End Of The Line (For Now...)

OK, it looks like I'm home until February. I think my home life is a little too boring to write about, so I guess the blog entries are gonna slow down at this point.

Hang in there, and check back from time to time...

Day Off at Home

Nice little hangover when I wake up at 9. Lots to do before football starts. Lots of catching up, that is. Haven't finished Friday's paper, or started yesterday's, much less today's.

I also have to watch the race I Tivo'ed last night while we were at the show.

I'm couching it all day and all night. The only time I open the door is to grab the paper.

Day Off at Home

Work, work, work.

Blah, blah, blah.

Go to Walnut Creek with Paige, Chris Sheridan and his girl Natasha for the Def Leppard/Bryan Adams concert. Got my tickets through Aidan, on of DF's guitar techs.

Second row, pretty much dead center. Couldn't ask for better seats. We hang out on the midway for a while, then get to our seats just as Bryan Adams is hitting the stage. He puts on one of the best performances I've seen in years. Def Leppard is just as good, maybe better. Definitely louder.

Home around 1:30.

Day Off at Home

Up at 10. Lots to do to finish the paperwork for the tour. I'll probably be working on it until Monday or Tuesday.

Take a break to run to the grocery store. Not a stick of food in the house.

Pick Paige and we go meet Foy & Terry Beal for dinner and beers at the Ale House. After I take Paige home, I meet the Beal's at Northside Billiards for a few more beers. Head home around midnight.

Travel Day Home

Sleep in until 9am. My flight's at 1:30, so no rush. Run downstairs for a Starbucks and a scone.

Check out around 11 and grab a cab to the airport. Nothing to report on either flight – I change in Dallas.

Home just after midnight. I'm still on west coast time, so I don’t get to bed until around 3:30am.

Show Day in Las Vegas

Happy Birthday, Sherry Willey!

This is it. Last day of the tour. Flying home tomorrow, and unemployed on Friday.

How fitting – my first show ever with System of a Down a few years ago was at The Joint at The Hard Rock here in Las Vegas. Tonight, for what I expect to be my last show ever with System, we're at The Joint. Strange, or what?

Grab everybody's keys around 9:30 and drop them on the buses. I clean out my bunk (earplugs, eyeglasses case, windbreaker, spare hat, and paperback), throw it all into my suitcase, and then head up to my room to grab a shower. We're loading in at 11.

Hit the Starbucks in the lobby on the way back.

Busy day, all day. Don't see even a minute of the show.

Goodbyes all around after load-out. A few folks are going to the Double Down, which is a really crappy (so crappy it's cool) bar down the street. When drinking there, you can buy puke insurance, which guarantees that they'll clean up your vomit if you hurl from overindulging. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I pass on all the partying and head up to my room to get a good night's sleep before flying home tomorrow.

Show Day in Fresno

Today we're playing at Save Mart Arena in Fresno. This will be the last day that our caterers are on the tour. We don't need them tomorrow in Vegas. We'll be eating in the employee's cafeteria at the Hard Rock.

All I do is work today. No good stories. Dammit!

Tonight's our last night on the bus. I'll miss it.

Day Off in Fresno

I wake up in my bunk just before 9am, trying to figure out what the hell the bus driver's doing. He's stopping, starting, turning this way and that way. WTF? Is he lost, or driving around in a parking lot?

Turned out to be a detour between the highway and the downtown area. I can sleep fine on the open highway, but once the bus hits traffic and/or stoplights, sleep's over.

We pull up to the hotel at 9:30. I get everybody's keys distributed – I'm free.

Turns out that Clancy (driver of Crew Bus 2), had an owl dive into his windshield about 30 minutes after leaving the gig last night. Damn bird shattered it. I told him it was a Tactical Strike by Owl Queda. Ha!

I take Kenny (my driver) and Clancy down the street to "Country Waffles" for breakfast. After that, I take off in search of the closest Starbucks. It's about ½ mile away. Sit there and read the paper.

On the way back to the hotel, I find a pretty cool old man bar, but I doubt I'll be up for it tonight. Time for some hang time in the room. There's a great recliner by the window, so I sit and read and listen to music for most of the afternoon.

After a late afternoon shower, I head out to the bus to watch baseball and football on the widescreen TV on the bus. Back to my room and in bed by midnight.

Show Day in Sacramento

Up early again. Building's open, so I grab a shower and I’m ready to go by 9:00. Problem is, load-in's not until 10. D'oh!

