With one final show to go, we are off to Puerto Rico! (I am not in this photograph)

Tags: touring

We just watched the launch of the Discovery Space Shuttle from the roof of the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida.

Pre-launch preparations on the bus involved watching the NASA channel and engaging in some "space talk"

The perfect eastern facing vantage point for the launch was located on top of the venue

We have LIFT OFF! The fire ball turned into a long trail of smoke as the Shuttle ascended into the atmosphere.

Tags: touring

Last night we had a fantastic show in a cool venue called The Tabernacle, which had just reopened after repairing the damage caused by the tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta a few months ago. The building was built originally as a Baptist mega-church over a hundred years ago and was renovated for the Atlanta Olympics by The House of Blues. This morning we woke up in Miami, Florida where we made the most of our last day-off.

Tags: touring

I put a slideshow from this year of touring in the menu to the right >>>>
Click on the images to enlarge them >>>>
The pictures are arranged chronically and according to our travels:
North America July-Aug 07
Europe Sept-Nov 07
Asia Jan 08
Australia Jan 08
South America March 08
Mexico & North America May 08

Tags: touring

Memorial Day Parade down Constitution Ave in Washington DC

Tags: touring

There are some photos from the New York shows on the BrooklynVegan site, especially good ones of the three other bands we have been traveling with on this tour.

Tags: touring, new york

It is a beautiful day in Central Park and we are off to Washington DC. After three days without the tourbus it is good to be reunited with our home away from home.

Tags: touring, new york

Last night in Detroit I took a time-lapse series of the stage during the show.



Last July when we were at the same theater I shot this time-lapse of the stage during the load-in and set-up.

Tags: touring

It has been a few days of tour bus mayhem. Gospel legend Dottie Rambo was killed on Sunday when her bus crashed outside Mount Vernon, Mo. Last night we hit a deer as we were leaving St.Paul. We made it to Chicago despite the dead deer and front end damage to the bus. This morning we learned that last night all 5 tour buses on another tour (an All American Girl singer) were chased off the highway and searched by overzealous Kansas troopers. These incidents have put a sobering chill in the air. On a happier note, my fever finally broke leaving me with a simple cold and tomorrow we will be in Johnny's old stomping grounds of Detroit.

A number of people have asked me "What are these live cameras that you use on tour?" I found this video from a few nights ago and thought it was a pretty good example of what my small robotic cameras can capture and magnify for the audience. This clip features keyboard maestro Jordan Rudess on a Korg Kaoss pad at the start of the encore. The image you see if actually the video screen above the drum riser.


This is a good clip of the video (without live cameras) and lighting from the Vancouver show last week.

Tags: touring

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and Grandmother, Aunt and cousins, Andrea, Carli and Jenny.
We are reaching the final hour of a twenty-two hour bus ride and we are watching David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Needless to say, we are a haggard bunch who are ready to get off this bus. But since I had some time to kill on mind numbing activities I calculated that we have done 96 shows during this tour which involved travel through the Americas, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. As we near the end of this World Tour everyone is beginning to plan their next jobs. One guy is going out with Billy Idol, others are heading out with the bands Yes, Poison, Muse and even American Idol. We are looking forward to heading home to LA, where I have some exciting curatorial and writing projects lined up.

Montana roadside signage

Tags: touring

Waking in Calgary this morning we were shocked to be greeted with fresh snow! The tour has been going well so far, but tonight is #6 of 22 shows- so we still have a ways to go. In Vancouver they did a 7 camera video shoot of the show so there should be a DVD of this tour in the near future.

Tags: touring

Tags: touring

We made it to Seattle in time for a perfect cup of coffee. Look- there is the newspaper ad for our show. This time out we are traveling with an additional three opening bands as part of a progressive rock/metal tour. It sure is crowded backstage.

