The Roadie Show

It’s been a while…

rand — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:06:22 +0000

2009 has come and gone, changing the world drastically. Iggs and I have learned a lot, and are still rockin’ and rollin’ in the world of live music. It’s a shame that we’ve had to slow way down on our posts and videos here at RoadieShow.com but it wasn’t just because we got lazy… The venues we work at became increasingly aware of social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. Blogs and Tweets were being seen as threatening and potentially damaging, and were off limits. It’s been a year now, and things seem to be changing. Everyone is getting used to the idea of sharing their lives on the internet. Tours, Venues and Artists are getting behind blogs and Twitter in a big way.

It’s time to come back.

Keep checking us out here at www.RoadieShow.com. Let’s get ready to ROCK!!!!

-Rand Bradbury

Chairman and CEO

RoadieShow Enterprises

Charlie Wilson

iggs — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:29:46 +0000

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.

2009

iggs — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:02:05 +0000

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 on our Facebook pages.
Check it out! RAND IGGS
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.

Cool Road Cases

rand — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:13:53 +0000

Here’s a quick compilation of photos of road cases I’ve come across over the years. After a few years of use, road cases become more than just storage and transportation for expensive gear. They develop scars and handicaps. They get tattoos and stickers and haphazard modifications. Some cases even get nicknames like “Bertha”, “Large Marge”, “Big Yellow Fucker” or “Oprah”. They have no problem smuggling much needed drugs and alcohol when no one else is willing. Road cases make excellent building materials when constructing a small apartment to sleep and eat in backstage. Road Cases, we love you!

Last Comic Standing

rand — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:32:28 +0000

David Crosby and Graham Nash

rand — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:19:11 +0000

Legends! These guys were laid back, relaxed and could still sing and play their asses off! I’m always impressed when someone kicks ass for as long and as hard as Crosby and Nash.

The crowd begs for another encore

This is the kind of show we love to do - easy. The band plays on nice carpets instead of risers, travels with a bus and trailer instead of a semi-truck… it’s wonderful. The audience was thrilled by the performance and demanded several encores! Here’s a look at a few pics from the show. You can always view more of my pics from the music world at the RoadieShow Flickr page!

Graham Nash and David Crosby rock out

The all-important guitar hand-off. The bread and butter of a guitar tech’s paycheck is earned at this exact moment!

David Crosby waves goodbye after the final encore. Job well done.

September Update!

rand — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:44:41 +0000

It’s been one hell of a great September for the RoadieShow guys! Lots of work and lots of play make Iggs and Rand happy! I’ve been meaning to write a detailed post after every gig, I swear… It turns out that loading and unloading a 53 foot semi-truck by hand can wear you out! One of these days Iggs and I will set up a time-lapse camera and show the world how long and physically demanding our workday can be.

Ok, enough complaining. On to the update!

Podcamp Philly 2008

Adam, Paul and Rand Host a live episode of the Best Damn Tech Show, Period.

PodCamp Philly is back! The guys from the Best Damn Tech Show hosted another smash hit live taping. We drank beer at 3 in the afternoon, discussed news and reviews in the world of tech and made a ton of new friends. We networked and partied our asses off… Tons of fun!

Kenny G

Kenny G is terribly pleased with himself.

That’s right, folks… the one and only Kenny G! Himself! In the flesh! Iggs and I walked in to this gig thinking it would be a piece of cake. In the past few years we’ve worked with all the ‘Big Hitters’ of New Age/Smooth Jazz including John Tesh, Peter White and Rick Braun. Those gigs were all easy, no-stress events with relaxed performers and happy crews. Kenny G is a fucking Rock Star! We built two small towers in the audience for Kenny G to climb and stand on several times throughout the show. We ran multiple spotlights with several cues while he ran all over the house. Iggs had to somehow light a tenor saxophone on a stand without spilling any light onto the floor around it. We built a giant video screen that featured live closeups of Kenny G intercut with text that described to the audience exactly who he was and what he was doing:

“Kenny G holds the World’s Record for the longest note played - 45minutes 12 seconds”

“Kenny G is one of the original investors in the Starbucks coffeeshop chain”

“Kenny G is a pilot and often flies to his own gigs”

If you look to the left of the sleeveless bass player you can see the tenor sax bathed in light

In short, Kenny G knows who Kenny G is. And he’s a New Age/Smooth Jazz badass. He never messed up, never had a technical problem, never lost his cool. He even gave away a saxophone onstage after playing it for the lucky audience member who won the raffle! That Kenny G is damn good at what he does…

Daryl Hall

Daryl Hall of ‘Hall and Oates’ fame still has the voice and the chops

Daryl Hall came out with a top-notch band, great gear and a HUGE FUCKING WALL that is an exact replica of his barn back home. Luckily it was mostly made out of foamcore and was relatively easy to construct. Mr. Hall has a lot more hits than you realize - take a listen to your discography and you’ll be surprised that you know the words to most of his songs. An entertaining show for sure.

