bass guitar, vocals), Steven Shell (guitar,vocals), Shaun Bryant (vocals), Kate Morrical (vocals), Jim Balding (Cowbell-aka Whiskey bottle) and Kelly Cone (vocals)..oh and me. This is a nice shot of Jim Balding helping Steven Shell play guitar or vice versa.

We didn't have a cowbell so JB made do with a Four Roses whiskey bottle that somebody conveniently emptied so it could be used. This was my second year playing with them, good fun!

Revit and Satch

The other day I mentioned that I generally include at least a few tracks of Joe Satriani's music in a playlist for walk-in music at conferences. I find his music is particularly conducive to spending hours pecking away at a project and Revit. I've been up late working on something just a little longer so I can hear one more tune.

I generally just let his albums play through without concerning myself about assembling them or any particular tracks into any coherent order. I recently decided to create a Spotify playlist that assembled some of my favorites, a time to crank some Revit list. My short list ended up with 24 tracks spanning 15 albums (2 hours worth of material written over almost 20 years), at least one track from each album.

For the most part they all groove, drive forward without too much quiet time or lulls. There are lots of tracks to choose from for that too but for working...driving, grooving works best for me.

Speaking of driving. When I visit clients in San Diego or Los Angeles that means at least a couple of quality hours in the car (or train) for music. There are some tracks that I've listened to together long enough that they don't sound finished unless they play together no matter the situation.

It's kind of like what radio did with Journey's two hit songs Feeling That Way and Anytime or Jackson Browne's Load Out and Stay. They played them together so often that it's like they are really one song. I think DJ's called that grouping "bathroom breaks", combined they played long enough to let them sneak away without the fear of dead air. In this list I purposely didn't put them next to each other just to see if I could cope.

Check out Satch!

Whadya think?

RTC and my Playlist

I don't recall whose session, or which event, it was that I first heard some music played while we all gathered in the room. I just remember thinking, I LIKE that! I've played music ever since then, before and after my sessions, if it was possible.

I just returned home from speaking at RTC in Melbourne. It was great, even if Melbourne was a bit damp! In keeping with other events, at least one person always asks me about the music I'm playing. I've chosen to use Joe Satriani's music as a prelude for the last couple years. His music is melodic, energetic, and mostly instrumental. I used his new album Unstoppable Momentum for my What's New... session. It features Vinny Colaiuta, one of my favorite drummers, as well as a bunch of other excellent musicians.

I used a shorter playlist for my other session "Grumble, Grumble, Snort". I knew I only had 15 minutes between the end of the previous session and the beginning of mine so I chose Jeff Beck's "Hammerhead" (a tribute to musician Jan Hammer and featuring Australia's own Tal Wilkenfeld on bass), Joe's "Jumpin' In" and "Can't Go Back" and finished with The Tubes "Mr. Hate". I figured we'd start off the session after hearing a "grumpy" sort of tune, to set the mood.

I don't know about you but music is always "on" in my head.

Use Spotify? Here's a LINK to the short Playlist

Old Roadies

Off topic...me visiting my past...

Last weekend I traveled to Atlanta to attend the second annual gathering of the self proclaimed "Southeast's Finest in the Music Industry". My old nemesis/mentor Fred (aka FUF) started it last year and I managed to get to this one. One of the things FUF was best known for was the gags he'd play on a group's last night of a tour. Witness his Uncle Sam costume for a 38 Special tour wrap up.

When Huey Lewis and the News wrapped up their stint with 38 Special in 1984 he came out dressed up as Big Bird tossing candy out during "Wanna New Drug". Later he and another trotted on stage in a two man horse costume during 38's "What if I'd Been the One" song which features some horses in the music video (if my memory is accurate). The second man brought a water bottle with him, and at one point lifted a leg...you can guess the rest. When Eddie Money toured with us he sat on the down stage edge dressed as Santa Claus, he and Eddie bantering... You never really knew what to expect from him. A true character and it was good to see him again after so many years!