Tags: touring

We are back out on video tour and will spend the next month zig-zagging across the US. Touring is like taking a long road-trip with twenty five friends or perhaps more like being in the circus. This morning I woke, snuggled all cozy in my cocoon-like bunk, to the gentle swaying of the bus that indicated we were going through the mountains. Sleeping on the bus is similar to living on a houseboat, so that even on solid land your body feels like it is gently rocking. It is a lovely sensation. Crossing from the dark sleeping quarters into the front lounge, I realized that we were already into the lush green of Oregon. Will be in Seattle by dinner and I am looking forward to sneaking off with my partner in adventure to explore the city.

Tags: video, touring

NODE VIDEO (that is us!) is getting ready to hit the road with our live video shows. We are excited to cross-cross America and would love to see you along the way.

Friday, April 25 at COACHELLA in Indio, CA with Adam Freeland
----------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, April 29 Mexico City, Mexico
Friday, May 2 Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, May 3 Oakland, CA
Monday, May 5 Seattle, WA
Tuesday, May 6 Vancouver, BC
Friday & Saturday, May 9 & 10 Calgary, ALB
Monday, May 12 Minneapolis, MN
Tuesday, May 13 Chicago, IL
Wednesday, May 14 Detroit, MI
Friday, May 16 Columbus, OH
Saturday, May 17 Cleveland, OH
Sunday, May 18 Albany, NY
Tuesday, May 20 Boston, MA
Wednesday & Thursday, May 21 & 22 New York, NY
Monday, May 26 Washington, DC
Tuesday, May 27 Richmond, VA
Wednesday, May 28 Atlanta, GA
Friday, May 30 Miami, FL
Saturday, May 31 Orlando, FL
Sunday, June 1 Tampa, FL
Wednesday, June 4 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tags: video, touring

The tour of South America has come to an end. This time out we logged 11 flights in and out of 5 countries to do 8 shows. And as I add up the ticket sales (or venue capacity) for this tour, it is mind blowing to realize that we created a live video show for 73,932 people.

The past 48 hours have been the most extreme of this two weeks on the road. On Thursday we left Bogota, Columbia at 10AM and arrived at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela at 6PM. We then boarded a bus that took us over the mountains and arrived in Valencia, Venezuela at 10PM. On Friday morning we boarded a van at 10AM that took us to the venue and that night had a 9PM show for an amped up audience of 6,000.
Immediately following the show we broke the stage down and loaded the trucks. By 12:30AM we were boarding the bus that would take us back over the mountain to Caracas. We checked into a hotel at 3:30AM, showered and then checked out at 4:15AM to catch the last van ride of the tour to the airport for our 7AM flight home.

Not much deep reflection about the tour is available at this time. Now I am looking forward to unwinding at home while writing an article about Houston for the upcoming "Urban" issue of ArtLies magazine. Later this week we will be doing video for two club shows in LA. Wednesday night's show is with DJs Steve Nalepa (LA) and MattB (Tokyo) who will be rocking the house with their Bass Science collaboration and on Thursday night we will be at Spaceland in Silverlake with the Bay Area band Film School .

Tags: touring, LosAngeles, video

Bogota, Columbia (photo: R.Dorion)

Tags: travel, touring

Sometimes the accommodations touring through South America are less than glamorous. At one venue in Brazil, the production office was a repurposed shower room and this left the toilet area as the default dining room. (photo: R. Dorion)

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Arrived in Rio de Janeiro just in time for sunset

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It was brought to my attention that the time has come for me to post to the blog from South America. But until I can take some nice photos of something other than the airport or a hotel room, this LOUD video will serve as a place holder and introduction to how enthusiastic the South American audiences have been. This low quality video is from the first show of the tour in Santiago, Chile. Check out that crowd- WOW!
WARNING: Turn down your speakers before hitting play

Loud in Chile from bree edwards on Vimeo.

Tags: touring

Los Angeles has only started to reveal its secrets and it is already time to go. Tomorrow we will take our mobile video rig back out for some more rock shows and this time we will board a plane bound for Chile. Over the next two weeks we will be here:
3/1 Santiago
3/3 Buenos Aires
3/4 Buenos Aires
3/7 San Paulo
3/8 Rio de Janeiro
3/9 Belo Horizonte
3/12 Bogota
3/14 Caracas

Tags: touring

After three weeks in Asia and Australia that included 15 flights, 10 shows and abrupt cultural and climate shifts, we are ready to head home.

