The Roadie Show

Today Rand and I are working with CHARLIE WILSON of The Gap Band. He gonna drop a bomb on us…baby.

We started load-in at 10am. Meh. We emptied the sound company truck pretty quickly. They brought a whole bunch of extra speakers to supplement the PA that is already onstage. There are extra subs for the main PA, 2 subs and 2 tops per side as side fills, and lots of LARGE monitor wedges for the band members. The drummer has two wedges…and a sub! We put a bunch of risers together upstage to make one looong riser. Most of the band members go on the riser because Charlie and the show dancers will be downstage. Then the tour’s back line guy showed up. He brought all the instruments, moving lights, wardrobe, and merch.

We wired up all the moving lights, wedges, subs, and side fills and ran all the A/C drops. The tour guys and sound company guys did most of the work after that, although I did climb up into the truss to focus the pars and leko’s.

Next was lunch and the wait for band members to arrive. Once sound check starts, we enjoy some down time. Sound check was extensive today…about 3 hours, I think.

After a delicious dinner, the doors opened. One hour later, Rand and I were ready for our spotlight duties. A comic opened the show, then Charlie Wilson took the stage. The band was a drummer, bassist/synth, 2 guitars, keys, vocals and 4 lovely female dancers. Surprisingly, there was very little feedback from the main vocal mic. We thought for sure it would be a problem because of the wedges and sidefills being so loud. But they had it handled. Nice! Charlie put on a good show with a very energetic ‘party’ vibe. He did NOT, however, perform “You Dropped A Bomb On Me,” but did end the show with his newest hit “There Goes My Baby” twice. Hells yeah.

Charlie Wilson\'s \"There Goes My Baby\"

Load out went pretty smooth. We got the tour’s truck packed up pretty quickly, then got right to the sound truck. We had a few problems with random people walking through the loading area while we were loading the trucks. It was like they didn’t see us pushing all the gear out of the venue and loading it onto the trucks. They just kept meandering around us and all the boxes. Amazing…

We finished at 11:20pm. Not bad. Next up…Chris Isaak.

Hello RoadieShow fans. Regrettably, we have been a bit lazy lately with the site. Rand and I have been trying to keep everyone up to date on our adventures in the music biz via Twitter..
Check it out! IGGS RAND
Many of the shows we have done have required spotlight work, which makes taking pics and video during the show difficult. But you can always check the RoadieShow Flickr page.

We have done some cool shows so far this year and met quite a few really cool people. Here are some of the more notable shows:

March: Peking Acrobats, Celtic Tenors, Lucinda Williams, Railroad Earth & New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dave Mason, Duncan Sheik, Beatles tribute “Fab Faux,” Queen tribute “One Night of Queen,” Idina Menzel, David Sanborn, Tower of Power, Tommy Emmanuel, Jay Black & Lesley Gore

April: BB King, Raul Malo, Neko Case, Vienna Teng, Andrew “Dice” Clay, Manhattan Transfer, Chick Corea, Foreigner

May: “RosFest,” Sharon Jones & Dap Kings, UB-40, India.Arie, Spinal Tap, Patrizio Buanne, Bell Biv Devoe, Derek Trucks

June: Steven Wright, Gipsy Kings, Victor Wooten & Stanley Clarke & Marcus Miller, Pink Floyd tribute “The Machine,” Madeline Peyroux, Gary Burton, Kenny G, Wallflowers

We also do some doo-wop shows, some jazz shows, and a whole bunch of dance recitals for local dance schools in the early summer. It’s kinda fun, but mostly a pain in the ass.

Some of the shows we have coming up: The Zombies & The Yardbirds & The Spencer Davis Group, Rosanne Cash, Chris Isaak, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Frampton…

We have the coolest job!

Times are tough for everyone and the music biz is no different. We just have to hope that things get better with the economy, more musicians go on tour, and people can afford to go out and see a show.