I've told people a number of times, over the years, that there is no proof that I toured with 38 Special in 1984 because the band's program "misspelled" my name from Stafford to Smith. I'm listed there but you'd have to be pretty special to figure that one out! The band/crew photo shoot at the end of the tour has me, but only a leg and an arm, the rest of me cropped out of view. Well at the reunion I got to see the program again for the first time in a long time (one is being sold on eBay for $40 right now)... imagine my surprise when I see a group photo in the back that I'm actually in! It's a grainy iPhone capture in a dim bar, sorry!

I'm the twenty something guy who looks like he managed to sneak in and sat on the couch when the photo got taken. Here's a few of the same folks now. Can you figure out which one is FUF?

(photo courtesy of Michael Beck photography)

Last but not least a shot of the guy that got me started at R.A. Roth to begin with, Peter (aka Wookie, though a slightly grayer shorter haired version now). It was good to see him again, with a beau and ready as ever! Apparently we managed to elude the professional photographer wandering around (Michael) so it's another grainy iPhone shot...(behind us is the never aging John Delong, rigger extraordinaire)

I'll end with the gangs "fight song/cheer"... "Friends may come and friends may go, and friends may peter out you know. But peter out or peter in, we'll be friends through thick or thin...YO!"

Dept. of Off Topic - Masters of Reality

Could be the name of a new BIM product?

Years ago (1981) a band called Masters of Reality got started in Syracuse, NY. I didn't work for them but I had a few friends and fellow roadies in common with them. I saw them once or twice live in a club called The Lost Horizon, a somewhat legendary venue there. An amazing number of bands played on their way up the charts and back down. You know, like Bon Jovi, Guns-n-Roses, Bad English, Arc Angels, John Kay & Steppenwolf, The Stray Cats...and so many more...

Back to MoR as they were also known, they released an album called "Masters of Reality". The second album featured Ginger Baker (yeah, Cream and Blind Faith's drummer)on drums replacing Syracuse native Vinnie Ludovico. The founder Chris Goss is still at it with a somewhat changing lineup over the years. This group is one of those that makes me wonder how they didn't get "huge"...distinctive sound and melodies, different yet familiar.

I've added a number of videos that you can find at You Tube yourself to my Favorites on my You Tube channel for this blog. My favorites? John Brown, Domino, She Got Me...not necessarily in that order. The oldest stuff is my preference but there's something for "everyone". See what you think?

Here's "She Got Me" featuring Ginger Baker.

Dept. of Off Topic - Kewpie Dolls

You might wonder what Mr. OpEd could have in common with Kewpie Dolls? In 1992-93ish I played drums for a three piece group by the same name. Formed by Jamie Treker and Mary Notarthomas, they hired a drummer to record an album with them. I think it was Tony Carbone, but not positive after so many years. After they finished the album they auditioned drummers to play live gigs with them. Yours truly was one of them and I got the gig. We rehearsed faithfully for about a year and played just two live performances during the whole time. A little disappointing.

My wife took some black and white photos at one point thinking we needed some band shots but I don't recall ever actually using them. Proof that I had a pony tail years ago! I showed these pictures to my daughter and it was amusing to tell her, "Yeah, the girl has the short hair and the guys have the long hair!".

I enjoyed playing for them and the parts laid down for me to play were energetic and interesting. Shame it never turned into more gigs. The group kind of fizzled and we went our separate ways. Jamie is (was at the time too) a sports writer (soccer/futbol/football) and has garnered some notoriety over the years.

Search on the internet and ye shall find! I did and did... CD Universe actually has a copy or two of their CD still.

The trussed up clown might be a bit disturbing for some, sorry! All before my time so to speak. The album was done and getting pressed when I came on the scene. (if you can't tell, I'm not the clown but one of the clowns in the pictures above, I'm the one on the left in each)

Dept. of Off Topic: Teena Marie

I read last evening that Teena Marie passed away at just 54 years of age. As you may be able to see in the picture below I did a short tour with her in March of 1985. A hasty mug shot with me "hanging" from my lanyard.