Above: End of concert in Sydney (photo R.Dorion)
Below: Concert in Bangkok

Tags: touring

Tags: touring

On the "it's a small world" tour we spend on average 48 hours in each country. This never feels like enough time, until we got to Beijing, where suddenly I could not get out fast enough. We arrived in the PRC around 10PM and were held up by arguing customs officials who seemed to be unwilling to let the 14 of us into the country with our 51 items of luggage and gear. When we finally made it out of the airport and to the hotel, the bus was prohibited from pulling up in front of the hotel, meaning we would need to lug everything across curbs and snowbanks. Another argument broke out between our bus driver and a hotel worker and we finally unloaded the bus in front of the hotel. Then they did not have our rooms ready & seemed to be saying we might need to move to another hotel. Needless to say another argument occurred. Anyways, by the time we got to our rooms and dropped our bags it was midnight. Little did I realize this would be the easy part of our China Experience.

We began the show day by being told that our shuttle would be late because of "problems at the venue". But it turns out that the shuttle bus had just broken down and was replaced. Once we made it to the venue; a smelly convention hall with a rocket outside but no heat inside, I knew our day would be rough. I will not bore you with the details of having only one translator for the entire operation, who was also the promoter, stage manager and caterer. Because the biggest problem proved to be the electrical system in Beijing- which is ungrounded and seems totally unregulated. Over the course of the day we blew three transformers and this even before the start of the show. Actually the show was almost cancelled when the Chinese lighting team blew out all the electricity to our video system minutes before the doors were to open. Despite that awful smell of burning ozone from the blown transformer we scrambled to get video back up and running, while 2,000 people were standing in lines freezing outside the doors. The whole day was totally sketchy but the show happened and was good. But I could not get out of Beijing fast enough the next morning- even with the 5:30AM lobby call. We are now in sunny Australia for the rest of the tour- hallelujah!

Side note: The air pollution levels on an average day in Beijing are nearly five times above the World Health Organization standards for safety. The pollution that results from China's inefficient dependence on coal powered electric is visceral in Beijing.

Tags: touring, travel

Tags: touring

Tags: touring, travel

Tags: touring, travel

Tags: touring, travel

This was the scene at the Bangkok Airport as we loaded our gear and equipment into the cargo trucks. Show tonight and tomorrow a day off to explore Thailand.
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Tags: touring, travel

Tokyo from bree edwards on Vimeo.

Tags: touring, travel, video

Before Christmas the New York Times Travel section had an article entitled 36 Hours in Singapore and this is our next stop for just about that length of time. While I doubt we will get to see much of Singapore tonight after landing, I am looking forward to 90 degree weather and tomorrow's outdoor concert.

We had a great 48 hours in Tokyo and even managed to meet up with our friend Steve Nalepa (see past entires on DeKam vs Nalepa in Houston) who was in Tokyo to work on a new album with Matt, one of his DJ collaborators.
Last night in Tokyo (after our concert at the famous Budokan theater) we all went for dinner at the restaurant made famous by the sword fight between Uma Thurman and the Crazy 8s in the movie Kill Bill- it was cool.

Tags: travel, touring

We are heading back out with the boys in the New Year:
Jan 12- Seoul, Korea
Jan 15- Tokyo, Japan
Jan 17- Singapore
Jan 19- Bangkok, Thailand
Jan 22- Beijing, China
Jan 26- Perth, Australia
Jan 28- Adelaide, Australia
Jan 29- Melbourne, Australia
Jan 30- Sydney, Australia
Feb 1- Brisbane, Australia
* Johnny and I produce the video screen show during the concert. I am the videographer, who does the live camera shots of the band (using a variety of different cameras) while Johnny VJs these live camera feeds into his greater mix to create the video show. He uses VDMX software from Vidvox.