A personal note - My old friend Mutlu opened up for Daryl Hall. He’s a great musician and has some really cool sounding new material!

Mutlu rocks out with a little help from the keys

A great month of gigs. More to come! Stay tuned…

August ‘08 Tech News Update from the Best Damn Tech Show, Period.

rand — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:47:10 +0000

News
Ex-Google engineers launched the new search engine Cuil www.cuil.com to ho-hum reviews amidst a massive PR release. With it’s slick interface and huge index they may have been expecting more but its poor search results, many have written it off already. You might want to try ask.com for better results which isn’t saying much. To give you an example, a search for the “Best Damn Tech Show” bring up a Wikipedia result in the top spot that links you to a page that doesn’t even exist. Nice one.

Friend of the Tech Show, Ted Stevens the longest serving senator in congress has been brought up on charges (7 counts on failing to disclose - not for being a douce as most people thought). We’ve put together a highlight reel or some of his Tedisms courtesy of Jon Stewart over at our partner broadcaster Comedy Central. http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/07/30/top-5-daily-show-ted-stevens-moments/

Iris on the Virus
Apple gets pie in the face from security researchers over a failure to act on patching serious DNS BIND flaw.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/29/apple_dns_patch_mia/

Schmidt Faced

Response to Gary Vaynerchuck

Rachel’s Soy Sauce - Dishing up the gossip for the gals

IBM facilities hosting 3 week tech camps for gals after hearing of the decline in female tech engineers http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/BUSINESS01/807310312

American Association of University Women Education Foundation is hosting a tech trek camp for 14 year old girl at Stanford University http://www.mercurynews.com/campbell/ci_10036148

Reasons girls should get into tech: hotter more intelligent guys-brain before brawn ladies, you get to travel, go to sweet conferences, meet really interesting people and be a part of the ever changing growing and evolving tech community. the internet is our own little ecosystem plus you get all your drinks for free…trust me, I know! :]

Around the World Wide Web
China had every intention of opening up access to the world but we’ve learned that they’re still at their cencorship game - apparently Best Damn Tech Show, Period is still on that list.

Portugal (cue Euro techno music) has grabbed 500,000 of the latest Intel produced Classmates PC which is a bit of a slap in the face for OLPC

Site of the Week:
www.chrisbrogan.com

Recent gigs, photos, stories…

iggs — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:04:16 +0000

Hello Roadieshow friends…

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I know it has been a little while since I posted. The truth is we haven’t been terribly busy with gigs. I guess most tours take a summer break or do festivals. Either way, I end up not working which means I spend way too much time spending my riches and juggling swarms of horny young women. But that’s for another website…

Lately, Rand and I have been putting our creative talents to work at the Best Damn Tech Show, Period. We hope you check that out as well. Thanks!

Below are some pictures and video from gigs Rand and I have worked or attended. I hope you will enjoy.

.
Beatles tribute “1964: The Tribute”

King of the blues; BB King

“Doors” drummer John Densmore and his “Tribal Jazz” band

Comic Andrew “Dice” Clay

The “Eagles” during soundcheck at the Wachovia center.

Here I am at the Allen & Heath mixer inside the AT&T Pavilion at the Wachovia center

James Blunt. What a cool looking setup!

Victor Wooten. One of mine and Rand’s favorite musicians.

Joe Jackson

Sometimes our view isn’t so good…

Radiohead. Some of them anyway…

A wide shot of the Radiohead stage

And for you Radiohead fans, here’s a Roadieshow exclusive video I shot of Radiohead performing “Lucky”:
Radiohead \”Lucky\”

Best Damn Shears

rand — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:35:13 +0000

Do you hate trimming the weeds and shrubs around your property? So do we! That’s why we invented the Best Damn Shears!