We traveled up and down the west coast for just over a month. It also involved a drive with Tim, my lighting crew member, from Atlanta to LA for rehearsals and a solo drive back to Atlanta at the end of the tour. That drive home was interesting when the truck's engine seized up outside Phoenix. I ended up transferring the lighting gear into a different Ryder truck a day or so later to finish the drive. Now that I think of it I had a truck seize up on me during the Rick James tour too, hmmm. Maybe I'm just hard on trucks?

The week before the trip home to Atlanta I got to travel to Honolulu to do the lighting for her at a record company event, she performed the Tempatation's song "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" with Carly Simon and Cyndi Lauper. I didn't meet either of them but it was a sweet gig nonetheless. If I recall it was about four days in Hawaii, at the Sheraton Waikiki, for about 30 minutes work between rehearsals and the less than five minute song.

It was a life lesson too because we didn't continue on with the rest of the tour because I failed to develop a trust relationship with her. It was my first legit LD gig (lighting director) and in my previous tour roles as a technician I was accustomed to giving an artist their space. I didn't realize that this new role required the opposite of me. Essentially my naivete cost the company the next leg of the tour, or at least contributed to that result.

I often wonder what has become of Barney and Peter (with Electrotec, the sound company which no longer exists under that name if I remember correctly) or Tim my lighting cohort. Peter introduced me to my first pint of Bass Ale and the Cat-n-the-Fiddle pub on Sunset Blvd (an interesting place, English pub in a cantina setting, still there too, drove by it a couple months back).

First Stevie, later Rick James and now Teena. It may be inevitable but we don't have to like it. It's been a long time since my brief tour with her but I wish Teena's family, friends and fans all the best, despite the circumstances.

Dept. of Off Topic: John Otway

A friend and past co-worker is stranded in the UK right now because of the recent pile of snow they've acquired. Unlike my past home of Syracuse, NY where life doesn't get seriously messed up unless 3-4 feet of snow falls overnight, the UK isn't up for serious snow fall, at all. Her mentioning this reminded me of an experience I had while in England, no snow connection, the UK connection, not the "French Connection" but I digress.

Many years ago now, I wish it weren't many years ago, I got to see John Otway perform. My past co-worker Celia and her now husband Ivor took me to a pub somewhere in England (Fulham? I just can't remember now) to see him. All Ivor would say is you won't believe it, you'll love it. When I tried to get him to explain him, his music, he just replied you have to see it to believe it.

We'll I don't think I've laughed as hard or had as good a time since then (sad to admit I suppose). Hilarious is an understatement. Thanks to You Tube you can get a slight sense of him from a far. The best way naturally is to experience him up close and live. If you read up about him you'll find that at one point he tried to arrange for a 747 to have a world tour where all the fans would climb aboard and take the world tour with him. It didn't work out but it is just the sort of understated outlandish thing that he'd do, try to do.

If you find yourself in England, try not to leave without finding him playing at a pub, elderly home, restaurant or festival...anywhere! I'd start with this video first...then move on to Body Talk...or maybe his big Christmas hit from 1977 "Really Free"...

or his slightly more straight forward full band gig, watch for the somersaults...

When I saw him it was just him and a guitarist accompanying him, I think it is the soloist during this full band version of House of the Rising Sun. I'm not sure you'll be able to discern a difference in playing skill though :wink:

Off Topic - The Axis of Reflection

Whenever I read the Status Bar information for the Mirror Tool I think of a one album only rock band from the late 70's called Axis.