Football, football, football today. It's the last shot I have at winning our weekly pool.

Work hard and fast so I can go out to the bus to watch the Panther's game at 1:00am. They win. Back to work.

Normal night. I no longer watch the band.

Got a great photo of our tour manager, Mike Amato, in the Tour Management and Accounting Office. Mike and I usually share an office, but today there's only room for him…



Pack my crap after the show, surf the web, head to the bus.

Tonight we're having our end of the tour party in the parking lot. We order about 6 cases of beer, a bunch of liquor, and tons of pizza and wings. Fire up the blenders and it's a party! I was gonna skip it and get a good night's sleep, but cave in and hang out. Three or four beers into it, I realize it's nearly 3:30. Time for my tired old ass to go to sleep. Don't want to spend my day off sleeping.

Show Day in Oakland

Up at 7:30, make it to Starbuck's by 8. Read the entire paper sitting outside there, then head back to shower and do the checkout. Bus call at 11:30…

Today's show is at the old Oakland Coliseum, now called the Oakland Arena. Should be about 10,000 kids tonight. The Metallica guys are coming to the show, and at least one of the Deftones will be here, too.

I never venture outside the building once we get there. Around 7:30, Jason Newsted (Metallica ex-bass player) comes into production and hangs out for a while. Kirk Hammett's hanging around outside the door in the hallway. Lars Ulrich is here with his girlfriend Connie Nielsen, the actress.

Abe Cunningham, the drummer from the Deftones (who I also work for), comes in to hang out and gives me an update of the timeline for the band's new record and upcoming tour. No time soon! Won't be touring before April or May…

I don't watch any of the show. Work all the way through it. Head to the bus around 1:15. Only 100 miles to drive tonight to Sacramento for tomorrow's show.

Three shows to go – Sacto, Fresno and Vegas. Flying home on Thursday. Yay!

Day Off in Oakland

A few high-speed corners coming down out of the mountains are all it takes to get me up around 7:30.

I go sit up front with the driver and read my USA Today and my Portland local paper from yesterday. Never had time to read them yesterday, but I've got at least 4 hours to kill before we get to the hotel…

Take a couple of shots going down the road. First was the cool lake…



And here's what it looks like most of the time when I'm sitting up front…



We pull in around 12:30. It takes me until 2 to get everyone into their rooms. This hotel just isn't very "group savvy", it seems.

Head off to Starbucks. Sit outside and read for a while, then head back to my room for a shower. Next thing I know it's 7 o'clock and I’m just not feeling like going out tonight.

Walk across the street for some Chinese food and bring it back to my room. Lay around watching TV, falling asleep during the 11 o'clock news. Wake up around midnight and crawl into bed.

Show Day in Portland

Man, I have NO IDEA what's up with these people around here!

I mean, really, have you ever seen a frosted doughnut with Fruit Loops, or Capt. Crunch with Crunchberries, or crushed Oreo's on it? That's crazy, just crazy.





The coolest one, though, was the one I had for breakfast. Regular doughnut with chocolate frosting, sprinkled liberally with Rice Krispies, then drizzled with peanut butter. Can you say over the top? Shoulda took a picture of THAT one – it definitely belonged in the Doughnut Hall of Fame!

One of our runners today is Heather, who's been my runner at least 7-8 times over the past 6 or so years. Seems that every woman I've ever met here was a stripper or an ex-stripper, and Heather's no exception. She's not dancing these days, though, she's studying to be a mid-wife.

I can tell that the tour is definitely winding down. Everyone seems to have an attitude shift in the works. Me, too, I guess.

Found out this afternoon that I didn't get the Bon Jovi gig. The band's business manager told me that the "powers that be" chose a teabag. Evidently this fellow had been recommended to management by the previous tour accountant. Oh, well.

I'm still up for the Lenny gig. Got the schedule today. All the dates are with Aerosmith. Starting October 30th, and running until just before Christmas. Not sure what their plans are after that.

AND… I'm not sure if I care about getting a gig right now. This is my favorite time of year to be at home. I really dig autumn and winter in N.C.

We're leaving early tonight, hopefully around 1:15 or 1:30. We've got a 650 mile drive overnight to Oakland for a day off. Should arrive at the hotel around noon or 1pm. This will be our next-to-last day off.

