Show Day in Pensacola

Man, talk about a day with nothing to talk about…

Stay busy all day. Every Monday is what we call Saint PD's Day, the day I give everyone (band & crew) their per diems. I've also got a mountain of receipts to process and several settlement packages to tidy up for submission to the band's business manager.

Abby finally shows up around 5 in the afternoon. Hangs out with me in my office for a while. We have dinner together, then she goes to find Shant (band assistant) to see if any of the band's wardrobe might need in repairs or maintenance work.

Just before System goes on, I walk her out to the front of house mix position. We take up spots on the LD's riser – the best place in the house to see the show from. You can see everything over the tops of the heads of people on the floor, and the volume is incredible. From there, you're about 15 feet behind Pooch (the band's FOH engineer), and Pooch has the sweet spot going right about there.

After a few songs I head back to the office – the promoter should be coming to do settlement with me soon.

Setttlement's a piece of cake. Pack my stuff and hang out with Abby. Shant, Hamps and Sevag all wander into my office to hang out. Daron (guitar player) shows up a few minutes later. 30 minutes later we've all about busted a gut from laughing so much. These guys are just so fucking funny!

We used to have a lot more good times like this before the band got really big – just hanging out and cutting up. When I started with System in late 2001, there were only 4 band guys and 10 crew guys total. Now it's the 4 band guys and a crew of over 30, not counting the 6 truck drivers and 4 bus drivers (soon to be 6 bus drivers). And of course now there's the private jet…

We've got to try to get out early tonight. We've got 450 miles to go for tomorrow's show in Orlando. We normally load in at 8am, but we won't be leaving here until around 1 or 1:30am tonight. Plus there's a one hour time change working against us. The good news is I'll be able to get about 6 hours sleep tonight (I hope).

On the bus by 1, we're out by 1:15 or so.

G'night!

Follow the Bobzilla's Photos link at the right to see photos from my travels.