I like listening to music using Pandora and today I stumbled upon what they've got about Axis and their one and only album "It's a Circus World":

Snip...Axis was a power trio made up of Danny Johnson (guitar, vocals), Jay Davis (bass), and Vinnie Appice (drums) that made only one album, It's a Circus World, in 1978. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide. (image below captured from Pandora's site)

Danny Johnson and Vinnie Appice split from their supporting role with Rick Derringer's group to form this group. As a drummer I really enjoyed Vinnie's work on this album. Every track is interesting and fun to play. In particular I liked his choices for Armageddon. The opening fill of Bandits of Rock is classic! Another is Brown Eyes. Okay I admit it, I could list them all... Cooler still, for me, is that I found that I could download the album at iTunes. I'd just about given up on hearing it again since the cassette tape I had died some years ago.

My friend Tony turned me on to Axis back when he and I were touring with the upstate New York rock band, New York Flyers in the early 80's. Tony is a passionate sound engineer. Later he went on to work with various notable country acts as well as Julio Iglesias, among others. He was/is a huge fan of Rick Derringer's and it was only natural that he'd be interested in any offshoot groups. Like me, sort of, Tony has settled down and stopped traveling by running a theater/stage facility in south Florida. He gets to do it all in one place, even mess around with lighting and he enjoys beating up the drum kit they have for touring groups that don't carry all their own equipment with them.

"Axis of Reflection" Hmmm, reminds me of Axis...which in turn causes me to "reflect" on the past.

Off Topic - Memory Lane

I've posted a couple times now about my past life as a lighting roadie. As it happens we moved in January and last night I was finally getting to the last couple boxes of things in my office and behold...some of my old tour stuff fell into my hands! So I shuffled a few laminated tour passes onto my comfy chair (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and snapped a photo.


Proof! That this old roadie isn't imagining things, I actually did that stuff...I think. Now if I could just figure out what I did with my old itineraries and daily gig diary?!? What's in the picture?

My first tour working for R.A. Roth (Atlanta based lighting company) was with Frankie Beverly and Maze (bottom right).When I got home from that one I did some one nighters until 38 Special (middle row, third from left) left for eight months (six weeks on 1 week off roughly). During that tour I got to work with Huey Lewis and the News, Michael Stanley Band, Joan Jett, Eddie Money, Golden Earring, Night Ranger, Cheap Trick, Ratt...probably a few more I can't recall.

During a week off from that tour we tweaked the lighting rig and did a Donnie and Marie Osmond concert in Memphis for a convention that also had Barbara Walters as a speaker. During her talk one of the lamps over her head burned out audibly which unnerved her a bit, she looked up and then moved her microphone stand back a little. A few minutes later a circuit breaker in one of our dimmer racks "popped" too which caused her to move back even further, embarrassing as by now people were starting to look back at me as if saying, "what are you doing to her??". It was so quiet with just her speaking that such things really stood out in the room. Awkward!

When I got home from that one we prepped The Fixx (top right corner) tour that left for four months straight, left in August and came home in December. Then some one nighters until the Teena Marie (top row, second from left)tour left for a little over a month. I got to drive a 24 foot truck to California to start that one and at the end I drove it back, non-stop, by myself, from the west coast. Lots of coffee and by the end I was desperate to not drive for awhile! Yes the trucking industry frowns on that sort of nonsense. I was young...you finish the rest...

Somewhere in the midst of those was a brief stint with Rick James (top row, third from left). Next up was a short tour with Scandal featuring Patty Smythe (bottom row, first one), we toured the north east a bit and ended with a few nights at the Ritz in NYC.

Then we prepped for the Fresh Festival (middle row, fourth from left), which included nearly all the major rappers (Run DMC, Whodini, Grand Master Flash, Fat Boys etc) of the day as well as a dance duo called Shabadoo and Shrimp and a double dutch jump rope group. There wer two stages that cycled back and forth as groups switched out. The dance duo was fun because I did their lighting on the center house stage, an island in the middle of the audience. Their routine was a fast and furious demo/tour through dance styles for the last century ending with the current, for the 80's, break dancing. The spotlight calls took a lot of mental practice because their routine changed so quickly, sometimes a 10-20 second period.