Tags: node, touring

Photos by Stew

Tags: touring

Today we are just outside Bilbao, in an airplane hanger styled convention center, nestled by Bavarian looking hills. All of the glass walls are etched with 00011000, making it apparent that this building was pitched to the local community as a hub for showcasing some type of high-tech media. Currently there are several huge New Media centers being established all over Spain, but this one certainly did not live up to its future-land promises. My guess is that this building was conceived around the time that the Guggenheim Bilbao was built. It is ironic to be surrounded by all this computer code etched glass & unable to find an open WiFi connection.

The endless garage doors and poured concrete floor make this most artists dream studio & it is actually a totally beautiful building. But it is less than ideal for a rock show! This will be our final show in Spain, as tonight we head for France.

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This has been our route- with only one week to go!

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not really... Johnny took this photo as we passed through the beautiful south of France on route to Spain.

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We are all thankful to be done with the Italian shows, it is so difficult to work there. This morning I woke in Switzerland, beside this lovely community of garden sheds. I have always wanted to do a photo series of these little garden villages, which I have also seen in Sweden, The Netherlands & England

Tags: touring, grow

Tonight may have been the best show of the entire tour.In these photos you can see our video show.

Tags: touring

We have past the midway point in this tour and tonight will be our 42nd show since July.

This week we are in Italy. After shows in Bologna and Rome, we have reached Southern Italy and I can almost smell the ocean. I wish I could comment on all the wonderful food, coffee and architecture of Italy- unfortunately, I have not experienced much of it on this trip. What I can say is, Italian crews are very talkative & they often drift off for breaks.
Here is a quick little cut-up from the pre-show in Bologna.

Tags: touring

I wish that I had taken photos of the last 3 venues we played at because they have been totally different.

Today we are in Stuttgart (home of the Mercedes Benz & Bosh spark plug) in a metal-clad exhibition complex. The show will be held in a large 1970s conference hall. Finding the hall this morning was straight out of Spinal Tap ("where is the stage?"). Last night we were in the city center of Erlangen, in a cool little brutalist theater from the 1960s made of dark wood & poured concrete. The audience was amazing, especially since they normally present classical concerts this theater. The night before we were at Kultfabrik, in a tented hall in the industrial edges of Munich. The concert hall was located in a huge factory complex where noodles were made. The factory turned party complex was very popular during the rave era. I am told that kids would come from all over Germany, in camper vans and party all weekend long. But the heyday of rave parties is over and now the place now looks like an abandoned squat. Making the 3 tons of lighting, audio and instruments fit into these varying spaces is the daily trick. Good thing I work with such an amazing team.

Tags: touring

Cruising into the final show before our break we were feeling confident and relaxed as we set up and sound checked at London's Wembley Arena. We had a nice break before the show time, but hit a nerve wracking speed bump moments before show time. During the change-over following the opening band, we turn on all of our cameras and the large projector that hangs from the front truss. But the projector would not go on- it just sat there emitting no light. I heard Johnny call from Stage Left for the production manager- Oh No! We had a tense meeting on stage and decided that Plan A involved the French lighting technician strapping on his harness and climbing up onto the truss to manually boot up the projector.
Imagine this scene: the audience of 7,500 all worked up from the opening band are standing amongst the empty beer cups waiting for the main act. Then just when they think the show is about the start, this guy starts to climb up the truss ladder and is hanging 30 feet above them in the air. The crowd hushed as they watched Andre climb, I started to bite my nails and thought I might throw up, until a guy in the front row said "Man, I never saw a black Spiderman before". It was a welcomed bit of comic relief in a really tense moment. Despite Andre's best efforts the projector would not turn on and he was called back down. By this time we were holding up the start of the show and everyone was getting anxious about going past the 11:00 curfew if we did not get the show started right away.
On stage Johnny was now consulting with both the Production and Tour Managers. We decided to go with Plan B. They would drop the curtain to start the show, Johnny would stand on the drum riser at the back of the stage with the projector remote and I would start the video show from back stage- with our fingers crossed that it would all work.
The lights went out, I hit play on the mixer and Johnny hit the power on the remote & thankfully everything connected, the projector shot out that magical beam of blue light and we had a show!

