Show Day in St. Paul

Ah, finally, back in the US. The border crossing last night went a lot smother than expected. A nice fellow in his 50's came up on the bus, and all he wanted to do was match a face with each one of the passports that the driver was holding. So he stands in the hallway, calling out names. Guys wake up, stick their heads out of their bunks, he says OK, and then it's back to sleep.

Well, except for me. I had to get up and call the tour manager to let him know that we'd gotten through OK. Then I crawled back into my cave.

Arrive at the venue around 10am. JT, our production assistant, is not here today. She went home to her 10-year high school class reunion. I'm hating it, because I'll probably have to do most of her work today. But I’m glad she got a chance to go.

Mark Wise, our head of venue security, usually sits next to, and works closely throughout the day with JT. And he's her roommate back home in St. Louis, so he's doing double duty today covering for her. All I have to do is deal with the runner floats and the aftershow food, in addition to my regular stuff. No sweat.

Got an email yesterday and a phone call today about a potential next gig. System's going down for the count after our October 12th show in Las Vegas. They won't be touring again until May – not good for my income stream if ya know what I mean.

So anyway, I'm in the running for the tour accounting gig with Bon Jovi. Their tour starts November 2nd. I don't really like working that time of year, but hey, it's a good gig. They lost their tour accountant to the Stones tour. He'd been with them for 8 years, I'm told. I got the call from the band's business manager, who is also Clay Aiken's BM. I worked for Clay last year and they liked my work. Needless to say I’m flattered. We'll see how it pans out. Hope I didn't jinx it by mentioning it…

When I go out to watch our first 2 songs, I run into Tekumi, Prince's guitar tech. I met him years ago when he worked for Corrosion of Conformity, our Raleigh metal homeboys. He's hanging out at front of house with a friend. I spend a few minutes getting caught up with him, and then watch my 2 songs and head back to work.

Bus rolls around 2am. 809 miles to go for a day off in Columbus. Thinking about going to see the Stones. They're in our building tomorrow night and we've got the night off.

Hmmmmm…

In my bunk by 2:30.