After the show, I do some blogging, then head out to the bus around 1. I'll read 15 or 20 pages and then out…

Show Day in Seattle

Today we're playing Key Arena, which is located in downtown Seattle in a funky location about 300 yards from the Space Needle. At the base of the Needle is a cute little "amusement park" area, but it doesn't seem to be open today.






Lots of bohemian flavor in this area. I see lots of strange-acting folks here. One guy repeatedly tells me that it's 5:05 and he HATES 5:05. He had been walking past me, and stopped to say it to me over and over and over.

Then I watched a guy who was obviously not all there push his 2 shopping carts around. It took him about 8-10 minutes to cross the street with them, including stopping in the middle of the street to arrange, and then rearrange the carts, for about 5 minutes. When he decided he had them just right, he continued to the other side. All the while, people drove around him with the most confused looks on their faces. Poor guy, it made me wonder what his story was and who on earth was looking out for him. Seeing people suffer like that really gets to me.

Sat on the bus to see tonight's episode of Lost at 6pm. It's on the NYC ABC affiliate, on our bus' DirectTV system.

On the way back in, I pass Kim Thayil in the hallway right outside my office, who says hello. Chat with him for a moment, nice guy. He was the guitarist in Soundgarden a few years ago.

The tour's winding down. Only 5 more shows after tonight.

Got another nibble on a potential gig this afternoon. Janet, our production assistant, is doing the Lenny Kravitz tour, which starts later this month. She mentioned my availability to LK's production manager, who immediately asked for my resume. Cool! If I don’t get Bon Jovi, this will do just fine. He's gonna be out opening for Aerosmith for a while.

Out to my bunk around 1am. 200 miles to Portland for tomorrow's show.

Day Off in Seattle

What a great day off. You just KNOW where I was at 8:15 this morning. There are 5 Starbucks locations within 2 blocks of my hotel. Also a mall on the next block, where I had a Johnny Rocket's veggie burger for lunch. Did a little window shopping, and spent the rest of the day reading – newspapers, magazines, my book.

Had Subway for dinner in my room. First Subway meal of the tour. Watched some TV, surfed the web some. In bed around midnight.

Travel Day to Seattle

We left Denver last night at 2am. I'm up at 8, and take my preferred seat up front with the driver. Read yesterday's paper to kill some time.

Faces from the back of the bus begin to appear around 11:30. We hit the Flying J Truckstop for a group crap. Geez, that sounds strange. I grab a USA Today and a local paper – you know, for the comics.

Since leaving Denver last night, we've driven through Colorado and Wyoming. We're currently in Utah, and will continue on through Idaho, Oregon, and finally into Washington. Total mileage on this trip is 1335 miles, according to the bus driver's GPS system.

We stop again around 3pm at another Flying J, not far from the Oregon border. The drivers have to pick up the Oregon Fuel Permits, which they have ordered via phone today and had faxed to the "J".

Both buses dump personnel into the truckstop for junk food and a leg stretch, then we're off again.

Here's a few photos of the sights I take in through the windshield during the day..











One last stop at a scenic overlook somewhere in Oregon gives me these shots...







Looks like we're ahead of schedule. We should be arriving at the hotel around 10 tonight, making this only a 21 hour bus ride.

Watch the Panthers game up until the time we arrive at the hotel. They won, but I lost the pool because of the tiebreaker parameters. I did, however, when a $50 side bet with the drum tech. Yay!

Up to my room for a shower. Not going out, just hanging in the room…

Show Day in Denver

I love this hotel. We're at the Marriott in downtown Denver. There's a Starbucks in the lobby, another one directly across the street, and yet another down on the corner. These fuckers are completely jacked up around here. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ridiculously high usage of crystal meth in this area. That being Denver and Colorado Springs.

Matter of fact, the last time I did any of that crap was here in Denver 12 years ago on a Cry of Love tour. Me and James and a couple of chicks were up all night blasting that crap and playing cards. Never slept, and we had to drive down to the Springs the next day to load in at the Gold Rush. We drew straws to see who was gonna have to drive the truck because we were both completely wrecked. I lost. Sucky day, I tell ya. And long, too.

Don't know why I brought that up. Maybe because there's nothing much to say about today.

I sat and read the morning paper at Starbuck's for an hour, then got ready for bus call.

Football and racing today. I've got my own room and a TV. Kickass! And by the end of the night, I'm right near the top of our football pool - might win this week's pot, which is $260. Carolina's gotta win tomorrow night, and then I'm tied with 7 other people to win. At that point it'll come down to the tiebreaker. Cross your fingers for me.