Tags: touring

There is a moment each morning when I am unsure what language to use when saying "good morning" to the local crew. Thus far we have been to ten countries and done eleven shows in twenty days. This schedule does not leave much time for site-seeing, but I am trying my best to pay attention to cultural differences from my limited points of view. Today we are in Glasgow and tomorrow Manchester. Here is a map of our travels thus far...

Tags: touring

The story of this venue is that it was built as a Social Hall for the workers of the chemical factory, but over time it became too expensive to upkeep and was sold to the city of Frankfurt for one dollar. What a Sci-fi landscape it must have been in that utopian futureland of domes, plastics and chemicals.
Check out the slide show of this beautiful building, which is surrounded by cornfields and trees.

Tags: touring

Breakfast choices: rhubarb Yogurt or a powdered Union Steak?

The highways in Poland are the worst roads I have ever experienced. We are traveling on a 2 lane road with 18 wheelers covered with tarps and suddenly the road will drop off into the shoulder or a giant pothole. These roads make the BQE look like the Autobahn! All the bus boys are sleeping or watching videos in the back lounge. It is just me and the amazing German drivers, up front listening to Toto & other 80s Rock music. We watch the miles between us and Warsaw disappear into a countryside of cinderblock houses and cabbage fields. There is simply nothing can be done that we are 4 hours late for Load In, the drive from Hannover to Warsaw is simply too long. The transformation from platform to stage takes about 6 hours. Wish us luck - as today we will only have half the time to complete the job.

Tags: touring

OUCH! The Dollar to Euro conversion sucks! 1 Eur = 1.4 Dollars

Tags: touring

Tags: touring

There are some perks to the total disorientation that comes with 24 hours of plane travel, and walking along a lakefront park at 6AM is one of them. Helsinki was almost silent as the sun rose and the park was FULL of bunny rabbits. (Click the image above to start the slideshow)
Tonight, after our first day of production with the new team we will go to the Saunabar. Yes that's right- a bar inside of the sauna.

Tags: touring

Since taking a break from touring several people have asked me what our day-to-day is like. While our experience is not the same for all bands touring, I thought I would paste together some photos from this past month to illustrate what we’re doing out there on the road.

We, the 16 members of the crew, split up onto two busses, ride from venue to venue and often the distances are long (for example crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah- shown above). Usually we are asleep in our bunks while the bus is moving.


We awake at the next destination in time for the 9:00 AM load-in. Our crew is greeted by the local crew, which is comprised 10-20 professional stagehands & “pushers”. They unload the trucks as we search for catering- this is where the coffee & breakfast is. The lighting department gets to work right away, marking the floor with chalk to indicate where the points for the truss will be, while the local riggers climb up into the catwalks. Often at this point we hang our 21’x16’ wide-format FastFold screen. We hang it either from a flying house pipe “upstage” (the back) or on a 40’ truss that the lighting department carries along for us.

While the lighting trusses are positioned and rigged, the sound team hangs their PA system from either side of the stage, customizing its position and configuration for each space. We hang our Christie 12,000 lumen projector from the downstage (front) truss.

During this time we are also setting up our “video world” at upstage right, tucked away off in the wing. Our video world consists primarily of 5 large custom designed cases– containing: a Mac Book Pro, a Mac Pro media server, a Novation Remote Zero midi controller, Grass Valley Indigo AV mixer, 16 LCD monitors of various sizes, a Knox 4X4 matrix router, a JVC hard disk recorder, the joystick controller for the remote cameras (6 tactical cameras & 3 pan-tilt-zoom cameras), a Canon XH-A1 HDV camera, 3x Panasonic 5k lumen projectors, and 5x 3k lumen projectors with moving mirror units attached (used as a video lighting effect). We also have two road cases devoted to cables and various tools and parts.

