Tourblog (2) - more preperations

pppfffff…. there is so much to do in so little time….
but finally I now have some time for some great music and a nice glass of wine…
…. and to write a blog.
At this moment we are few days before the start of the full band rehearsals, this coming Monday. Yesterday we played with the band (without Neal of course) through the set one more time, and timed it. If we play all the material we have prepared for the main set, we will have in almost 3,5 hours of music. IT’S A LOT!!!! Man, but it is also soooo much fun to play this music. You will love this collection of Neal’s greatest! We won’t play it all on one night, as we will try to alternate the sets as much as possible. But that is also up to you. If you really want us to play more, just scream and whistle us back on that stage 😉
So most of the things are ready, and I just opened a nice bottle of wine, put on some great music (the Cd ‘Erotic Cakes’ of the amazing British guitar player Guthrie Govan.
Anyways Tonight I am checking the payments of the tickets sold for the warm-up gig here in Ede. Just finished a conversation with someone of the theater. This Sunday we will start setting up and preparing the monitor system.
That’s maybe nice to tell you more about our monitoring system. Since like 2006 I started using the AVIOM system, a personal monitoring system, which lets the player make his own mix out of 16 channels or sub-mixes the sound guy provides. Very ideal, full control, and great sound.
Many times the sound in the hall it self is very loud, because of the screamingly loud monitors and amps on stage. And it makes it very hard for the sound guy to make something beautiful out of it. So with that in mind, just to make the sound for you guys the best as possible, we all go with in-ear monitoring, through this AVIOM system.
This time will be also the debut of Elisa’s new battle axe. He has an endorsement with De Gier Guitars, a custom guitar builder here in The Netherlands, that are making beautiful guitar and bass guitars. We have an extra guitar for Neal to try and use during this tour.
Unfortunately I will not bring my whole double-bass-gongdrum-octoban-drummonster with me. Normally I have to friends of mine that help me as my drumtech with setting up and breaking down the kit, as I am also the tour manager, and have a lot of things to take care off before and after the shows. They both are called Ruben, so not to be mistaken we have Kruben and Sruben. Kruben is in South Afrika and Sruben is not available all the time because of his busy job. Luckilly he will be at some of the gigs. But for the most part I have to do it myself, and that’s why I bring just a part of my kit with me this time. Don’t worry, when I say small… most of the people still are like… man… what a big kit 😉 But still this set-up right now is much more flexible and easier to drag along.
Tomorrow will be the day of last shopping (I need a bigger cowbell, a guiro (which song will that be…. 🙂 ) and some new small cymbals, as I broke my self made cheap-ass Stagg stacks (a combination of a mini-china on top of a splash). They cost almost nothing, but are broken easily.
So all is well in tour-prepare-land, and while Jessica is away doing a concert somewhere in The Netherlands, I will take a zip of my wine, and maybe watch a movie.
Talk to you later! Proost!
Collin