Here's some photos I took tonight…










Leaving tonight at 2am. We have something like 1350 or 1400 miles to go to get to Seattle. Should arrive tomorrow night around midnight if the driver can do it in one shot. Sure hope so…

Day Off in Denver

Wake up at 8am to a new month. Fall and winter are by far my favorite seasons. I would like nothing better than to see some snow before I get home, but it's still a little early in the season.

Gonna be a long day on the bus. Because of my guests yesterday, I never got around to reading the paper, so that'll help me kill a couple of hours.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, we're still about 250 miles from Denver. Our internet connection on the bus seems to be on the fritz for some reason, so I can't get on and check email.

Finally get a connection 20 minutes from the hotel. Figures…

In my room right at 5:30. I have a couple of invitations to join a couple of different gangs going to dinner here, but I'm thinking I might just hang out in my room tonight. After 16 hours on the bus with people, I'm ready for some alone time. We'll see.

After showering and working for a while, I walk down to the bus around 8:30 to grab a beer. Sean Bates (set carpenter) is sitting nearby yakking on the phone. He's bored, so I suggest we go grab a bite and a beer.

We walk around for a while, then decide on a very busy restaurant with a huge patio. It's a beautiful night, and the restaurant's on a very busy pedestrian mall, so it'll be good for people watching, too.

Our waitress is completely insane. Totally out of her mind with personality. She spends the next 90 minutes fawning over us. We're drinking like madmen – me, Buds, and Sean, his Corona's and Jager shots. Even better, they have Bud in a CAN! Doesn't get much better than that. The food's not bad either. I have a tuna steak with some sort of Asian glaze on it.

I wind up trading 4 tickets to our show tomorrow night to Sandra (the waitress), in exchange for our bill. Cool!

We finally walk our drunk asses back to the hotel around 11:30…

Show Day in Chicago

Wow! I don't think I've ever spent 9 hours in a bunk. I'm usually only good for about 5-6 hours max. Musta really needed some sleep.

I step off the bus to scope out the lay of the land and suddenly an airliner buzzes right over me, maybe 100-125 feet up, LOUD AS HELL! We're right under the approach path to one of the runways at O'Hare, which is right across the street. Jets continue to buzz us every minute or so for the next 12 hours.

Today we're at the Allstate Arena, in Rosemont, IL, a Chicago suburb. There's a Target right next door. Might have to do a little shopping later.

Still have 2 hours before load-in, so I wander inside and find a shower. I want to make sure I'm all caught up on work early in the day because I have several guests coming out today.

My "daughter" Evie's coming to visit, and she'll be working here today, too. She's a massage therapist and will be on call to take care of touring personnel throughout the day.

Also, my buddy Dan's coming out to see the show. He plays guitar in the band Disturbed. I worked for them back in 2001 and we still keep in touch. They just released a new CD Tuesday a week ago and right now it's the number one best seller in the U.S.

Evie shows up mid-morning, sets up her massage space, and I get to spend some time catching up with her world.

Her old running buddy Kim shows up around noon to spend the day also.

Dan and his posse show up during Mars Volta's set, and so does the entire gang from Anthrax. They have the night off and are opening up tomorrow night for Judas Priest, 90 miles away in Milwaukee. We got us a whole mess of rockstars backstage tonight.

Watch a few songs from out front with Evie and Kim, then head back to settle the show. This will be the last night of the tour that the band will make any overage money. The rest of the shows aren't selling well enough for us to make any backend, so my job gets a little easier from here on out.

After the show, Evie and Kim come hang out with me in the office until a little after 1:30am. Then it's out to the parking lot for goodbyes.

We've got over 1000 miles to drive tonight to get to Denver for our day off. We won't get there until around 6pm, so really it'll just be a night off.

I crawl into bunkyland and read a few pages. Lights out around 3…

Show Day in Detroit

Up at 8. Load-in's not until 10am. I head in and check out the building.

We're at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, home of the Red Wings.

Hockey - don’t get it. Never will. You throw a punch in any other sport and you get your ass thrown out of the game. Oh, well, different strokes for different folks.



Right next door is Cobo Hall, where Kiss Alive (their first live album) was recorded. Sort of – the show was taped, but they pretty much overdubbed everything afterwards.