Once that one wrapped up I did a bunch of one nighters including a very short run with Otis Day and the Nights, yes from the movie Animal House fame! It was a series of college Toga Party gigs! No laminated tour pass from that one though. Another one nighter was delivering some spotlights to a Kiss concert in South Carolina. I was pretty beat by the time I got there and a little before show time I curled up on a road case under the stage and went to sleep. I slept right through the entire concert!! Opening act and Kiss! Slept like a "rock"! I woke up to someone saying, "Has anyone seen that spotlight guy Steve anywhere?".

Then it was off with Kool and the Gang for a few months. They had opening acts The Mary Jane Girls, Ready for the World and a couple others I can't recall now.

During some time off at one point I got to hang out after a recording session in Atlanta with Foghat had wrapped for the day. My friend Lamar was doing their lighting at the time and he invited me along. I was a little more than in awe since as a lad I remembered sitting in my friend's basement listening to "Fool for the City" and thinking what a cool song!!

My last tour for R.A. Roth was Stevie Ray Vaughn (middle row, first from left). The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Stevie's brother Jimmie Lee played guitar for them) opened the show and I got to do their lighting for their show, cool! I got off the road when that tour went overseas. I was shocked and saddened to hear about losing Stevie in 1990 while I was working at a job site in Nyack, NY. In 1992 I got a chance to visit briefly with Chris (drums) and Tommy (bass) at a club where Arc Angels played.

Tens years passed and I found myself looking for a job suddenly. The very next day an opportunity to do a tour with Soul Asylum (bottom row, second from left) came my way so I signed on as their rigger! As it turned out I also got a job offer the following week for a full time job and fortunately they were willing to wait for me till I got back from the tour. One of their opening acts I really enjoyed was Matthew Sweet. The band I had been playing with for a few years covered several of his songs now and then. At the end of that tour the drum tech for Soul Asylum's drummer, Sterling Campbell, gave me some drum heads that he didn't like and some barely used sticks, but too used for him to continue using, to take home with me. I used those for a long, long time!!

The last pass in the picture (bottom row, third from left) is from the Soul Asylum tour too. They played the grand opening party for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. Iggy Pop was there as well as a bunch of others. I got to visit with some of my friends with Clair Brothers Audio who had been there for several days already.Natalie Merchant performed too which reminds me that I once gave her a soccer lesson at St. Lawrence University in upstate NY.

I did a lot of stage hand work over the years after I stopped touring and I did the rigging for her show at the college as well as deliver some spot lights from the stage lighting company I was working for. A friend from the earlier Fresh Festival tour I did, the sound engineer, and I were catching up on things and at lunch he mentioned to her that I played soccer. She said she needed a lesson because a nephew/niece was starting to play and she wanted to be able to "talk the talk and walk the walk" so to speak. We spent about a half hour in the field behind the theater kicking a ball around. Surreal...

Surreal seems like as good a place to stop as any...thanks for letting me indulge my reminiscing!

That Other Side of Mr. OpEd - The Rod's

Once upon a time...back in those 80's I did some work with a group called The Rod's. The "internets" (a "Bushism") is/are great for dredging up stuff!

This album above is the one that I was familiar with at the time. This group was, then wasn't (broke up) and now is again, a three piece act based in Cortland, NY. If you've never heard of Cortland, it is 20ish miles south of Syracuse, NY...did that help? The color or lack of color on the cover always reminds me of the Led Zepplin album cover of the same title.

I worked for a lighting company called S.K. Lights for almost a year (flash forward 10+ years and I did another tour for SK Lights, new owner, with Soul Asylum as the rigger) and these guys were a relatively regular client that hired us to do their lighting. I don't remember how many clubs we spent time in but it seemed like a bunch. One particular highlight of working for them, for me, was their pretty amazing drummer, Carl Canady. Here's a link to a video of a solo he did during club date during 2008. Their song "Power Lover" is one that I remembered and was pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of their stuff on YouTube now. A year ago there was one video, now there is a bunch.

