Extremely busy tour… and finally an update! On tour with Mercury Rev for over a month now and it’s been very very busy with days off eaten up with recording sessions, promo, or just trying to catch up on computer work. So now a quick update on how things have been going.

Ireland – The tour started off in Ireland with long load ins as the bus can get nowhere near the venues, so everything has to be transferred to a van first. The first gig at the Savoy in Cork gives me a difficult mix position half way up the stairs to the balcony and all the way to one side. Where no one else is watching the show except for me. One of those “I hope it sounds all right down on the floor” sort of affairs. All goes well and the tour is off to a roaring start with a sold out show. Our show at the Ambassador Theater in Dublin goes as well and I get more of a proper mix position. What was supposed to be a day off in Dublin turns into a recording session of “Lucy in the Sky” for a possible movie soundtrack. So the day is spent running pro tools.

Scotland and UK – On to the Barrowlands in Glasgow and a fine rig supplied by EFX. There’s that Heritage desk again. The show in Manchester gets bumped up to Academy with a boxy Martin rig from Adlib Audio. Finally a show at Newcastle University and a John Peel session before heading off to….

Norway – Cool clubs, great gear, a Midas desk in every club, can’t complain. And a JBL rig that actually sounds all right at our first stop in Bergen at Kavaretet. A Midas desk in every room and all the shows are close to if not sold out. Big thumbs up to Norway!

Stockholm and Copenhagen – a really small club in Copenhagen with a small but good PA. They even have a pair of Tanoy near fields at the desk. Can’t hear them over the blast of the PA, but I have some fun jamming out to tunes in my own personal world before the show. Copenhagen gig is really really good. Best crowd yet.

Germany and Italy – Germany starts off with a bang and a monstrous Meyer rig at the Grunspan in Munich, but its all downhill from there. A bunch of old Soundcrafts and other junk awaits me at the rest of the shows. At least the crews are friendly and helpful. I must say, we have had really good local crews everywhere, usually there is some bit of grumps here and there, but so far everyone has been really cool.

Amsterdam – Nothing better to cure the German PA blues than a couple of days in Amsterdam. Show day is a bit insane, though the show goes really well. Day starts off with us waiting at the bus for a truck to pick up the gear to take it to the Melkveg as getting the bus in would be a bit tight. So our tour manager arranged with the person responsible for transport, for a vehicle to come and pick up our gear. So we are sitting in a large parking lot on the outskirts of town. And we wait, and wait. Our tour manager gets on the phone and tries to find out were the truck is, and a bit of confusion arises as to where the truck is meeting us. After our location is sorted out a vehicle shows up, an 8 passenger Mercedes with all the seats. We give a good laugh as we point out that there is no way in hell our gear is going to fit in the van. So we give Mr. Transportation a call and explain the situation. We wait another half hour, and a 12 passenger van shows up…. with seats all the way to the back. Seem Mr. Transportation is in idiot. So we head off to the venue in the bus, pull into the middle of the street near the venue, meet a fellow in a yellow jacket who sees how fucked up the situation is, and gets a large truck to come get our gear to load in. A supper fast set up, sound check, and tear down as Supper Furry Animals play before us. After all the madness the show goes really well, and the next day is a day off my favorite city in the world.

Back to the UK – Back to the big shows, a Heritage 1000 in the Anson Rooms in Bristol. Saw allot of these desks on the tour so far, and I like them quite a bit. Best “budget” desk around. Next comes two sold out nights at Shepherds Bush Empire in London. These shows go really really well, as I tire myself out running up flights of stairs to check the sound in the three balconies. Next off to Wulfren Hall and another Heritage 1000 in a big shit sounding room with me at the very rear, at least it’s nice and quiet back there. Finally the Leadmill in Sheffield and a good EV rig that has just been beat on too many times with disco. Another great crew makes up for a disco load out.

In London now for a day off, well… a day spent in front of the computer. Off to Belgium next and then the challenges of keeping under the French SPL limits. I don’t like to mix louder than 100db SPL-A weather the venue has a limit or not, but the French can push it a bit far with limits such as 95db SPL-C. Can you say “no booty and I guess I’ll just turn on the vocal mic and be done with it”?