The Joe, as it's known, sits on the Detroit River. Just across the water from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The river…







Saw some birds out by the boardwalk, so I went to my bus and grabbed all the stale bread out of the cabinet to feed it to them…



Here's Mark Wise, our venue security director. Wonder how clean he gets his ears when using a sharpie?



After the show, I'm badly in need of sleep. I pack as fast as possible and head to the bus, in hopes of getting to bed early. Crawl into my bunk just before midnight, read 20 pages of my book, and out I go…

Show Day in Grand Rapids

Up at 8. After checkout, I head to Starbucks for a drink, then walk to the venue. The video shoot is scheduled for 12:00 to 4:30 today. They will also shoot one song during the show.

Pretty much caught up on work, so today's gonna be an easy one…

I have a TV in my office today. ABC's showing last week's season premiere of Lost at 8, followed by this week's episode. I manage to watch both, so of course now I'm sucked into the show for the next episode. Rats!

Bored out of my mind by 12:15 after the show, Might go get in my bunk early tonight and start my book…

Day Off in Grand Rapids

…or so I thought.

Woke up at 7am because Kenny (the bus driver) was stuck in standstill traffic on the interstate traffic. Still about 40 minutes from the hotel, but I get dressed and sit down front with him.

As we get close, we pass the other 2 crew drivers walking down the street towards the hotel. They have evidently parked their buses at the venue and walked the 3 blocks back towards the hotel.

We pull into the hotel around 7:45.

Good news! Starbucks connected to the hotel.

Bad news! I've got to check everyone in, wake up everyone on my bus and toss them off, and then ride the bus over to the venue to deliver room keys to the other 2 crew buses, then walk back to the hotel. Before I do all that, I run my bag up to my room. Here's the early morning view out my window…



That's the Grand River. It's so shallow through here that there are 2 guys in waders standing in the middle of the river fishing. Sorry, you can't see them in this photo.

I wind up walking around town a bit to see where stuff is, and then go straight to the Starbucks. Today's their grand opening. I grab a drink and a scone, then sit and read the paper for a while.

Back to my room for a shower, then walk over to the venue around 11:30. I don't need to be here today, but I figure I'll get ahead on some work stuff.

Head back to the hotel around 8, spend a few minutes in the room, then head across the street to Z's. Gonna meet some crew guys and the promoter there for bites and brews.

About a million beers later, around midnight, I head back to my room. In bead around 1am.

Show Day in Cleveland

Wake up on the bus around 7:45. We're parked up at the venue, which is outdoors today. The venue is called the Tower City Amphitheatre and it has a kinda Euro vibe to it. It's a big tent, open at both ends, with trailers for production offices and dressing rooms located behind the stage.



It reminds me of the Oktoberfest tents in Germany. Especially the interior...



More venue photos HERE.

I spend some time walking around outside the venue. It's in an area called The Flats. You might have seen the neighborhood on the intro to the Drew Carey show a couple of years ago. Read more about the flats HERE.

The venue itself is situated on a crook in the Cuyahoga River. It's called Collision Bend. This is what it looks like from catering…



This is the only part of the river wide enough for tankers to turn around in. But the current is flowing so quickly that it can shove a ship into the riverbank's you see in the picture above. Hence, the name...

Here's how nasty the river is, right next to catering…



No wonder it stinks.

Way cool drawbridge nearby has been out of service for years. There's talk that someone may actually build a restaurant up on top of this damn thing. Crazy…



Beautiful sunset today. I missed the best part of it, but did get to see this much…



Didn't see any of the show tonight. Settled with the promoter, then websurfed and blogged until around 1:30am.

300 miles to go tonight for a day off tomorrow in Grand Rapids, MI. Day off for me, that is. The crew has to load-in tomorrow for the next day's show. That show's being filmed for video footage and the video crew needs to sort out all of the camera placement, lighting and such before show day.

Me, I'll be relaxing in my hotel room…

Show Day in Columbus

What a great day it's been. Up around 8am. Putz around, check email, shower, and then head out to the Starbucks 2 blocks away.

Sit there for over 90 minutes – me, the Pumpkin Spice Latte (highly recommend you try one), the Pumpkin Muffin, and the Sunday Columbus Dispatch.

We've got a late load-in today, because the Stones' load-out was supposed to go until sometime between 4 and 5am. So my bus won't leave the hotel to head over until 12:30pm. The downside of that is it cuts my workday down by a couple of hours.