Some notable trivia - The group's guitarist David "Rock" Feinstein played in a group called "Elf" with his cousin Ronnie James Dio who was lead singer for Black Sabbath in later years and Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Does the Rainbow song "Man on the Silver Mountain" resonate?). Also interesting is that they (The Rod's) were scheduled to do a UK tour with Metallica as their opening act in 1984 and the tour was cancelled because of poor ticket sales. Hmmm, is that THE Metallica? Yep...

The heavy metal era doesn't die it just goes grey and gets louDER!

Another Side of Mr. OpEd - Lighting

I spent the early 80's traveling with bands, a roadie. I worked for a club act called the New York Flyers. I did a little of everything over the course of three years. I started out setting up the back line (amps) then the drums (I'm a drummer after all). I then did lighting, sound and then sound and lighting at the same time. I also did the pyro, flash and flame pots. I got "blown up sir" by the keyboardist and spent a month recuperating from burns on my arms and chin. Lost my eyebrows and was lucky to not lose my eyesight. After that they stopped doing pyro but we developed "flaming drumsticks" and it was my deal to set those ablaze so that Earl could play the drums for a bit with them. Cool trick! You can see them in some of the pictures on their site.

In the middle of that gig I left and worked for a small lighting company that did one night stands mostly (1982ish). I setup and or ran the lighting for a bunch of groups like Joan Jett, Orleans, The Rods, Moonlight Drive, Loverboy, 805, Duke Jupiter, Dakota, Stray Cats, Return to Forever...probably more I don't remember right now. That gig didn't last and I returned to the Flyers as the crew chief.

In 1983 I moved to Atlanta and joined a lighting company called R.A. Roth with the help of my good friend Peter "Wookie" Magdarz. My first tour was with Frankie Beverly and Maze, We are One tour, a great R&B group from the SF Bay area. You might also want to check out their song "Southern Girls". If you check out the videos note the fiber optic back drop. One of my tasks was hanging one like it each night. Had a stage hand (in Macon, GA I think) walk across it one night when we were preparing to fold it carefully for the truck. Crunch...crunch...$$$$

After that I spent eight months with 38 Special in support of their Tour de Force album (1983). This video, Wild Eyed Southern Boys, is from one of their earlier tours and this song struck terror into my heart each night because I had to get the two 50 gallon dry ice fog machines primed for the next song, Chained Lightning as Donnie Van Zant told me one night that he'd "kick my butt" if he couldn't duck down and hide in the fog. Turns out my crew chief put him up to it, inside joke I wasn't party to for awhile.

There were a lot of great opening acts for them too, Huey Lewis and the News (just as Sports was hitting it big), Golden Earring, Night Ranger, Joan Jett, Michael Stanley Band, Eddie Money, Ratt (well you decide about great?), Cheap Trick, there may have been more but I'm blanking...not a bad list though.

When their tour wrapped up I/we quickly turned around another lighting rig and left for four months straight with The Fixx for their Phantoms Tour (1984). God bless YouTube...you never know what you'll find there! I did a search recently for them and found these two links from the tour I was on but don't remember them being filmed so I can only assume they weren't authorized.

This one is their song Wish, which I really like but don't recall them playing it live much so it must have been a fluke that it was caught live, that or my memory is fading. This second one is called "Lost in Battle overseas" which I also liked quite a bit.

This tour was unique for the time because it was one of the first to use primarily moving fixtures, the Vari*Lite made by the then called sound company Showco. Only Genesis tours featured more of them at the time and Genesis was an investor if I remember correctly. Their (The Fixx) lighting director, Alan (the spelling of his first name and last name escape me at the moment), used them in quite inventive ways and it really set the show apart from a typical concert.

There were 29 ellipsoidals, just 12 par 64's (for opening acts), four Mole Fays (audience lighting) and 24 Vari*Lites all mounted on a squarish box truss configuration and 4 Vari*Lites on the floor. There were lots of black curtains with a black scrim and white muslin cyclorama curtain complimented with a long row of cyclorama light fixtures in three colors, white, red and blue. There were two lighting techs, me and Fred (FUF) and two for the Vari*Lites (Eddie and Billy). Later Dunaway replaced FUF when his antics at a video shoot in Ventura precipitated an early return home (that's definitely another story).

