The Roadie Show

News
Ex-Google engineers launched the new search engine Cuil www.cuil.com to ho-hum reviews amidst a massive PR release. With it’s slick interface and huge index they may have been expecting more but its poor search results, many have written it off already. You might want to try ask.com for better results which isn’t saying much. To give you an example, a search for the “Best Damn Tech Show” bring up a Wikipedia result in the top spot that links you to a page that doesn’t even exist. Nice one.

Friend of the Tech Show, Ted Stevens the longest serving senator in congress has been brought up on charges (7 counts on failing to disclose - not for being a douce as most people thought). We’ve put together a highlight reel or some of his Tedisms courtesy of Jon Stewart over at our partner broadcaster Comedy Central. http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/07/30/top-5-daily-show-ted-stevens-moments/

Iris on the Virus
Apple gets pie in the face from security researchers over a failure to act on patching serious DNS BIND flaw.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/29/apple_dns_patch_mia/

Schmidt Faced

Response to Gary Vaynerchuck

Rachel’s Soy Sauce - Dishing up the gossip for the gals

IBM facilities hosting 3 week tech camps for gals after hearing of the decline in female tech engineers http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/BUSINESS01/807310312

American Association of University Women Education Foundation is hosting a tech trek camp for 14 year old girl at Stanford University http://www.mercurynews.com/campbell/ci_10036148

Reasons girls should get into tech: hotter more intelligent guys-brain before brawn ladies, you get to travel, go to sweet conferences, meet really interesting people and be a part of the ever changing growing and evolving tech community. the internet is our own little ecosystem plus you get all your drinks for free…trust me, I know! :]

Around the World Wide Web
China had every intention of opening up access to the world but we’ve learned that they’re still at their cencorship game - apparently Best Damn Tech Show, Period is still on that list.

Portugal (cue Euro techno music) has grabbed 500,000 of the latest Intel produced Classmates PC which is a bit of a slap in the face for OLPC

Site of the Week:
www.chrisbrogan.com

Hello Roadieshow friends…

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I know it has been a little while since I posted. The truth is we haven’t been terribly busy with gigs. I guess most tours take a summer break or do festivals. Either way, I end up not working which means I spend way too much time spending my riches and juggling swarms of horny young women. But that’s for another website…

Lately, Rand and I have been putting our creative talents to work at the Best Damn Tech Show, Period. We hope you check that out as well. Thanks!

Below are some pictures and video from gigs Rand and I have worked or attended. I hope you will enjoy.

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Beatles tribute “1964: The Tribute”

King of the blues; BB King

“Doors” drummer John Densmore and his “Tribal Jazz” band

Comic Andrew “Dice” Clay

The “Eagles” during soundcheck at the Wachovia center.

Here I am at the Allen & Heath mixer inside the AT&T Pavilion at the Wachovia center

James Blunt. What a cool looking setup!

Victor Wooten. One of mine and Rand’s favorite musicians.

Joe Jackson

Sometimes our view isn’t so good…

Radiohead. Some of them anyway…

A wide shot of the Radiohead stage

And for you Radiohead fans, here’s a Roadieshow exclusive video I shot of Radiohead performing “Lucky”:
Radiohead \"Lucky\"

Do you hate trimming the weeds and shrubs around your property? So do we! That’s why we invented the Best Damn Shears!

The Best Damn Band puts together another hit song! This song tells the story of a young lad who’s built a pc network that is beyond compare. Friends come calling, videogames begin and all is well. But wait, what happens when the network crashes and the game is over? The young lad learns a valuable lesson about friendship and network stability in our latest tale…

Here’s a few pics taken by Iggs and Rand over the course of our 2008 season.   Let us know what you think!

Deborah Harry, of Blondie fame.  She’s really cool and does a lot of benefit shows.  She’s been hanging around with the band Spiraling a lot lately…  Let’s hope they do something together!

Ladies and Gentleman, REO SPEEDWAGON!!!!  A true rock show, complete with giant drum riser, spotlights, projection screens and two kick drums.  ROCK!