Around noon, the lighting crew has all the truss in the air, and the backline crew arrive to unpack the instruments, which they consistently arrange for each performer on stage. While this is happening, the lighting and sound designers are tweaking and testing systems. By now we are focusing the projector and cameras (two robotic cameras on the front of the stage, two static viotac cameras on the keyboards and two on the drum kits). Lunch also usually happens around this time- catering is often found in the basement or back hallway of the venue. Sometime we have time after lunch to relax a bit, as the band arrives around at 4:00 PM for sound check. It depends on how well all of the above has gone.


There is a lull in the action after sound check and the crew uses this time to eat dinner, take a nap or work further on set-up. Doors to the venue open around 7pm and the opening bands kick off the evening shortly after. The show for us really gets rolling when the headlining act emerges around 9:30 PM.


We are backstage. Johnny is controlling the live mix and processing with VDMX software (which he created) and I am controlling the live cameras, using a PTZ camera controller, which looks a bit like a video game joystick. My live shots are fed into Johnny’s master mix and he pulls these shots up onto the big screen during moments when the performers are doing solos. Each night the set lasts for 2 hours and we are working the screen for the entire show, alternating between video clips, animation, live real-time effects and the live cameras.
When the show ends around midnight, the Breakdown begins IMMEDIATELY. Breakdown is intense, as the stage is suddenly filled with the local crew (who have been waiting in the wings) and everyone is pulling cables and disassembling and packing everything on stage. Generally I am the first to the front of the stage, as I need grab the robotic cameras. Usually there are fans waiting at the edge of the stage begging for a copy of the set list from that night’s show or hoping for discarded guitar pick or drumstick. But I stay focused on my task, which is to disconnect my cameras’ cables and get them off the stage as quickly as possible. The load-out (pushing the cases and loading them onto the 2 semi trucks) takes 2 hours. One of us from team video must stay and monitor the load-out until every one of our cases are back on the truck. Generally we board the bus around 2:30 AM after taking a shower. While there is a little unwinding to be done when the work is all done, eventually we all head for our bunks as the bus pulls out. We’ll awaken the next morning outside the next venue, and the whole process starts again… “Where’s catering?”

Tags: touring

We are currently on a BREAK
Aug 27- Sept 4 - New York City
Sept 6- Sept 16 - Portland, Oregon
Where we will attend:
Time Based Arts Festival at PICA & The Affair at the Jupiter Art Fair

Wed Sept 26 - Ice Hall - Helsinki, Finland
Fri Sept 28- Hovet - Stockholm, Sweden
Sat Sept 29 - Spectrum - Oslo, Norway
Mon Oct 1- Capitol- Hanover, Germany
Tue Oct 2- Torwar Hall- Warsaw, Poland
Thurs Oct 4 - Lotto Arena - Antwerp, Belgium
Fri Oct 5th - Zenith - Paris, France
Sun Oct 7 - Philipshalle - Dusseldorf, Germany
Mon Oct 8 - Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst - Franfurt, Germany
Tue Oct 9 - Ahoy - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Thu Oct 11- Carling Glasgow Academy- Glasow, UK
Fri Oct 12- Carling Apollo- Manchester, UK
Sat Oct 13- Wembley Arena- London, UK
BREAK - Munich
Sun Oct 21 - Tonhalle - Munich, Germany
Mon Oct 22 - Stadthalle - Eriagen, Germany
Tue Oct 23 - Messe B - Stuttgart, Germany
Thurs Oct 25- Land Rover Arena- Bologna, Italy
Fri Oct 26- Palaottomatica- Roma, Italy
Sat Oct 27- Palasport- Andria, Italy
Mon Oct 29- DatchForum- Milano, Italy
Tue Oct 30- Palasport- Padova, Italy
Wed Oct 31- Eulachhalle- Winterthur, SWI
Fri Nov 9- Newport Centre- Wales, UK
Sat Nov 10- Civic Hall- Wolverhampton, UK
Sun Nov 11- King George's Hall- Blackburn, UK

Tags: touring

THIS PLACE IS HUGE !!

