5/24/08 - Najee in Lexington, KY

It's been a good while since I've posted a "roadie" related blog and last weekend's gig was just the spark I needed to reignite myself. My ongoing quest for my latest tour led me to lunch with an old friend and fellow roadie who has worked on some of the biggest tours in the last few years. Directly resulting from that lunch wasn't a tour, but a one off gig with Pyramid Productions mixing monitors for Najee.

Since the show was in Lexington, KY which is 2 1/2 hours from home a hotel stay was required. Now allow me a few words about the Microtel Inn. The Microtel Inn was the smallest room I have EVER stayed in. My daughter's bedroom is bigger. The room was 10x10 square with a bathroom off to the side. A queen sized bed took up most of the floor space and a desk occupied the rest. The shower worked (to my surprise) however the standard toiletries that come with every hotel room didn't make it. I'm not a rock star and don't require 5 star service AND... I booked my own hotel (with considerable attention given to production budget) so I can't complain too much, but never again will I stay in such a tiny little shit room. Life's too short to stay in cheap hotels.

Roadies are a unique group of people that are either privileged or cursed (depending on your outlook and the gig at hand) to work with a completely new group of strangers, called stagehands, every day. Lexington was no exception and today I was privileged rather than cursed. Andrew and company were a spectacular group and deserve to be recognized.

Roadies like me sometimes get geeky. We don't get geeky about the musos we work with; we get geeky about gear. When setting up the gear I noticed something peculiar. The monitor console, a yamaha M7CL, had that "new car" scent wafting off of it's case. Opening the console I noticed it was a virgin. NEVER BEFORE OPENED. I was it's first.

Notice the plastic film still on the screen!

In case you were wondering what my view of the show looked like:

I made some great new friends, both of the musical and technical kind and the season is just getting started. There should be more roadie blogs coming soon.