Engineer99

Ok, so i broke out the box and toasted one up. very nice, with a little bitterness that will dissipate once they lose a little moisture, but other than that, a fantastic smoke that I think will have legs for many years to come.

Funnily enough, I was looking to replenish the desktop and thought I'd dive into my Punch boxes to see what I had. In the cooler closest to me, I happened to have all my Punch....5 boxes of Punch Punch, and a box of DC's. The oldest PP is a SEP 16 box, but with a factory code of LAU. Might take out a fiver to see how they're doing.

You're not the boss of me, I'm a NASCAR fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YMmX1f5sQI I forgot how to do this so that the video just shows up. wait a sec....I remember now.

Rolling Stones are in town at Levi's stadium on the penultimate show of this year's tour. As usual, I was on the steel call to build the stage... Very early on... Day 2...The view from where lunch was served, on the main concourse behind the stage....Two of the four video wall towers are done and the other two are about to be placed. Coming back from lunch on production day, and it's pretty much done... .

I've had several meatless burger/sausage things over the years... the good ones are fine and tasty on their own for what they are as a sort of sideshow and novelty to be tried once in a while when you're wasted on dirty martinis and at a friends place and nobody can drive to the nearest 24 hour fast food drive in, and all they have in the freezer is some soy patty abomination. They'll never sub for the real thing though.

The last gig in a busy, but lucrative week that included a medical conference at the convention center, a filipino tv show at the SAP arena and to round out the week, the Backstreet Boys, also at the arena very next mornning after three hours of sleep. The view from my usual break spot...stage is built on the right ready to roll into place once the rest of lighting, sound, and a massive video wall get built. I was more than glad to take the early cut to go home and take a nap...There's a few more hours of work until it's ready, and the crews that rolled in later on in the morning will finish it up...I used to hoover every hour and dollar I could wrest from every gig, but the more I work, I don't have to stress about money that much and my time sometimes is just as valuable as a few more hours on the job. Some detail from one of the roadies workboxes...

Keep in mind that this is one of 4 stages....The headline talent is upstairs on the main stages in the parking lot. The pics you're seeing are solely of my assignment in the amphitheater with up and coming new bands. Attendance downstairs waxed and waned; There might be a few thousand with certain bands that had rabid followings; like this Japanese band that I thought would be some insane chaotic noise rock but turned out to be a Japanese Emo AFI clone with a rabid following, and next to none for some up and comers. The point of having the split stage with one band immediately starting after the previous one finished was to showcase as many bands as possible that appeal to the Vans Warped Crowd. 14 bands a day. These bands are barely used to playing in clubs, then touring in a smelly van and are grateful to play to whoever glances at the itinerary and decided to watch them.

Time of the year for Vans Warped tour...Three stages set up in the parking lot and one downstairs in the Amphitheater where I was. After a day setting up sound the day before. No lights, since it takes place during the day, and no video because, well, it's punk rock...Stage is split in half, with one band playing a set while the next band sets up on the other half. Just a couple of pics from my vantage point...Long days, the crew rolls in at 8am to load in bands arriving and set up the first few bands, One band finishes, and the next one immediately starts. 14 bands per day, with each of them doing a 40 minute set. The first night I was out of there at 9pm, but the second night, we had to load out sound, so we were there till 11pm.

Third massive show in a week...Hugh Jackman's tour rolled through town. One of the biggest stages I've seen in the arena in the last 5 years...or so it seemed. It took a long time to build, and had to be built in 3 sections on the opposite side of the arena before lighting, video and sound are flown. They normally start load in at 7AM to get everything in place in time for soundcheck and rehearsal, but since it was a back to back show, and they were coming from San Diego, about 450 miles south of here, and with the late load out, they rolled into town around 10AM. We still got it up in ample time for bugs to be ironed out and a decent rehearsal...yay team!

Another classic rock band rolls through town....Frickin Queen! This is the only pic I managed since there was some weird scheduling and I was only there in the early hours to unload trucks, all 22 of them, and get stuff where it needed to be. My shift was cut before the whole thing was finished, and I'm fine with that, because sometimes having free time at certain points in the day and/or week is worth not taking the gig, however cool it is. There was point where the entire arena floor was covered in cases, racks of staging, rigging gear, speakers, lights, risers, the crazy expensive VIP section....At this point, 7 hours in, there's still a lot of stage to be built, more video and lights to be placed, and sound is just getting started.

Paul McCartney's tour landed in San Jose and it was an unusual build. Most tours load in in 5 hours, at max 8, and the show happens that night, but on this stop, we did a 7 hour load in on the 9th, show and load out last night, the 10th. I think it was because they have a run of stadium shows after this one and stuff had to be re jiggered and loaded differently for the additional gear that's needed for a stadium. Early on before most of lighting and video is built, and the stage is being built at the far end of the arena to be rolled in after lights and video fly out... One of the "see thru" video walls. Pretty much just low res led panels that run patterns and eye candy. A view of the almost finished production from front of house...

Been out for a while physically, but even longer mentally....I had no idea that the events that transpired last November would impact me this far out, but here I am. Jeff Lynne's ELO made a second pass at the Bay Area and I worked the show in San Jose... This is after all lighting, video, and sound is flown, right before the stage rolls into place. Since I'm a gear junkie, I present the most awesomely wired drive/amp rack I've ever seen....This powers exactly one half of the arena sound, and there's an identical one on the other side. It's like the studios in LA I've done wiring for where every cable is only as long as it needs to me and ergonomically run to maximize air flow so the amps can run more efficiently. I've seen other sound drive systems on major tours that were a complete disaster and total mess. The final setup from the Front of House mix position.

Another 70's soaked band

More 70's cnanneling...I hear some Springsteen, Zappa, Steely Dan, and maybe a little Rundgren....

Channeling some 70's Glam...

I've inadvertently added to by bass guitar collection a few times with the rationale that "Wow, what a great price and killer condition for a 40 year old instrument with the original hard case, and I already have this one, but not in this color and finish".

Continued from my last post... The finished steel build of the stage before production rolls in the next day. We built it in two 9 hour days. They have three complete builds of this leapfrogging from date to date with production gear right behind. The river of feeder cable from the generators and stadium power to run everything... A view from the back of the stadium day of show on my way to lunch... And finally...a bad shot of my brief visit to the side of the stage before getting bored after a minute and returning backstage where I counted the seconds to when I could leave for the night and get some sleep before the rest of the load out the next morning.

Not really a "sitcom" per se, but the humor abounds...

Day one of the steel build for Jay-Z and Beyonce's On The Run ll tour at Levi's stadium in Santa Clara. The day before, a bunch of us spent 14 hours installing 88,000 square feet of Terraplast to cover the entire field. Steel build day 2 is tomorrow....

Interesting week...Corporate stuff on Tuesday...a thing Ocullus is doing at the convention center. Lauren Hill at Shoreline Amphitheater on Wednesday,,,The guitar player had a pretty cool pedalboard setup Last night was a Mexicah show at the arena. Some goofing off while the shark head was going in for a San Jose Sharks game the next night...