I’ve been on and off the road working for many different artists for the last ten years, and when work allows, I like to document my travels. Sometimes the photos end up online in one way or another, trapped on my hard-drive for that rainy-day slideshow, or just thrown in a drawer. This blog is my new addition to my wacky photo-filing system. (See part #1 here).
We had a day off in Memphis last week, and you better believe we ate some BBQ. I have only been to Memphis a few times, but it didn’t take long to hear about Rendezvous. People swear by this place for their ribs. The One Ok Rock crew, Tomo and Ryota loved their meals. Always makes me stoked to introduce these guys to something new.
Also in Memphis, I stumbled upon the site of Martin Luther Kings’ assassination. The old motel turned civil rights museum is a place I remember learning about in high school, but it took me a second to put two and two together. Sadly I didn’t have enough time before the show that day to actually go through the museum. Next time hopefully!
If we’ve met, it’s no secret I love ice cream. There is a small chain called Jeni’s and it is near (if not at) the top of my list of favorite places. Jesus (Issues merch rep) tracked one down in St. Louis and took Stevie (Crown The Empire’s merch rep) over there in the afternoon before the show at The Ready Room.
This week is mostly about food, sorry! It’s one thing I really love about touring; you get to try so many foods that are region specific or, like in my town, maybe just don’t exist. Pizza on the other hand is a staple almost everywhere, but pizza like you get from Antico in Atlanta is few and far between. I haven’t had the opportunity to go to Italy yet, but I have my mind made up that this is as close as it’s going to get. My friend JD (from Valencia, who I toured with for many years) introduced me to this place, and I have visit every time I’m in Atlanta now. They even have a little café and market across the street and another restaurant around back! Truly Atlanta’s Little Italy!
Knoxville (and often more days than not) was a pretty mellow day. This is our front of house (FOH) engineer, Masa taking a break after soundcheck and getting a rock out of his shoe. He makes the show sound incredible! Traveling in Japan for a while, and getting to see some shows there, I love the care and attention that is put into making a show sound and look great no matter what size room it’s in.
Sometimes an artist has their own sound engineer but sometimes that person could work for the venue. It all depends on the tour and its budget. There are times when I hear a lot of complaints about different bands sounding bad live… yes maybe that band is actually bad live, but if a band sounds bad when you see them, don’t always jump to the conclusion that they are downright bad, or that they are having an off day. Have a look around the venue; maybe their (or the club’s) sound engineer is having an off day. And that goes for any of the crew too, some days can be hard for any number of reasons, and not just for sound engineers.