This is what the Vari*Lite (1984) computer console looked like. Eventually I talked Alan into letting me use a few of the Vari*Lites for opening acts as long as I didn't "move" them. I argued that the opening acts deserved to be "seen" at least a little bit and maybe one day they'd be a big act that would remember standing in the dark and never hire him. One act ended up hitting the charts pretty well, Bourgeois Tagg with I don't mind at all, a one hit wonder though. Once I made a mistake and changed scenes that refocused the lamps in a different spot, which is what made the lighting "move". Alan was convinced I did on purpose but it was an honest oops!

The set you can see in the video was a real pain in the butt and Malcomb had loads of fun with that each day. The set carts it came on were huge and heavy and the whole thing had sharp bits waiting to bite you at every turn.

I'll save more reminiscing for another time and more time to search for web bits. I'll have to dredge up my old tour passes and scan some for a chuckle or two.

Another Side of Mr. OpEd

I have friends who are musicians first and have jobs second. I have friends who have jobs and happen to play an instrument. Although I have played drums since I was fifteen and been in bands for many of the years since I have never told someone that I'm a drummer first and a something else second. I guess that means I'm not a professional musician though technically I made a meager living as one in my late teens. I don't think of myself as a drummer first...funny how we can "pigeon hole" ourselves.

The band I played with the longest was called "Angry Neighbors" as in we've got them, angry neighbors. I don't even remember when we started playing together exactly and I'm even fuzzy on how we got connected. It was just a three piece outfit, drums, bass and guitar. Two Steve's and a Mike...pun intended, Mike played guitar/harmonica and sings like a birdie. The two Steve's just looked good in the background...well we tried.


We started out as a "B" side band that only played the stuff we wanted to. As you can probably guess there aren't that many places eager to book a "B" side band. So we played some "A" side stuff too and that helped. We also found we enjoyed playing original stuff that Mike wrote over the prior years in various bands. So we started focusing as much on that stuff as anything else. This didn't increase our marketability and our meteoric rise to fame has been in a long flat line...no rise except for a week in 2002 or maybe it was 2003...when we played a clam bake and of course...it rained! Check out the glamorous back drop!


We recorded a live gig and played haphazardly with recording in the proverbial basement. We were three guys who had jobs and played instruments when we could. It was a great outlet! We could get together next weekend and sound like we never stopped playing, just a strange sort of comfortable that we enjoy. We occasionally would practice whether we needed it or not! When someone asks me who we sounded like I'd say either, "We are easy to listen to but not easy listening" or "Imagine Neal Young and Tom Petty had a kid and he was Matthew Sweet"... Doesn't help much does it?

Then I messed it all up by moving to California! Mike and Steve went on to team up with The Z-Bones and then Steve stopped playing out for the most part. Mike is still at it! Me...I've been on my longest playing drought ever. I've been planning to pick up an electronic set so I can play "quietly" at home for months and I've just never checked off that to do item.

I've posted three songs that anyone who is interested can download.
Book of Love is a basement recording, Turn it Off and Half a Man are a live recording (board mix) of one of our occasional gigs.

We are on the slow trajectory for stardom...(in our own minds!) The latest news is that we are kicking around the idea of working electronically via Garage Band and seeing what noise we can make! I guess I need to get that kit!

Nik Kershaw - Off Topic

Back in the early 80's Nik made the charts with a song called "Wouldn't it be Good". At least that's when I became familiar with his music. He sported the spiky hair typical of some artists back then. Today it is a bit less, he looks like he could be a Revit user even. Reminds me a little bit of David Light, its a compliment David! You be the judge? Nik...then David...David's a younger version?