Arlo Guthrie - A Legend.  In Iggs’ words: “A true entertainer and totally cool guy and crew. We look forward to this show every year.”

Henry Fucking Rollins.  You read that right.  He’s the man, just take a look at his promotional poster:

He’s a cool guy, legendary for his appreciation of Roadies.

Sinead O’Conner.  According to Iggs: “One of the best sounding shows all year.”  Check out the size of the hole cut in the kick drum!

Thanks Craigslist!  I answered yet another post and landed a cool gig with a staffing company based out of Washington, D.C.  They sent me to handle Video Assist duties at a 4-day corporate gig in a hotel ballroom.  Early AM start times but easy work and decent pay. Here’s a look at the finished stage:

Here’s a pic of ‘Video World’, where I spent most of my time.  Luckily, it was located backstage:

Trust me, it looks more complicated than it is.  We had two projectors shooting video on two rear-projection screens, two cameras, a small audio system and lots of convention-goers.   There really wasn’t a lot going on, just some basic camera switching and powerpoint presentations.  I met some good contacts, had a few laughs and (most importantly) got the job done.

Recently, a colleague of mine and Rand’s, Susan Miller, was seriously injured on the job. Susan is the house electrician at the DuPont Theater in Wilmington DE. That means she is in charge of all the power distribution for every show that plays there. Rand and I have done many gigs there and know Susan quite well. She is a really cool person. We really want to send her our thoughts and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Be careful out there, friends…

Check out some pics I’ve taken with my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ4.  I’ve had my eye on it for awhile…  Iggs picked up an earlier version last year and he loves it.  Amazon.com offer it for only $200 so I had to grab it!  The last few posts have featured pictures taken with the TZ4, all of which are viewable on my Flickr page.

www.flickr.com

Finally Rand and I are back doing a real rock show. For the past 2 weeks it’s been nothing but dance recitals and corporate gigs. But today we had a full semi and pro production with the return of Gordon Lightfoot. We have done this gig many times before and we know the road crew pretty well. They run a tight ship and that is just the way we like it. They know where everything goes and they know the right way to tell us what we need to know. We have had several hours of downtime today because everything went so smoothly.

Last night I worked at the Wachovia center for the RUSH show. I was working outside with a local band that did the pre-show festivities. But when they were done, I grabbed a sandwich and sat in the press seats to watch Rush. Their rig was amazing but not overbearing, and they sounded better than ever. I didn’t stay for the whole set, however, because the Soul (arena football) was playing in the Spectrum and Jimmy Buffett was rocking Citizens Bank Park across the street. Madness! I wanted to get out of there before the entire South Philly area was besieged by drunks.

Lots of cool shows coming up! Boy George, Kenny G, Brian Setzer, Coldplay, Radiohead, etc…
Stay tuned!!!

Man, it’s hot outside… Iggs and I have been in full summer mode! We’re doing a lot of dance recitals, graduations, festivals and ethnic events. If you’re into 7 year old’s doing ballet to the story of Alice In Wonderland then you need to come chill with us this month. Lots of kids dressed as animals…

One rock-ish show we’ve done lately was John Densmore’s Tribal Jazz. John Densmore is the drummer from The Doors - and a really nice guy. He seems to have lived a happy life on a beach in California, thriving in a world filled with meditation, drum circles and alternative medicines. He walked into the theatre in sandals and a white cotton smock-like outfit, wearing a gigantic smile. The one thing he didn’t have with him, however, was a drum kit.

No Problem!

It was actually already known that he would need a rented kit. The odd thing was he had no preference as to what kind! Most drummers that rent gear are VERY specific about the gear they play on. We often have a backup kit with a variety of different sized toms and cymbals to choose from. He loved the kit we had rented for him but still needed one thing - drumsticks! Luckily we had a pile of used sticks that were left behind. After picking his favorite pair he got the band together and started jamming. He put on a great show, I recommend checking out Tribal Jazz.

Time to get some rest, working with Gordon Lightfoot, Boz Scaggs and a slew of dancers this week! What a crazy job we have…