Tags: touring

In Detroit we took this time lapse series to document the Load In process. This particular day was not as dramatic as a Load In that takes place in a big hockey arena, where there is only a big platform in the center of the room when we arrive. But this old theater was a beautiful reminder of Detroit's boom-times . The quicktime movie is a bit like an electronic flipbook. We are planning to take another series this week, which will go from the moment we arrive on-site until the end of the show- almost 12 hours later. As of today, we have 7 days left on the US leg of the tour!

Tags: touring, video

Today we are playing at an outdoor amphitheater in Toronto, which stands in the shadow of the The CN Tower, "Canada's wonder of the world". This tower was built in 1976 and is still the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, although a proposed tower in Dubai is set to surpass it in 2009. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Toronto was a booming 'City of the Future' (much like Dubai today) and the tower was a potent symbol of the strength of Canadian industry. The CV Tower has even been named one of the Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
There are several other significant towers in the world, but Berlin & Seattle have my two favorites. Berlin's TV Tower/ Fernsehturm was built between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic, as a monument to the power of Socialism in Germany. On my 30th birthday, Jdk & I went up there to celebrate while looking down upon the dynamic Alexanderplatz and surrounding Berlin. The Space Needle in Seattle, Washington was built in 1962 for the World's Fair and stands as a reminder of the sci-fi Future City, a vision that looks so retro today.

Tags: touring, utopia, architecture

Crossed the US border to play our first state fairground show in the rain

Tags: touring

When we arrived in Baltimore this morning, I was surprised that it did not look like a set from a John Water’s film. The waterfront area where we are tonight looks more like Boston or Annapolis with mega-shops, restaurants, and sailboats. You know, nice but a little dull. So I found a bookstore and picked up Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery, which claims “Metallica is the “thinking man’s” metal band and the headbanger’s CNN”. Not sure if this Professor of Popular Culture will deliver on bringing me into the fold of Metallica’s music via theory, but I figured that if I was ever going to read this book, being on the road with a metal band was the right time to do it.
We leave the US tonight for Quebec City – Viva La Quebec!
Photo by Bill Worsham, my bus mate from the lighting team

Tags: touring, ideas

The weather here is amazing with a light breeze and sunshine. It feels like a real beach day. We are playing tonight at an outdoor arena along the river and throughout the day Great Lake tankers and tour boats have been passing by the venue. They make me long to live aboard a houseboat- trading in the dirt and grime of the highway for the open seas.

Tags: touring

This photo of us was taken by Andrea Grover, while she was hanging out backstage in Houston.
We arrived in Chicago this morning & since it is a union theater, we had to wait on their guys to set up our gear. This makes for a slow moving morning, but it is much easier on the body. Our video show has been getting better and better each night and we are now using the live cameras throughout the entire show. On occasion we do still miss a cue, but for the most part, I think we are really starting to rock!
Today I learned that artist, Bill Viola designed the video for a Nine Inch Nails tour in early 2000. I hear they produced a DVD of that tour, which I will have to look for. Rolling rolling rolling - we leave for Cleveland tonight and have the day off in Detroit on Sunday!

Tags: video, touring

Today was our first true 'day off' since July 17. Minneapolis seems to be recovering from last week's i-35 tragedy and we had a wonderful day exploring some of the cities finer points. Sadly we did not make it to the Walker Art Center, where last summer we had a personal tour from the curator Yasmil. But Jdk and I did re-visit the 1950s time-warp Nye's Polonaise Room with Piano Bar and Polka Lounge. The golden glittering naugihide booths are the wonderful compliment to the beehived hostess and stuffed cabbage perogi plates.

Tags: touring, travel

Tags: touring, video

Backstage

Front of stage

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We had a great show in Austin and are now heading across Oklahoma on route to Kansas City.

Photo: txtmel8r Assignment #2 was "What does the weather look like?"

Tags: touring

Tags: touring, houston

This morning I woke up and was unsure of what day of the week it was and of what state I was in. I guess the mentality of Rock and Roll tour has fully set in. As we roll back into Texas, I feel welcomed home by that familiar smell of summer rain.

I keep coming back to the scanned copy of Dave Hickey's essay The Delicacy of Rock and Roll from Air Guitar, that I saved to my desktop