The point is that Nik has continued to make music over the years even though he has all but vanished from the charts. Apparently a lot of musicians have discovered that they can make a comfortable living by focusing on their true fans. I read an interesting (to me anyway) article on this subject by Seth Godin and he linked to other writers that discuss this in depth.

If you remember his music and lost touch with his work then I invite you to revisit, get reacquainted. If you never heard of him I suggest you check him out. If you are fortunate enough to live in the UK you can still catch him perform live. There are albums available via iTunes in the USA and the UK iTunes (it has different options in the UK which I wish I could purchase, subject of another blog post). You can also get some of his work via The Store for Music (UK)

Shell Shock - Vote for them - Off Topic

If you are a frequent visitor to AUGI or at least have been in the past you probably have seen posts by Steven Shell, the "Rock-n-Roll Architect". He's been a guitar player for more years than he'd probably want to admit, a "been there done that, washed the tee-shirt so many times you can't read it anymore" musician.

I received the following today asking for support of the "Tammies", the Tuscon area version of the Grammy's. I'd like to go on record as saying they are the best cover band I have yet to see!! How's that for an endorsement Steve?

So if you have seen them make sure you vote. If you haven't you now have one more reason to visit Tuscon, Arizona.

Here's the info:

Well, it's that time again, only different! The Tucson Weekly has published the finalists for the "Tammies", which are the music awards for local bands and musicians here in Tucson. This year however, they are trying something new in order to reach a larger voting base. The finalists for the critic's and reader's choices have already been selected by the mail in voting which happened a few months ago. They are now asking everybody to vote on-line at the web site address posted below here:

TAMMIES


If you would like to vote for any local band or musician, (Including....that's right....you knew it was coming).....Shell Shock, which did make the finals under the "Cover Band" category, please feel free to visit the web site and vote. Please remember, one vote per computer IP address and per individual.

As Steve says at every show, "Remember, if it weren't for all of you.....none of this would be necessary."

Thank you all for your wonderful support over the years and we look forward to seeing you all sometime this month!
Should you have any questions, please e-mail us at:

shellshockrocks at cox dot net
or visit our web site

Return to Forever on Tour Again - Off Topic

The 70's fusion group Return to Forever returns to the road this month. They are appearing in 50 cities in the USA and Europe. This group helped define the jazz/rock/fusion genre of music. RtF combined the now well known musicians Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White into a super group of jazz/Latin virtuosos. This tour coincides with the newly released re-mastered album "Return to Forever: The Anthology".

They released four albums between 1973 and 1976, separated and then briefly toured again in 1983. Each of them has enjoyed prolific careers apart from Return to Forever which is partly to blame for the 25 years between tours.

I worked as a lighting tech on one tour date when they appeared at the Rochester Auditorium theater (NY State) during the 1983 tour. It was really a dual pleasure to work and see the show. A classic, "I'm getting paid to do this?" moment! I even got to chat with Al after the show for a couple minutes while we tore down the lighting gear.

I became aware of their work well after their initial heyday even though I was aware of their contempories Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. I also greatly admired the Dixie Dregs, who were heavily influenced by Mahavishnu Orchestra too.

As a "part time" drummer (meaning I always had a day job) I always aspired to be able to play that sort of music even though realistically I am too lazy to do the work to reach that level. That and that my natural sweet spot or "talent" is, I think, contemporary rock.

I was introduced to Al Dimeola's solo work by the sound engineer that I worked with for a few years in the early 80's. I own nearly all of his (Al DiMeola's) albums and still frequently listen to them to this day. I've managed to see him perform a couple times over the years and I'd encourage anyone who enjoys this type of music to do so. His solo work is a collaboration with many of the finest musicians to ever play. Naturally I became curious about the other places he practiced his craft which led me "back" to Return to Forever.

Sadly their tour dates don't coincide with my travel plans so I'll miss out on this tour. It took them 25 years to get around to touring again, so if you are a fan, do your best to catch their show! Who knows how long it will take for the next one?