I start slammin' as soon as I get there and get enough done early enough that I go watch the second half of the Panthers game. Also get to see the last 60 laps of the Dover race.

My old buddy Dave Watson, our Columbia Records rep in this area, comes by. I've known Dave over 12 years now – he was our guy when I worked for Cry of Love. Had a lot of really great times with him back then. He's got the "Roadie For A Day" contest winner with him. No telling what sorta crap our guys will have the poor fellow doing today.

Catch the season premiere of Desperate Housewives out on the bus. That shit is so funny. Our 2 merch dudes are sitting on the bus working when I come out. They're forced to watch it, too. By the time they're showing previews of next week's episode, Tim is cursing me – he's hooked. Ha!

Didn't see any of the show today. Never even walked out to see what the room looked like.

After settlement, I wrap up some work and do some blogging.

Short drive tonight, just 150 miles to Cleveland. Should get some good rest in my cold, dark cave while the bus is sitting still at the Cleveland venue.

Out…

Day Off in Columbus

Wake up at 7am because the driver kills the main engine, which shuts down the A/C, so he can fuel up at the truckstop. Thirty seconds later, he fires up the generator and turns on the secondary A/C unit, so we don't roast in our bunks. He switches so the main unit won't suck up the diesel fumes and throw them into our bunks.

I get back to sleep, and finally wake up around 8:30. Long way to go yet to Columbus. Thankfully, all the retards will be asleep for some time to come. We've stopped so one of the other bus drivers can get food. We're at a McDonald's – ugh! I go in search of a USA Today from yesterday, because I never got one or had time to read it anyway.

Read the paper up front with the driver. First retard up has to take a crap.

Figures.

It's that time of day where if the driver stops again, other people will wake up from the motion, they too will have to crap, and the next thing you know, we'll lose 45 minutes at the damn truckstop.

Sure as hell that's what happens…

We finally get to the hotel around 4:45pm. Now we have a night off, not a day off.

I decide to not go see the Stones. I want to SAY I went to see it more than I want to see it.

On the way in to the hotel's 'hood, we pass the Ruckmoor Pub, and The Winking Lizard Tavern. Hmmm, Winking Lizard, what do you think that's a reference to?

Might have to bag my other plan, which was to go to the Rusty Bucket Tavern.

Up to the room for some blogging and a shower.

While I'm in the shower, I get a couple of phone calls. Hmmm, who can that be?

Call around to my usual gang of dinner and beer pals. Somebody's managed to get some tickets to see the Stones. Wonder if that's what those calls were about. Oh well, better that someone who WANTS to see the show goes to it than my jaded ass.

Never connected with anyone by the time I'm ready to go out, so I head up towards the main road. The plan: one beer at the Ruckmoor Pub, one beer at the Winking Lizard, then a sushi dinner and back to the hotel.

Walk into the Ruckmoor and spot Eddie Kercher (production manager) sitting on a corner stool, talking to a couple. Grab a beer and hang out with them for a while.

The Ruckmoor is my new favorite bar in Columbus. Bud in the can is $1.75, the jukebox is amazing (more on that in a minute), and I'm one of the youngest people in the joint.

The jukebox is some new-fangled doodad that has an internet connection. You buy credits and either spend 1 credit for something that's already on the box, or spend 2 credits to search and download songs from a server on the internet. That part's kind of a rip-off, but there's four Mott the Hoople records on the server. Yeah!

Needless to say, I spend a bunch of money and download all the shit I wanna hear. No Mother's Finest, no Foghat, but I hit a bunch of favorites – Todd Rundgren, Mott the Hoople, the Outlaws, 10cc, Marshall Tucker Band, Badfinger, etc. Lovin' it!

Nobody knows what to make of my musical selections. I think I'm confusing them somehow...

Start slammin' beers with Eddie. He says a big gang of our guys are next door at the Mexican joint and are coming over when they're done.

Sho' nuff, 30 minutes later, about 10 very drunk guys come in.

Me and Eddie are both hammered by then, too. I haven't eaten since lunch, Eddie hasn't eaten all day and he's been drinking all day.

I order a pizza from a local joint which takes an hour to deliver. Great pie, though, worth the wait.

Carlsen's falling down drunk, so is Sean Bates. They both get escorted back to the hotel (10 minute walk) by a couple of guardian angel crew guys.

Me and Eddie split around 11:15. Had enough. Walk back to the hotel.

I'm blogging until midnight, then I'm out…

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.